A tour around the islands provides an insight into life in these small villages.

These islands bear testimony to a distinctively frugal way of life based on fishing and the harvesting of down from eider ducks in an inhospitable environment.

Leaving Sandnessjøen travel by boat through the island kingdom of Vesterøyan, passing small villages on the way to the fishing village of Nes, situated on the main island of Vega.

Enjoy a visit to the “E-house”, a museum and documentation centre for eider ducks where you can learn about the historic tradition of keeping eider ducks as domestic animals and experience the landscape of the eider ducks and how the down was cleaned and made into quilts.

At Nes, there is also a café and you will stay on the island for an hour before returning through the Vega archipelago to Brønnøysund to rejoin the Hurtigruten.