Vega Verdensarvsenter — Attraction in Vega

6,500 islands form the Vega Archipelago in a unique land and waterscape known as strandflat with an equally unique way of life for the women here, who look after eider ducks and harvest their down to make quilts and other items.

This is why this area of low islands, islets and skerries with coastal mountains on Vega and Sola is a UNESCO World Heritage site and why it is a very worthwhile visit, especially with its newly-opened Visitor Centre with museum, shop and café.

This was an unusual excursion from Hurtigruten's ship MS Nordlys and we left the ship at Sandnessjoen to take an Express Boat service to Vega itself and the Visitor Centre there. It was to be a long journey.

A local woman teacher led the group and explained the history and importance of this area as we travelled at high speed down to Vega and through this area to get there. Everything was explained clearly in German and English.

The Visitor Centre is an interesting, modern building in itself, an easy walk from the dock and after a short film a young local woman explained all about the area and what happens during the care of the eiders and the gathering of the down. Her enthusiasm for the subject was impressive!The museum itself isn't large but really, really well set out to explain how local, skilled women have carried out this craft over the years. It features pictures of women over past and recent generations and very successfully grounds the visitor in the local.

A coffee and a folded pancake in the café was followed by time to go through the museum again and to browse through the shop. Quilts and other items on display looked brilliant but the prices for these individual crafted items are not cheap.

We said our goodbyes and said thank you to the young woman and the teacher and headed back for the Express Boat to Bronnoysund, to pick up the ship again.

I was seriously impressed by this excursion, the teacher who led the group, the young woman at the Visitor Centre and the building itself. The museum was superb! All in all, one of my favourite excursions during our whole...

Very informative center with plenty of space for larger groups. Super clean and modern facility, with abundant gifts at the gift shop and very clean bathrooms. They make amazing waffles also :) good interpretative information outside and inside. Friendly and knowledgeable staff. Overall a great experience. I particularly like the wooden boardwalk and...

Flott senter! Fikk ikke gått inne i bygget for å se, men en fin natur-sti som er laget rundt selve bygget. Her kan man lese sykt mye, så ta med lesebriller! Interessant å lese om kulturarven som vernes her! Jeg har egentlig aldri skjønt hvorfor disse fuglene tas så godt vare på, og hvorfor i alle dager de bygger små hus til dem. Men det gir veldig mening når man går rundt å leser på skiltene. Det hadde vært kult å ta båten/ferja ut for å se hvordan de holder på, men det var litt utenfor sesong. Snakka med ei lokal dame som hadde sin mor og si datter langt ute på ei øy for å observere, og plukke dun fra disse fuglene! For en...