Northern Lights help

[jpgreenwood]

The wife is keen to see the Northern Lights somewhere and to travel. We went to Iceland a couple of years back on a TUI break for 3 nights, with all the tours included. Unfortunately we didnt see any lights, but did enjoy the sightseeing tours.
Is there a budget friendly way of going north Norway/Finland , and seeing the NL, flying from Newcastle or Manchester? Only looking for a 3-4 night break on a budget around January February. Thanks all.

 

[pooley]

The best thing to do is go on skyscanner for flights then booking.com or Airbnb for the accommodation. It's difficult to recommend places without knowing an actual budget. you could probably get to Tromso and find basic accommodation for around £800-900 for the pair of you before spends. Does that count as budget?

Also consider Northern Iceland, Flights to Akureyi are cheap, and accommodation can be reasonable. We had a great time in Iceland staying in a cabin 20 mins from Reykjavik and would love to go back, but it's not cheap, and you have to drop lucky with the lights. We only got them one night in 3. Northern Iceland may be more affordable and give better views with less light pollution

 

[nandbytes]

Just saw this thread.... not sure if it's too late but I'll comment anyway

It was like one my few bucket list items and did a fair bit of research

My suggestion would be Tromso and going for 5+ nights

Iceland isn't actually in the arctic circle, it's just below it. So you do need a bit of solar activity and weather to workout.

In Tromso if the weather is good you are kinda 80-90% gaurenteed a showing.

We went for 6 nights, i had booked most nights. We caught it 3 out the 6 nights including on plane both on the way there and back.

Finland and Sweden are also good options, getting to Ivalo in Finland isn't cheap and Abisko in Sweden doesn't have flight access.

Ivalo/Finland is probably the best for weather plus being inside the arctic circle but it'll cost you a lot more to get these but the place itself is cheaper than Tromso.

Also during the daytime there's plenty do in and around Tromso.

p.s. after our trip to Tromso we've seen them in England like 3 times since in the last two years