Tromsø Northern Lights Break

The northern lights trip with Dan was magical. Another highlight was getting bus 40 over the top of the island to Giaeverbukta and then walking round in the snow to the Tromso museum. A trip up the cable car was also worth it for the view and to experience the wind! A 7 day bus ticket was good value even for 4 days, and over shoe ice grips (we used Yaktrak walk) made walking on packed snow and ice a pleasure.

The purpose of our trip was to see the Northern Lights & I would recommend Dan to take any of my friends as he was really committed & caring for our needs in the cold. Driving 3 hrs through a snow blizzard to see the lights around a campfire was an exciting & memorable experience.

What a wonderful holiday. If anyone can find the Northern Lights, Dan from Arctic Experience can! We were there on 21 January; the day people in Tromso celebrate because they see the sun briefly for the first time after 4 1/2 months. It felt very special to share that with them! As always Inntravel had done their research and made wonderful suggestions for activites, restaurants and sight seeing. Thoroughly recommend this trip.

We both thought that you provided us with the prefect arctic experience and couldn't fault anything. Our highlight had to be the aurora borealis. Perhaps a few tips to photographers re the aurora, to help us to better prepare. Not a complaint at all, but as we had never been to Norway before in any season, it might help to give a general view of weather conditions at the time of visit, not easy I know in these climate change times, but might have helped our packing!

We were lucky to find the northern lights quickly on our tour but to see them you need a good camera with a night setting, this is crucial. A personal highlight was a tour we booked to go dog sledding. We booked at the tourist shop and the whole trip was excellent including the transport, limited number on tour (20?), warm weather gear provided, the warm soup after in the cosy cafe area and of course, the sledding itself. We had two hours over frozen lakes, through woods, across open land. I drove a team of 6 dogs whilst my partner enjoyed the ride in the sled. The Alaskan huskies were enthusiastic and well behaved and certainly well looked after.

For my 70th birthday my wife and I took this trip to Tromsø in the hope of fulfilling a long-harboured desire to see the Northern Lights. We were longstanding customers of Inntravel so we already had confidence in their arrangements - including their local partner Dan "The Aurora Man" responsible on the spot for the key component of hunting the Lights - but there was a lot riding on Mother Nature.

We were lucky, treated to an exceptional and memorable show. (As it turned out, this occurred on our second night, the original night having been cancelled owing to adverse conditions - a mechanism to swap nights being wisely built into the schedule by Inntravel and by Dan who keeps an experienced eye on meteorological data.) Check out Dan's website www.arcticx.no for his credentials and the reviews replete with praise on tripadvisor. It was awesome. One feature of the experience is that Dan emails you the professional quality hi-res photographs he takes of your night - this superseded the need for my feeble snaps so I could relax and just watch (and not get cold exposed hands).

We did other stuff, too. In Tromsø, ignore Polaria in favour of Polar Museum; take a bus to Tromsø Museum (a day travel card is worth it if you do three or more single journeys); another bus to the cable car (fjellheisen) over the bridge to get the stunning view over the island; we unfortunately missed both of the cathedrals (the old wooden one in the centre and the new Arctic Cathedral over the bridge) on account of limited opening times in the afternoons only; we did find the local pub and craft beer scene thriving at the well-established brewery tap for Mack at Ølhallen, the more locals pub at Jernbanestasjon (this means 'railway station' but is curiously just themed on rail memorabilia as the train doesn't reach here), and our favourite Bryggeri 13 (a very friendly new microbrewery, bar and eatery). Our other main booked activity - there are so many to choose from and so many providers that Inntravel simply refer you to the comprehensive tourist office website www.visittromso.no - was a sightseeing tour by minibus around the fjords. (No risk of upsetting our travel insurers with this one.) We thoroughly recommend Pukka Travels for our unpromising but in the event atmospheric and photogenic tour alongside less-known fjords with ice floes and coloured boathouses through snow and grey low-slung clouds for a picnic by a beach in the snow, and a sighting of reindeer.

We normally do walking or cycling holidays with Inntravel - this one was equally reliably organised and in many extraordinary ways more memorable. Oh, and we tacked on a couple of nights in Copenhagen, which Inntravel have covered as a city break  - no disappointments here either. We paced ourselves, used our Copenhagen Card to advantage, found some extra bars, cafes, restaurants to recommend, and returned very pleased. (Pity our boiler wasn't working when we got home but we had been hardened by our trip. Yes, take very warm clothing and a capacious wallet.)

Hindsæter: A hotel with local atmosphere and stunning food, though be aware that meals can take up to 2.5 hours. Rooms are small and quite dark with not enough room for two open cases, but the shower was good. There is a lovely lounge with good views but it's cold after dinner. Snow shoeing is great, as is the guided ice canyon walk, but we didn't feel it was a suitable location for beginners' cross country skiing, better for intermediates and experienced. The snow was sadly very poor so we weren't able to ski anyway. The best feature of this trip is that there are a number of activities if the snow isn't good.  There is a great café down the road, otherwise one is dependent on the hotel and there is no free tea or coffee so it's quite expensive. It's also good place to go if you like group activities. However, we preferred both Fefor and Sjusjoen and we will be back to those, whereas we wouldn't return to Hindsæter.

Tromsø: superb! We loved the hotel and its location on the waterfront and the food is very good, with no fuss about it. It's worth pointing out the free supper which is more than enough though they call it 'light'. There is plenty to see in Tromsø and we happily spent five days there. Dan and the Aurora tour are the highlight - we were very lucky as we saw them from the hotel for two nights but Dan took us up into the mountains where we saw a wonderful display. Guests should be aware that the trip can last a long time and I have never been so cold in my life despite the fire and the polar suit. It's worth walking over to the Arctic Cathedral and I loved the concert of northern music in the Tromsø Cathedral.

Inntravel note: These customers enjoyed our Nordic Experience holiday in Hindsæter followed by our Northern Lights Break in Tromsø.

We had a fantastic trip to Tromso. We loved the experience of staying in a snowy arctic city right beside the harbour. We saw a superb aurora display over the harbour on our very first night. The Northern Lights tour itself was... and I really think this is the right expression... mind blowing! It was extremely cold but we stood by a wood fire under the stars, drinking hot chocolate, watching and photographing one of the greatest shows on earth. We are so glad that we booked two extra days. We got to know the city a bit, saw the sights, felt the beat, enjoyed museums and concerts, and also got some good cross country skiing. Very glad that we went and very likely to return one day.

My wife and I had a wonderful trip, which exceeded our expectations, with the Northern Light excursion being a particular highlight. Tromso is a very interesting and enjoyable centre where we made independent excursions husky sledding (we would recommend Tromso Villmarksenter) and on the city's cable car. One of the major winter attractions in the city was whale watching which, had we known in advance, we may have booked. The Hotel With was an ideal base, and very comfortable for our stay.

The Northern Lights excursion with Arctic Experience was excellent. Dan Steinbakk is an exceptional guide and showed great commitment in finding our group a location with clear sky (on an otherwise cloudy and stormy night). And the Lights were magnificent. Well worth the whole trip.

We used the Villmarkcentre for the dog-sledding. Cafe A Dragoy A/S took some finding - it was part of a large fresh fish shop in a newish shopping centre on the harbour front, but we had a very good meal there at a reasonable price. Small basic menu but very well cooked. We were pleased to have YaK Trax (spikes) with us - lost one of mine on evening 1 but their Norwegian equivalents are readily available so no real problem. The Norwegians don't seem to need them but we felt much safer wearing them on the ice and snow - walking around town and over the bridge to the cable car lift was easy with them on.

Inntravel booked our bus trip to see the Northern Lights and it was worth every penny. We were a small group of 8 people and Dan our guide was fantastic. He took us away from the tourist area and set up in a quiet spot where we saw the most incredible aurora display. Good boots, thick woollen socks and thermals are recommended though as it does get very cold outside at night.  Tromso is very safe and easy to get around simply by walking or using the local buses. The information provided by Inntravel was completely accurate and incredibly useful. They are simply the best travel company I have ever booked with. There is absolutely nothing I can fault about this trip or the staff at Inntravel, we were constantly kept informed and updated, even telephoning me from England to ensure I get had been contacted about a slight change to the itinerary due to weather, which I had. All travel documents arrived on time, beautifully presented in a folder with a step by step guide about our holiday. This is a very professional company with knowledgeable and amazing staff who care about their customers. Would we use you again, yes, absolutely without a doubt. Would we recommend Inntravel to others, we already have.

The hotel was so friendly and helpful, the information inn travel provided was excellent and Tromso was truly beautiful. Dan our northern lights leader was fantastic. The holiday was everything we hoped it would and more. 

The Tromso Northern Lights break was a great trip although we weren't lucky enough to see the lights themselves on this occasion! The guide tried his best as we were out for over 8 hours and even went into Finland but the weather was just too overcast. I knew it was not guaranteed before going so I'll have to do another trip to see them. The hotel in Tromso was good and centrally located with nice staff. We added a two night stay in Oslo on the way home which again was excellent. The hotel was central and good and the Oslo pass was a great addition as it gave access to lots of attractions and transport. All together a great trip. 

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our Oslo City add-on at the Hotel Bristol following our Tromsø Northern Lights winter break