{"id":8760,"date":"2022-06-23T08:15:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T08:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/trip-arctic-circle-tromso-norway\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:56:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:56:40","slug":"trip-arctic-circle-tromso-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/trip-arctic-circle-tromso-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"Sommar\u00f8y Arctic Hotel In Tromso, Norway Review And Seeing The Northern Lights In Tromso"},"content":{"rendered":"

One place I\u2019d always wanted to visit in Norway was Tromso. It\u2019s one of the highest places you can visit \u2013 not just in Europe but in the world, so much so that it\u2019s in the Arctic Circle!<\/p>\n

Unlike other parts of the Arctic Circle, there\u2019s no chance of you running into polar bears here (thankfully), which means you can enjoy the other great gem of the Arctic Circle \u2013 the Northern Lights, without worrying about parking your car and setting up your tripod in some remote location in the middle of the night. But I digress.<\/p>\n

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On our way over to Tromso, we stopped off in Oslo for a few hours, and by the time we picked up our car and headed into town, it was already starting to get dark.<\/p>\n

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As I was writing this, I was thinking to myself, \u201cI remember arriving in the early evening while it was still bright, so how did we end up driving to our amazing Norway <\/a>hotel<\/a> in the dark?\u201d Then I remembered why \u2013 the airline had lost all of our suitcases! Or maybe they were just misplaced? I don\u2019t know \u2013 the point is, the suitcases didn\u2019t arrive in Tromso with us.<\/p>\n

This lost luggage would have been fine if we hadn\u2019t arrived during a long holiday overlapping a weekend, a holiday which meant that no one would be working even in the airport, and as such, we would have no access to any of our stuff. In freezing temperatures, too!<\/p>\n

And to think, I\u2019d packed pretty much everything (winter coats, tripod, underwear\u2026etc) into that suitcase. I didn\u2019t even have proper clothes with me because I had my \u201ccomfy travelling clothes\u201d on.<\/p>\n

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Once we found out there was nothing to be done about it, we headed over to the Sommar\u00f8y Arctic Hotel<\/a>, which we would be calling home for the next few nights, to check in and get some decent food (and drinks).<\/p>\n

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Checking in, I very quickly remembered I didn\u2019t even have pyjamas with me (I find it so uncomfortable to sleep without them \u2013 such a mundane little detail, but one which bugged me as I never sleep as comfortably without my PJs). All thoughts of this disappeared, though, once we realised the Northern Lights were out!<\/p>\n

I had no tripod and had to lean my camera against a pole to stop it from shaking while taking the photos (hence why they\u2019re not great) but the amazing thing about the hotel<\/a> is that you don\u2019t need to go anywhere else to see the Aurora Borealis \u2013 you can just stand on the deck outside (or indeed from the bar inside) and see them.<\/p>\n

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Seeing the Northern Lights so early into our trip was incredible, and the lack of PJs didn\u2019t even cross my mind once I plonked into bed, absolutely knackered but utterly thrilled at being able to see the Northern Lights!<\/p>\n

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The next morning, we awoke to some real Norwegian generosity!<\/p>\n

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After explaining to the lady who checked us in that our suitcases hadn\u2019t arrived, hence why we had no luggage to check in (and why we borrowed the fishermen\u2019s gear to keep warm in instead of using our actual coats), she\u2019d told a few of the locals about our problem and they\u2019d done a quick whip around and got us all clothes to wear! Right down to jackets!<\/p>\n

This kind of generosity and kind-spiritedness is what we soon found to be commonplace in Tromso! Everyone seems to look out for each other here, and we even got to meet some of the locals who had borrowed us their clothes (us, who were total strangers to them at the time they did that whip-around for the clothes).<\/p>\n

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Oh, and I bet you\u2019re probably thinking, why didn\u2019t you just go to the shops to buy new clothes? Well (like I mentioned earlier), it was a big holiday, so not a single shop was open! The shop owners had also left for other parts of Norway (or the world) to have fun on their holidays.<\/p>\n

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Dressed in clean warm clothes (and having made new friends), we headed out for a drive to check out Sommar\u00f8y (and Tromso a bit better).<\/p>\n

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Even in the cold, the beaches here are absolutely beautiful! We\u2019re talking clear blue waters here and fine sandy beaches (not pebbly or gritty).<\/p>\n

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The coastline is also pretty here and dotted with mountains and the odd reindeer, which makes you stop and get out of your car (alas, I didn\u2019t have my zoom lens with me \u2013 instead, I had the wide-angle lens, so I couldn\u2019t get any close-up photos).<\/p>\n

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The rest of the afternoon was pretty much just spent ignoring the maps and aimlessly driving across the island (my favourite pastime \u2013 I can\u2019t even remember what we did for lunch that day).<\/p>\n

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We only stopped driving when we got a message from the hotel saying that they managed to find a convenience store owner who was still in Tromso and that she\u2019d offered to open her store for a couple of hours so we could get some stuff that we needed (toothbrushes, hairspray, deodorants, socks, underwear\u2026etc)<\/p>\n

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With that (and in sheer delight from my 3 un-toothbrushed companions, I managed to brush mine because I always pack a spare toothbrush in my hand luggage), we decided to call it quits on driving around and head back to the hotel for dinner, some wintry hot-tub sessions and to generally relax and ready for a potential evening with the Northern Lights! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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So far, Norway and Norwegians, in general, had managed to find ways to impress me even further, and I looked forward to seeing what other delights Tromso had in store! <\/p>\n

Read more: Best places in Norway to visit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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19 Very Best Places In Norway To Visit (Fjords, Cities, Coastlines & More)!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n