Private Northern Lights Adventure Tour

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Overview

We will take you to the middle of nowhere in one of our custom-designed super jeeps, so you can sit back relax and enjoy the flickering purples and greens of this mesmerizing light show in all its heavenly glory.

Our expert guide will tell you everything that you need to know about this incredible natural phenomenon and make sure that you can immortalize the experience with one of our special cameras. It is an ineffable experience that should be close to the top of everyone’s bucket list, so don’t delay booking our private Northern Lights Adventure Tour today!

Tour Snapshot

Level

Easy

Availability

All year

Starting point

Reykjavik

End point

Reykjavik

Languages

English

Minimum age

All ages

What to Expect

On Tour

Small group northern lights expedition
Hot chocolate
Free photos of you/your group
Expert Aurora Guide

Transportation

Meet on location
Pick-up & drop-off in Reykjavik

Accommodation & Meals

Meals
Accommodation

Itinerary

Tour Itinerary Overview

Our adventure begins when we collect you from where you are staying and head out in search of the Northern Lights.

But what are the Northern Lights you ask?

They are created by collisions of oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere with the electrons released by the sun during geomagnetic storms, making them notoriously difficult to predict with even state-of-the-art meteorological equipment.

The dancing colors of the Northern Lights that illuminate the winter night sky have captured the imagination of celestial gazers for millennia. To see them in the flesh is a profound, ethereal experience, which philosophers, religious scholars, and atheists alike all equate with divinity. In Icelandic tradition, their appearance was associated with the ride of the Valkyries, while Greeks and Romans believed that it was the sister of Helios the Sun God riding a multi-colored chariot across the sky and expectant Icelandic mothers refused to look at their beauty because their beauty was so profound that it would cause the baby to be born cross-eyed.

However, our expert guides are familiar with the area and will take you to the best places to see the lights, using information from a network of magnetometers situated around the world and the most up-to-date reports of the Icelandic Met Office.

Our specially designed all-terrain vehicles are ideal once we get a scent of the Aurora as it allows us to go where other vehicles can’t and escape the crowds of people who come to view the heavenly light show and detract from the mystery and majesty of the experience.

If we do find them, then you are in for a treat: the jet-black night sky dotted with nothing, but twinkling stars will suddenly be illuminated by various shades of green, purple, and pink, which dance and flicker in ways that you cannot imagine.

They are truly unique and have a transient beauty that flickers into life, enchants those who see them, and then disappears just as suddenly as they arrived. It is mesmerizing, profound, ethereal, or divine and will give you a new perspective on the smallness of humanity and the regal beauty of the world.

We firmly believe that everyone should see the Aurora or Northern Lights at least once and invite you to view the most incredible light show that our world has to offer.

Notable Information

We strongly recommend that you allow us to help you with pictures, as the Northern Lights are notoriously difficult to photograph. Our expert photographers will be delighted to shoot this amazing light show for you, allowing you to concentrate on seeing it with your own eyes. If you are keen to photograph it yourself then we will help you configure your camera, although we strongly recommend that you have a shutter speed of up to 15 sec, high ISO (800+) and an aperture between f/1.4 and f/4.0

Packing List

Get ready for your trip, here are some items, you should not forget

What to bring (Required)

Sturdy shoes
Outdoor clothes suitable to the weather conditions

We're here to answer your questions

The Northern Lights are natural phenomena and we, unfortunately, cannot promise you will see them. Their appearance depends upon atmospheric and weather conditions.

For more information on the Northern Lights, please have a look at our Northern Lights tours.

We, unfortunately, do not have one simple answer to this question.

There isn’t just one single setting for your camera that ensures great photos. However, if you have manual options, you are probably best served with experimenting with various combinations of ISO, aperture, and exposure settings. As a rule of thumb, ISO setting between 800 and 3200, aperture between f/2 8 and f/5.6, and shutter speed at between 15 seconds and 30 seconds have proven effective.

A good thing to keep in mind, ISO setting between 800 and 3200, aperture between f/2.8 and f/5.6, and shutter speed between 15 seconds and 30 seconds have given great results.

Different combinations may give very different results. Higher ISO setting will allow you to capture faster exposures, but the downside to this might be for example grainier images.

If the shutter speed is above 15 seconds it will result in a slight star movement.

Wider angle lenses are usually more versatile in low light settings, but longer lenses give you different options for compositions. Make sure that you remove all lens filters, as they may distort images. You will probably get the best results with manual setting for infinite focal length.

Reimbursement is not given if the northern lights tour goes ahead and no lights are seen but we do offer you the change to join a Northern Lights Minibus tour free of charge.

Please contact our Customer Care to re-book your tour.

When Northern Lights tours are canceled it’s usually due to unfavorable weather conditions.

In that case, your options will be to:

Reschedule for another day.
Choose another our tour and use the deposit for it.
Get a full refund.

Please go to the customer portal to re-book your tour or contact us by phone at +354 562 7000.

The northern lights are a pretty difficult thing to predict. We recommend you to check en.vedur.is to see the forecast and if the level is high and the skies are clear then it’s very likely that the tour is going ahead. We do update our website’s tour departure sheet with the information at 17:00 pm the latest. If your tour is canceled then you will receive an email from us.

If we think there is no chance at all of seeing the lights we will cancel the tour. We don’t want to bring you out and disappoint if there is no chance of the lights to be seen.

Yes, the guide on your tour will take a photo of you with the northern lights in the background.
These can be single or group photo’s and are free of charge.

The Northern Lights season is from late August until mid-April. However, if you want to increase your changes of seeing them, it is best to wait until the clear winter months of mid-September until March.

The northern lights depend on luck and weather if that is in your favor than you will be able to see the Aurora Borealis above the inviting streets of Reykjavík. Whether you see the lights or not they depend on two different factors. The first being the weather. If the sky is clear, no clouds, then you are halfway there to seeing the astonishing spectacle that is the Northern Lights (although light pollution can sometimes be a problem). Increased solar activity is the second half so, if these two merge together you may well be able to see the Northern Lights from Reykjavik.

Still not convinced?

Customer Care

For Iceland, Scandinavia & Baltic tour

Open daily from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM GMT

Address

Köllunarklettsvegur 2

104 Reykjavík

+354 562 7000

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