The Northern Lights can best be seen from countries such as Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. ·Anna Mardo via Getty Images
2026 is proving to be another great year to see the Northern Lights, but travelling to see them dance across the night sky can prove costly.
While the Aurora Borealis was recently spotted as far south as Cornwall in the UK, the best places to see the Northern Lights are in Nordic countries such as Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden, which are also known for having some of the world’s highest costs of living and prices to match.
However, with some smart planning, a mobile phone and a bit of bargain hunting, you can check seeing the Northern Lights off your bucket list without completely breaking the bank.
A good place to start saving money on your Northern Lights trip is by booking packages or looking for bundle deals on travel, accommodation and excursions.
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.
While staying in hostels, budget hotels and Airbnb are obvious ways of keeping your accommodation costs down, take into account other ways of saving like going half board. Home Hotels, a Strawberry Hotels brand with locations across the Nordics, for example, can help you save money on your day-to-day budget as fika – the Swedish equivalent of afternoon tea – and dinner are included, alongside breakfast.
The Northern Lights as seen from the Lyngen Alps near Tromsø, Norway. ·Natalie Marchant
Another smart saving is to make the accommodation part of the adventure itself. A night in a glass-roofed cabin in the Lyngen Alps near Tromsø, in northern Norway, for example, will set you back over £300 per adult, but that includes all road and ferry travel, accommodation, activities (snowshoeing or snowmobiling) and food for a full 24 hours, and is a proper bucket list experience.
Alternatively, combine travel and accommodation. 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.
Smartphones are a traveller’s best friend for everything from checking in – indeed, Ryanair is now insistent on having a digital version of your boarding pass – to reserving your hotel and booking excursions. However, they can also help you save money too.
Invaluable for any Northern Lights holiday is an aurora app – with My Aurora Forecast & Alerts available on both the Apple Store and Google Play. Allow it access to your location and to send notifications and it will ping you with an alert if there’s a chance you’ll see the Northern Lights.
Remember too that the Nordic countries are some of the most cashless societies in the world, so don’t waste your money on foreign transaction fees. Instead, choose a credit card for holiday and travel spending or use a multi-currency account such as Monzo, Revolut or Wise to reduce unnecessary fees.
Smartphones can be surprising good at capturing the Northern Lights. ·Everste via Getty Images
Obvious other handy travel apps include navigation ones like Google Maps or Citymapper and services such as Google Translate – but most rely on data. If roaming isn’t included in your phone contract, buy an eSim through an app such as Holafly or Airalo so you don’t always have to rely on Wi-Fi.
But perhaps the best reason to have your smartphone is that they can be surprisingly good at capturing the Northern Lights – including when you can’t easily see them with the naked eye. Ideally, bring a tripod and a power bank, as batteries drain faster in the cold (and keep it warm when you’re not using it).
There are also plenty of apps that can help you save money on food and drink. Too Good to Go is a free food recovery app that also works in many locations outside the UK by connecting customers to restaurants that have surplus unsold food.
Meanwhile, the Wolt and Foodora food delivery apps work across the Nordics and can include discounts. Check out local apps, as well. Barhopp, for example, helps you explore Iceland’s entertainment and nightlife scene and includes a live happy hour tracker.
The Rakutten hot dog kiosk in Tromsø, Norway. ·Ian Macpherson Europe
There are always budget food options too. 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.
Note too that bakeries can be found on pretty much every street corner and you’ll be surprised how far you can get on a Korvapuusti (a Finnish cinnamon bun), a Kardemummabullar (a Swedish cardamom bun) or any other Nordic baked good and a coffee. Bring a thermos and you can fill up on coffee at breakfast too.
Many towns across Europe, including the Nordics, have free walking tours, which generally run on a tip-only basis meaning you pay what you can.
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. You can also often find free walking tour apps available on your smartphone. Plus, Google Maps is every travellers’ best friend, highlighting most tourist attractions.
It goes without saying that wrapping up warm and having appropriate footwear are necessities – and a coffee in a thermos or thermal cup is a very good shout. Many guides will also have a lot of suggestions for eating out and activities too so be sure to ask – some can even share their own lists on Google Maps.
When night falls – and, if you’re really far north in December or January, that could easily be around lunchtime – it’s time to start thinking about where you can see the Northern Lights.
While there are normally plenty of Northern Lights chasing tours or ferry trips to choose from in popular tourist destinations, they can be rather costly.
The Northern Lights, seen here above Kleifarvatn, Grindavikurbaer in Iceland, are easier to see away from urban lights. ·Amazing Aerial, Amazing Aerial
So if you want to save money, get away from bright lights and make sure you’ve got the location and notification settings turned on on your chosen aurora forecast app and it’ll ping you if and when there’s a chance of seeing them.
One of the best places to see the Northern Lights in Tromsø, for example, is the 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 popular place to watch them within walking distance of the city centre.
It is worth bearing in mind that some Northern Lights tours – particularly in Reykjavik – offer you a free second chance at seeing the aurora if you don’t see them on the first attempt. Be sure to check the terms and conditions and allow time a second chance if you can.
If you want to see the Aurora Borealis without digging out your passport, head as far north in the UK as you can.
The Northern Lights over Skerray on the north coast of Scotland. ·Ashley Cooper pics
Northern Scotland lies at the same altitude as Stavanger in Norway, meaning if you head to remote areas such as the Hebrides, Shetland, Orkney or Caithness you may well be in with a chance to see the “Mirrie Dancers” as they’re known in these parts – although they have also been spotted as far south as the Borders.
Alternatively, head to designated dark sky reserves in northern areas of Wales and England – such as Snowdonia National Park, the North York Moors or Northumberland National Park – or along the north coast of Northern Ireland.
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