Tromsø Norway

10 min readNov 12, 2018

The whole idea of writing my thoughts/ feelings/ ideas for the world to see is a totally terrifying thing to me so instead of making it about anyone else and hoping someone else approves, the posts are about myself. My only hope is that I learn something from it and find the process to be a positive experience. Hopefully someone else can gain something from my experiences as well.

I’ve traveled quite a bit in the last 2 years specifically out of the US so I decided to invest in some travel companions to make my life a little bit easier. I cannot day enough good things about my AMEX Platinum card as they’ve made me feel like royalty when traveling. For myself, the annual feel has paid for itself with the perks over the last year. Priority pass membership, global entry application fees waved (TSA pre included), Uber perks, airline credits. It makes all the difference when you’re hanging out in an airport for 6.5 hours on your way to Tromsø. The free wine, food, and WiFi in the clubs are really what draws me but make sure you check to see if the lounge takes reservations. The No. 1 lounge at Gatwick was unfortunately booked up so I had to find an alternate place to hangout. Even so most major airports have multiple options, just download their app. I wish I was cool enough to get paid for positing stuff like that because it’s really just is true.

I am always looking out the window during take off and landing. A lot of times you can catch a pretty amazing view. I caught a glimpse of an extremely interesting pattern over the London countryside.

Landing in Tromsø was a super Erie experience. There was a ton of could cover and not a lot of light below so most of what I saw was the flashing flights of the plane against the clouds. Pairing the remote location with the limited sunlight this time of year, it all made sense. I also couldn’t tell if the black below me was land or ocean. — turns out it was a mix between mountains, ocean, and flat land that I was able to spot on my way out two days later.

As a side note most of my photos are taken with my Canon 5D iv when I travel, but sometimes it’s easier to grab my phone than my camera. For a point of reference, usually photos taken out of an airplane and most of the time food pictures will be with my phone and the rest of my camera. For this trip I rented the Tamron SP 15–30mm f/2.8 and the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 and I always carry my Cannon 50mm f/1.4. — More details in my Preparing for Europe 2018 post.

Arriving on Friday to probably one of the smallest airports in the world, we made a decision to catch the city bus into town. Our stop was the first one after the airport so It almost made the decision for us between cost and travel time. — The city is not that large either. Our Airbnb host Stein was truly incredible and welcoming . When we arrived he showed us the entire apartment, gave us food suggestions and walked us through the map of the island. — again noting that it would only take about 20 min drive end to end. Even though most of our trip was predetermined by excursions we booked before landing in Norway we had Friday night on our own to grab a bite to eat. After discovering that a lot of places required a reservation, Skirri in town was able to seat us. I always make an effort to try the local foods when visiting a new country so Norway was not exception. The appetizer included reindeer and whale while my main course, an incredible fish soup as Stein suggested we try at least once in Norway. (Made with local Cod)

We had somewhat of a disappointment before arriving in Norway when I received an email from the tour company Villmarkssenter Notifying us that there would not be enough snow for us to enjoy our previously booked dog sledding experience. The email came with options for us to pivot our experience to a related activity. We booked the husky hike where they put you in charge of handling your guide dog. These dogs are built and trained to pull a sled and they will do as such. The leash gets attached to your hips as you many times will use your body weight to pull them back and frnakly getting pulled by your arm would get old after a while. The trip includes a break with a warm drink in between and a hot lunch after. If hiking is not your thing, the company offers a ton of different experiences with their 300 huskies and you really cannot go wrong the staff is amazing and the experience are unique to this part of the world. The dog they have are so happy to meet you and really want to say hello but definitely take the gear they give you as the dogs will jump up with pretty muddy paws. The handlers also encourage you to “cuddle” (their words not mine) as many huskies as you can when they take you to the husky villa so that experience is really up to you. At the time we visited they had a few puppies for us to play with from 3 different litters ranging in ages from 3 weeks to 5 months. The meal to finish out the excursion was a reindeer stew (they did have a vegetarian option) served in a hut with a fire place that looked to seat around 50 people even though our group was only 10.

The whole husky hike trip took about 4 hours including the 30 min ride it took us to get to the complex and the 30 min back.

The excursion was offered in two parts consisting of the husky hike and aurora chase with professional photographer. From my understanding they are actually operated by two different companies, booked together, but in between we had some time to explore the City of Tromsø and pop in a few shops. The city as a whole only takes about an hour to walk through if you take your time to pop in a few shops. We burnt our time exploring what the city had to offer and grabbing a small bite before making our way to the pick-up location for the northern lights chase. This particular group keeps an eye on conditions and does the research locating the best spot outside of the city to catch the lights. They explained that a three factors need to come together in order for the lights to appear, a clear night (lack of clouds), darkness (time of year), and the sun storm. The darkness is why most people believe that the northern lights is associated with the winter time when in reality they show throughout the year, but winter is the only time you can see them. The time of year we visited, November, offered the city only 4 hours of daylight meaning that the chances of seeing the lights was higher. Most of it is really luck and we really did luck out. We were told that they were the brightest that night that they have been all season and of the 3 days we were there, the day of our excursion had the least cloud cover. Luck of the draw. The lights showed for about 3 hours, which is rare, and bright as ever. My camera was set anywhere between a 4–15 second shutter (which is low for the lights) f/1.8 and ISO ranging 800–1600.

The day felt like an absolute dream and the small disappointment of the dog sled cancelation was unnoticed as I laid in the grass for three hours staring at the lights. Don’t get me wrong it was still about 0 degrees celsius and I was bundled up like an umpaloompa but I can tell you I probably wouldn’t be laying in the grass if it was covered with snow. For reference we did travel about an hour twenty outside of the city to get away from the light pollution. The coordinates for the viewing location were Latitude — 70.0227 Longitude 19.5958 which is pretty much as far north as it gets.

Day two in Tromsø was also pretty reliant on conditions for the excursions. Two days before our flights to Norway we booked a “fishing to dinner” experience with Pukka that left the port at 9:00 and got back around 14:00. We shared the boat with a family from Australia so all-together there were 10 of us on the boat with crew Nick and Monica. We sailed on the catamaran for about an hour up north towards the Norwegian Sea, through the fjords passing islands on both our right and left. We had a few laughs on the boat when Nick went to the bathroom for two second which allowed for one of our boat guests to take over the boat sending us in a 360 turn — not the brightest idea by him and I’m not sure Nick and Monica were too happy about it. We, intentionally now, circled around a few spots at our fishing location in search of cod and on a lucky day, halibut that is fresh enough to eat sashimi style up to 14kg. We had a go at pulling up a few cod and ended the day with one success as I had a fish eat my line off twice — might have been halibut. Monica immediately took the one cod we did catch to prepare it for a different variation of fish soup as we tried our luck for a little bit more time in search of another catch. Nick sailed us back to the dock as we enjoyed our soup in the main cabin. For the Majority of the boat ride I sported a full snow suit to keep me warm and protected from the cold winds. I looked absolutely ridiculous bundled up again but was not complaining because it allowed me the opportunity to enjoy laying out on the front trampoline of the boat.

We arrived back to the city just after lunch time offering us an opportunity to rest a little bit before venturing up the city cable car. On a clear day, it offers an absolutely incredible view over the City of Tromsø which we were able to experience at night. The car leaves on the half hour meaning you don’t have to plan ahead to have the experience or you can hike up to the top if you are looking for a more active experience. At the top there is a cafe and I heard the waffles are pretty amazing but I cannot speak from personal experience. I snapped a few pictures at the time which truly demonstrated that the northern lights are always there, it’s just dependent on if the clouds will allow them to be noticed— notice the green hue.

We closed out our Tromsø experience at one of the nicer restaurants Skarvens Biffhus which is primarily a steak house but does have fish options. The restaurant is one of a few that the company owns with a bistro and a fish restaurant that offer different menus. We opted for the halibut and stockfish but it seems as though you cannot go wrong with any selection.

Norway has never been one of my top destinations to pick, in fact Tromsø was a suggestion of a friend of mine and I was itching for an adventure so the two paired well together. I will close this post out by saying that I will absolutely look to return not only to Norway but to Tromsø. I was on could9 for the entirety of my stay with not only the excursions but the natural landscape. The amount of times I was content lying outside in the cold and mentioned “I want to live right here” is uncountable; and for someone who hats the cold that’s truly remarkable. We met a few traveling friends along the way and shared experiences from around the world gaining from each others experiences. Every moment we had was unique from the next and especially unique from any experience I have had in my life so far. If the option to return presented itself, I may try to make it dog sledding or snowmobiling if weather permits this time around. Small tip and something else I learned along my way is that the whales have migrated approximately 4 hours away by boat. So if one of your aims when visiting Tromsø is to catch a glimpse of some whales in the ocean, you may be better off in another location.