Northern Norway Travel — Local services in Tromsø

Even though we weren’t lucky enough to experience the northern light as seen in the movies, we still had an amazing time with our guide Karel, who was full of amazing stories, and always had something to say. The tour was well organised with a nice spot and excellent driver. Would recommend!

Edit: We are still absolutely satisfied with everything that has happened on the tour itself. The events that happened after the tour left much to be desired, however. First of all there is the pictures taken by the guide: The pictures are really nice but we had to pay 290 NOK per picture to get it!? This came like an absolute surprise to us, as the description of the tour said, and I quote: "Included in the tour are digital photos, sent to you 48 hours after the tour". Those 48 hours became 62, but hey, we were not in a rush. But furthermore, no sign anywhere in the description about paying for these pictures. The fact that it said it was included was for us a reason to not bring our own equipment, to "live in the moment", so to say. We would have definitely brought it if we knew it was going to be 290 NOK per picture (If you don't want a free picture on which you can count the pixels). The guide was also just using a normal Canon photo camera, not really professional equipment. And another annoying part is this: when confronted about it via email, we asked them an explanation of why there was no mention of extra costs (in which is already a quite expensive tour), and we got no response, up to three times in a row. It is sad that a nice experience like this has to be remembered in this way. However, our advice still stands, you should definitely book the tour if there is no chance of seeing it in Tromsø itself, but just be aware you're getting f*ed if you want a picture of it on which you can actually see anything. And also don't expect any service or response if you have any form of criticism afterwards. I wish all the guides, that are doing their upmost effort to put an awesome tour together, for customers from all over the world, the best of luck with working for a, I can only imagine, very little, sad man/woman who is draining you for a picture and is refusing to explain...

Our tour should have been cancelled due to the weather. It was clear from 6pm there would be 0 chance to see them. The storm was coming from inland and the cloud cover was 100% everywhere, (Finland too), the forecasts predicted that for the entire night with no breaks in the cloud (check the windy app for 29th December 2022) but the company forced ahead anyway so they could keep everyone's money (T's&C's state customers can only cancel up to 48 hours before for a refund)

Big shout out to the guides Boris and Olivia who tried to make the best out of a bad situation and I am really glad they did not try to force us out the car into the 40 knot winds to look at black clouds and waste time setting up cameras (unlike all the other buses we saw which was disgusting to be frank). The roads were also really dangerous due to the winds shifting the snow on to them. (Again the winds were raging from 20 - 60 knots all night)

All in all paid 3500 NOK to sit in a van for 6 hours not far from Tromsø (the rubbish photo attached shows the cityscape) for one bowl (albeit delicious) of reindeer stew.

100% do not recommend to book your northern lights tour with this company as they just want your money. Not having a guarantee or a 50% off for trying again when it doesn't work out is one thing (and understandable, nature after all), but putting 17 people in danger (15 customers 2 guides) instead of cancelling/rescheduling is outrageous.

Shame on this company. Think twice before booking, because if the weather turns out to be rubbish everywhere like on 29th December 2022 the tour will still go ahead and you will have wasted one of your precious...

Oh boy where do I begin. I won't say the name of the tour guides but it was an absolute disaster. The welcoming was very nice when we first arrived. The tour guides took us to a very nice mini-bus that was very comfortable. The first bad sign was when I mentioned the chance of snow to the tour guide and she didn't know that it was supposed to even snow. I feel like you should know the weather for the night if you are giving an outdoor tour. The guide was only with the company a couple of months, and the secondary guide? Someone who was brand new. Normally someone that only has a couple months of experience would have someone with more experience with them. As we were driving around, there was no communication by the tour guides. No one knew what was happening. We stopped in multiple places where there were no trespassing and private driveways so we had to move. Why does a guide not have designated parking areas to look for lights? Why would you not have backup spots? The bus driver knew the area better than the tour guide. We finally find a spot that the bus driver had suggested (guess he should be the tour guide). The tour guide was unable to get a fire started and a few participants had to step in to get the fire going. The stew was very cold. We weren't able to see the northern lights because of the weather, but honestly that wasn't surprising based on the outdoor conditions and didn't impact this review as I knew coming in there might not be a chance of seeing them. I was just shocked at how unorganized this was. Certainly a chance the tour may have been a lot better with a guide with...