Tr avel report FAROE ISLANDS T
FLY from Leeds Bradford on April 28, 2018 and stay seven nights’ bed and breakfast at the four-star Seaside Hotel Los Jameos Playa, Playa de los Pocillos, Lanzarote, from £719pp.
This package is based on two adults sharing and includes accommodation, return flights with Jet2, 22kg baggage allowance and return transfers. To book, visit jet2holidays.com or call 0333 300 0404. ELL anyone you’ve been to the Faroe Islands and you can expect the same question every time in response: “Where exactly are they?”
The Faroes’ name doesn’t conjure up much in the British imagination, beyond the occasional dim recollection that they’re not brilliant at football. And even that’s wrong.
While the island’s national team was once routinely beaten by the great and good (and not so great and good) of the beautiful game, they’re now much more able to punch above their tiny population’s weight.
That’s a pretty good metaphor for the islands as a whole, taking huge strides as a destination for the adventurous traveller, and making a name for themselves among those in the know.
That said, while they appeal to those keen to steer clear of the beaten track, they are no huge challenge for those who prefer home comforts.
The Faroes, a group of 18 islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, are as laidback as you could wish for – with people to match.
The capital, Torshavn, packs some great restaurants and shops into a town with a population of just 13,000.
Flying in with SAS to the tiny airport at Vagur, it was to one of the restaurants that we headed straight away – for what, to me, felt like a daunting challenge. The islands, as you might expect given their North Sea location, specialise in – and revere – fish. I do neither. Ahead of the trip this was my biggest fear, the prospect of endless fish dishes had me worrying like a 1970s holidaymaker packing tins of beans for a week in the Costa del Sol. I shouldn’t have worried. I really, really shouldn’t have worried. I should have realised when, on the flight, I ate and enjoyed some excellent Norwegian salmon as part of SAS’s “New Nordic” on-board range. This was aeroplane food taken to another level. That alone was enough to sow doubts in the mind of a lifelong fishophobe. But I wasn’t prepared for what was to come. Fresh off the plane and checked in at the comfortable Hotel Hafnia close to Torshavn’s pretty harbour, we headed to the nearby Barbara Fish House for the first of several incredible meals on our trip. The tasting menu with matched wine was an amazing experience, the dishes coming thick and fast and my conversion to a full-on fish eater gathering pace with every course. Maybe the alcohol helped, but I soon shed all my inhibitions about seafood, with horse mussels, langoustines and the rest winning me round in a lovely, authentic space in one of the grass-roofed buildings which are such a feature of the Faroes’ landscape.
After sleeping off the flight (and, yes, maybe the wine) we headed out to explore the town, before a cancelled helicopter flight offered a vital lesson about the weather in the Faroes. Expect the unexpected (and then some rain).
Luckily, the afternoon’s plans were very much indoor-based, with a trip to the National Art Gallery giving us a glimpse of how the islands’ unique geography and cultural identity has inspired their small but lively cultural scene.
So far we had seen how the islands were embracing modernity, with Torshavn offering many of the facilities you would expect from a European city break hotspot, albeit in a small package.
But that innovative, outwardlooking approach is coupled with a deep sense of tradition, something we experienced at first hand with an evening trip to a farm just outside the capital but which could have been a different world.
The Faroese tradition of Heimablidni – the word translates as “home hospitality” – has been embraced by many locals, who offer dining experiences in their own homes.
The idea is to show off the islands’ finest produce and most popular