Before this COVID breakdown, I was blessed enough to go for the most incredible trip to Tromsø and experience the Aurora Borealis. It is an experience for a lifetime. The trip was most-awaited and yet unplanned. I decided to go to Tromsø to witness the northern lights or to see the dance of the green lady as the locals call it. But surely I can say Tromsø is much more than just Northern Lights.
Tromsø is a city in northern Norway above the Arctic Circle. It is famous for Northern Lights that sometime light up the nighttime sky and the midnight sun that can be witnessed in summers.
We started our journey from Oslo, Norway on Friday morning so that we can reach Tromsø as early as possible. After reaching the airport, we downloaded the app for public transportation and bought our tickets to reach our stay.
How to reach Tromsø?
Tromsø is well connected to major cities and one can easily reach Tromsø via flight.
How to reach city centre from airport?
The airport is quite close to the city. There is an airport express bus which could take you to the city centre. The trip takes about 15 minutes and tickets can be purchased from a machine in the arrivals hall or onboard. Another option is the local buses which have frequent departures to the city centres. Tickets can also be purchased from app.
How to explore Tromsø?
There are many options to explore the city. In case you want to rent the car, there are many car rentals available. Also, the city can be explored by public transportation. To use public transportation in Tromsø download the Troms Mobillett app.
Places to visit in Tromsø
1. Arctic Cathedral
2. Polaria
3. Fjellheisen
4. The Polar Museum
5. Tromsø Cathedral
Tromsø Cathedral
Itinerary
We have booked our Bnb near the city centre. After reaching our Bnb, we took rest for some time as we have to stay outside in the night to chase northern lights. We had pre-booked our package for northern lights experience with Chasing Lights for 2 days.
Note: You can book your package here. Please check the weather conditions before booking your package. In case you are booking through Airbnb confirm from your host about the packages or if they also provide some northern lights packages.
As per our tour guides, we have to meet them in the city centre around 5:45 in the evening. We started from our Airbnb around 2 in the afternoon. We had lunch and explored the city centre. After packing food for dinner, we reach the place from where our tour to chase northern lights has to start.
Our tour guides were quite welcoming and explained the whole phenomena of an Aurora Borealis and also our package details.
Our tour started at 6:00 PM. The weather forecast was pretty challenging. After we left the city, 20 minutes away from Tromsø, we spot some strong activity and we stopped the bus. We were lucky to enjoy sometime there but soon the activity faded.
We continued our chase until we found a perfect spot where the magic begins. As soon as we step out of the bus the Green Lady joined us. We didn't have to wait long to see a bright arc in the South which is so rare to see it close to the Seven Sisters constellation. The sky became more clear and a bright column of Northern Lights started to form. All of a sudden, this column started to grow stronger, to make swirls and curves, some purple colour started to appear. It was stunning and no words are enough to describe the first-ever experience of the northern lights. According to our tour guides, it was one of the best of the season.
After clicking pictures and enjoying the show the green lady had offered us, it was time for some hot snacks as it was cold outside. We had our snacks and then our tour guides lit the campfire and share some interesting stories and facts about the dancing lights under the sky full of stars and faded lights. We returned to the city centre around 3:00 AM and directly went to our stay for rest.
The next day we woke up late and visited the Arctic Cathedral before lunch. After lunch, we went to Polaria and watched the seal feeding show. Today also, we had to go for chasing northern lights, so we went back to the centre from where our tour has to start.
So today our chase for northern lights was quite long. We reached till Finland in search of clear sky and better views. We were lucky again to witness the green lady today as well.
After the campfire, we started back towards Tromsø. We reach around 5:00 AM and slept.
The next day we slept till afternoon. Then, went to visit the Fløya Mountain but unfortunately, the cable car was closed due to heavy winds. Coming back to the centre we went to Tromsø Cathedral and took a walk around the centre.
We had our flight for Oslo in the evening so to spend our whole day we went for a road trip with our Airbnb host. He drove us to the island named Kvaløyvågen. The roads were full of snow and the weather was changing constantly. It was a beautiful island.
We also went to the place to watch reindeers and feed them. The whole road trip was breathtaking.
Our trip came to an end with the marvellous experience of fjords. Our host dropped us at the airport and we returned to Oslo. It was one of the best trips and the road trip around the Fjords in Tromsø made it even more perfect.
Tromsø is a lovely city to explore and experience a lot of new things like northern lights, midnight sun, dog sledging, whale watching etc. Plan your visit to have these lifetime experiences.
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