Northern Lights trip

[lguise]

Can anyone recommend a good tour company for a Northern Lights trip? Or if you have arranged a trip yourself can you recommend a relatively easy to reach location. Hoping to travel last week of October, we don't mind whether it's Iceland, Norway, Sweden etc but probably not Alaska.

Many thanks,

Linton

[carastro]

I went to Iceland in February 2012 and used a company called Iceland2go based in the Isle of Wight.  They do a number of packages depending on how long you want to stay.  They certainly seem to be very knowledgeable about Iceland. 

We decided to join up 2 packages and added a few extra days, so we sort of tailor made our holiday with their help.  Iceland is very interesting geologically too so we wanted to see as much as possible while we were there.

Although they do take you well out of Reykjavik by Jeep to dark locations, you are restricted to about 3 1/2 hours including travel time, and we had one night with aurora we couldn't see through the clouds, and one clear night with no aurora on these trips.

Our holiday was 3 days in Reykjavik, 3 days in Myvatn, then a furtehr 3 days in Reykjavik. 

The best thing by far is to stay in a dark site location where you can stay up all night if you want to.  We travelled to Myvatn a remote lake in the north (one of their packages) and we did indeed stay up most of the night and saw aurora on 2 of 3 nights.  It was an extremely interesting trip too as we got a day time sightseeing tour on the way or lots of interesting geological stuff.

There is also a hotel called La Ranga which is based in a dark location you could book, if you don't want to go to Myvatn, but I think you will need a hire car from there as it's a bit remote.  Myvatn there are lots of day time activities you can do.

Hope this helps.

Carole

[tenbyfifty]

Can't quite remember the reason , something to do with upper atmosphere ionisation building up over the winter (don't quote me on that!!!) but apparently springtime is  a much better time of the year to see aurora. End of October maybe too early or at least aurora would not be as spectacular - anyway worth checking up on this before u book anything.

[Lorne]

You don't have to travel abroad... try Caithness wayyyy up north. Check some of the images further down the board to see what's possible.

PS....... the weather can be pretty "unsettled" so to speak 

[lguise]

Many thanks for your feedback on this and to Carole in particular, it sounds as if you had a great trip. I will look up Iceland2go

Best wishes,

Linton

[zicklurky]

Hi Linton,

I went to Tromso in northern Norway last March to see the Northern Lights, what an experience! On the Trip Advisor forum on the Norway boards there's a Northern Lights tour guide who gives some great advice on maximising your chances of seeing the lights. The weather there is very temperamental, it can be snowing where you are, but if you drive for 10 miles you can get clearish skies. He recommended driving in search of clear skies, rather than staying at one location and waiting and hoping the weather is good. So we went for 6 nights and hired a car. On our second night we were gifted with perfectly clear skies and a glorious light show, we were so lucky! But all the other nights we drove around searching for gaps in clouds. The one night we drove for about 6 hours in total, almost to the Finnish border and back! But.. we managed to see the lights every night.

We found out there are loads of Northern Lights touring companies in Tromso. They pick you up at your hotel, and drive around searching for the lights. They have all the local knowledge of best locations, and where the weather is good. In hindsight I would have liked to have gone on one of those to get a better idea of good locations, on our first night we were driving around a bit randomly. The only downside is they go back to the hotels at midnight about, sometimes the light show would only start at midnight..

Hope this helps. Good luck planning your trip. You will love the lights, it's a very special thing to see.

(Oh my avatar pic is a photo I took there )

Chris

[LukeSkywatcher]

In an email today about the Nov S@N magazine there is a section all about holidays to see the northern lights. I think the company are called Regent Holidays. Could be worth a read.

[Superdavo]

If you don't want a long holiday, check out http://www.auroraflights.co.uk/ - It's a flight that loops around the sea to the north of Scotland, where you can see the aurora. There's absolutely no light pollution, and the stars themselves are phenomenal too! Also, there are experts on board to give you a 'guided tour'. I've been on it twice, and seen the aurora both times, and absolutely recommend it to anyone. Unusually, though, you only see the lights low on the horizon, but that makes them brighter.

David

[lguise]

More great advice many thanks to all. Chris that looks a fantastic photo, I would be more than happy if we see a display like that!

Best wishes,

Linton

[carastro]

Regent Holidays

Regent holidays are the same company as Iceland2Go.

Carole