Our Northern Lights Blog

Ah, how we love travel on Instagram! We look, get wanderlust and then next thing you know it’s added to your travel bucket list. With the Northern Lights and Arctic landscapes, however, it’s another ball game completely. 

Here's my five most Instagram-able Arctic destinations:

How often have you returned to work in the New Year regretfully thinking,

“Why on earth didn’t I do something useful over the holiday period?”

That period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, Betwixmas if you like, must be the most neglected of the year. It’s a dead zone during which you know you should be doing something useful but simply can’t be bothered.

Your first experience with the Northern Lights is something truly unforgettable. Where you were, who you were with, and how you felt at that exact moment stays with you for a lifetime.

Here’s our Aurora Zone Experts first experiences of seeing the glorious Northern Lights.

Tranquil Torassieppi in spring was everything it promised to be; a picturesque smattering of colourfully painted cabins scattered amongst a delightful woodland setting at the edge of a wide, deep-frozen lake. Here perched my "glamping" accommodation; an Aurora Dome, a kind of luxury man-made snow globe where I would be cocooned for the night.

Here at The Aurora Zone we’ve seen something of a change in recent weeks. Naturally, as holiday providers and Northern Lights enthusiasts, we spend a lot of time travelling to the likes of Finland, Sweden and Norway in search of dark skies illuminated by dancing celestial light.

(Taken 1st March 2017 in the Lyngen Alps by Francisco Damm)

Prior to travelling to the IceHotel, it was difficult to know what to expect, for not in my wildest imagination could I envisage a hotel made from blocks of Ice and decorated with magical sculptures. I had seen photographs of both the IceHotel and the IceHotel365 but once again nothing could prepare me for the reality of actually witnessing them for myself.

After arriving, I dressed into my warm overalls and left the bus behind. We met our guide in the reception area before she led us down snowy paths towards the hotel. As we entered into a courtyard I gazed upon the hotel for the first time and was instantly mesmerised. The structure before me was bathed in enchanting colours of white and blue and it was difficult for me to comprehend that it was rebuilt each year.

After arriving in the beautiful city of Honningsvåg, the northernmost city of Norway, I was in my element. Although chances of seeing the Aurora were slim, I was happy enough to admire the stunning view from my window of the harbour scattered with lights reflecting from the water and lined with fishing boats and nets ready for tomorrow’s work.

The drive to this enchanting (extremely small) city, along the Norwegian coastline, made for some spectacular views, with the sunset creating a pink tinge in the sky above the mountains, causing me to come to the conclusion that my trip wasn’t going to get much better than this.

If I had a pound for every time I have been asked this question I would be rich beyond the dreams of avarice. If I had an exact answer, I would be rich beyond the dreams of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet combined.

The problem with the Aurora is that it is a natural phenomenon and regardless of whether it is September, December or March, its appearance can rarely be predicted much more than a few hours in advance.

Have you noticed that there has been far less mentioned in the media recently about Auroral displays over the UK and yet pictures of the Northern Lights taken further north continue to flood onto social media sites?

This is exactly what we said would happen in our blog back in November and given that we are dealing with something as unpredictable as Mother Nature, we are prepared to give ourselves a hearty pat on the back.

The light pollution created by more than 8 million people would render even the most vibrant of Auroral displays above the UK’s capital pretty much redundant but, for six weeks only, the Northern Lights will be visible in SW3.