Should You Take a Bus or Van Tromso Aurora Borealis Tour?

If you are heading up to Tromso, Norway, in the Arctic Circle to try and see the northern lights, we highly encourage you to take a tour that is designed to chase the aurora.

The word “chase” is key here because, while the aurora oval will likely be above you at night while in the Arctic Circle, a chase is often required because you also need clear skies to see the aurora at all!

Tromso, unfortunately, has a highly variable microclimate that often includes fast-moving clouds, frequent snow, wind, and yes, even rain at times in the winter months (sadly). So when we say you need to go on a Tromso aurora borealis tour to chase the northern lights, it is actually more appropriate to say that you’re going on a tour to chase clear skies.

To put it bluntly- you’re likely not going to get much clear sky staying in one spot, especially inside the city limits (which has very low odds of seeing the lights on any given night), and a chase tour is designed to get you to the clearest skies nearby in order to increase your odds of seeing the aurora borealis significantly.

Now, if you are on board with hitting the road to go see the northern lights, the next item you have to consider is simply this- will you book a bus tour or a van tour? While both of these have the same end game of getting you to a place with clear skies, there are pros and cons to each.

After trying both during our visit to Tromso for the northern lights, we thought we’d break down the differences in this one!

Why Go On an Aurora Chase Over Other Tours?

One of the biggest reasons why you should go on a chase-style tour, be it either bus or van in nature, is that you can cover a great distance in search of clear skies.

In the three tours we took during our stay in Tromso, we drove deep inland into Norway on the first night, all over the coast on the second, and even had a nearly three-hour journey one-way that took us across the Finnish border on our final night.

When we say you need to chase clear skies, we really, really mean it.

Other aurora tours you may see, like fjord boat tours, dogsledding tours, and hiking tours can be fun, of course, but you’re much more limited in the geographic area that can be covered versus traveling in a vehicle. A husky isn’t going to run 150 kilometers into Finland, and therein lies the problem- if it isn’t perfectly clear overhead in the small areas where these tours operate, you may not see the lights at all.

So now that we have established why van and bus aurora tours are important, let’s break down the differences and pros and cons of each.

• Safety Alert: We do not recommend renting a car to drive yourself to see the northern lights. First, and foremost, is that unless you are intimately familiar with driving on icy, Arctic roads at night, it just isn’t safe. But there is also so much more benefit you have with going with a guide, namely their experience in finding clear skies, talking to other guides when they spot an opening, and more. (If you’ve ever been on a safari, it feels very similar in set up here- just chasing clear skies over an animal!)

Bus Tours for the Aurora Borealis in Tromso

Bus northern lights tours in Tromso are just that- you board a large coach bus with 50 or so new friends and go out to seek the northern lights as a group.

These tours can travel the same distance as van tours (yes, you may go to Finland) and have some key pros and cons to keep in mind.

The biggest perks are that bus tours are some of the cheapest options out there- often upwards of 50% cheaper than corresponding van tours. Likewise, many buses have toilets on board, possibly even WiFi, and are a bit more comfortable than vans if we are being honest. (Note that you likely can’t use the toilet unless the bus is stopped.)

The downsides to bus tours are many, however. In being more affordable, many bus operators do not offer thermal suits or boots as a tour perk, they may not offer a meal (so you may have to eat early before your departure), and you have to deal with the logistics of dealing with up to 50 other people at any given time. Did our tour not leave for almost 20 minutes because too many people were using the on-board toilet despite the meeting time being just a few minutes earlier?

Yep, that happened.

Perhaps the biggest issue of all is that buses simply can’t go to all the places a van can. They are limited to major pull-off areas, rest areas, and viewpoints along the main roads, which inherently limits the number of places you can go to find clear skies. This compounds on itself on nights when clear skies are harder to come by, as you may end up with several buses cramming into a tiny area with 100+ people piling out to see the aurora.

That also happened to us.

Still, for those looking for a tour on a budget, you really can’t find much cheaper than a bus tour all things considered. 

Van Aurora Tours in Tromso

Van tours of the northern lights from Tromso often feel like the exact opposite of bus tours, even if the structure is more or less the same.

Yes, they are much more expensive, but this is really an example of how you get what you pay for. The extra money goes for a smaller group (often max 15), likely includes more thermal clothing (although not every tour includes this- check accordingly), possibly including a meal (our tours had some rather tasty dehydrated meal kits for camping), and, most importantly, vans can go down more minor roads to find clear skies.

During our van tours, we ended up in incredibly remote (and beautiful) spots that we had all to ourselves- well off the bus circuit. We got lucky to have epic aurora viewings on both tours (whereas our bus tour was just fine- a coincidence, we admit) and we got to enjoy serene areas all to ourselves. This assumes you get okay weather, of course, as we also had vans packed in with our bus tour on the night with poor conditions.

If pictures are important to you and your tour offers guide-selected photos, you may also get more chances for shots with a group of 15 vs 50. One guide for a dozen versus one or two for upwards of 50? The math just favors van tours all the same, and we got way more photos of us with the aurora in the background on our van tours than we would’ve on our bus tour.

Is this worth an extra $50-$100 per person, per tour? Well, that’s up for you to decide, and the biggest downside to these tours is simply that they are significantly more expensive.

Which is Better – Van vs Bus Tromso Aurora Borealis Tours?

We ended up going out on three tours to enjoy the aurora lights in Tromso- two van tours and one bus tour.

Originally, we had booked two van tours for a more intimate experience. After having a great aurora viewing on our first outing, we added on a cheaper bus tour to go out one more time and save a bit of money. Three van tours would’ve killed our budget!

The financial aspect is perhaps the most important here. If you have the money and can only go out once, splurge on a van tour for a slightly more curated experience. We can’t say that you’re ever guaranteed to see the aurora borealis doing this, but we would be pretty confident in saying that your odds go up simply from being able to chase clear skies in more areas.

If you have a bit more money but perhaps cannot justify two van tours, a bus tour could be a good consolation prize for a second trip out even with all the concessions that go with it. We are glad we did it like that (and in that order), but we are also glad we splurged on the van tour for our 3rd outing.

But if you are limited financially and your options are to take a bus tour or no tour at all, then the answer is clear- do the bus tour.

The only wrong answer here is not to go on an aurora chase tour in Tromso at all. While you may not get lucky, your odds increase significantly if you can get in a vehicle (preferably driven by someone else who knows how to navigate icy conditions at night), and you can really only do that with a chase tour. Nothing else comes close, and that’s all there is to it.

So, while we are fully committed to recommending an aurora van tour (particularly this aurora van chase– we did this one twice), we won’t argue with you no matter what you pick insofar as you keep some of the previously mentioned details in mind.

Finally, it is also worth noting that many tour companies offer cancelations up to 24 hours before the start of the tour. If you want to make sure you can see the lights and don’t want to spend money unless you absolutely have to, keep this in mind. We booked a tour on our first full day and our last day (three days apart), and that gave us some flexibility on changing things around.

Nothing would be worse than waiting until your last night to take an aurora borealis tour and then have a poor experience!

But as with all things weather and solar-related, nothing is guaranteed, and it is often the luck of the draw. You can only increase your odds by trying to be in the right place at the right time, and you get that best with chase tours.

To book an aurora bus chase tour (big group), click here. To book an aurora van chase tour (small group), click here. These are the tours we personally took in Tromso and can recommend with all the pros and cons discussed above.