A northernmost Valentines weekend
I've never been too crazy about Valentine's day. I mostly think it's a way to overly commercialise on romance, when actually significant dates for you as a couple (such as anniversaries) are the way more romantic ones. However. Even I can't argue that a Valentine's weekend spent under the Northern Lights in Tromsø is pretty up there on the romance scale. And while I may not have a particular love for Valentine's day, I definitely have a love for travel. That one is a match made in heaven. Oh and for Ash, of course.
I'd actually never even heard of Tromsø when I found flights there for only £60. But I've been very slow to make my way to the Nordics and knew I wanted to plan a trip to Norway some time soon, so the northernmost city there (and in the world) felt like a great shout. Because it's so far north, you don't get many daylight hours in Tromsø in the winter, so you'd be forgiven for wondering what time of day we arrived. We did actually arrive in the evening though, and headed straight to our apartment (gorgeous, centrally located, booked on booking.com here).
And we were greeted by the Northern Lights! It wasn't until I went to take a photo of the view from the balcony that I even noticed them. Weak at first, but then they started dancing beautifully. I was like an excited kid going back and forth to the balcony to keep checking on them (and then rushing inside once the cold got to me after approximately 30 seconds). It was about -15 degrees on our arrival and I think it's pretty hard to comprehend that temperature as someone who lives in a fairly temperate country. Let me tell you... it was cold!
We were obviously loaded up with all the gear and the layers and the snow boots to do battle in the cold so after getting all wrapped up, we headed out for some drinks and our first taste of Tromsø. Our apartment was about a 15 minute walk from the main area of town so it was perfect! Uber was an option if you really didn't want to walk for one reason or another, but they were mega expensive (like £20 for a 5-10 journey) so we didn't bother. Obviously they weren't really disproportionately expensive. Everything in the whole city (and country) was expensive! The most important British reference for cost is of course the cost of a pint and these were about £10 a pint. Although actually even more insultingly, their drinks are served in 500ml so you don't even get a full pint! However, despite being extortionate, they were excellent. I loved the nightlife here as the weather outside was obviously cold but all the pubs and bars are super cosy, and then the pints are ice cold. The perfect combination! We tried 3 different pubs on night 1; Ølhallen (a microbrewery), Bastard Bar, and Fun Pub (with karaoke and live music). Everywhere was so good and lively and I was surprised by what a late night culture they have in Tromsø - a lot of the places are open until 2 or 3am. And importantly, the McDonalds (the northernmost in the world) was open until 4am. So that's where we rounded off our first night!
If anything, our apartment was even more beautiful in the daylight! We'd actually timed our trip to Tromsø fairly perfectly without properly realising it. The city experiences "polar nights" for around 6 weeks from the end of November to the middle of January, where the sun doesn't fully rise at all - the sun stays below the horizon. So by mid Feb, the sun has returned and we got daylight from about 8:30am to 3:30pm. February is also a great time to see the Northern lights, and actually February 2026 specifically was going to be the best time to see the Northern Lights for the next 11 years, since they run on an 11 year solar cycle of magnetic activity and 2026 is what's called a 'solar maximum'. So from this year onwards, they'll be making their way down to 'solar minimum' for the next 5-6 years, and eventually back up to solar maximum by 2037 (ish). You can obviously still see the Northern Lights at any point in this cycle, but your chances are much higher at the maximum point than the minimum (duh). Something else that affects the visibility of the Northern Lights is the moon. A bright full moon can make it harder to see them. Valentines weekend in 2025 was a bright full moon. Valentines weekend in 2026? A completely dark new moon. And obviously from the glee in my voice rolling off the pages, you can tell that we not only had an incredible weekend, but an incredible time seeing the Northern Lights too (more on that later). Could we have planned this trip any better on paper if we tried? Probably not.
Something I probably could've planned a little better was my hangover. The ice cold beer had obviously gone down a little too nicely and I was suffering on Friday morning. But we had a very Norwegian hangover cure activity booked. When we first saw videos of The Pust arctic sauna, we couldn't believe people were really jumping into the ice cold Fjord water. Me and Ash are very much "say yes" people though so we knew we had to try it. When in Norway, and all that. It's around £27 each for a one hour slot; you can book a 2 hour slot but honestly I can't see how you'd need it. We arrived and got changed in separate gendered changing rooms, then reconvened in the sauna which was traditional, and therefore quiet. The Pust sauna has a newly opened 'sociable' sauna (presumably for noisy tourists who won't respect the peace and quiet), but we liked the look of the original one better (which was a rectangle shape that faced the water, rather than a round shape where you faced eachother). So we had to practice our inside voices!
Honestly nothing can prepare you for how cold this water is. I discovered that along with my inside whispering voice, I also needed to practice my breathing! It feels like your body is trying to go into shock and I actually felt quite panicky the first time I tried going in. I only got halfway on my first try! In fact, everyone did. It seems everyone needs a half attempt to get acquainted with the cold, then manages it on the second time once it's not quite as shocking. The worst part about getting in was actually walking to the steps in the first place. As you can see, there's lots of snow on the ground that you're walking through barefoot from the sauna. So your feet were numb and frozen before you've even started to descend into the icy water. Like anything though, practice makes perfect and we made it in a handful of times each! The most interesting part? My hangover was entirely gone by the time the hour slot was up. As if by magic!
It's crazy how changeable the weather in Tromsø is. You can see by the sauna photos that within our one hour timeslot it was snowing, overcast, then blue skies. Well, by the time we'd got changed and come back out, it was snowing again. We hadn't eaten yet so we decided to check out one of the restaurants in the harbour (which doubled up with getting us out of the snow). Restaurant Skirri had amazing views and even more amazing food! I hadn't really expected Norway to be a food-centric destination as most Nordic food is not really my bag. But we actually ate incredibly well! All the restaurants only had a select few dishes (normally 6-8) and used super fresh ingredients. The fish that went into this fish and chips was so fresh and flaky and high quality - 10/10. We also gave the reindeer stew a try and both loved it. Me and Ash always like to try the local dish when we're in a new country and reindeer was on almost all the menus in some shape or form.
We were back at the apartment to get ready because we had an exciting excursion booked for that night. Our Northern Lights tour! We booked this one through GetYourGuide and it was basically a 6 hour safari looking for clear skies and no cloud, to give us the best chance of sightings. I say it's an exciting excursion but actually most of the excursion is fairly mundane; you're just sitting on a bus for a lot of it! We originally kept the Saturday night free to try again in case we didn't see the lights on Friday, but the idea of sitting on a bus for 6 hours twice was not the most appealing. So we decided what will be, will be. The fact we'd already seen the lights on Thursday meant we went into this excursion even more relaxed, and figured we'd just hope for the best and enjoy the night no matter what. We got all bundled up in our layers and had a cute snowy walk to the meeting point. That last photo looks as pretty as a postcard!
When we stepped off the bus, there they were: the aurora borealis. What a view to be greeted by! Our tour guides were actually so good and so professional, as this was the third stop they took us to. But instead of letting us waste time at the other stops, they got off the bus, assessed the situation, judged that the sky wasn't as perfect as they wanted and made the call to go to the next stop. So we'd driven for about 2 hours in total by the time we got to this stop and I loved that we hadn't wasted any time, hope, or resilience to the cold in those other places. I've been on a northern lights tour in Iceland before and it was the opposite; they let us all get off the bus and wait in the cold for ages before deciding to drive somewhere else. This was so amazingly run and holding out for this third stop was such a good call from the tour guide!
The best part was the lights just kept getting better and better, stronger and stronger! The viewing spot itself was no beauty spot; we were just in a layby at the side of the road. Although that did result in a super arty photo I managed to get (the 4th pic) with the car headlights zooming by.
There was a little footpath nearby so we headed down that and had a campfire, where they served hot chocolate and let us cook hot dogs. God knows how sanitary or food-safe they were, but we made sure to really blacken them into charcoal before eating them! They were also a very welcome treat on a cold night and I think it was a nice touch to the tour. It's bits like that that would've helped to soften the blow had you not seen the lights (probably) and made it feel like more of an activity. We weren't aware we were getting that so we'd bought along a little picnic from 7 Eleven. Ash had only heard of 7 Eleven in the context of videos about snacks in Thailand so he thought it was a really cheap shop (which it is, in a cheap country). Imagine his surprise when 2 sandwiches, 2 waters, crisps and chocolate cost him nearly £35! I think the addition of the hot dogs on the night helped to soften that blow too.
Another great thing about the tour is that professional photos were included. They turned them around pretty quickly and they got some great ones, especially of the campfire with the night sky. I had considered the possibility of a hire car and going after the Northern Lights ourselves but I'm so glad we didn't do that in the end. Not only would we not know the best spots to look, but all the tour guides were heavily warning against hire cars. It seems that tourists from non-snowy countries are getting themselves wrapped around trees and stuck in ditches more and more often because of a lack of experience of driving in the snow. Plus being able to nap on the 2 hour drive back from our Northern Lights extravaganza was a win in my book!
On Valentine's day morning, we woke up to beautiful blue skies. So after exchanging cards and tucking into some incredible pastries for breakfast, we went on a very scenic walk to the pickup point of our activity for the day. Tromsø is actually pretty hilly and so with the heavy snow, it felt like a bit of an extreme sport but our boots did us very well and they were nice and grippy. Although Ash did fall over once during the trip and me and my usually clumsy self managed to stay upright the whole time (sorry babe, I couldn't resist dobbing you in).
After a short 20 minute drive, we were at our destination for the morning; a Sami camp with reindeer. I hadn't heard reference to Sami people before but they're the indigenous people who live in the Arctic, across the Nordics and parts of Russia. Although the reindeer feeding experience was the main reason for booking the tour, I was also super excited for the Sami culture part. Learning about, and experiencing, other cultures is the main reaosn I love travel and so I really enjoyed the talk from our tour guide, Nils. We were sat inside a traditional Lavvu and he told us about some of his customs, including their music, their food and the way they live. Lots of Sami people are integrated into regular local life with regular jobs, but him and his family are Nomads. They keep about 100 reindeers but they're not penned in at all; they return every year because they love it there. The guide likened it to a reindeer restaurant! Nils also passed around a number of family heirlooms including some clothing made of reindeer skins, a traditional lasso, and an eagle foot. Even though I'm mostly uncomfortable with any tours that centre on animals because they're often exploitative and it feels unethical, this one was lovely. I think conversations around sustainability, animal welfare and ethics shift massively when you're talking about indigenous people. The outlook is centred around harmony and zero waste. They raise all their reindeer from young and make sure they have a great life. Then once it's time to use them for meat and skins, they actually eat every single part of the animal, and the reindeer skin trousers Nils was wearing were made over 70 years ago by his Grandma. Sustainable queens at work.
Then it was time to feed the reindeers! They were such playful and gentle animals, they were just like big dogs really. The whole experience felt a bit overstimulating at first because you had to make sure you held the bucket up high so they wouldn't stick their face in (and potentially get stuck), it was blizzarding with snow when we first went out, and trying to juggle everything while also getting photos was a task in itself. But it was such a magical experience. The reindeers take the food from your hand with just their lips not their teeth, so they call hand-feeding a reindeer getting a "reindeers kiss".
Again, the tour we booked included professional photography in the price, and our guide managed to get some really majestic portraits of the reindeer! It was another fairly pricey experience (about £80 per person) that we found on GetYourGuide. But this is the kind of holiday where you just had to treat money like monopoly money and bite the bullet. Because where else in the world can you experience something like this?
Something we'd read about and decided it was a must-do was this teeny tiny bar - one of the smallest bars in the world in fact. It's been there for over 100 years and is famous for serving reindeer hot dogs, which we thought we'd try for lunch. However, the queue was astronomical every time we'd walked past it before and this time was no different. We'd read you can wait up to an hour and a half! I felt like Ash was more sold on the idea than I was but we decided to suck it up and get in the queue. Ash went off to use the public toilets and he came back saying he didn't use them because they were £10 a go! So still needing the toilet, he suggested we just give up on this place and find a nice restaurant for lunch instead, which I was all in favour of. The funny part? He'd got the conversion rate wrong in his head and not moved a decimal place. It would've been £1 for the toilet. But you know, all's well that ends well...
Since we'd had such a successful evening seeing the Northern Lights the night before, it meant that our Valentine's evening was free for a little date night. We started with some wine at the apartment (which we'd very frugally brought from home in our suitcase because we knew booze would be expensive in Norway) then headed out for drinks. It was a heavy blizzard by the time we went out so we were very glad to find some nice cosy spots! We started at a place called Wi-To which has been there for 100 years and had a very nice cocktail menu (although our one round there cost £30!!). Then we went on to a spot called Balthazar; very similar chic and cosy vibes. While it may look like I was extremely inappropriately dressed for a heavy blizzard, I was actually wearing thermal leggings, thermal top, fur lined tights, a jumper and fur lined boots... so I was perfectly toasty despite the snow. I also thought I'd go for a pop of red with it being Valentine's day and all that.
For dinner, we were back at the harbour at a lovely little wooden restaurant called Full Steam. When we first read 'whale steak' on the menu, we assumed it'd be like fish. But we googled it and saw that it looked exactly like beef steak. Seriously when else do you have the chance to try whale? So we both decided to order it and you know what, it was pretty good. Not as good as regular steak, but nice to try something different. We ended the night with drinks and some live music at the Rorbua pub, where the same guy from Thursday was playing.
The next morning, the settled snow was thicker and heavier than ever! Which means that we (meaning Ash) had fun and games pulling the suitcase into town to find somewhere to store it. Normally when staying in an apartment, I just drop our luggage at a nearby hotel but we actually had a nightmare with it, in that everyone else had the same need and so most hotels were saying no and the luggage locker storage place was all full up. Luckily me and Ash always just keep calm and carry on and we managed to find a little hotel off the beaten path that would store it for us (my charm comes in handy sometimes). If you're planning a trip to Tromsø, this is maybe something worth planning ahead for on travel home day! Finally free of our bags, we celebrated by finding a cute spot for coffee. Although actually this was a bit of a nightmare too as we had to go into 4 different places before we finally found somewhere with a free table! It obviously wasn't our morning but the coffee, once we finally got it, was great. Ash is an iced-coffee-whatever-the-weather kind of guy, so even the -15 temperature didn't steer him towards a hot drink.
We got our walking shoes on because there was still plenty to see and we hadn't even made it over the bridge to the other side of the city yet. There are loads of buses that go over if you want them, but we thought it'd make for an impressive walk so opted for that instead. It was as impressive as we thought, even if it was super windy! The views from both sides of the bridge were absolutely beautiful, and it was lovely seeing the Arctic cathedral once we got to the other side. We decided we were content looking at it from the outside instead of going in, because there was a big queue and an entrance fee of nearly £10 (it was actually nearly £10 this time). Something else we skipped was the Arctic portal. You can see it in the first photo; it's basically just a pretty tiled archway next to the bridge. But generally speaking, I hate to have queue for anything that's just a photo opp, especially in a city where there's lots of cool and interesting stuff to see instead.
Our next stop, the Fjellheisen cable car, was a short walk away and it was honestly one of the prettiest, most picturesque walks I've ever been on. Inches and inches of fresh snow, beautiful blue skies, cute little houses. It was like a Christmas card.
It's a good job we'd enjoyed the walk there because the cable car itself was less of a success story. Once we got there, there was a ginormous queue and despite booking tickets online beforehand, it made no difference. The queue is the queue. And we were told it would probably be an hour and a half wait! We were short on time but we figured we'd already paid £45 per person for this so we might as well try and actually do it. Luck was on our side because a big cruise ship group ahead of us actually had to give up and leave, so it took us about 30-40 minutes to get to the front and onto the cable car in total. To say that we'd had gorgeous clear blue skies when we joined the queue, it was a very different story as we climbed the mountain. The cloud and fog had descended over the mountain and once we got off the cable car at the top we had the glorious view of... well, not very much. It's meant to be panoramic views of the city and we could pretty much see as far as 10 steps in front of us. It was one of those hilarious epic fail moments that made it memorable in its own right. We'd had so many incredible and magical excursions and activities during our trip and if any of them had to be a bit of a let down, I'm glad it was this one (as opposed to our Northern Lights night, for example).
Once we were back down at sea level, we returned to the city to pick up our suitcase and then went for one last delicious dinner before it was time to go home. This time we split a fish burger, a seafood soup and a reindeer burger. We had to get another bite of reindeer in before returning home! This was at a lovely cosy pub kind of place called Skarven Kro with a real log fire and icy beer. Although something I didn't love about Tromsø was the effects of the constant open fires on my hair - it smelled like campfire the whole holiday! Besides that, we had pretty much a perfect trip. For a city I'd never heard of before I booked to go there, it was an absolute winter paradise with so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences all in one tiny place. Me and Ash have both said how nice it was to mix it up with a cold snowy holiday, so stay tuned for future snowy destinations in the future. For now though, it's time to commence our sunny summer schedule! Winter 2026 over and out.
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