A Bucket List Trip: An Arctic Adventure in Tromsø, Norway featuring Lyngsfjord Adventure
An experience of a lifetime: Lyngsfjord Adventure
Northern Lights Chase + Dog sledding + epic overnight stay at Camp Tamok + MORE
All About Lyngsfjord Adventure:
Lyngsfjord Adventure has something for everyone. Whether it’s a morning reindeer sledding, night time snowmobiling or ice fishing - they have it all. You can choose to do a morning or evening activity OR you can choose to stay overnight at Camp Tamok which includes both a evening excursion and a morning excursion. Everything was extremely organized and I would highly recommend adventuring with Lyngsjord Adventure. We booked an overnight adventure and chose a evening northern lights chase excursion and morning dog sledding drive adventure. Below is more information on exactly what my friend, Darby and I did with Lyngsfjord Adventure.
Northern Lights Chase:
WHAT TO EXPECT:
You will depart from Tromsø city center around 5pm and it takes around an hour and 15 minutes to get to Camp Tamok. Once you arrive you will be greeted and given the opportunity to change into snow gear. They provide everything from shoes to body suit to gloves and hats. Depending on the evening excursion you pick you might eat before or after the adventure. We ate before, giving the northern lights more time to show. After dinner your professional tour guide will take you to the best places to spot the Northern Lights. We unfortunately had bad weather but luckily, the northern lights still peaked through the clouds.
PICTURES:
Whether you are an experienced photographer or a beginner, the tour guide will help you set your camera to the correct settings. If you don’t have a tripod, they have tripods for you to borrow. If you don’t have a camera, do not worry the guide is a professional northern lights chaser AND professional northern lights photographer. He / She will take plenty of pictures for you. The two photos to the right are pictures our tour guide, Andreas, took and below are some photos I took on my Nikon Camera. Click the button below to check out Andreas’ northern lights Instagram.
Overnight Stay in the Wilderness Cabin:
What to expect:
To the right is a bird’s eye view of Camp Tamok (picture from Lyngsfjord Adventure). When booking an overnight stay, you have four accommodation options:
Aurora Chalet
Sámi Tent (called a Lavvu)
Wilderness Cabin
Char Cabin
We stayed in the Wilderness Cabin which was a perfect choice for two. When looking at the map #4 shows the Wilderness Cabin and #13 shows where the bathrooms / showers are. In my opinion, the bathrooms look really far away from the Wilderness Cabin on the map, however in reality, it really was only a 1-2 minute walk at most.
What to bring:
Just like any overnight excursion you’ll need all your toiletries. Other than that the pillows, linens and all meals are supplied.
Morning Adventure: Dog Sledding Drive
What to expect:
Breakfast is served in the Lavvu (same place you ate dinner the night before) at 8am and then you will start dog sledding around 9 / 9:30am. The dogs are SO friendly. They want to be loved on and they love their “work.” Alaskan Huskies actually thrive in negative degree weather and everyone at Lygnsfjord love on the dogs and treat them so well.
We were lucky to have SO much snow the night before our dog sledding drive, making the experience a true winter wonderland. A lot of snow the night before also meant we (as mushers) were going to have some work to do to help the dogs throughout the drive. This meant sometimes having to help push the sled up hills and then jumping back on. It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my LIFE!!!
Keep in mind, if you aren’t too sure about being a musher you could easily book the Dog Sledding Ride where you will sit on the sled and a guide will drive it.
The first two pictures to the right are from my go pro and the rest were taken on an iphone after we got back! After your morning excursion, you will have time for a hot toddy drink and relax time before lunch. After lunch you will get on the shuttle back into town. If you’re lucky you might even have time to play with the adorable husky puppies before you leave!
Other Things to do in Tromsø:
Magic Ice Bar Tromsø:
Enjoy a drink or two at the Magic Ice Bar Tromsø where everything is made of ice. Entry ticket costs around $23 USD and includes a welcome drink. This was my first time at an Ice Bar and it most definitely did not disappoint.
The Arctic Cathedral:
We walked from the city center of Tromsø across the bridge to the Cathedral which took around 20 - 25 minutes. We went on a Sunday so we were unable to go in as there was a church service happening at the time. If you want more information about visiting the cathedral and going inside check out the button below.
Tromsø lapland reindeer sledding:
Who:
Tromso Lapland Reindeer Sledding
What:
This is a half day excursion (10am - 3pm ish). You will have the opportunity to both go reindeer sledding AND feed the reindeer. You will also learn about the Sámi culture, hear a Sámi joik (traditional Sámi music) and try traditional Sámi food (I tried reindeer)! They also provide you with any or all gear to keep warm while on your adventure. Keep in mind that reindeer sledding is at a walking pace. If you are looking for more of a thrill you should go for dog sledding or you could be like us and do both!
Where:
Your journey to Tromsø Lapland will begin when they pick you up outside Radisson Blu Hotel. You will then drive 45 minutes.
When:
You will want to book ahead. Below is the exact excursion we went on but make sure to check out everything Tromsø Lapland has to offer as they have other awesome excursions.
Why:
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that you won’t want to miss. The people at Tromsø Lapland were extremely friendly and the trip was not only informative but a lot of fun too!
5 Day itinerary broken down:
Friday:
Fly from Dublin to Tromsø (Layover in Oslo - MY ALL TIME FAVORITE AIRPORT) - We Flew SAS Airlines for the first time and loved them!
$24 USD taxi to our airbnb ($12 USD per person) - in my opinion the quickest and easiest way to get into the city.
Check into our airbnb - our host was extremely kind and made check in super easy. Thanks Jan!
Walk to the city center for dinner and time to explore (about a 10 min walk).
Dinner at Graffi Grill - SO delicious! We had burgers, sweet potato fries and a strawberry daiquiri
Saturday:
Day trip to Tromsø Lapland to go reindeer sledding. We also got to feed the reindeer and learn about the indigenous people of Norway, the Sami.
Pizza for dinner is always a good idea and so was eating at Yonas Pizzeria.
Check into our new accommodation, The Smart Hotel Tromsø (consider booking direct for free breakfast)!
Sunday:
Morning:
Enjoy an included breakfast at the hotel when you book directly with Smart Hotel Tromsø instead of a third party website
5 minute walk or less down to the city center to walk around and enjoy the winter wonderland
Walk 25 minutes from the city center over the Tromsø Bridge to visit the Arctic Cathedral. Click here for the seasonal opening hours.
Evening:
Meet at the Tromsø Scandic Ishavshotel at 4:45pm to get on your bus transfer with Lyngsfjord Adventure to Camp Tamok. The ride will take about an hour and 15 minutes.
Once you make it to Camp Tamok, depending on the evening tour you booked your schedule might differ a bit. We booked the northern lights chase. We were first greeted by our tour guide and given the plan for the evening. We began by eating dinner in the Dining Lavvu (tent). After dinner, we were given all the snow gear we needed for the northern lights chase. This included, waterproof bodysuit,
Monday:
You will make it back to Tromsø from your adventure with Lyngsjord around 4pm. We then did some shopping, enjoyed some food (dinner at Peppe’s Pizza ) and walked back to the Smart Hotel Tromsø to check in again.
Tuesday:
Fly from Tromsø to Dublin (Layover in Oslo again) - We flew Norwegian Airlines for the first time and enjoyed them as well. However, SAS provides a free beverage and snack during the flight where as Norwegian does not.
Other things to note:
You’ll want to make sure you have at least one northern lights excursion booked early in your stay with another one in mind that you might want to book IF you don’t see the northern lights on your first night out.
Keep in mind, if you are traveling to Tromsø during the winter, you won’t need many outfits. I wore the same sweats and jacket the whole time. I only switched up my hair and beanie to make the outfit feel completely new!I would highly recommend having warm boots / snow boots but if you don’t most of the excursions you go on will provide full snow gear.
Where To Stay:
we absolutely LOVED where we stayed. Staying at three very different places we were able to see different parts of the city and experience new things at each.
an airbnb with a kind host and magical rooftop view
2. an EPIC wilderness excursion with Lyngsfjord Adventure
3. A Cozy clean stay at a Hotel in the city center
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Thanks to Lyngsfjord Adventure for hosting us. As always, all opinions are my own and are based on my personal experience.