The sky decides. You pick who drives you to it.
A big-coach chase or an eight-seat minibus, a fjord cruise or a fire in a reindeer camp, a guarantee or a second night free. Reviews of the northern lights tours you can book from Norway to Alaska, with what each one costs and where it heads when the cloud comes in.
Four northern lights nights to build a winter trip around.
One from each of the Arctic’s big aurora towns, with what it costs and what the people who stood out in the cold thought of it.
01Reykjavík, IcelandNorthern Lights Bus Tour with Hot CocoaThe big coach out of the city lights, hot cocoa on board. The cheapest way to stand under an Icelandic sky.
02Tromsø, NorwayNorthern Lights Pioneer Tour with Photos IncludedA guided chase that heads wherever the forecast is clearest, with photos of you under the lights included.
03Rovaniemi, FinlandNorthern Lights Tour with Guaranteed SightingsAn eight-hour night out of the Lapland capital, sold on guaranteed sightings.
04Kiruna, SwedenKiruna Northern Lights Tour with PhotographerSwedish Lapland with a photographer setting up the tripod while you watch.
Tromsø: minibus chase, fjord cruise or a reindeer camp. Pick your aurora night.
Norway’s aurora capital sits under the auroral oval with mountains on one side and open fjord on the other. Five ways to spend the night here, and what the cheapest seat in each costs.
The most booked night in Tromsø★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Northern Lights Safari with Expert Guides and Photos · from $61
Bus and minibus chasesThe guide follows the clear patches, sometimes into Finland.
Fjord cruisesNo streetlights on the water, and dinner on deck.
Camp dinnersReindeer, huskies and a warm lavvu while you wait.
Tripod nightsA tripod, settings you can copy, pictures you keep.
Small groupsEight or fewer in the van, more time at each stop.
All 116 aurora nights in Norway →
Six towns under the aurora oval, each with its own way of reaching dark sky.
Coastal Norway, the Finnish forest, Iceland’s lava fields, the Alaskan interior, Swedish Lapland and a ski resort that stays lit for the lights.
The northern lights tours travellers book most, Reykjavík to Fairbanks.
Every aurora tour →The nights more people choose than any other, and what earns each of them the spot.
1
Northern Lights Bus Tour with Hot Cocoa
Leave Reykjavík’s city lights on a four-hour Northern Lights hunt led by an English-speaking guide such as Barbara, Darren, Kristi, or Pierre. You’ll follow weather forecasts to dark viewing spots, learn how the aurora forms, stop for photos, and warm up with hot chocolate. If the lights stay hidden, you can join one free retry tour.
From · $74
Read our review →
2
Northern Lights Safari with Expert Guides and Photos
from $61
3
Northern Lights Pioneer Tour with Photos Included
from $165
4
Northern Lights Tour with Guaranteed Sightings
from $164
5
Northern Lights Chase with Photos and Bodysuits
from $125
6
Small-Group Premium Northern Lights Tour from Reykjavik
from $107
7
#1 Northern Lights Tour In Iceland from Reykjavik with PRO photos
8
Reindeer Sled, Dinner, and Chance of Northern Lights
from $219
Aurora dinners and campfires: waiting for the northern lights with a hot plate in hand.
An aurora night is mostly waiting. The tours that feed you, a fire in a reindeer camp, fish soup in a lavvu, a BBQ by a frozen lake, make the waiting the part people remember.
Northern lights tours run on darkness, clear sky and a forecast nobody controls.
The season runs from late August to mid-April across the Arctic, activity usually peaks between ten at night and two in the morning, and a single bank of cloud hides all of it. Four details decide whether a booked night becomes a seen one.
- 01When the coast clouds overUnlimited Northern Lights Chase Across BordersThe better chases have no distance cap. In Tromsø that can mean a drive inland or over the border to Finland for a clear patch.
- 02When the sky stays shutNorthern Lights Cruise with 2nd Chance GuaranteeA second-chance policy gives you another night free. Check how many nights you have left in town before it counts.
- 03When you only have one nightNorthern Lights Tour with Guaranteed SightingsRovaniemi operators sell guaranteed sightings or money back. The premium earns its keep on a one-night stopover.
- 04When it is minus twentyNorthern Lights Chase with Photos and BodysuitsStanding still in the cold is the hard part. Look for tours that hand out thermal suits before you buy your own.
Snowmobiles, sleds and snowshoes: northern lights nights that move under their own power.
Some nights the getting there is half of it. Drive a snowmobile across a frozen river, sit behind a husky team, or walk out on snowshoes until the town glow is gone.
What a northern lights night actually costs, coach seat to glass igloo.
Every aurora tour on the site, sorted by what it costs to book a seat.
Big-coach chases out of Reykjavík and Tromsø, Rovaniemi BBQ nights and the aurora exhibitions.
Minibus chases with photos, fjord cruises, snowmobile and husky nights.
Eight-seat small groups, glass igloo dinners and multi-day Iceland loops.
Rovaniemi sells the aurora guarantee. The Lapland forest supplies the dark.
Ten minutes out of town the streetlights stop and the lakes freeze solid. Lie back in a flotation suit on the ice, ride a sled behind reindeer, or let a guide drive you north until the cloud breaks.
Every aurora night in Finland →
From Reykjavík the northern lights are an hour of dark road away, by coach, boat or superjeep.
The capital’s own glow drowns out a weak aurora, so every tour leaves town. Coaches run the most seats, harbour cruises skip the drive, and superjeeps reach the lava fields the buses cannot.
- 1Northern Lights Bus Tour with Hot Cocoafrom $74
- 2Small-Group Premium Northern Lights Tour from Reykjavikfrom $107
- 3#1 Northern Lights Tour In Iceland from Reykjavik with PRO photos
Three northern lights nights you will not find on a coach tour.
A heated dome, a frozen lake and an Alaskan hot spring: the ways to watch the aurora that take the cold out of it.
Dinner in a Glass Igloo
A heated glass dome sits in the snow and dinner is served inside it. If the sky clears you watch from the table; if it does not, you have still eaten well in a warm room in the middle of the forest. Most are booked as private evenings for two or a small party, which is why they cost what they do.
- 1PRIVATE Party dinner in a Glass Igloo Under Northern Lights★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 68 reviews
- 2Northern lights and Aurora Photgraphy with Warm Geodesic Dome★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 45 reviews
- 3Northern Lights dinner in a Glass Igloo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 37 reviews
Floating on a Frozen Lake
You zip into a thick flotation suit and lower yourself into a pool cut through the lake ice. The suit keeps you dry and surprisingly warm, the water holds you up, and the only thing left to do is lie back and look straight up at the sky.
- 1Ice Floating in Forest Lake with Aurora Borealis★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 797 reviews
- 2Aurora Arctic Ice Floating in Rovaniemi, Small-group★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 109 reviews
- 3Arctic Ice Floating and Northern Lights Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 64 reviews
Chena Hot Springs
The springs sit about sixty miles east of Fairbanks, far beyond the town’s glow. The tours pair a soak in the outdoor rock pool with a wait under open sky, the warmest way yet found to sit out a slow aurora night in the Alaskan interior.
- 1Northern Lights & Chena Hot Springs Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,278 reviews
- 2Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon & Northern Lights Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 245 reviews
- 3Blue Lagoon and Northern Lights Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 80 reviews
By base, from Norway to Alaska
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