{"id":8718,"date":"2026-07-26T08:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/whats-like-swim-freezing-artic-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:55:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:55:57","slug":"whats-like-swim-freezing-artic-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/whats-like-swim-freezing-artic-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Things To Do In Troms\u00f8 In Norway: Vulkana Arctic Spa Boats And Polar Plunge Swimming In The Arctic Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

But first, let\u2019s carry on where we left off (the previous post is available here<\/a> if you haven\u2019t seen it yet)\u2026<\/p>\n

After our day exploring Tromso, we were very pleased with the idea of dinner followed by a quick dip in the hot tub (though perhaps it might have made sense to do it the other way around?).<\/p>\n

Dinner was a hearty affair of creamy soups and cod (at the Sommaroy Hotel<\/a>) which I wolfed down very quickly.<\/p>\n

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What we hadn\u2019t really thought about was what swim trunks we were going to wear to the hot tub, seeing as our luggage hadn\u2019t arrived with us into Tromso. Luckily for us, the hotel had swimming outfits available to borrow\u2026 not swimming outfits as you\u2019d think though.<\/p>\n

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These were retro swimwear and it was pretty much lust at first sight (we all ended up buying one when we left).<\/p>\n

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Swimwear on, we headed out into the cold to the delightfully warm hot tub! We alternated between walking out, instantly freezing and running back in to warm up until we pretty much looked like prunes.<\/p>\n

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By this point, it was properly dark and we headed out to check out the Northern Lights on the beach (after changing of course) \u2013 we had the full-body fishermen\u2019s outfits we\u2019d been lent by the hotel too to keep us warm (don\u2019t worry, the outfits didn\u2019t actually smell of fish so we were good on that account).<\/p>\n

The Northern Lights were weak that night but the beach was actually sheltered from the wind and made for a good spot to just chill and chat till the wee hours when we crawled into bed.<\/p>\n

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The next day, we checked out of our hotel, thanking everyone for their help so far and made our way to the main city of Tromso \u2013 confusingly also known as Tromso. Today we would be heading out into the Arctic Sea on the Vulkana<\/a>, an Arctic Spa experience unlike any other.<\/p>\n

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Initially, when I\u2019d heard about the Vulkana, I thought it was just a boat with a sauna on it and wasn\u2019t overly interested but after speaking to someone who\u2019d done it before, I was assured that this would be totally worth it. They were right!<\/p>\n

Unassuming as you get on (all you see is the hot tub steaming), you soon realise that the Vulkana<\/a> is almost labyrinth-like boat just waiting for you to have an amazing time!<\/p>\n

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The staff onboard are also pretty amazing and get you settled in very quickly with drinks, snacks and a proper introduction to the boat (which also has rooms on here so you can rent it for an Arctic tour lasting several days\u2026 or maybe even weeks).<\/p>\n

Onboard, you\u2019ve got a dining place upstairs – next to the bar, bathroom, showers and not too far from the sauna (the sauna has a great view as you sail along).<\/p>\n

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Downstairs you have a living area, complete with fireplace \u2013 all leading to the steam room.<\/p>\n

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Upstairs you have the general chill out area (the drinks are left outside to chill \u2013 you\u2019ve got alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks included) and if you go to the top deck, you\u2019ll find the hot tub; arguably our favourite spot due to the amazing view (beats the sauna view \u2013 that view is from a window \u2013 whereas here, you\u2019re outside).<\/p>\n

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We spent a couple of hours just unwinding and totally soaking up (the view and also quite literally) before remembering what our host had said when we first stepped on board<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want, you can take a dip in the Arctic sea, it\u2019s cold but it\u2019s the Nordic way\u2026<\/em>\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the other \u201cMmmmm<\/em>\u201ded about it, I immediately said yes. Somehow, I just knew I had to do it though I was pretty much terrified of the thought of it once it finally came round.<\/p>\n

(Due to lack of luggage, ergo, lack of swimwear, this, of course, meant using a strange cross between underwear and cycling shorts I’d bought in the store the other day<\/a> as my swimwear – which was the closest thing to swimwear I could find in the store<\/em> \ud83d\ude06).<\/p>\n

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To prepare for my Arctic sea dip, I went into the sauna to head up (which actually left me steaming \u2013 quite literally), before heading into the freezing Arctic sea.<\/p>\n

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The experience is quite unreal! Within seconds, your pores appear to go crazy from the stark contrast and speaking is almost impossible from you teeth chattering so much. It also feels like your body has \u2018brain freeze\u2019.<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll probably spend all of 5 seconds before hurrying out of it (at which point, everyone else had built up the courage to take a dip too!)<\/p>\n

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The reaction is funnily similar (perhaps even more hilarious because it\u2019s someone else instead of you) but soon enough you wanna go back in \u2013 which I did a couple more times before finally calling it quits, thoroughly pleased with myself.<\/p>\n

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Lloyd was perhaps the one least likely to have taken the dip (he even struggles to get getting into swimming pools in warm countries if it isn\u2019t really toasty) so unsurprisingly; the look on his face in this photo below was the highlight of all the photos (you might need to zoom in to see it properly).<\/p>\n

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Arctic sea dips over and done with, we proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon alternating between hot tub, sauna and steam room \u2013 beers in hand until we got the call to head to the dining area for lunch.<\/p>\n

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Oh, and we also saw a dolphin (or perhaps a small whale?) in the distance…<\/p>\n

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Lunch was a delicious cod stew (typical of the area as you can imagine) and just what we needed!<\/p>\n

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I switched my beer for wines and as you find when there\u2019s good food available, all our non-stop chitter chatter had gone silent as we wolfed down our lunches!<\/p>\n

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By the time we were done with lunch, we\u2019d arrived back at the harbour, thorough relaxed (this was just such a perfect way to spend a day) and absolutely thrilled with the bragging rights that came with our rather \u2018refreshing dip\u2019 in the Arctic sea.<\/p>\n

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And there you have it! Now – your turn! Yay or Nay – would you take a dip into the freezing Arctic sea? \ud83d\ude01<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But first, let\u2019s carry on where we left off (the previous post is available here if you haven\u2019t seen it yet)\u2026 After our day exploring Tromso, we were very pleased with the idea of dinner followed by a quick dip in the hot tub (though perhaps it might have made sense to do it the … Continue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,396],"tags":[355,859,941],"class_list":["post-8718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-travel-journal","tag-europe","tag-norway","tag-tromso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}