Træna 365

↓
Ytri Island Retreat

Click here to continue to Ytri Island Retreat

Ytri: Norway's Outermost Hotel to Open in Træna, April 2026

The new hotel on Træna, at the farthest point of Norway`s Helgeland coast, located right at the Arctic Circle, is named Ytri. The Name “Ytri” derived from Old Norse, translates to "outermost point" or "furthest out," capturing the essence of the hotel's unique location at the edge of the horizon.

Ytri is a high-end landscape hotel featuring 38 rooms and suites, a lounge, bar, restaurant, meeting rooms, co-working space, saunas, wellness area, boathouse and a guest harbour. The hotel is designed to be a destination in itself, with architecture inspired by the fishing village culture along the coast.

Ytri Island Retreat opens April 2026.

For guest experiences and bookings at Ytri Island Retreat, please visit www.ytri.no.

www.ytri.no

The making of Ytri

This website represents the development platform behind Ytri. It documents the vision, the process, and the people behind the project — from the first ideas to the many contributors who have helped shape Ytri over time.

Scroll down to read about how it all started.

Ytri & Træna 365 – development before destination

Ytri Island Retreat began with a local community and a shared will to shape its own future. A simple yet demanding question was raised: how do we keep a small island community alive — not only for visitors, but for the people who live there — all year round?

Træna is an archipelago at the outer edge of the Helgeland coast in northern Norway, right on the Arctic Circle. In 2015, Træna municipality chose a long-term path. Rather than managing decline, the islands would invest in their own future: carefully, collaboratively, and with respect for place, people, and nature. Tourism was never seen as an end in itself, but as one of several tools that could help sustain everyday life.

The development company Træna 365 was later established to carry this ambition forward. Its mandate has always been simple and demanding at the same time: to develop projects that strengthen Træna as a place to live, work, and belong — 365 days a year.

Ytri Island Retreat is the physical outcome of this way of thinking.

How it all started – Listening to the islands (2015)

When a development manager was hired by Træna municipality in early 2015, one of the very first actions was to invite people to the table.

Through open idea cafés and conversations, residents across the islands were asked what they hoped for. What kind of development could they believe in?

Among the ideas was a hotel.

Not a conventional one. Not something imposed from the outside. But a place rooted in quality, architecture, and care for the landscape — something that could create jobs, extend the season, and make it possible to stay, return, or move to the islands.

The first idea café took place in February 2015. The direction was set.

Project Manager Moa Björnson at the Ytri site. Foto: Irwan Droog

Dreaming, Planning and Patience (2016-2018)

Over the following years, we prepared the ground. Plans were revised, land-use clarified, and long-term ambitions anchored in policy and among the people — all with care for landscape and scale.

When a local landowner stepped forward with a possible site, the vision gained direction.

In parallel, Træna became a national case for sustainable tourism research, asking a simple but demanding question: how can tourism strengthen a community rather than wear it down?

The answer was clear: not volume, but quality — guest experiences rooted in the local community and balanced across the year.

From research to reality – piloting the first units
(2019-2021)

Through the research project, we tested several concepts for community-based and regenerative tourism, including workations, home restaurants, and volunteer vacations. Yet the overarching vision was always to create a flagship hotel — developed on local terms. So we started piloting.

Out of the research emerged small-scale cabins in solid timber — carefully placed and quietly confident. A first step was made as a collaboration between a private investor from the research group and the municipality.

As a result, five units were built in 2021. Three of them were rental cabins called House by the Sea, one of them became an Artist in Residence run by the community, and one became the home of the project manager for the hotel project. The cabins marked a shift from ideas to actual construction. The vision became tangible — offering proof, experience, and trust. Now it was possible to approach investors to join the full-scale hotel project.

From collaboration to commitment
(2020–2023)

In 2020, the development company Træna 365 AS was established to carry the work forward.

By 2021, the foundations were in place: approved plans, a secured site, early architectural studies — and, above all, a mutual vision to create something lasting.

In spring 2021, the project was presented to a family-owned investment company from Oslo. After experiencing Træna firsthand, they chose to join the project. This important milestone marked a new phase for Træna 365 as a fully professional development company with committed, long-term ownership.

With this foundation, the vision was refined. Early sketches evolved into a complete hotel concept — not only a place to stay, but a small ecosystem of rooms, restaurant, workspaces, saunas, harbour facilities, and housing to support year-round life and work on the islands.

From plans to construction (2024–2026)

What is now taking shape on Træna is a carefully scaled landscape hotel — developed to belong to its surroundings rather than dominate them.

Ytri Island Retreat will consist of 38 hotel rooms, complemented by shared spaces for dining, work, and gathering. The project includes a restaurant and lounge, saunas and wellness facilities by the sea, workspaces and meeting rooms, a guest harbour, greenhouse and winter garden, and housing to support year-round staff and operations.

Construction began in January 2024 and is carried out in close collaboration with selected contractors and local suppliers, with an emphasis on craftsmanship, durability, and long-term use.