Northern lights, Aurora Borealis, Aurora Polaris, …. A lot of names for the same beautiful natural phenomenon that is on many a bucket list. Is seeing the Northern Lights on your list too?
We got lucky last winter in Tromsø. But while part of it is ‘luck’, you can steer that luck a bit. Before we booked our trip to the North, we did lots of research. It would be a shame not to share the conclusion of all those hours of research 🙂
So here are our 7 tips for seeing the Northern Lights. We keep it simple and aren’t going to get too technical, there are already enough websites for that. We did go through all those technical sites and have listed our learnings for you.
Tip 1: Head north (duh)
The KP-index indicates how strong the Northern Lights are, but also how far they reach. So you are much more likely to see the lights if you are in a KP1 region, i.e. the far north. Thus, at KP7 or higher, you can see the Northern Lights even in Groningen. Check out the image from Aurora Service to better understand the KP-index.
OK, so you obviously need to head north. Tromsø is a city where the Aurora is visible at KP1 (low solar activity). You can stay in the town, or drive to the surrounding islands (Kvaløya, Sommarøy, Lofoten, ….).
Of course, there are plenty of other places where you can see the Lights, such as northern Sweden, Finland and Iceland, or maybe you’d like to go to the tip of Norway.
By the way, the KP-index can be predicted 3 hours in advance, this is not always accurate, but gives an indication. More on this later!
Tip 2: More activity in March or October?
According to some researchers, March and October are the months with the most solar activity. Whether this is true or not, at least make sure you go between September and March.
During the winter months, days are very short in the North. And since it has to be really dark to see the Lights, there’s more time and chance to see them in this season. Whereas in September there’s about 13 hours of daylight, in December the sun doesn’t rise at all (polar night).
Tip 3: It must be pitch black
As we mentioned in the previous tip, it needs to be really dark to see the Northern Lights. If you’re lucky enough to experience a solar storm, you might spot them even when it’s not pitch-black. But with lower activity, a truly dark sky is essential.
The full moon provides a lot of light, so if there is low activity you may not see them well. So choose a week around New Moon, when it is darker. You can find a lunar calendar here.
It is also useful to look for places without light pollution. We benefited a lot from this list of places in Tromsø without light pollution. This interactive map (Tromsø) can also help you find a nice spot.
If you go to the surrounding islands, you also will have little light pollution.
Tip 4: Have patience
Sometimes the light show lasts for hours, and sometimes it lasts only a few minutes. So be patient, keep watching, and, above all, don’t go to sleep at 11pm. According to some, the best time to see the Aurora Borealis is between 18:00 and 02:00.
And look north, that’s where you have the best chance.
We enjoyed going out every night. Dressed well warm and sitting in a dark spot in the snow with a thermos of tea (or booze ;-)), waiting. It gave some excitement: will we finally see it tonight?
Tip 5: Look for clear skies
If you are in the far North and it’s dark, you have a great chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Basically, the Northern Lights are there quite often, I read that in Lapland they are active at least 200 nights a year. But, with all the cloud cover, you obviously won’t see them.
Would my hours-long wait be rewarded?
A clear sky is then all you need. And that is also the only thing that really falls under the heading of ‘lucky’.
They say that when it’s cold, you enjoy clear skies faster. And if you are by the sea, the clouds would also change faster.
Is it cloudy and do you have a (rental) car? Then you can search for a place where it is not cloudy. A local weather app like Yr.no can help you with this.
You can also book a bus tour. The advantage of this is that tour operators have a whole network of local people in different places. Is the aurora visible somewhere? Then they will be signalled, and the bus will drive to that place. That way, you basically have the best chance of seeing it.
Don’t fancy a bus? There are also boat trips. You can find more about these ‘Aurora chasing tours’ in the last tip.
Tip 6: download an aurora app
You have several apps where you can see the predicted KP-index. They are not a complete truth, but it gives an indication.
In Tromsø, you could basically see the Aurora at the lowest activity: KP1. Search ‘Aurora’ and ‘Northern Lights’ on your iPhone or Android and just download all the apps so you can check them all. And turn on notifications if you’re in the North. You’ll often see a long forecast and a shorter one. Even if it’s not always accurate, it does give a pretty good indication.
The app also tells you how strong the predicted aurora is. The photos you will see in this blog were taken at fairly low activity. At high activity, a purple glow is also present and looks more like ‘explosions’ in the sky.
Tip 7: Book an Aurora Chasing Tour
Even if you follow all the tips in this article, if you really want to see the Northern Lights, it’s best to book one or more ‘aurora chasing tours’ during your stay ‘just to be sure’. We booked a tour early in our week when there was very low solar activity, but no clear skies: there was a snowstorm in Tromsø and the whole region.
The tour took us all the way to Finland, and there we saw it for the first time. It was not as impressive as the aurora we later ‘found’ ourselves, but at least we had seen it and were already so happy.
The more aurora tours you book, the more chances you have of seeing the Northern Lights, of course. Although the tours are not cheap, the guides will really do their best to find it.
Because of their large network, it is more likely they will drive to the right place. Even though a bus trip is less fun than seeing it next to your flat, your chances are just massively increased.
You can find the tour we did over here. You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance or change the date. We can really highly recommend them. We drove for hours in the storm and thought we really wouldn’t see the Northern Lights. But we went all the way to Finland and there the skies cleared up. They took us to two different places and took photos of the guests. And there was also lots of time to take photos ourselves. We also got hot chocolate.
The Northern Lights we found after 3 hours with the Auora Chasing Tour were not particularly spectacular, but at least we had seen it 😉
For us, a bus trip was ideal, but my sister opted for a boat trip. Based on her experience, we can also recommend this touroperator. She also saw the Northern Lights dancing for a long time on an overcast evening, near Tromsø.
How glad I was to have seen it AND photographed it. And the latter didn’t even turn out to be that easy. You might notice that these stars are less sharp than in my timelapse below. So it was perfect practice!
Our experience with the Northern Lights
With all our research from above, we selected our perfect dates, location and duration:
- In Tromsø
= north, but with plenty of other fun activities
= by the sea, so perhaps more likely for the clouds to move away - In March
= maybe more solar activity
= very cold, so more chance of clear skies
= enough daylight for fun activities - During New Moon
= darker - 7 days
= plenty of chances to see the Aurora
Every night we travelled around the island, looking for the lights, but with no luck. Every night there was solar activity, but it was just super cloudy, we were unlucky with the weather.
Luckily, we already booked an Aurora Chasing Tour on our second day in Tromsø, which showed us – hallelujah – the Northern Lights a few hours away. It gave us such an appetite for more.
Ta-daa!
And then our trip ended with a beautiful, sunny day with a clear blue sky. And there was low solar activity. We decided to just lie outside in the snow all evening and wait. We were no longer in the city, but in nearby Kvaløya, in this beautiful flat (with jacuzzi and sauna – hell yeah!).
And there it was. For over an hour, we enjoyed a beautiful Aurora show. It was so beautiful! As you can see at the end of the timelapse, clouds ended the show. They literally ate my aurora. I could have watched for a very long time 😅 But we were so happy.
Enjoy the show in our time-lapse! And by the way, this is LOW ACTIVITY, can you imagine an Aurora storm?
Bonus tip: Don’t just go for the Northern Lights
Northern Norway is beautiful and there is so much to see and do! Make sure you have a great holiday, even if you don’t see the Aurora. Keep looking and do aurora chasing tours, but also enjoy all the other activities. You can find our 8 must-do winter activities in Tromsø here.
Going to Tromsø? Maybe you’ll find the Northern Lights just by walking to your accommodation in town – it happens a lot. Or maybe you need a bit more effort (and patience), as we needed. Or maybe you won’t find them this time.
Either way, the North is amazing. Enjoy it!
Any questions? Let us know in the comments!
Be sure to check out our Tromsø page where we give you more tips on the city and its surroundings.
The North is full of fun activities you probably can’t do at home. So make sure you have a great holiday, even if you haven’t seen the Lights.
