Arctic Norway: Tromso, the Lyngen Alps and the Northern Lights

1. Day 1: Arrive in Tromso

   Tromso Airport to your hotel in central Tromso

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Tromso
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tromso Airport (TOS), most likely via Oslo, and plan to land by about 3 pm. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the short drive into the centre, about 15 minutes. Tromso sits on a small island, Tromsoya, about 350 km north of the Arctic Circle, joined to the mainland by a long bridge and a tunnel, with snowy mountains on every side. Your hotel is central, a few minutes' walk from the harbour, the old wooden houses on Storgata and the restaurants. At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group, fits the thermal suits and insulated boots you keep for the week, and explains how the aurora evenings work: we read the forecasts and the cloud maps every day and put the three chases on the clearest nights. Then we walk to a welcome dinner together, with Arctic char, cod or reindeer on the menu. If the sky is clear tonight, the harbour front is a good place to look north.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Tromso Airport (TOS)
   • Thermal suit and boot fitting for the whole trip
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the 5 pm fitting and briefing

   Activity: If your flight lands late, a driver still meets you and your guide fits your suit at the hotel. If tonight is the only clear night in the forecast, your guide may move a chase to this evening.

   

2. Day 2: A fjord cruise, the Polar Museum and the first chase

   Tromso harbour, a cruise among the islands west of Tromso, the Polar Museum, then an evening aurora chase by minibus

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tromso
   Day 2 details

   Late in the morning we board a boat for a fjord cruise of about three to four hours among the islands and sounds west of Tromso, timed for the best of the short winter light. In the polar night that light is a long blue twilight over white mountains, and sea eagles are often seen along the shore. Lunch is hot and served on board. Back in town by mid-afternoon, we walk to the Polar Museum, in an old warehouse on the harbour, before it closes: trappers' huts, sealing boats and the story of Roald Amundsen and the Arctic trappers and sealers who sailed from this town. Then rest at the hotel. In the early evening, if the sky allows, the first aurora chase leaves in our minibus. Your guide picks the direction from the forecast and the cloud, often inland toward the valleys, and drives up to about two hours each way to a dark spot away from any light. There are hot drinks, a snack and a fire where allowed, and your guide takes photos of you under the lights. We are back between about midnight and 2 am.

   Included

   • Fjord cruise of about 3 to 4 hours with lunch on board
   • Polar Museum with your guide
   • Aurora chase 1 by minibus with your guide and driver, hot drinks and a snack

   Optional experiences

   • From about November to January, when whales are being seen, a full-day whale safari from Tromso in place of the fjord cruise, for a supplement shown at booking

   Easier option: Skip the chase and watch from the harbour front, or go to bed; the guide wakes no one.

   Free time: Free late afternoon before the chase

   Activity: Chase nights are late. If the sky is closed everywhere within reach, your guide calls the chase off by late afternoon and moves it to another night.

3. Day 3: Reindeer with a Sami host, the cable car and the second chase

   Tromso to a Sami reindeer camp outside town, then Tromsdalen for the Arctic Cathedral and Fjellheisen, then an evening aurora chase

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tromso
   Day 3 details

   A late start after the first chase. At about 10:30 we drive 30 to 45 minutes out of town to a reindeer camp run by a Sami family. You help feed the herd, which crowds round for lichen, and take a short sled ride behind a reindeer. Inside the lavvu, the Sami tent, your host talks by the fire about herding, the language, the yoik songs and the Sami flag, and we eat bidos, a reindeer stew, with flatbread and hot drinks. On the way back we cross to Tromsdalen on the mainland for the Arctic Cathedral, the white triangular church of 1965 at the end of the Tromso Bridge, then ride the Fjellheisen cable car to Storsteinen, about 420 m up, as the light goes. From the top the island and its lights fill the view, with the mountains of Kvaloya beyond. Back at the hotel by about 5 pm; dinner is your choice in town. Chase 2 leaves after dinner if the sky allows, back by about 1 am.

   Included

   • Sami reindeer camp: feeding the herd and a short reindeer sled ride
   • Lunch of bidos in the lavvu with your Sami host
   • The Arctic Cathedral
   • Fjellheisen cable car to Storsteinen at dusk
   • Aurora chase 2 by minibus with your guide and driver, hot drinks and a snack

   Easier option: Go back to the hotel after the reindeer camp and skip the cable car and the chase.

   Free time: Dinner free in Tromso

   Activity: In winter most Sami herds graze far inland, and the reindeer at camps near Tromso are a smaller herd kept close by their owners for visits; we say so rather than pretend otherwise.

4. Day 4: Over the fjord to the Lyngen Alps

   Tromso through the Breivikeidet valley to the Breivikeidet to Svensby ferry, then Lyngseidet

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Lyngen
   Day 4 details

   A slow morning in Tromso after two late nights: sleep in, visit Polaria and its bearded seals, or walk the shops on Storgata. We leave at about 11:30 and drive south and then east through the Breivikeidet valley to Ullsfjorden, about 45 km. A small car ferry takes us across the fjord from Breivikeidet to Svensby, about 25 minutes on the water and not part of the road distance, with the Lyngen Alps ahead: steep, snowbound peaks rising straight out of the sea to about 1,830 m. Another 20 km of road brings us to Lyngseidet, about 65 km of road and 1.5 hours of driving in all, plus the crossing. Lyngseidet is a village on the narrow neck of the peninsula; we stop there for a sit-down lunch. Your home for two nights is a lodge or hotel on the Lyngenfjord, with almost no artificial light around it. In the afternoon there is time to rest, use the sauna where the lodge has one, or walk out on snowshoes in the last of the light. Dinner is at the lodge. Afterwards no chase is needed: we step outside, with the guide watching the sky.

   Included

   • Drive to Lyngen with your guide, with the Breivikeidet to Svensby car ferry
   • Sit-down lunch in Lyngseidet
   • Dinner at the lodge
   • Aurora watch from the lodge with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • Polaria in Tromso in the morning (entry on you)

   Easier option: Rest at the lodge after lunch.

   More active option: A guided snowshoe walk of 2 to 4 km near the lodge in the afternoon light.

   Free time: Free morning in Tromso; free afternoon at the lodge

   Activity: The ferry runs year-round; in a storm crossings can be delayed, and the guide adjusts lunch to the next sailing. If the chases on days 2 and 3 were clouded out and tonight is clear, your guide can add a short extra chase from the lodge if the group wants it; on nights without a chase you watch from the harbour front in Tromso or step outside at the lodge with your guide.

   

5. Day 5: Huskies in Lyngen and the last chase

   Lyngen lodge to a husky kennel nearby, then an evening aurora chase, often toward Skibotn

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Lyngen
   Day 5 details

   The huskies go first, in the best of the short light. We drive about half an hour to a kennel in the valleys, where the dogs start howling as soon as the sleds come out. After a talk from the mushers on braking and balance, you ride two to a sled on a trail of about 10 km through birch woods and open snow, swapping driver and passenger halfway, with the mountains around you. Lunch is hot and sit-down at the kennel or back at the lodge. The afternoon is free: the sauna, a short walk by the fjord, or a nap before the last late night. We sit down to a farewell dinner at the lodge, then the third chase leaves if the sky allows. Your guide often heads south and east along the Lyngenfjord toward Skibotn, which lies in the shelter of the mountains and is often drier and clearer than the coast, about 85 km and a little over an hour away. Back by about midnight.

   Included

   • Husky ride of about 10 km at a Lyngen kennel, two to a sled
   • Sit-down lunch at the kennel or the lodge
   • Farewell dinner at the lodge
   • Aurora chase 3 by minibus with your guide and driver, hot drinks and a snack

   Optional experiences

   • Snowmobile trip with a local operator, if the kennel or lodge offers one (a driving licence is needed)

   Easier option: Ride as the passenger for the whole husky trail, wrapped in a reindeer skin, and let your partner drive.

   More active option: Drive the sled for the whole trail, if your partner agrees and the musher is happy with your braking.

   Free time: Free afternoon at the lodge

   Activity: In early November, if the trails do not yet have enough snow, the husky ride runs on a wheeled cart or we swap it for a guided snowshoe walk; we tell you before you travel.

   

6. Day 6: Back across the fjord to Tromso Airport

   Lyngseidet to the Svensby to Breivikeidet ferry, then Tromso Airport

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   A late breakfast after the last chase, and a final look across the fjord at the mountains in whatever light the season gives. We hand back the thermal suits and boots and leave the lodge at about 10 am, driving the 20 km to Svensby for the ferry back across Ullsfjorden to Breivikeidet, then on through the valley to Tromso: about 65 km of road and 1.5 hours of driving, plus the crossing, so about two hours door to door. We aim to reach Tromso Airport (TOS) by about midday, where your guide sees you to the departures hall and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are staying on in Tromso, we drop you in the centre instead, and your guide can suggest where to stay and what to do with the extra nights, including another chase with a local operator. On a clear afternoon in February or March the drive back is one of the most beautiful of the trip, with the Lyngen peaks lit pink behind you.

   Included

   • Drive back to Tromso with your guide, with the Svensby to Breivikeidet car ferry
   • Drop-off at Tromso Airport (TOS) or in central Tromso

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 2 pm. Ferry crossings can be delayed in storms, so allow the margin.

   

Wildlife and weather: November brings the first snow and the last daylight before the polar night, which runs in Tromso from about late November to mid January, with a few hours of twilight at midday. February has more light and is often the snowiest month; March has long days and the same dark nights for the aurora. The coast is often cloudy, so the chases head inland or toward Skibotn, which is often drier. From about November to January humpbacks and orcas may follow the herring into the fjords north of Tromso.

• Tromso3 nights
• Lyngen2 nights