How we spent five days in Tromsø, Norway

We’d been talking about going to Tromsø, in Northern Norway, for a while. And while I was interested in going, the chances of me being the person to actively suggest a holiday in the cold rather than by the beach or in a city was unlikely. So to resolve the issue, my flights were booked as a Christmas present and I was officially going to the Arctic Circle.

Why go to Tromsø?

Tromsø is the third largest city in the Arctic Circle and the northernmost student city in the world. It’s known to be one of the best places to see the Northern Lights, and experiences Polar winters with zero hours of daylight in December, and 24 hours of daylight in June.

Tromsø makes a great base if you’re looking to explore the Arctic, as the city has all the amenities you need and is only a short drive from some amazing sights including fjords, traditional fishing villages, and the Arctic wilderness.

How to get to Tromsø

From London the best way to get to Tromsø is from Luton Airport. Direct flights from Luton run twice a week: once on a Wednesday and once on a Sunday. They take around 3.5 hours. You can also fly via Oslo from a wider range of UK airports if you’re not near London.

With the Wednesday flight being at 6.45am, we chose to stay in a Luton Airport hotel on Tuesday night. It added to the expense (about £100 for the night with breakfast included) but was far more convenient than having to get up at 2am (or not sleep at all!) to get there in the morning.

We caught the train from Blackfriars (which also calls at Farringdon and St Pancras) to Luton Airport. It took 40 minutes to Luton Airport Parkway, which is a 30 minute walk to the airport itself and a shorter walk to the various airport hotels along the way. Alternatively, you can pay £6.50 in a taxi.

Flying to Tromsø

Tromsø airport is on the edge of a fjord and has a short runway. So when the weather is bad, landing there is difficult. It’s not unusual for aircraft to make more than one landing attempt here. And it’s also not that unusual for slights to be rerouted to the much larger Oslo airport and await safer conditions in Tromsø.

So thanks to snow and 100 mph winds leading to two failed (and very turbulent) landing attempts at Tromsø, we were rerouted to Oslo for an unexpected night in the Norwegian capital. Wizz Airlines arranged a hotel for passengers and a rescheduled flight to Tromsø the following morning.

For us, this didn’t work out too badly. We had no plans except to collect our car and drive to our hotel on the day we were scheduled to land. On our second day we were going to explore and hike. And the final two days were when we had activities booked. So we just had an unexpected day exploring a new city. However others on our flight were more adversely affected by missing their plans and reducing already very short holidays.

So, if you’re going to Tromsø during winter when the weather is likely to be worse, you might consider leaving a day or so with lighter plans just in case your journey doesn’t go to plan!

Read more about our 12 hours in Oslo here.

Where to stay in Tromsø

We were due to spend our first two nights at Sommarøy Arctic Hotel. But due to our flight diversion to Oslo this ended up being only one night. However, this was still enough time to explore the small village and the hotel.

Sommarøy Arctic Hotel is about an hour’s drive out of Tromsø (depending on road conditions) in a stunning fishing village. It has a block of apartments and individual huts, a bar, restaurant and wine lounge, and three options for saunas and sea pools on site.

In Tromsø city, we stayed in Skir Bolig – a complex of flats next to the sea that was only a year old at the time of our stay (February 2023). Our flat was beautiful and modern with a heated balcony overlooking the water. And our host Eurico was very helpful and friendly.

The accommodation we chose was a 15-20 minute walk into the town centre. But we opted for this with the benefit of a sea view and a nicer flat… Not that we spent much time there in the end.

There is plenty of town centre accommodation available at different price ranges - but this is Norway so nothing is ever cheap. Our second choice, which was close to the harbour and more central, was £100 more per night.

For the best choices and prices, book well in advance and shop around between Booking.com, Airbnb, etc. And bear in mind that, with so much to see and do in the area, you probably won’t be spending much time in your accommodation anyway.

Do you need to hire a car in Tromsø?

If you are staying in the town for the duration of your trip you don’t need to hire a car in Tromsø. However if you plan to venture out, it can be useful. We spent the first half of our time in Norway in the village of Sommarøy. So it was useful to have a car as we could drive ourselves to our hotel, to activities, and on to our second Airbnb.

We rented our car from Alamo at Tromsø Airport which cost around £300. And to add a second driver was only 50 NOK (about £4) per day.

Is Tromsø expensive?

In a word: yes. Tromsø is expensive. Some things, like dinner, we were used to spending a lot on thanks to living in London. Other things, like alcohol and activities, were just plain expensive. At one bar we paid the equivalent of £10 each for 500ml ciders.

For an example, this is an approximate breakdown of our costs over four days in Norway:

Sommarøy Arctic Hotel - £205
Tromsø Airbnb - £150 per night
Car hire - £300
Dog sledding - £150 each (1850 NOK)
Fjord cruise - £105 (1290 NOK)
Cable car - £28 (345 NOK)
Food, drink, and other expenses - £300 (+3500 NOK)

You could spend much less than this – we love to eat and drink in nice places which did put our total costs up. But you could also spend much more. Especially on activities, which are rarely less than £50 in Tromsø.

Things to do in Tromsø

There’s so much to see and do in Tromsø. But these were our favourite activities:

Go hiking
Visit the saunas
Experience a fjord cruise (learn more about them here.)
Try dog sledding (find out about our experience here.)
Take the cable car
Check out the Arctic Cathedral
Explore the town and villages

This is just what we did and is not an exhaustive list of all the activities available. Read more about the best things to do in Tromsø here.

When is the best time to see the northern lights in Norway?

We were in Tromsø at the start of February, which is meant to be one of the best times to see the Northern Lights. However, due to cloud cover and snow our chances of seeing it were unlikely.

Locals will tell you not to bother with the tracking apps – which were telling us that the geomagnetic activity was low anyway – and just look for yourself. However if we had gone on an aurora borealis chasing tour we might have seen them.

Generally, the end of September to the middle of March is considered the best time to see aurora borealis in Norway and the Arctic Circle.

Where to eat and drink in Tromsø

With only two days in Tromsø town, we knew we weren’t going to be able to try as many restaurants as we would have liked. So we chose our lunch and dinner spots based on highly-rated options, and availability.

The restaurants in Tromsø often book up or are too busy to guarantee a table on the door. So if you can, try to book ahead.

Our favourite spots in Tromsø were:

Mathallen
Full Steam
Risø
Ølhallen

Want to know more about where we ate and drank in Tromsø? Read our blog here.

What to pack for a holiday to Tromsø

What you pack for your trip to Tromsø will depend entirely on the time of year you’re visiting. In summer, temperatures can reach 20ºC. But during our holiday in February it dropped as low as –5ºC and was rarely higher than 2ºc.

This is what I packed for five days in Tromsø in February:

4 thermal tops
2 wool jumpers
1 thin thermal coat
1 padded coat with hood
1 pair of walking boots
1 pair of leather trainers
6 pairs of thermal socks
2 sports bras
2 pairs of gloves
1 bikini

For my full packing list, read my blog: What to pack for a holiday in Tromsø.