Polar Adventures Tromso - Northern Lights — Local services in Tromsø

Unreliable agency to book with. We were a group of 4 & booked the small group tour Northern Lights chase with Polar Adventures in a minibus. When we arrived at the pick-up location - Radisson Blu Hotel in Tromso, we were made to wait until all the other tours departed and when we were the last ones there, we were told that due to "technical issues" there isn't a minibus available to take us. Following which, the options laid out to us were to either join a boat cruise with a large group (around 50+ people) or cancel and get a full refund. A lot of pressure was put on us as the guide told us that we had only 1 minute to decide as the boat was departing. It was my wife’s 30th birthday that night and we booked this tour months in advance so that at 12 midnight we bring in her birthday with the sight of the northern lights. With the clock ticking, not knowing all the information, we were compelled to choosing the boat trip as we didn’t have alternative plans to celebrate my wife’s birthday. The service that we purchased was a 6-hour trip with Snacks, hot dogs, vegetable soup, hot drinks and also a campfire. However, the boat trip lasted 4 hours and we were only given tea, coffee and biscuits. No sausages, hot chocolate or hot soup. It was also really slippery on the boat which made it hard to get from one end to the other. As you can imagine, since it was a boat, there was always slight movement and we could not capture clear sharp images. To make things worse, a friend from our trip was also seasick and couldn’t enjoy the trip. All this made our experience very uncomfortable! On the positive side, our tour guide, Thomas, was amazing. He was always there to answer questions when we needed him, especially about facts relating to the northern lights. He helped set up our camera and was just very friendly. Furthermore, he took a ton of pictures of us as and when we requested.

When we got back to mainland, we were told that we will be contacted the next day with details of the refund. We did not receive any calls or messages and so we decided to go to their main office to speak to the manager. She offered us a refund of only 30% of what we paid. We thought this was so unfair as we did not receive what we paid for - 1. Our tour time was cut from 6 hours to 4 hours, 2. We had booked a small tour, however ended up in a large tour with lots of people, 3. We were not given the food, beverages or experiences as stated in the booking and 4. The whole trip was very uncomfortable. When we told her this, she said "you were given the option not to go and get a full refund". We then explained to her that it was our friends 30th birthday and therefore we had booked for this tour specially for this night and also, we didn’t have any more days to book another tour. We also mentioned that if they had given us more notice, we might have been able to book onto another tour. To this her response was “you need to adapt and be flexible to make changes to your trip.” We thought that her comments were very insensitive and rude. All in all, we believe that the agency isn’t reliable to make booking with and you cannot expect the service that has...

THIS IS A SCAM!!!! DO NOT BOOK!!!! PLEASE.

I NEVER write bad reviews. I’ve been all over the world and this was by far the WORST travel experience I’ve ever had. Seriously - we booked our tour three months in advance. I confirmed twice before our tour date that we were still going. The company canceled, and are refusing to refund, after we had paid for transport to their site and almost $400 USD for the tour. I only found out the tour was canceled after we traveled across the world, waited at their site in the bitter cold and snow for 1.5 hrs, then no one showed up to their meeting point. WE WERE NEVER EMAILED, CALLED, OR FULLY REFUNDED US FOR THIS NIGHTMARE. I demanded a refund, the manager promised a refund, then said he would need ALL of my banking information (routing number, account number, my full legal name, bank name, SWIFT / IBAN number, etc.) to refund me. People were trying to drain my account!!!!! And yes, this was actually this ‘company’ - I booked directly through their site. Still waiting for my refund - I email three times each week, no reply… how strange! If this were legit, I’d have my money back. I paid with card and was told they couldn’t refund my card. So, in summary…

DO NOT BOOK. THIS IS A SCAM. YOU WILL BE SCAMMED.

REVIEW EDIT IN RESPONSE TO POLAR ADVENTURES' REPLY:

It's real simple, folks. They're just doing damage control now. For those still reading this chain, Polar Adventures did refund me the initial cost of the tour, 3500 NOK, which I did recognize. This was refunded to my credit card, the method of purchase. I asked that the remaining refund (the currency exchange discrepancy from NOK to USD plus transportation costs), which I was told would be refunded, to just be refunded either via check or to my credit card, which they already had done for the first refund. There was no issue with the first refund back to my credit card. The reply above also did not include how I repeatedly asked for updates on the situation after being told they would 'see what they could do' since my bank doesn't have SWIFT / IBAN numbers (most US banks do not). I did not receive any update / reply on the correspondance regarding 'we will see what we can do' from the company until I started writing reviews online.

Again, in summary, go with another agency in Tromso. Tromso is a beautiful city with kind people and there are lots of other great...

We booked the Aurora Chase by Bus well in advance of arriving in Tromso. We had an awful tour which was a chain of stress and disaster from start to finish. The first link in the disaster chain was the meeting point. We took screenshots of our email and arrived at the meeting point specified only to find a dark and closed office. The owner, Kenneth, arrived and kindly drive us to where we needed to be.

The second link: the bus. We did not depart for our tour for an hour or more. We received various excuses such as a problem with the bus or a problem with the bus driver. There was even an argument and our driver was replaced.

The third link in the disaster chain: The guide. This man could not be less interested in his job if he tried. Communication was sparse throughout the night. When he did speak, it was to say things like, "Um, yeah guys we are going to driving to try and find a spot. Yeah. Um. We're taking with other your operators so, um yeah."We spent an awful lot of time in the bus because the weather conditions were cloudy and rainy. You'd think the travel time would be filled with the guide sharing interesting information about the area, culture, history etc. Not so, Hans Eric waited until the drive back when half the bus was asleep to share some facts. I'll share a sample: "There are several types of fish in the area; salmon, cod, maybe halibut.....and.....um.... yeah herring."

The fourth link: Value for money. This is a VERY expensive bus ride. We were promised free photographs because of the delay we had experienced and something else "to make up for it." This ended up being 35% off the next tour you book with them, as if you will after that your! The free photographs are a lie, they are all watermarked and 100 NOK each.

We already had a Fjord bus tour booked the next day with this company. This was the only saving grace. The absolute professional called Socrates is a lovely guide and exactly what you would want and expect from a tour. He has so much passion for Norway and beams with love and pride when sharing information. He spread himself around our small group and made us all feel so welcome. He also gave incredibile recommendations. I hope he sets up business on his own as he is wasted with such a...