After a short 2 and a half hour flight from Stockholm we arrived in our third Scandinavian country in as many weeks. Simon and I have visited Norway before, back in 2013, on a cruise through the fjords with my parents. We had found the people to be friendly, the scenery stunning, the feel relaxing and the cost extortionate. I can say that we came away from this 5 day stay feeling exactly the same. Norway is by far, my favourite European country. I know… that’s a strong statement!

I have to say, I didn’t know much about Tromso before we started our research. Our original criteria for our trip was to go dog sledding, see some reindeer, and hopefully see the Northern lights. This criteria actually led us to our first option of Abisko, in Sweden. Abisko is also in the Arctic Circle, but as it is land locked, the chances of seeing the Northern lights is less than Tromso, as you can’t get away from the bad weather. Tromso is the largest city in Northern Norway, and the third largest in the Arctic Circle, but the best thing about Tromso is that it’s on the coast, so if the weather is bad on the coast, you can move inland and vice a versa. Another factor that put us off of Abisko was that it’s really small. Ultimately, if you go there and the weather’s bad, you’re kinda stuck in a small town with not a lot to do. The more we researched, the more we wanted to go to Tromso.

We took the bus from the airport into town, which was super easy, and as we drove through the residential areas we were both in awe by all the snow, but also by how beautiful the houses were. It was about 4pm when we landed, so it was well and truly dark at this point and all the houses had beautiful stars and fairy lights in their windows and around the garden. We arrived in the centre of town and had a very short walk to our hotel, the Comfort Xpress. As I mentioned before, Norway is expensive! The salaries are amazing, but that also means that everything costs a small fortune. The Comfort Xpress was cheap for Norway standards, but was so great! I can’t recommend it enough.

As with Stockholm, I had completed some research before we left the UK into cheap eats in Tromso. One place that came up was Bla Rock, a burger ‘pub’ very close to our hotel, so we decided to eat there on our first night. It wasn’t massively cheap, I think we spent nearly £50 (cheap for Norway) and got the same standard as Wetherspoons, but a lot bigger. Yeah… Norway is really expensive. On the way back to our hotel we stopped in Eurospar and picked up picnicy bits for the next couple of days.

The night before I had received an email from our Whale watching trip provider telling us that our trip had been cancelled due to bad weather. Another reason we chose Tromso over Abisko, and also other options in Finland, was because we found out that December was the perfect time of year to see Humpbacks and Orcas in the fjords near to Tromso. If you’ve seen Blue Planet 2, you will have seen in the first episode a segment filmed in this area. To say we were gutted to have our trip cancelled was an understatement. I started doing some research as I couldn’t quite believe the weather was forecast to be that bad and the more research I did, the more I felt we’d been messed around.

It turned out that due to the Herring moving further north, the whales had in turn moved this year. The rib boat that we were meant to be taking would never have been able to get us as far north to the whales as we needed to within the time of the trip. Ok, still fair enough that they cancelled right?! Wrong! From their Facebook page they had known about this for 3 weeks and had only just now told us that they weren’t running these trips, apparently because of bad weather. After a few stern emails they agreed that they had made a mistake and that the email they were meant to send me had been sat in their outbox for weeks. Luckily, we had read about some other options and whilst at the airport waiting for our flight we spoke with a really helpful woman who got us onto another tour, on a Catamaran.

We were up super early the next day to join our catamaran trip to see the whales. Fortunately, a catamaran travels a lot faster than a rib and was able to cover the distance needed to get to where the whales were feeding in a little over 2 hours. The other option we had investigated was a 4 hour bus journey to join a rib further up, but we figured on a catamaran we could enjoy the view and rest at the same time. On board was a marine biologist student from Spain, who we enjoyed speaking to about the migration of the whales and who also gave us a long talk about the biology and history of the whales in this area. The 2 hour journey went super fast and after about an hour or so, the views were breathtaking. We were travelling through snow covered fjords and the further north we travelled the clearer the sky became. The light was just beautiful. At this time of year, Northern Norway experiences polar night. At no point when we were there did we see the sun as it only hugged the horizon for around 90 minutes a day. The result was a light I’ve never seen before, which made you truly feel like you were on top of the world.

It didn’t take long to see our first pod of Orcas. Having seen Humpback whales in Australia, the year before, Simon and I both agreed that Orcas were what we were hoping for on this trip. We weren’t disappointed. Over the next 2 hours we saw around 30 Orcas in pods of varying sizes. At one point, one large Orca came very close to the boat, which was just incredible. We couldn’t get as close as we would have in a rib, but at the same time, we were higher up and had some inside cover from the cold if we needed it. The whole trip was magical. The way the light was, the Orcas and the freezing bitter polar air, made me think how lucky we are to live in a world with places like this. Hopefully, the pictures will give you a taste of what we we experienced, but trust me, they don’t do the reality justice. You have to go!

It took about 2 hours to travel back to Tromso. On our way back we saw some beautiful Norwegian lodges hidden in the fjords and a salmon farm. We could hardly believe what we heard when about 20 minutes from the city, the captain came over the tanoy and said the following ‘Please don’t run, but if you look out to your left, you will see that the Lady Aurora has decided to join us’. Needless to say, there was a manic rush to get gloves, hats and scarves on quickly. She graced us with her presence for about 5 minutes and then the light pollution from the city, and her fading lights, meant she vanished back into the 3pm dusk.

Simon and I have experienced some absolutely wonderful days over the last 6 years, but my word, this day was sheer perfection. It wasn’t over after our whale watching trip, we were going Northern Lights chasing as well. We were super hopeful that we may get to see Lady Aurora again that night after the activity we had seen that day. We went out into the freezing night with our fingers crossed.

We decided to go Northern Lights hunting with a company called Chasing Lights. I’m not going to lie, this trip was super expensive, and we chose to go in a small mini bus as well so that we would receive tripods, photography advise and photographs from the guide on top of the trip. Being in a small group meant that we could cover huge distances over the night and when we got on our bus 50% of the group had been on the same trip the night before where they had ventured into Finland to try and get a glimpse of the Northern Lights.

The forecast said that the best chance of seeing the lights was to stay close to the city so we headed away from the light pollution and made our first stop. We got chatting with a guy from Uruguay who taught us more about our camera in that 20 minute bus ride than we had ever learnt before and when we got there he continued to help us adjust our tripod and our settings. He was a really lovely guy. On our cameras we were starting to pick up some faint activity (good cameras pull in more light than our eyes can which is why they often detect the Northern lights before we can see them with our eyes), but we were fighting against cloud cover and the skies were very quickly covered completely.

Our guide (a guy from England) decided to take us further inland to a beautiful fjord to see if we had any better luck there. At this stop, we had some yummy hot chocolate and biscuits, whilst enjoying the view of the fjord. Again, the camera was picking up some faint activity, which I managed to get some photos of, but we couldn’t see any of this with the naked eye. Simon spent some more time with the guy from Uruguay (I can’t remember his name) and got some lovely shots of the fjord.

As the cloud inevitably covered this area as well, the guide made the choice to move further inland to try and find some clear sky. We weren’t particularly worried by this point, we had only been on the tour for about 3 hours and one of the reasons we chose the company was because they will keep going, even up to 4am if they have to, to give you the best chance of seeing the lights. About 45 minutes away from our second stop, our guide received a call saying that our best chance was to now head back to the same location we started at, so our minibus turned around and we kept chasing the lights.

We made it back to our first stop to see that the caller had indeed been right and the cloud had cleared considerably. To be honest, I’m not sure anyone would have been too happy to just stay in the freezing cold same spot for 4 hours, so no-one minded that we had been moving around for all of that time. As soon as we got off the bus and ventured into 2 foot deep snow, we started to see the Northern lights appear above our heads. To start with it was a milky white colour (but on the camera beautiful green), but very quickly the white turned to greens and pinks and the Lady Aurora started to dance. Completely visible with our eyes.

Our small group started to oooo and ahhhh, guests from India were absolutely taken over with emotion by what they were seeing and Simon and I tried to find a balance of taking shots, being in photographs and also just staring at awe at what we were seeing. I had seen the Northern lights before in Iceland, but as Simon was deployed in Sierra Leone during that trip, it had been something I had been dying to show him ever since. I can say with confidence, that this show was just as beautiful as the one I’d seen in Iceland. We were treated to fast moving colourful lights for about 20 minutes. She’d vanish for a while, but she’d always come back stronger than ever. The main band of lights stretched clear across the sky like an arch. It was amazing. I hope you enjoy some of our photographs. For a first attempt at Northern light photography, I was super impressed by what we achieved. At the end, you’ll also see some professional photos we had taken by our guide.

After the show we all sat around the fire on reindeer skins and ate beef stew. It was delicious and the atmosphere was just wonderful. Everyone was just so grateful and happy for the experience we’d just had. It’s honestly a day I will never forget and finally being able to share this with Simon, was the cherry on top of the most perfect day.

Here are some photos that were taken by Chasing Lights during our trip.

We made it back to the hotel at a very reasonable 1am completely satisfied and happy, and settled in for a lovely long sleep. There is light at about 11:30am in Tromso, at that time of year, so we decided to have a lovely long lie in before heading out for a wander and brunch. The next morning was absolutely beautiful. Here’s the view from our hotel room, just to prove what we woke up to.

We went for a walk by the waterfront, taking lots of panoramas (which unfortunately don’t upload well to here) and just taking in the views over the water to the Arctic cathedral and Fjellheisen.

We went and enjoyed a delicious lunch/brunch at the Art Cafe, which I can’t recommend enough. I had a Vietnamese coffee in the Arctic Circle which was a little bizarre.

As the polar night glow started to dissipate we headed to the Polar museum to learn about the history of life in the Arctic Circle. We learnt a lot about how the local people relied upon whale and seal hunting, and also how eventually this was exploited. The museum covered a lot of information about Svalbard, an island north of Norway, which is home to thousands of polar bears (we now want to go there). It was definitely worth a visit to see the tools and traps that were used, and to hear the stories of local heroes that lived there throughout history.

As you can see from the above photo, by the time we came out of the museum it was pitch black again. As much as I love it in Tromso, I think I would really struggle with such little light. We heard that the locals are given time off work during the light periods of the day to make sure they make the most of it. Our next stop was a trip up Fjellheisen on the cable car. To get there we decided to walk, which Simon wasn’t particularly happy about as he was like bambi on ice, even though he was wearing military grade combat boots. Our walk took us across Tromso bridge. I’m really glad we walked, as by this point the snow was starting to come down and we could see what normal life was like in Tromso. Snow plows were clearing the roads as quickly as the snow was falling, pedestrians were being given priority at all times and everyone drives like normal people. We couldn’t help but have a joke about how terrible the UK is for coping with snow.

The last part of our walk, to the cable car, took us through a beautiful residential area covered in magical snow.

When we made it to the cable car, we’d just missed one so we had a 20 minute wait for the next. As we headed up in the cable car we saw a wonderful view back over Tromso. Ironically, within the 40 seconds or so it takes to get to the top, cloud had rolled in and had pretty much covered the city. Luckily, there was a cafe at the top so we hunkered in there for an hour or so to let the weather pass. It was here that I enjoyed my first Lefse (Norweigan potato pancake). Delicious! Simon had something like chocolate cake… surprise surprise.

When the cloud cleared we managed to get a couple of photos before another set of clouds took Tromso away from us and once again, the view was obstructed.

There was only about 20 seconds between the two photos above so you can see how quickly the weather changed. We headed back down and decided to walk back to Tromso to enjoy the heavy snow that was now falling. On our way back we stopped a few times to roll down some hills in the snow and have a snow ball fight near one of Tromso’s most iconic structures, the Arctic Cathedral. We had a lot of fun that night just enjoying the snow and acting like children.

As you’ll see from the photos, by the time we made it back to the main city, the sky had cleared beautifully yet again. Now you can see why you need to chase the Northern Lights in Tromso. The weather is forever changing.

The next day we checked out of our hotel as we were heading elsewhere for our last night. We jumped on a local bus to the south of the island, which was really easy and affordable. The weather was beautiful and the light was absolutely stunning, yet again. I’d read that there was a beach in Tromso so we decided to check it out before heading to the Tromso museum. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting what we found. It was… breathtaking and the best part of it was that we pretty much had it all to ourselves. I kept saying to Simon… ‘Does no-one know about this place? How is it possible that no-one is here?’ I’ll let the photos tell you the rest of the story.

We found the yellow snow and definitely did not create it…

We had a dual ticket for the Polar museum and Tromso museum so our next stop was to the Tromso museum to have a look around. In a way I preferred this museum and in another I didn’t. Let me try and explain. The museum was far more modern and had a more diverse range of exhibits. The first exhibit we visited was all about the animals of the Arctic and it was brilliant. We also had a look around an exhibit about the Northern Lights and the Sami and other indigenous people, but a lot of these sections didn’t have full English signs so we just had to walk around and figure it out. Despite this, we had a great hour and a half and enjoyed everything we saw. The Northern Light generator was pretty awesome as you’ll see from the photo below.

For dinner that night we visited Egon. What we learnt about Tromso is that it’s a foodies dream, but, and it’s a big but, only if you have money. There are so many highly rated restaurants in Tromso all with absolutely glowing reviews, but we couldn’t afford to eat in any of them. I would absolutely love to go back to Tromso with enough money (not sure that’s ever going to be possible) and enjoy some of these restaurants, but Egon’s wasn’t a bad option. They had an all you can eat pizza buffet on so we went to town on that and left happy and warm, which is always a treat when you’re in the Arctic Circle.

That night we were heading somewhere very exciting, Camp Tamok. Whilst doing some research into Tromso we soon realised that a lot of people will make separate day trips to do activities such as dog sledding, reindeer sledding and snowmobiling. We found an option, that we couldn’t turn down, which meant we would only complete the hours drive each way once and could partake in two of these activities. Oh and did I also mention, we’d get to stay in a log cabin overnight?

We arrived in Camp Tamok and were quickly bundled up into snowsuits, given super thick toasty boats and all the warm weather accessories you could ask for. That night we were going dog sledding! Again, whilst completing research we learnt that a large proportion of the companies that offer dog sledding don’t actually let you do the driving. We absolutely wanted to have a go ourselves so that was another reason we went for this company. The weather had started changing and it was now snowing pretty heavily. There is usually a chance of seeing the Northern Lights whilst on these dog sledding trips, but we weren’t expecting a view of Lady Aurora in this weather. Before heading out we went and met our Siberian huskies and learnt how to control our sled.

Simon wanted to go second, I like to think he was scared, which was fine by me. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous. I’d never done anything like this before. Huskies are very powerful and it was practically a blizzard by this point. Regardless, I got it together and we set off. I know we weren’t really going that fast, but it really did feel like it (it had the same speed feeling like skiing does). We zoomed through trees, moving up and down the hills as necessary. Wow, no-one tells you how tiring it is to go up with a sled. It’s only polite to help the dogs up hills, but oh my.. it’s exhausting. Right at the end of my half one of my mittens went flying off into the abyss, but I’m very proud to say that I didn’t crash the sled. Why is Becky mentioning this you ask? Maybe someone else did? You’d be right!

After a mini break in the middle, where we had a little photoshoot with the huskies, Simon’s ride started perfectly. Simon has a habit of going fast and crashing everything we ever go in together, so to be honest, I knew it was coming. All it took was to take a turn a little too fast and the sled rolled over and we ended up in a pile in the snow. We’d been advised to hold onto the sled when you crash as it encourages the dogs to halt. No-one was hurt and Simon continued to be an excellent sledder after the crash, just like he was before. We’ll let him off as it was -18 degrees by this point and we could hardly see through the snow. Dog sledding was great. Even if you’re only a passenger I completely recommend having ago. We’d love to have another go one day, maybe on a longer trip, potentially even overnight. Watch this space.

We made it back to Camp Tamok ready and eager for something hot to eat and drink. We ate reindeer stew in a lavvu, which is a Sami tent with a fire in the middle. The stew was delicious and we were very grateful to warm up.

They took us up to our lodge for the night, which was stunning. There was a fire already burning and we just sat down and enjoyed every moment of it. I would absolutely love to stay in a cabin somewhere like this for a few days one day. Maybe only venturing out to go skiing or to visit a sauna.

We slept amazingly and this was the view we were greeted with in the morning. 

We headed back to the Lavvu for a typical Scandinavian breakfast of meats, cheeses and bread before our second and last activity at Camp Tamok. 

After breakfast, as overnight guests, we were given a wonderful opportunity to play with the huskies for a while. These dogs are just beautiful and so friendly!

I LOVE this dog’s faces!!!!

Next, we were greeted by a Sami couple who were going to teach us all about Sami culture and introduce us to some of their heard of reindeer. Sami people can be found in Northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as Russia. They are maybe more commonly known as Laplanders. Reindeer herding is a traditional livelihood and currently around 2800 Sami people in Norway still rely on reindeer herding as their source of income. We learnt how the reindeer are moved from the highlands in the winter to the coast in the spring so that they can graze. They showed us traditional dress and taught us about their customs, we had a go at throwing a lasso and they allowed us to meet and feed their reindeer.

Last but not least was a reindeer sledding experience. Compared to husky sledding this was very slow and relaxing. Just what we needed to finish off our trip to the Arctic Circle. In the middle we did liven things up with a bit of a mess around in the snow though…

We had a lamb stew lunch before we left Camp Tamok and headed back to Tromso to catch our direct flight back to Gatwick. We are so lucky that we have a direct flight to Tromso from London and I completely recommend that every single person goes to Tromso as soon as possible. Make it a top of your bucket list trip, because I promise you, you won’t regret it, or even care about how much you spent whilst there.