Northern Lights in Norway!

Date of Trip: January 2020

Number of Days: 6

Who went: Jenn & Anna (Girls trip!)

Before anyone had ever even heard the word Covid (we got this trip in just in time!), Anna and I decided to take a bucket-list trip to see the Northern Lights. This once-in-a-lifetime trip met all expectations!

Top takeaways if you are planning a similar trip:

• I am writing this post over 4 years after our trip... so some of the smaller details will be excluded. We have planning notes from the trip, so if it was planned... it's here.

• The Ice Domes ice hotel was the highlight of this trip (and one of my favorite nights ever).

• The Northern Lights in real life do not look like the photos you have seen (including the ones in this post). The spectacular green sky photo is achieved with a long-exposure camera. Manage your expectations and be sure to book a tour with a professional photographer!

What it looked like from my phone:

What it looked like from the photographer's camera:

We spent a few days in Zurich before flying to Tromso (pronounced Trom-SA), connecting through Oslo. This beautiful city sits 217 miles north of the Arctic Circle and is known as the "Arctic's Capital."

Day 1 - Travel to Tromso + Northern Lights Tour

We arrived in Tromso around 4P and checked into our hotel. The hotel was centrally located and perfect for our trip.

One of the things you'll find in the small print of Northern Lights tours is that the don't guarantee that you'll see the lights. If you don't, most operators will allow you to come back for free (or at least for a discounted rate). Because we knew it wasn't guaranteed, we made sure to book the tour for our first night (leaving room for a rebook if needed).

Dinner in the middle of the road!

The bus picked us up at the hotel, the tour included about 20 people. Our "Northern Light Hunters" took off and drove us into the very dark countryside. Northern Light hunting means driving around while looking for the proper conditions for the aurora borealis. Stopping for dinner just meant stopping in the road to build a campfire. It was an awesome experience even before found the lights!

Best cookout ever...

We were not disappointed and got to see the spectacle 3-4 times.

The tour included the amazing photos to go along with the amazing experience.

Day 2 - Tromso sights + Snowmobiling

Tromso is an amazingly beautiful city that is best seen from above. So today we took the Fjellheisen Cable Car up Storsteinen Mountain for lunch and an amazing view. It was COLD, but definitely worth it!

On top of the world (or at least on top of Tromso)

In the afternoon/evening, we signed up for this Snowmobile Excursion which was awesome.

Snowmobiling was AWESOME!

Girl Power!

How can you not feel like a badass after that?

Day 3 - Cross country skiing + The Ice Domes

Anna stayed back at the hotel to relax for a few hours, but I wanted to get out and see more of this beautiful place! In the winter, golf courses in Tromso are used for cross country skiing... I thought this sounded like a fun excursion, so I signed on.

Snowbunny, reporting for duty.

Fair warning, cross-country skiing is HARD. But if you're going to try it, this is the place!

Everywhere you looked was breathtaking.

I also got to feed a few reindeers, who were friendly and feisty!

I think this one was Prancer.

At 5P, we were picked up in a shuttle by the Tromso Ice Domes. In reading about it now, it appears to be an "ice park." When we visited was an ice hotel... literally a hotel made from ice.

Everyone deserves to sit on a throne made of ice beneath a sculpture made of snow!

We arrived to learn that we were the only guests at the hotel that night.

Dave was amazing (and pretty darn cute!)

We had a lovely (manly!) guide who took us for a snowshoe hike (where he made us dinner by a campfire) and then kindly let us know he was leaving for the evening.

Snowshoeing was one of my favorite things we did.

That's right, we were all alone in a building made of ice in the middle of nowhere. We had a blast. The bar was open (and we took advantage). The entire experience as truly amazing.

The drinks were cold.

They gave us magical sleeping bags that kept us surprisingly toasty. All of the wall art you see is sculpted from snow (our bedroom had a wolf).

Believe it or not, we stayed really warm!

Day 4 - Dog Sledding & to Oslo

Included in our Ice Domes stay was a dog sledding excursion. We took a bus to the camp where we got to meet the dogs and get outfitted for our ride.

I think this one likes Anna.

Anna and I took turns driving the dog sled, which is harder than it looks! These dogs mean business and love to pull. It was an exhilarating adventure with beautiful scenery.

We caught a 730P flight to Oslo where we checked into hotel at the airport. The hotel wasn't fancy... but it was practical. Was great to walk over when we arrived late into Oslo, and easy to catch our flight home early in the morning. We had an easy walk to the train to find our way into Oslo the next day.

Day 5 - Oslo

We took the train into Oslo and spent the afternoon wandering around the city.

Oslo Royal Palace

We had amazing drinks at Himkok, which I found on the list of the World's Best Bars.

Day 6 - Flight Home

We caught an early morning flight from Oslo to Heathrow, where we made our way home to Charlotte. We loved our Winter Adventure!