A bucket list item, the trip to see Northern Lights is an unforgettable experience if you get lucky. Key things you need are money, patience, luck and extremely warm clothes!
- Hotel: Comfort Hotel Xpress Tromsø. Price for four nights = £750
- Flights: Wizz (Luton) and Norwegian Air (Gatwick)
Top tips
- Budget to book a trip for every evening you are there. A lot of people don’t see the lights (we didnt on our first attempt) and you will get addicted to chasing the lights.
- Heat packs – carry in your pockets at all times, along with lip balm/salve.
- Tromsö is a cute town, but there isnt heaps to do. I suggest getting as much sleep as possible/having a lie in to prepare you for late nights. Most tours finish around 1am.
- Unless you are extremely lucky, you wont see the lights with the naked eye. It is more common to see the northern lights through a camera lens. Don’t be disheartened by this, forewarned is forearmed!
Friday: River Cruise – Rødne Fjord Cruise
This is a good option if you are concerned about being out in the cold, as you can sit inside. However, the boat can only go so far and there is a bit of light polution. My opinion is that you’d have to have some seriously strong lights to get a sighting through this boat.
We didnt see anything on our trip, but it was nice to see the city by night, particularly the cathedral, and this boat company do offer a free trip if you dont see them. We had another tour booked the next day so couldnt take up the offer.
Saturday: Big bus/camp – Best Arctic AS
Smart and comfortable coach with toilet, tour guides that are very clued up and friendly, lovely Sami huts with plentiful drinks and snacks, and an Aurora sighting to top it all off. We loved it. the guides were also ready to capture the moments on professional cameras so we have an amazing photo for our memories.
Sunday: Minivan Northern Lights excursion – Green Gold of Norway
This was our ‘put-it-in-the-fuck-it bucket’ booking that wasnt on the plan but we just couldnt risk missing a night of lights whilst in Tromsö. The perks of a minivan tour are they are far more nimble and able to shoot off to another location if they hear of a sighting.
I spent the whole evening led on the snow as looking up constantly hurts your neck after a while so if you do have an additional blanket or mat to bring with you it comes in handy for this! We got lucky again, and got a pretty good show and this company provided a whole album of photos of the show.
Spot the northern lights for free…
On our final evening it was clear that there was going to be quite a bit of activity in the mdidle of the night (which is often the case), but when I say middle of the night, I mean like, 3 or 4am.
We were determined to squeeze every last opportunity out of our trip so asked if there was anywhere near the town that we could get to that would be dark enough to catch our own sighting. Turns out the top spot is Prestvannet Lake.
Prestvannet Lake is a popular spot for viewing the Northern Lights. Its high location and minimal artificial light pollution make it an ideal location and is only a 6 minute taxi from the town centre. The minute we got off the organised tour bus, we sprinted back to our hotel for them to call us a cab and we shot off the lake, praying we’d get lucky.
The lake is completely frozen at this time of year so don’t assume you will see one when you arrive! We trudged in the biting cold (around -4) to find a spot to sit (a half-buried picnic bench) and starting looking up.
We waited from around 1am to 3am and were duly rewarded. We got the best show of all three evenings, completely mesmerising. Being out at that time of night is no joke though, I wish we had been a touch more prepared in terms of a hot flask of tea and additional blankets as it was bitter.
If you are going to venture out to the lake, I suggest deciding how long you are willing to wait around and pre-booking a taxi home. We used the app ‘Taxifix’, but otherwise we would have had a 30 min walk ahead of us.
The Ultimate Tourist 