Destination Tromsø — Local services in Tromsø

Oh God, where to start? We hired two different companies to see the Northern lights. On the first night, we went with the other company and the experience was great (even though the lights were a bit shy...). The second night we went with Destination Tromso and OMG what a disaster (even though the lights were awesome!). Nothwithstanding the fact that the tour bus is quite luxurious (spacious, with bathroom and internet - contrary to the other tour, which only had a small van with no toilet) absolutely everything with the other company was better. The guides of Visit Tromso barely spoke to us (I don't even remember their names), they took us to literally the side of the road (we were promised Aurora stations like the photos in the website, with little cute huts), barely 10 meters from where the road where the bus stopped (the other company took us to an amazing valley of mountains), there was another full bus of other group in the local. The guide of the other group was always yelling (yes, I said YELLING) at us to turn off our flashes because it was getting in the way of their photos (well, what about OUR photos?) The guides in our group were completely omissive about that and let the other group dominate the environment (in fact they were in a higher position, which gave them privileged views and we were in a downside). Most people got bored and went back at the bus. The guides started a fire (the smoke was actually getting in the way of our photos - the company hired for my other tour actually made the fire away from the place where people were taking their photos) and the bus of the other group had its lights on (which was of course also affecting our photos). I complained about this last point to one of the guides and, even though she managed to talk to the bus driver to turn his lights off (why were they even on in the first place? People were actually 10 meters away, they could see the shadow of the bus), her first reaction was to tell me to calm down in a rispid manner. We didn't manage to eat and that shows you how the handling of the food was unorganized (no one called to say the food was ready) and we didn't manage to take photos with the official camera of the company. It seemed like the guides didn't want to be there or to work. What a disgrace! On the positive side, the lights were beautiful and we did manage to take photos (despite the yelling of the tour guide of the other group) with our own cameras and cell phones). If you're reading me, next time, go with another company (may I suggest Wandering Owl?). It will be 10...

We booked a whale watching tour at this company. A 1 star review is fitting as the staff is kind and helpful. We booked our tour for sunday. On saturday afternoon we received a mail that the tour is cancelled due to bad weather. We then went into their office and it was increadibly difficult to rebook us at the next tour because we booked via visittromso. They then refunded and we booked for the next tour. Unfortunately on monday the tour was cancelled again even though the waether was not too bad. Their reason was high waves out in the sea. Later on we recognized that this tour stays within the fjords and i can't imagine that any kind of monster waves could harm the boat. They then told us that they have a booking stop for the whole week so we were unable to do a tour in general. So it was clear that they simply suffer of enough customers. We then got informed that the tuesday tour was available because they arranged with another operator. The lady then told us that in the last days they had some technical issues with the boat. So why have the tour been cancelled? Weather? Not enough customers? Technical issues? Liars!

Let's go to the tour. We entered a big luxury boat with wifi and comfortable seats. Perfect for cruising. Really bad for whale watching. The guides talked to us 3 times. And it was like "now we are going there and we expect so see some whales". That's it. We only saw one small mink whale on this trip. Even when spotting something the guides do not notify the passengers. In general the guides were not really passioned in what they did. No one was really wanting to spot whales. Therefore we just cruised around the fjords at full speed and then went back to Tromso again. We died of boredom. You can not imagine how increadibly boring this trip was. Never never again...

For the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights use this company. We were picked up in a comfortable bus with a toilet and taken on an adventure that is hard to forget. There must of been about 30 adventurers and two experienced guides who gave us detailed information about the coming journey which took about 90 minutes. On the way the guides used apps to find out the chance of seeing the phenomena and constantly scoured the sky for any changes in the sky. In fact we did stop after about 45minutes and were lucky to see the lights streak across the sky. When we reached our destination we were able to rest in two Sami tents heated by a roaring log fire and surrounded by wooden seats covered in skins. We were treated to a bowl of fish soup, tea and other native delicacies whilst the lights came and went outside. The guides were excellent and took superb pictures of everyone, the Northern Lights and the campsite. The whole experience took about 7 hours and the best bit is that you can access the professional pictures the guides took and download them for your own use. All in...