Tromsø, after dark.
Which aurora chase actually drives out from under the cloud. When the orcas are in, and which harbour the boats leave from. What a night at a Sami camp really costs.
Three ways to stand under the lights above Tromsø.
All 136 aurora tours →
Cloud is what ruins an aurora night, not the forecast for the lights themselves. A minibus can drive three hours inland to find a gap in it. A boat can sail out from under it. A guide with a proper camera will come back with the picture either way. Pick by how far you are willing to travel at midnight.
- 1Aurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
- 2Northern Lights Chase Minibus Tourfrom $172
- 3Reindeer Sled, Dinner, and Chance of Northern Lightsfrom $219
The chase — wherever the sky is clear
A minibus, a driver watching three weather models, and a willingness to cross into Finland if that is where the hole in the cloud is. The most likely to find lights, and the longest night.
The aurora cruise — out of the harbour
No driving, no standing in a snowdrift, a heated cabin and a horizon uncluttered by mountains. Slower to reposition than a bus, but you sleep in your own bed before midnight.
The photographer’s night out
Someone who knows the settings, the foregrounds and where the tripod goes. Worth it if the picture matters more than the number of stops — and it is a different product from a chase that simply throws in free photos.
The six days Tromsø gets booked for.
Aurora nights, a Sami reindeer camp, a husky team, the orca boats, the fjord cruises and the island road west. Nearly every winter trip here is built out of these six.
The tours Tromsø travellers book most.
See the whole ranking →Ordered by how many people have actually been and left a review afterwards — not by what anyone would like to sell you.
1
Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide
Tromsø reindeer sledding with a Sami guide, feeding 300 reindeer, warm lunch in a lavvu, and joik by the fire, all in 4 hours.
From · $198
Read our review →
2
Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boat
from $195
3
Aurora Borealis Tour
from $181
4
Tromsø’s Top-Rated Fjord & Fishing Cruise – All-Inclusive
from $142
5
Fjords and Sommarøy Islands Tour with Salmon Picnic
from $112
6
Self-Drive Husky Dog Sledding Adventure
from $328
7
Reindeer Camp and Sami Cultural Tour with Lunch
from $141
8
Northern Lights Chase Minibus Tour
from $172
Two very different sleds leave Tromsø every winter morning.
A husky team is loud, fast and over in twenty minutes of pure adrenaline. A reindeer sled is slow, almost silent, and comes with a Sami herder explaining whose family the animals belong to. Most people do one and spend the flight home wishing they had done both.
Tromsø is expensive. This is exactly how expensive.
Every tour on the site sorted by what it charges. Arctic operating costs are real, and the bottom of this ladder is not where the tours are.
Entry tickets, the harbour pool and a seat at a cathedral concert. Useful evenings, but no guide and no minibus.
Fjord cruises, the island road west, city walks and the cheaper aurora chases. The honest middle of a Tromsø week.
Where most of Tromsø actually sits: husky teams, Sami camps, orca boats and small-group aurora minibuses with the thermal suits included.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guidefrom $198
- 2Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boatfrom $195
- 3Aurora Borealis Tourfrom $181
Three things that only really work this far north.
Fjords and boat trips run the length of Norway. A working reindeer herd, a floating suit in an Arctic fjord and a January orca run belong to this stretch of coast.
The Sami Camp
The reindeer outside Tromsø are not an attraction that happens to have animals; they are livestock, and the families who run these camps are herders first. You sled behind them at walking pace, feed them out of a bucket, then sit in a lavvo over bidos stew while someone joiks. The season runs on the herd, not on the tourist calendar — it thins out sharply once the animals move to spring pasture.
- 1Reindeer Sledding & Feeding with a Sami Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,417 reviews
- 2Reindeer Camp and Sami Cultural Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,326 reviews
- 3Reindeer Sled, Dinner, and Chance of Northern Lights★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,651 reviews
Arctic Floating
A thermal survival suit, a fjord at four degrees, and instructions to lie back and do nothing. It sounds like a gimmick until you are horizontal in salt water in the dark with the mountains upside down beside your head. Groups are small because the suits are, and the evening runs double as an aurora watch with no minibus involved.
- 1Arctic Floating with Snacks and Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 690 reviews
- 2Arctic Fjord Floating in Survival Suit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 452 reviews
- 3Tromsø city center Urban Floating experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 220 reviews
The Orca Run
The herring winter somewhere along this coast and the orcas and humpbacks follow them, which is why the whale fleet moved north to Skjervøy rather than staying in Tromsø. It means a long dark drive up the coast before a boat that sails in twilight. It also means the closest thing to a guarantee that Arctic wildlife offers, for about ten weeks a year.
- 1Whale Watching Tour by Hybrid-Electric Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,217 reviews
- 2Tromsø Whale Safari with MS Gabriele★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,937 reviews
- 3All-Inclusive Whale & Orca Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,221 reviews
The road west out of Tromsø runs out at the sea.
Ninety minutes past the last roundabout the mainland breaks up into islands, white sand that looks tropical until you put a hand in the water, and fishing racks hung with cod. In a winter week it is the best use of the few hours of blue light you get.
All 20 island tours →
Cloud cancels the aurora. It does not cancel Tromsø.
Some nights the forecast is solid grey from Senja to the Finnish border and no minibus is going to outrun it. That is the evening for the polar museums, a long table of king crab, the cable car if the top is clear, and the old wooden cathedral in the middle of town. None of them care what the sky is doing.
- 1Entrance Ticket to Polariafrom $41
- 2Troll Museum Entry Ticket with AR Media Experiencefrom $21
- 3Private City Tourfrom $94
Four Tromsø trips that only exist in certain months.
Most of what is on this site runs all winter and can be booked the evening before. These four are locked to the calendar. Arrive in the wrong month and they are not running at all, at any price.
- 01Aurora Borealis TourDark-sky season runs from late September to early April. Between 27 November and 15 January the sun does not rise here at all, and those weeks go first.
- 02Whale Watching RIB Safari at SkjervøyOrcas and humpbacks follow the herring north, so the run lasts roughly November to January and the boats sail from Skjervøy, a long way up the coast.
- 03Scenic Arctic snowmobile safari in the Lyngen AlpsA snowmobile needs a frozen plateau underneath it, which on the Lyngen side means midwinter through April rather than the shoulder months.
- 04Sommaroy Fjord Tour with Lunch Option & Midnight SunThe sun stops setting around the middle of May and does not set again until late July. Outside that window there is no midnight sun to sail under.
By where the day actually goes
Tromsøya, on foot13 tours
The fjords, by boat21 tours
The fjords, by road19 tours
Sommarøy & Kvaløya20 tours
The whale grounds up the coast13 tours
Senja6 tours- Every Tromsø review →
By what the day is actually for
How four days in Tromsø usually go.
Night one
Day two
Day four
Last morningThe newest Tromsø reviews.
Straight to the newest →
Tromsø Sweet Temptations tour: afternoon tea & chocolates
Read our review →
Snow Sledding, Mini Skiing, Lasso and Reindeer Hides
Read our review →
Sightseeing Cruise by Catamaran with Snacks & Drinks
Read our review →
Private Northern Lights Chase by Mercedes V-class
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Orca and Whale Watching comfort heated boat Trip
Read our review →