How to Plan Tromso Day Tours in Winter

Aurora Chase Tours Get Back Late

If you’re heading to Tromso in the winter, the odds are good (we’ll guess, oh, practically 100%) that you’re going to want to take an aurora borealis tour. The weather in town is often quite cloudy, and chase-style tours give you the best odds of finding clear skies to hopefully see the aurora (read the post at the previous link for a detailed explanation why!).

One thing you may be surprised to find out if you are going on an aurora chase tour is that they go late. Really late.

We were told that tours could be 7 to 10+ hours, which means you could be returning at 2 am, 3 am, or much, much later. On our first night we got back just before 2 am, on our second we got back around 1 am, and on our third night it was after 3 am as we had to travel all the way into Finland to find clear skies.

On every single tour, guides asked if anyone had a morning tour, to which at least one person would always say yes and another would be scrambling to figure out transportation logistics to get back to their hotel out of the city center at such a late hour (book a central hotel!). On our second tour, it was us. We had a husky tour departing at 8 am the next day and ended up getting about four hours of sleep at best (we knew this going in, at least). On our third tour, another guest had a flight at 6 am and more or less went straight to the airport as soon as we got back to town.

This all goes to say that scheduling a late-night aurora outing and a morning tour (or flight!) back-to-back can be pretty exhausting. We didn’t sleep much in Tromso, and if you want to have a relaxing trip, you may want to be mindful of tour times- perhaps not having any experiences until 11 am or 12 pm the next day, if any at all.

You Can’t Control the Weather

Another thing to remember for the aurora borealis is that you are still at the mercy of the weather.

Forecasts may be helpful in planning when to book a tour several days out, but honestly, there are so many microclimates that the weather is highly variable in the area and can change faster than anyone can keep up with. We had the best aurora viewing on the cloudiest night, primarily because we drove to Finland, and a night that was forecasted to clear up at the last minute ended up being very, very cloudy for all but a few minutes at the end of our tour.

(Again, this is why we recommend going on chase tours instead of more isolated viewing experiences, as you’re really just chasing clear skies!)

You may see an epic aurora on your first tour. You may have a poor experience and decide to try again on another night. We kept getting lucky and just enjoyed it so much that we went out three times because we don’t know when we’ll ever make it back to the Arctic Circle during the peak of a solar cycle!

Most major tour companies know that guests want to be flexible too, so many offer generous cancelation policies, typically up to 24 hours in advance. We think this is helpful for those who want to be strategic when booking and have a safety net at the same time.

We booked a tour on our first full day and our last full day (three days later) as we figured if we had a crazy good night the first night, we could always cancel if we wanted to save money. Conversely, we didn’t have to worry about low availability at the last minute when booking another tour- we had it booked well in advance. We ended up keeping that tour and adding a third because we enjoyed it so much, but having that flexibility was nice all the same.

That said, if you book two nights back to back, you likely won’t get any opportunity to cancel with a refund if the first night is spectacular (or if you’re just too tired to go out again). If you book a tour only on your last night and you miss the aurora, you won’t have a chance to try again, too!

So if you are booking an extra tour more for an insurance policy over anything else, you may want to be a bit strategic on when you book all the same based on your company’s listed cancelation policies and overall trip itinerary. Get the first one in as early as you can, and stay flexible on the rest to be open for another tour if needed.

• One final note on the weather. With climate change, Tromso has been experiencing warmer and warmer winters each year. It rained the week before we were there and the week after. We got lucky and had over a foot of snow in the five days we were there. Much like poor weather for aurora tours, rain may impact winter activities like snowshoeing and dogsledding, too, which helps bring us to our final point.

You May Need More Days Than You Think

If you are reading this and are starting to think that your time in Tromso will be jam-packed, especially if you want to do a ton of day and night tours, you really should trust your instincts here.

With five days, we honestly had a great time, but we almost wish we had a night or two more- not so much to pack in additional experiences, but rather to have more time to relax and enjoy Tromso proper! We were busy from morning to well after midnight most days, and we had very little time to have what you would call a relaxing trip.

Some may like this. Others may see this and think you need more downtime between experiences. Did we enjoy the view from our room as much as we would’ve wanted? No, we were always out on an experience. Did we eat at all the restaurants in town we were looking at? No, because the aurora tours left before our normal dinner time and many places weren’t open for lunch. Did we get to ride the cable car up the mountain or explore further regions in Tromso city? No, particularly because the weather wasn’t great at the times we did have free. Did we sleep? Basically no there, too!

As such, adding on a bit more time wouldn’t hurt if you can afford it, especially if you are like us and may want to do more than one aurora tour!

The real risk in Tromso is overcrowding your itinerary, particularly when aurora tours are concerned, because the amount of time that you’ll be out on day or night trips is significant. Would we book a husky tour at 8 am after an aurora tour again? Absolutely not. Would we go out on another aurora tour the same night after a snowshoeing tour like we did? Well, maybe if that was what was needed, but also in a perfect world, preferably not.

But tours can be changed much easier than hotel stays, so planning for more nights is something you should decide with these concerns in mind, too!

Our Itinerary vs an Ideal Itinerary

Before ending this one, we thought we’d share a list view of our itinerary of activities in Tromso vs what our ideal schedule would’ve been like had we stayed a bit longer.

Actual itinerary

• Day 1: Arrive mid-day, see town.
• Day 2: Museums during the day, aurora tour at 5 pm
• Day 3: Relaxing morning in town, last-minute add-on aurora tour at 6 pm
• Day 4: Husky tour at 8 am, relaxing evening in town
• Day 5: Snow shoe tour at 10 am, aurora tour at 5:30 pm 
• Day 6: Mid-morning flight

As you can imagine, going on a husky tour after a late aurora chase meant we had very little sleep that night. Likewise, doing another aurora tour immediately after snowshoeing meant we had about an hour to clean up, charge batteries, and get ready to go out again on our last day. It was just too much in the end!

Of course, we’ll also be the first to admit we didn’t need to go out and see the aurora three times. Many visitors are fine with one, but we wanted to try and get the best experience possible. Although, funnily enough, our last night ended up being the most intense night of the three!

But how would we have changed this with just one more day? We could have done something like the following:

Ideal itinerary

• Day 1: Arrive mid-day, see town.
• Day 2: Museums during the day, aurora tour at 5 pm
• Day 3: Relaxing day in town, ride the cable car in the afternoon if weather allows
• Day 4: Husky tour at 8 am, evening in town or optional aurora tour as needed
• Day 5: Snow shoe tour at 10 am, enjoy Tromso in evening
• Day 6: Relaxing day in town and/or explore greater Tromso area, optional aurora tour as needed
• Day 7: Early afternoon flight if possible

As you can see, if we had the capacity to stay in Tromso just one more day, we could’ve spaced our tours out a fair bit more. We still would run the risk of doubling up in the event of needing additional aurora tours (while keeping them all open to be canceled in the event of a good experience or changes in weather), but you can see how the itinerary would open up more and only run the risk of a busy day if needed- not by default. 

In the end, we really had no choice with the amount of time we had on this particular trip, and we managed well enough. But if you’re questioning your sanity of packing it all in versus booking more time to have extra leisure time (or sleep!), err on the side of caution here and stay longer. You will have no problem filling your time with activities if you want to be busy in Tromso. That, we can assure you.

Just keep tour times and late nights of aurora tours in mind, be mindful of cancelation policies, and plan a bit more downtime when you can get it!

How many days did you have in Tromso when visiting? Did you like it or wish you had more? Comment to share!

To book a hotel in Tromso, click here. To book an aurora van chase tour, click here.