4 Days in Norway with Northern Lights

Description

Tromsø in Norway is a pretty safe bet if you want to see the Northern Lights in winter. In fact it is one of the best places in the world for this awesome phenomen, the worlds northern most vibrant university city and beautiful located on an island between mountains and fjords.

We went to Tromsø to see arctic winter landscapes and the Northern Lights in March and want to share our 4 day itinerary with you. We spend the days exploring the fjords and mountains around Tromsø and headed out after dinner to capture Northern Lights. We highly recommend to get a rental car for your stay to be flexible especially at night.

Our 4 Day Northern Lights in Norway Itinerary
1. Tromsø
2. Lyngen Alps
3. Sommarøy
4. Malangsfjorden
5. Tromvik

Gallery

Overall costs

$ 800

Duration

4 days

Rating

Things to know before you go

• February and March are the best months to see the Northern Lights with stable weather and around 11 hours of daylight.
• Get a rental car to reach remote places and to stay warm during the night.
• Leave the city at around 10pm.
• Read about your camera settings in advance.
• Try some long exposure shots into the dark sky, you will see the first glimpse of the Northern Lights in the camera before you can see them with your eyes.
• Skibotn behind the Lyngen Alps is one of the best spots in the whole area. You may see Northern Lights here even on cloudy days since it lies behind some bigger mountains.
• The Tromsø Tourist Information has excellent helpful staff which tells you the best place to go for the night depending on the current sun and weather conditions.

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Itinerary:

1. Tromsø

Tromsø is the northernmost university town of the world and has lots of pubs, restaurants, gallerys and museums. The Polar Museum explains the history of the expeditions towards the north pole and how life has been in the past in this area.
For a good overview of the city and the mountains in the back you can go up to Fjellheisen either by foot or cable car.
If you like Northern Norway in summer, you can also check out our Lofoten itinerary.

2. Lyngen Alps

We drove from Tromsø to Breivikeidet, took the ferry to Svensby, then down the Lyngen Fjord and back to Tromsø. Of course we stopped several times to take pictures and to enjoy the landscape.
The area around Skibotn is one of the best places to see the northern lights even on cloudy days since it lies behind big mountains where the sky clears up.

3. Sommarøy

Sommarøy is a small village on a small island west of Tromsø with white sandy beaches and turquoise water. On the way back to Tromsø near Skavberg you pass some old rock carvings.

4. Malangsfjorden

Malangsfjorden must be a nice place on sunny days, because we enjoyed it even it was stormy and wet.

5. Tromvik

The drive to Tromvik takes around one hour from Tromsø. There was a winter storm arriving that day with a constant change in strong winds and snowfall. We just sat a while in the car and looked at the scenery and how everything was changing every 10 minutes.