Vågan is the gateway to Lofoten and where most visitors base themselves for the first night or two. The serious sights are spread across three settlements: Svolvær (the practical capital, with the harbour boats and the most accommodation), Kabelvåg (older, quieter, with the medieval Lofoten Cathedral and two of the best museums), and Henningsvær (the picture-postcard fishing village hung on a causeway over the open sea).
The signature activities are the Trollfjord boat trip (a narrow steep-walled fjord 20 km north of Svolvær, accessible only by sea), the Svolværgeita climb for experienced mountaineers, and a winter chase of the Northern Lights (Vågan sits well above the Arctic Circle). For the rest, the islands are about walking, watching the light on the peaks, and slow days in fishing-village rorbu cabins.