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Our volunteer programme is built on five ideas: nature, culture, community, contribution and personal growth. Come and help a hostel in an Arctic fishing village become a community: events, international evenings, photography, storytelling, and experimenting with how guests hear about us. Around 15 hours a week. This autumn is the first pilot of the programme, so you help shape what it becomes.
15 hours of help per week
Content Writer: Write, edit and publish inspiring content.
Photography: Take, edit and provide amazing photos.
Video Making: Create, edit and publish digital videos.
Social Media: Maintain and update social media channels.
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, and you on community, events and content. You live together in a seafront cabin kept for the volunteer team. We stock the kitchen once a week and you cook together.
You get an open list of 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 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. Some of it lasts, some is one evening people remember, and both count.
An open list of possibilities, not a set of assignments. Pick what interests you, bring your own ideas, and take responsibility for what you pick. You plan with Andreas, who lives in the volunteer house.
EVENTS AND COMMUNITY
- Our free Friday community dinner, built around local Lofoten producers and launching this low season
- International evenings where people cook or share something from where they are from
- Small guest events, walks and hikes, and the kind of evening a solo traveller remembers
- One event of your own invention, start to finish. Your idea, our village, real guests
- 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. This isn't just small talk, it's how a hostel becomes a community
STORIES AND CONTENT
- Photography and video from what is actually happening: the boats, the weather, the food, the people, the northern lights
- The stories of Ballstad and Kræmmervika. Fishing history, the 1850s cabins, the people who live here now
- Help us experiment with how guests hear about it before they arrive. Nobody here has had the hours to find out
- If photography, storytelling, events or social media are things you enjoy, this is a place where you can experiment with them on something real
PERSONAL GROWTH
- Learn something you did not come with: a language, Arctic light, 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
HOUSE AND COMMUNITY
- You live in the volunteer house 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. Bring your own in moderation, but not while you are helping to host something.
- Photos and video of guests and staff only with their permission, every time. Anything you make here stays yours to show in your own portfolio.
PRACTICAL
- Minimum stay four weeks. We would much rather have you for three months.
- Fluent English and clean writing in it. Other languages very welcome.
- You can shoot and edit decent photo and video on a phone. A camera is not required.
- Show us something you have made. It does not have to be professional. It has to be yours.
- You need your own travel insurance covering the whole stay.
- Bring warm and waterproof clothes. October to April in Lofoten is wet, windy and dark, and beautiful once you are dressed for it.
- Our internet works but it is not fast. A fibre line goes in during October.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM US
- Room to try things, and full credit for everything you make.
- Numbers you can point at afterwards, because we measure this properly.
- Someone to plan with. You will not be left to guess.
- Our paid team stays responsible for the accommodation and 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 :)
