Tromsø or Iceland?

Is Tromsø or Iceland better for the northern lights?

Tromsø, slightly, for the lights; Iceland for a road trip with the lights as part of it. Both are coastal and cloudy, but Tromsø is further north and has drier inland country within driving range.

Side by side:

Iceland has excellent forecast tools: the Icelandic Met Office publishes a cloud cover map alongside its aurora forecast, and local tours use it the same way Tromsø guides use theirs. The real gap is the escape route. From Tromsø a guide can reach the drier air around the Finnish border in a few hours, where the Finnish Meteorological Institute records auroras on about three in four clear, dark nights.

What is the best city in Norway to see the northern lights?

Tromsø, for most visitors: the largest town under the oval, with an airport five kilometres from the centre and the widest choice of tours. Alta is the quieter inland alternative.

Visit Norway calls Tromsø the Arctic Capital, and it is the easiest base: hotels, restaurants and dozens of aurora tours leaving from the harbour every evening. Alta, further north-east in Finnmark, markets itself as the city of the northern lights; the world's first permanent northern lights observatory was built just outside town in 1899, and the wide Finnmarksvidda plateau behind it gives big skies.

For a first aurora trip, Tromsø is the safe pick. Alta suits a second visit, or anyone who wants a smaller town and a drive across the plateau.

Is Tromsø or Lofoten better for the northern lights?

Tromsø for odds and ease, Lofoten for scenery. Lofoten sits further south-west along the coast, and most visitors drive themselves.

Lofoten's peaks rise straight out of the sea, and on a clear night the photos are hard to beat. But it is just as coastal as Tromsø, with fewer organised chases and no quick road inland to drier air. You will be planning your own nights, on winter roads.

If you have a week, a car and winter driving experience, Lofoten is wonderful. If you have four nights and want someone else to handle the cloud, Tromsø is the better bet.

Norway or Sweden: is Tromsø or Abisko better?

Abisko has the reputation for clearer skies; Tromsø has more to do and more ways to chase. Some Tromsø tours cross into Sweden when the sky is clearer there.

Abisko sits inside the oval, about 195 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, near the Norwegian border. According to Space.com, mountains block moist westerly air and leave a rain shadow above the village, the so-called blue hole, a patch of clearer sky of 10 to 20 square kilometres. The Aurora Sky Station on Mount Nuolja is reached by a 20-minute chairlift, and Kiruna is a little over an hour away.

It is a small place, though: a few lodges, the national park and the station. Tromsø is a city with tours, restaurants and a long list of daytime trips. The adults-only small group says it will drive to Sweden or Finland if that is where the sky is clear, which gets you some of the same benefit.

An adults-only group of 15 at most, boots and suit included, and a guide willing to cross into Finland or Sweden.

★ 4.8 · 6 to 9 hours

Book this Tour details

Is Rovaniemi or Tromsø better for the northern lights?

Tromsø for the lights, Rovaniemi for a family Christmas trip. Rovaniemi sits on the Arctic Circle, further south and further from the middle of the oval.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute says auroras appear on roughly half of clear, dark nights in northern Lapland resorts such as Levi, Ylläs and Saariselkä, and on about 75% at Kilpisjärvi. Rovaniemi lies well south of all of them. Its strengths are Santa Claus Village, forest landscapes and an inland climate that can be very cold.

Tromsø's chases often end up near Kilpisjärvi on cloudy nights, which means that from a Norwegian base you get Finland's best-placed sky without the long trip.

Where is the most guaranteed place to see the northern lights?

Nowhere is guaranteed. The best odds come from a place under the oval, a way to escape the cloud, and enough nights to wait out bad weather.

Kilpisjärvi's 75% of clear, dark nights is one of the best published figures anywhere. Abisko has its blue hole. Tromsø combines a position under the oval with tours that drive towards those same clearer areas.

The single biggest factor you control is time. One night anywhere is a gamble. Three or four nights, with a tour booked early so a cloudy evening can be repeated, puts the odds firmly on your side.

What is the cheapest country to see the northern lights?

No Arctic destination is cheap in winter. Norway and Iceland are among the pricier places in Europe; Finnish and Swedish Lapland are often a little gentler on daily costs.

Season and booking time move your budget more than the country. Christmas, New Year and the February and March holiday weeks are the dearest; October and November are usually easier. In Tromsø, supermarkets, self-catering and a hotel breakfast keep daily costs down, and a clear night at Prestvannet lake costs nothing. See seeing the lights without a tour for the free spots.

Which country has the prettiest northern lights, and what is the rarest colour?

The lights themselves are the same everywhere; the scenery is what differs, and Norway's fjords and peaks are hard to beat. Blue and purple are the rarest colours.

Colour comes from altitude and gas, as AuroraWatch UK at Lancaster University explains. Green, from oxygen around 100 kilometres up, is by far the most common. Red, also oxygen but higher, shows in strong displays. Blue and purple come from nitrogen and are the rarest, usually seen along the lower edge of a strong display.

Faint aurora looks grey or white to the eye, because our eyes see little colour in dim light, while a camera picks up green. Under the oval, overhead displays are often bright enough to show colour to the naked eye (EarthSky). For pictures, see photographing the lights.

Frequently asked questions