In one way it was great---there were many options and I was able to get to almost everywhere I wanted to go. In addition, it was much cheaper than renting a car.
BUT there were a few drawbacks. I thought late May was summer season, but it wasn't (that begins in June). Consequently, where I was staying (in A), there were no restaurants open! On the other hand, most places where you stay do have kitchens, and I found that even the smallest towns had very good (and very wekk stocked) small supermarkets.
Then again, in low season the markets might not be open all day (some hours were 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., for example), so if I had intended to go for an all-day hike I would not have been able to go to the shop then. (You could possibly get around this by buying several days' food at one time and keeping it in the refrigerator). Another idea is to buy your food before setting out on the bus to your destinations. (By the way, I was staying in A, whose restaurant was not yet open for the season. The restaurants and Reine and Sorvagan were open, but only for the evening meal. It was possible to get to these places by bus, but I would have had to take the bus at 5 p.m. and the earliest return bus was about 9 p.m., so that would have been quite a wait.). I was amazed that in Reine there wasn't even a coffee shop to sit down and enjoy a break. They did have a great convenience store, but I had to sit on its steps to wait for my bus.
Another thing---although the buses were great, you often had to do some planning to fit the bus timetables. I spent maybe a bit more time waiting for buses than I had planned for, but it worked out OK because it was very restful just being in the Lofoten, and I sort of felt like I was living there.
So, yes, it is quite possible to get around by bus; you just need to plan carefully where you want to go and check the schedules.
I found Leknes an delightful place, much better than Svolvaer. It had lots of shops, restaurants, and coffee shops (plus supermarkets), and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Of course I also loved A, Reine, Ramberg, and the other villages.
Hope this helps.
P.S. I used the website the other VT poster mentioned. In addition to the features you see on the table, you can click on the destination names and get a map showing the exact spots where the buses stop. By the way, the numbers at the head of each column indicate what days of the week they run, with 1 being Monday (etc.) and S schooldays. The row of dots (...) indicates the bus does not stop, but the vertical bar means the bus stops but only if someone wants to get on or off, at no fixed time.
