- aurora borealis
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The bright blue skies and startling snow and icy landscape during the day and a night sky lit by the incredible dancing Northern Lights takes your breath away. Four days of coming 'home' to the Retreat after a days husky driving, snowmobiling, cross country skiing or sledging was perfect - warm, cosy and intimate; lovely home cooked (mainly vegetarian) food; plenty of hot water and roaring log fires. Welcoming hosts, Mikael and Maya will arrange all the above and for those wanting something less adventurous there is, among other things, yoga, massage, cooking and felt making; and around Christmas time trips to visit Santa! With temperatures averaging -30 it is a real bonus that all the necessary Outerwear and boots are provided. We watched the Northern Lights 100yds from the guesthouse standing on the frozen Torne River with the snow laden forest stretching from the far bank towards Finland in the distance. A gem of a guesthouse in a remarkable setting.
www.auroraretreat.se
Box 19690062, Junosuando, Sweden
Nearest station/airport is Kiruna - pick up can be arranged also from Gallivare station, about 90 minutes.
Google map: bit.ly/ugdlUV
My favourite winter wonderland in the Arctic Circle is a stay at Kakslauttanen Holiday Village deep in the Finnish countryside. Staying in a traditional log cabin it has a romantic open fire place, private sauna room and outside hot tub. You can also chose to spend a night or two in a heated glass igloo where you can see the Northern Lights from the bed when looking up through the glass on a clear night.
It's a perfect winter location for a Siberian husky sledding experience, snow mobile excursion close to see views across to the forests of the Russian border where you stop for soup around a camp fire, ice fishing with the local Sami people in their traditional costumes or a Reindeer safari in a snow-cloaked forest, all efficiently arranged through Discover the World.
The snow laden pine trees is a perfect location for Christmas, a great romantic break or adventure with your family.
I first visited Arvidsjaur when I was a young teen. My auntie and I went just after Christmas for our annual holiday together. On our first night we witness the Aurora Borealis from just outside our spa hotel - Laponia. Over the course of three days, we went husky sledging, travelled across frozen lakes on skidoos and ate fantastic local food. For those of you not interested in the Christmas side of things and just want a snowy holiday away somewhere peaceful and beautiful, Arvidsjaur is the perfect destination.
www.hotell-laponia.se/
Laponia Hotel, Storgatan 45, 933 33 Arvidsjaur
+46 960 555 00
Google map: bit.ly/vmaAGn
This is an amazing trip - and unlike some of the others I've done - you actually get an astronomer to guide you, so you know what to look for and when! I did it last year and was so impressed I've already booked for this year too.
So many visitors to northern Sweden go straight to the Ice Hotel in Kiruna - point proved by the fact that Abisko is not even in this websites drop down menu!! [Noone has tipped about it yet - ed] I recommend keep going north on the train to Abisko, about an hour further into the Arctic Circle. There is a fantastic, huge, youth hostel in the middle of the Abisko National Park, more like a hotel. If you are visiting between October and May you can sign up to spend a night in the cafe on top of the Kungsleden mountain. It sounds bonkers (its not posh, you literally sleep on the floor of a cafe in sleeping bags) but you get to spend the whole night watching for the Northern Lights followed by the sun rising over the Lapporten, the famous Lapp Gateway. This mountain view is seeped in Sami traditions, legends and stories. I also recommend following your evening on the mountain up with a trip on a skidoo across the bright blue frozen lake with a local guide. NB: make sure you book the Abisko Mountain STATION (the youth hostel) not the Abikso Mountain Lodge (the posh hotel)
We did this for our honeymoon and even though we spent the whole trip in separate beds (or sleeping bags!) it was truly amazing. The closest thing to magic I have witnessed.
www.abisko.nu/vinter/englishpages/index.asp
Norrbottens Län, Sweden
+46 920 960 00
Google map: bit.ly/oVQcpc
Between mid-May and the end of July, you can take the cable car to the top of the mountain for stunning views all over Tromso and the midnight sun. There is even a cafe up there!
www.fjellheisen.no/
Fjellheisen, Solliveien 12, N-9020 Tromsdalen
+47 776 38737
Google map: bit.ly/rm0FEA
I still remember the first time I saw snow – I was 29 years-old and I’d been living in the UK for just over half a year. I’d met some people through the kids’ school and I was having a coffee at someone’s house one Saturday when the big, wet flakes came fluttering out of the sky like some old-fashioned washing powder. I ran outside, embarrassed by my own colonial excitement. Of course, I’ve seen plenty of snow in the 11 or so years since then – I’m a little snow-jaded.
Swedish Lapland. The Arctic Circle. I’m ridiculously pleased to be here. The air is dry as it's -35 deg outside. The snow sparkles like a million diamonds strewn beneath my big warm snowboots. I look at a flake on my arm, except it’s not a flake, it’s a proper crystal, like in the fairy stories, like something covered with silver paint you’d buy to scatter on your Christmas table or tuck into envelopes to fall all over someone’s floor as they take out their Christmas cards. Seriously, my heart squeezes at the perfectness of it.
We’re on snowmobiles, there are only three of us and it’s night time. It’s a little scary driving over these frozen lakes and rivers – Bjorn warns us not to stray from his path as there are places where the ice is thinner. He tells us to go quickly over one section and not stop as there is water on the track – water that’s so cold you’d die if you fell into it. The wind chill has got to be taking this down to way under -40deg. Thank goodness for all the snow gear I’m wearing. The snowmobile has heated hand grips, so my hands are ok in the mittens, but my feet are very uncomfortably numb. I’m starting to not enjoy the ride when we arrive at a tipi. We go in and Bjorn makes a fire which warms the place up a lot. I’m jumping about to make my feet warm, but its not working. He gives me a headtorch and tells me to go outside and run up and down the track.
This is the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I’m claustrophobically puffing through a balaclava as I run three meters one way and three meters the other – always with one eye on the tipi in case it suddenly disappears into the trees. I go in when I’m sweating, rip off the balaclava and the jacket and breathe deeply. He makes us reindeer in a creamy sauce and boils a copper kettle on the fire for tea. The milk is frozen in its container so we have to warm it by the fire. He tells me there are brown bears in the woods, but they’re hibernating right now. We talk politics and economics and books. He’s so tall, must be nearly seven foot, I find out later he’s 65.
We move on, through a few more trees and then onto a plain which is actually a huge frozen lake. It’s snowing lightly, the snow flicking, sparkling in the snowmobile headlights. Then the sky begins to glow white in the north, and then the white becomes green and the green grows and undulates in the sky. The aurora borealis. The cameras are all frozen, so we can’t take a picture, but it’s ok. Apparently, the aurora have only been seen four times this winter, so we were so lucky.
www.weekendalacarte.co.uk/
Google map: bit.ly/hBoMeb
My choice for this would be somewhere in northern Finland, somewhere like Utsjoki or even better Ivalo.
In northern Finland, which has very low levels of air pollution, the Lights ( in Finnish "revontulet", which means "fox's fires") are visible up to 200 times a year.
I have seen them as far south as Kirkkonummi, 30 km west of Helsinki, but only very rarely.
Although I'm a bit biased (I'm a Finn), I would still suggest people to go watch the northern lights in north Finland, Lapland.
I've spent most of my life living in Oulu, and even though Oulu is not all the way up north, we are treated every year with a magnificent display of Northern Lights. The more up north you go, the chances of seeing increase. Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland so check for flights to there.
Since the lights occur during the night, there are hotels in Lapland which will offer wakeup calls for people wanting to see them.
We went to Kiruna in northern Sweden in late January. Kiruna is an interesting little mining town and was under about 10 foot of snow which made for a wonderful wintry experience. Actually seeing the Northern Lights is somewhat of hit and miss process. Don't believe the places that 'guarantee' you will see them - as they are as dependent on the rest of the weather and there actually being sufficient solar activity that night to see the Lights. You have to get a little out of Kiruna (just get a taxi to the other side of the ski slope hill at night) to see the Lights, as Kiruna has a surprising amount of light pollution.
I saw the Northern Lights in Svalbard. It’s a wonderful place where you can see many of them. The landscape there is stunning and being over 78°N, you live the experience of the polar night which is perpetual darkness - where else to watch Northern Lights?
The Northern Lights are pretty fickle, you might take a trip and see nothing.
What you may be able do very inexpensively is see the film "Pictures of Light"
by the Swiss-Canadian film maker Peter Mettler. He travelled to northern Manitoba in winter and used then newly-developed technology to film the aurora borealis.
I can strongly recommend the Hotel Hetan Majatalo. It is one of the original tourist guest houses in Lapland where you will still find a warm welcome (in English as well as Finnish!) and delicious traditional home cooking.
Go to Iceland. Iceland is currently having a few economic problems so perhaps you can get cheaper hotels and food than in Tromso. Reykjavik is more lively than Tromso but the city skies are not quite as dark due to more street lighting. I only saw a poor display of aurora here but enjoyed the atmosphere of the city more.
I would recommend Tromso in north Norway. Book a tour with local guide Kjetil Skogli. He's not the cheapest but is worth every penny. He takes you out in a small group (6/8 maximum) in a minibus anywhere where the weather will be clear – other companies have a fixed base somewhere near Tromso, so if it's cloudy there but clear 30 miles away then tough!
One hint to photograph the aurora: take a tripod, a fast wide lens and a camera that will let you use long exposures (10 to 30 seconds) with a remote cable to avoid camera shake.
Kemi Ice Castle in northern Finland is a structure to behold! Once inside, action is divided into different areas of adventure and history. For example, an ecumenical prayer area called the ice sanctuary with pews covered in reindeer fur and religious crosses carved on the walls.
A 10 minute walk from the centre of town, the Ice Castle is right next to the water's edge. Tuck-up before you go, remember you'll be surrounded by walls of ice!
Just an hour and a half's drive from Kiruna is the Abisko Mountain Station considered as the best place on earth to view the Northern Lights.
With its fresh clean air and its practically cloud-free skies the conditions for seeing the lights are optimal. Aurora occurs, more or less, every night but to detect it the skies have to be dark. The period from September to March is best time of year.
Tiny village in the north of Skye, has an excellent youth hostel, but the best thing is to take the road over the hills to the east coast from there to see the Quiraing, spectacular almost lunar scenery and extraordinary views.
Northern peninsula of Skye.
The world-famous Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi is just outside Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town, which itself is worth a visit. The world’s largest underground iron ore mine, a magnificent view of the mountains, plenty of fresh air – it’s nearly always windy – and a population who are completely obsessed with being outdoors. The further north you go, the more chance you have to see the midnight sun in summer and northern lights in winter.
Sailing a yacht round the coast of Svalbard (Spitsbergen), just 500 miles from the north pole.
An absolutely amazing experience – it feels like being part of the Arctic summer - exhilarating and relaxing at the same time.
You’ll see the midnight sun, polar bears, walrus, whales and thousands of birds. There’s time to explore on land too – you can walk on glaciers, climb hills and just soak up the atmosphere .
You don't need to be super fit or to have sailing experience, the friendly skipper (who has sailed through the northwest passage and is great company) teaches you as you go along.
Tel: 029 20 704 987; www.thepolarpeople.co.uk; email: holidays@thepolarpeople.co.uk
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