The Northern Lights can best be seen from countries such as Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
2026 is shaping up to be a brilliant year for Northern Lights chasers — but getting yourself into position to watch them arc across the sky doesn’t come cheap.
The Aurora Borealis was recently spotted as far south as Cornwall in the UK, yet the best sightings still happen in Nordic countries: Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. These places are stunning, and they all carry price tags to match their reputations.
The good news is that with a bit of planning, a smartphone and some patience, you can tick the Northern Lights off your list without coming home to a frightening credit card bill.
Pick a package
One of the easiest ways to cut costs is to book a package deal rather than piecing everything together yourself.
TUI, for example, offers two free excursions with some of their winter packages to Iceland, including a Northern Lights hunt and a Golden Circle tour. Meanwhile, online travel agent Expedia enables you to save while building your own package to a variety of Northern Light destinations including Finnish Lapland, with a wide range of flights, hotels and excursions to suit all plans and budgets.
Hostels, budget hotels and Airbnb are the obvious choices for keeping accommodation costs down, but don’t overlook other angles. Home Hotels, a Strawberry Hotels brand with locations across the Nordics, bundles fika — the Swedish equivalent of afternoon tea — and dinner alongside breakfast, which adds up to a meaningful daily saving.
The Northern Lights as seen from the Lyngen Alps near Tromsø, Norway.
Sometimes the accommodation itself can be the experience. A night in a glass-roofed cabin in the Lyngen Alps near Tromsø, in northern Norway, will set you back over £300 per adult — but that covers all road and ferry travel, accommodation, activities (snowshoeing or snowmobiling) and food for a full 24 hours. Expensive on paper, but you’re getting a lot for that money.
Another angle worth trying: combine your travel and your overnight stop. Travel blogger Beatrice Searle, of Wild Bee Outdoors, saved hundreds of pounds and a night’s accommodation costs on a trip to Finnish Lapland by flying to Helsinki, not Rovaniemi, and taking the overnight train north instead — much to the delight of her adventurous family.
Use free apps your phone
A smartphone is genuinely useful on a trip like this — from digital boarding passes (Ryanair won’t let you forget it) to hotel check-ins and tour bookings. It can also quietly save you money.
For any Northern Lights trip, an aurora app is essential. My Aurora Forecast & Alerts is available on both the Apple Store and Google Play. Give it access to your location and notifications and it will alert you whenever there’s a realistic chance of seeing the lights.
The Nordic countries are among the most cashless societies in the world, so skip the foreign transaction fees. A dedicated travel credit card or a multi-currency account like Monzo, Revolut or Wise will keep those unnecessary charges down.
Smartphones can be surprising good at capturing the Northern Lights.
Navigation and translation apps like Google Maps or Citymapper and Google Translate are obvious additions, though most need data. If roaming isn’t included in your contract, an eSIM through Holafly or Airalo means you’re not dependent on patchy Wi-Fi.
And here’s something that surprises a lot of people: your phone camera can actually pick up the Northern Lights even when your naked eye can barely see them. Bring a small tripod and a power bank. Cold weather drains batteries fast — keep the power bank in an inside pocket when you’re not using it.
Save money on food and drink
Food is where a Nordic trip can quietly bleed your budget dry, but there are ways around it.
Too Good to Go is a free food recovery app that connects you with restaurants offloading unsold food — it works well beyond the UK. The Wolt and Foodora delivery apps operate across the Nordics and sometimes carry discount codes worth hunting down. It’s also worth checking local apps: Barhopp, for example, covers Iceland’s entertainment and nightlife scene and includes a live happy hour tracker.
The Rakutten hot dog kiosk in Tromsø, Norway.
Street food is your friend. The historic Raketten kiosk in Tromsø city centre is famed for its reindeer hot dogs and mulled wine, while Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur in Reykjavik prides itself on using only sausages with organic meat.
Bakeries are everywhere in these countries and should not be underestimated. A Korvapuusti (a Finnish cinnamon bun), a Kardemummabullar (a Swedish cardamom bun), or any other Nordic baked good with a coffee will keep you going for hours. Bring a thermos and fill it up at breakfast — small habit, real savings.
Check out free walking tours
Free walking tours run in towns across Europe, including the Nordics. They typically work on a tip-only basis, so you pay what you feel is fair.
Mauricio, for example, runs daily free walking tours in Tromsø in both English and Spanish, while CityWalk Reykjavik runs twice-daily walking tours of the Icelandic capital in English each day. Some cities have free walking tour apps too, and Google Maps does a decent job on its own of flagging tourist attractions along the way.
Dress for the cold — proper layers and decent footwear are non-negotiable — and bring a thermos. The guides are usually a goldmine of local eating and activity tips, so ask plenty of questions. Many will share their own curated Google Maps lists if you ask nicely.
Get away from city lights
Once darkness falls — and if you’re far enough north in December or January, that could be around lunchtime — it’s time to think seriously about where you’re going to watch from.
There’s no shortage of Northern Lights tours and ferry trips in popular destinations, but they rarely come cheap.
The Northern Lights, seen here above Kleifarvatn, Grindavikurbaer in Iceland, are easier to see away from urban lights.
The DIY approach costs far less. Get clear of the town lights, make sure your aurora app has location access and notifications switched on, and wait. It will ping you when conditions look promising.
One of the best spots in Tromsø is Telegrafbukta park — a short NOK50 (£3.90) bus ride from the city centre. In the Finnish town of Rovaniemi, the area around the Arctic Garden at the Arktikum Science Centre and Museum is a well-known viewing spot within easy walking distance of the centre.
One thing worth checking before you book: some Northern Lights tours — particularly in Reykjavik — offer a free second attempt if you don’t see the aurora on your first outing. Read the terms and conditions carefully and, if you can, leave room in your schedule to use it.
Stay in the UK
If you’d rather not dig out your passport, head as far north in the UK as you can manage.
The Northern Lights over Skerray on the north coast of Scotland.
Northern Scotland sits at roughly the same latitude as Stavanger in Norway. Remote spots like the Hebrides, Shetland, Orkney or Caithness give you a real chance of seeing the “Mirrie Dancers”, as they’re known locally — though sightings have been recorded as far south as the Borders.
Dark sky reserves across northern Wales and England are worth considering too — Snowdonia National Park, the North York Moors and Northumberland National Park all qualify — as does the north coast of Northern Ireland.
