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Our volunteer programme is built on five ideas: nature, culture, community, contribution and personal growth. Live in a working fishing village above the Arctic Circle, choose the projects you want to contribute to, and share something of your own culture. Around 15 hours a week. This autumn is the first pilot of the programme, so you help shape what it becomes. Northern lights start at the doorstep.
15 hours of help per week
Painting & Decorating: Help with painting or decorating the property facilities.
Gardening: Help grow plants and cultivate gardens
Social Work: Help with volunteer work in local projects and communities.
2 days off per week
Team Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other people.
Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.
Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.
Dinner: You are entitled to a free dinner, every day of your stay.
Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.
Free Events: Get free entrance for the best events in town.
Pick Up: We will pick you up when you arrive, and take you to our property.
Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.
Basic Internet Access: Basic speed internet for you to work remotely
Fluent English
Over 18 years old
Only hosts solo volunteers (doesn’t accept couples or partners)
Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa
We are a small family-run place in Ballstad, a fishing village in Lofoten, Norway. We have hosted international volunteers through the hostel for around 25 years: people living together, meeting travellers from other countries, learning about the place they are in, and leaving something positive behind. This programme continues that tradition.
Our programme is built around five ideas: Nature, Culture, Community, Contribution and Personal Growth. We want you to experience Lofoten and life in Ballstad, share something of your own culture and knowledge, become part of our community, and contribute something meaningful while you are here.
This autumn is the first three-month pilot of the new Kræmmervika Volunteer Programme, and the people joining us will help shape what it becomes.
Three volunteers join us: two on place, sustainability and guest community, one on community, events and content. You live together in a seafront cabin kept for the volunteer team, with its own bathroom and kitchen. We stock the volunteer kitchen once a week and you cook together.
You get an open list of projects, ideas and possibilities rather than a rota. Nobody assigns you a daily task list. You choose what you want to contribute to and take responsibility for what you choose. Your time is largely your own, and we simply coordinate community activities and shared plans together.
Our paid team remains responsible for running the accommodation and guest service. You become part of the community around it.
We hope everyone leaves something positive behind: an improvement, an idea, something created, knowledge shared, a tradition started, or simply good memories and stronger connections between people.
The open list. Not assignments, but things that would make this place better. Pick what interests you, add your own ideas, and take responsibility for what you pick.
THE PLACE ITSELF
- Painting and small improvement projects on the 1850s cabins and around the site
- Turning common rooms into somewhere people actually want to sit
- Signage and information, so guests can find things without asking
- Sorting out storage so the next person is faster because of you
- Grounds and gardens
NATURE AND SUSTAINABILITY
- Beach clean-ups along our coast, and clean-ups with the village
- Waste sorting, reuse and small environmental improvements on site
- Making the place lighter on its surroundings and better to look at
CULTURE AND COMMUNITY
- Collecting the local history and the stories of Kræmmervika and Ballstad
- Cooking something from where you are from, for the house or a guest evening
- Being part of community dinners, international evenings and social activities
- Be part of hostel life: get to know travellers, share the local knowledge you learn while you are here, and help people connect with each other
PERSONAL GROWTH
- Learn something you did not come with: a practical skill, a language, Arctic weather, or how a small hospitality business runs
- Teach us something you already know. Several of the best ideas here came from volunteers
HOW THE WEEK WORKS
- Around 15 hours a week goes into what you have chosen. No fixed shifts, no clocking in and out
- Your time is largely your own. We simply coordinate community activities and shared plans together
- A short planning conversation each week
Hugo knows every building here. Andreas lives in the volunteer house and is the one to plan with.
HOUSE AND COMMUNITY
- You live in the volunteer house together with the other volunteers. Leave it in a state the next person will be glad to move into.
- We cook and eat together often. Everyone helps, everyone clears up.
- Quiet hours are respected everywhere on the site. Guests are sleeping in the next building.
- Our buildings are historic timber and the site is registered under Norwegian rules as a special fire-safety object. Fire routines are the one thing we are strict about, and you are shown them on your first day.
- We do not serve or sell alcohol. You are welcome to bring your own in moderation, but not while you are helping to host something.
PRACTICAL
- Minimum stay four weeks. We would much rather have you for three months.
- Around 15 hours a week goes into the projects and activities you have chosen. Your time is otherwise largely your own.
- You need your own travel insurance covering the whole stay.
- Bring warm and waterproof clothes and proper shoes. October to April in Lofoten is wet, windy and dark, and genuinely beautiful once you are dressed for it.
- The village has one shop, buses do not run often, and there is no city within easy reach. That is part of the deal.
- Our internet works but it is not fast. A fibre line goes in during October.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM US
- Real projects you chose yourself, and full credit for what you make of them.
- Someone to ask. You will not be left to guess.
- Honest answers before you arrive. Ask us anything about this place and we will tell you how it actually is.
- Our paid team stays responsible for running the accommodation and the guest service. You are part of the community around it.
Many worldpackers have been applying to this position recently. The host will probably not be able to respond to all of the applications, so we recommend that you also apply to other hosts in our community and not just this one :)
