Winter expedition to the Arctic Circle – Tromsø

Depending on the time of arrival, the programme of the first day will also depend on the time of arrival – if you arrive early in the morning (or late in the evening), you will be able to do everything from the first and second day at the same time. However, if you arrive in Tromsø later in the afternoon, we have a few tips for the narrower city centre.

Before we get into them, here’s a tip, especially for those travellers who would be taking an evening or even night flight (like us). That tip is the opportunity to see the Northern Lights before you even land inside the Arctic Circle. Yes, you heard right. In fact, it is possible to observe this dancing phenomenon from an airplane, under good conditions of course. But there’s no need to worry about clouds – because planes fly so high that the only obstacle is the low KP index and other magnetic field values that make the aurora „magic“.

So if you are flying in the dark, try to arrange seats on the left side of the plane (in the direction of A, B or C). This is the direction that is closer to the north, where the glow appears in most cases.

And now to the arrival at Tromsø International Airport, which is smaller but modern and well-equipped.

TIP: If you would like to reschedule the itinerary according to the weather forecast, no problem. By recommending to stay in one place, the order of the days is up to you.

Upon arrival, we recommend picking up a car, which you will need in the following days of this itinerary. Theoretically, you can do without it, but we do not recommend it. We will then head to the city centre.

The narrower town centre on Tromsøya is not large and you can walk around it in an hour or two. That’s why we’ll be back here the next morning (depending on time, see note above). From that car park we head north through the harbour, where there are great views of the opposite countryside and the Tromsøbrua bridge.

Along the water we reach Porten til Ishavet, which translates to „Gateway to the Arctic Ocean“, where you can see a beautiful view of the Arctic Cathedral.

From the gate, which opens this itinerary in a way, we will visit the first great refreshment place nearby. It is the excellent Vervet Bakery. If you want a rather „bigger“ snack or if the bakery is already closed, there is a very good burger place nearby with an original name – Burgr.

As mentioned above, we probably won’t be able to do much more on the first day, so it’s time to move on to accommodation. In terms of accommodation options, it is not necessary for us to look for accommodation directly on the bustling island of Tromsøya. Instead, we would recommend finding accommodation nearby, either on the Tromsdalen side or on the opposite side – on Kvaløya Island. This is also where the very nice Steam Pier accommodation is located.

TIP: If you arrive early in the morning and have plenty of energy (and not enough days), you can skip straight to the next day’s plan.