One of our top goals for 2025 was to see the Northern Lights. This is why we traveled to Norway in February and it was worth all the cold weather. We saw them and they were incredible!! We took a 6 night cruise with Hurtigruten from Tromsø, north to Honningsvåg, and ending in Bergen.
This post gives a brief description of each day on the cruise. If you are only interested in if we saw the Northern Lights, yes we did. The night of day 2 and day 3 were both successful. The best photos are from day three.
Why We Chose Hurtigruten
Hurtigruten offers cruises that go to the top of mainland Norway. We spent multiple days above the Arctic Circle which offers the best chances of being in the range of the Northern Lights. The ship is out at sea during the evenings, meaning you are away from light pollution. The crew also announce when the lights are visible. This way you can turn on an intercom in your room and hear the announcement. You can go to sleep at night and know that if the Northern Lights are visible, you will be woken up and won’t miss out on the excitement.
The cruise provides free food and drinks on the ship. You can get off at each port and explore on your own. There are also excursions for each port, but these must be booked and paid for on top of the cruise base price. Most of the excursions were between $100-$250 each. Since our only goal was to see the Northern Lights, we opted to not add on any shore excursions. You can find more information about these options on the Hurtigruten website.
Day 1: Boarding the Ship in Tromsø
We boarded the ship in Tromsø around noon. We just explored the ship and got our cabin organized for the next few hours. We left port at 6 pm and watched the city lights sparkle in the dark night as we sailed away from Tromsø.
We were excited to try to see the Northern Lights on our first night out on the water. Unfortunately, clouds filled the sky. We searched the sky for quite a while. There was the slightest white haze in the sky. I thought to myself “That’s nothing… or is it?” Hmmm. I took a photo and that haze was a light green. We had technically seen the lights but they were not impressive. We left the intercom on in our room hoping the sky would clear and we would be woken by an announcement that the lights were happening. We slept undisturbed as there were no announcements that night.
Day 2: Honningsvåg and Seeing the Northern Lights
We woke up in our little cabin around 6 am. We bundled up and headed out to the top deck to check out our surroundings. It was cold but snow-splattered dark mountains surrounded us. Every once in a while, a lone red cabin would be nestled next to the fjord shore at the bottom of one of these mountains. We were stunned by the thought that someone actually lived in each of these secluded locations.
Around 8 am we pulled our big ship into the harbor of the tiny town of Honningsvåg. This cute town only has a population of about 2,300 people. We went for a short hike up the hills behind the town to get a view out over the fjord. Parts of the walk were very icy and we had to walk carefully and slowly. The streets in the town were far more icy than once on the trail. We trudged through packed snow up to a great viewpoint, admiring the distant mountains behind the fjord. The weather was starting to turn on us now. Those far off mountains became more and more hazy, so we turned around and started the hike back. Big snowflakes floated down onto us as we made our way back to town. A little stroll to see the church and a bakery finished up our time here. We headed back on the ship.
We decided to go to bed super early and get a couple hours of sleep before looking for the Northern Lights. We set our alarms for 11 pm and crawled into bed at 8 pm. At 10 pm, the ship announcement woke me up. The Northern Lights were happening! Dave slept right through the announcement, so I woke him and we bundled up.
Up on deck 9 we scanned the sky and really saw them for the first time. The lights had a tint of green but were mostly white to the naked eye. The cameras showed bright green and even a tiny bit of red color. They created curtains above us and we watched them for about 90 minutes before heading back to bed. A successful night!
Day 3: Alta and Amazing Northern Lights
We again woke up around 6 am and watched the scenery from the deck for a while before breakfast. We glided by more beautiful snow covered mountains. The port today was the city of Alta. We weren’t very interested in the sights in Alta, so we stayed on the ship. We got workouts in, did some reading, and enjoyed all the free food.
This time we decided we would head out to look for the lights right after dinner. Our plan ended up being perfect. They announced the lights right as we were getting ready to head out around 7 pm. On the top deck we watched a streak of light along the right side of the ship for a while. Then we wandered to the back of the ship and this is where it starts to get good.
The lights were actually green this time. Not as bright as photos show, but a subdued green that was visible to the naked eye. The lights showed up above and behind the snowy mountains around us. I was surprised how well my iPhone 16 Pro captured the scenery.
The lights had decreased for a while and we were about to head inside to warm up. As we were taking a last look, the magic really started to happen. The lights started to fill the sky from right to left. The intensity of light increased, changed shapes, and increased more until we were both in total awe. All above us was a glowing green swirl. Parts of the lights were dancing in movement. I managed to find a place to set up my travel tripod and get a couple decent photos with my mirrorless digital camera.
We finally headed inside after these lights dimmed. Those last 30 minutes had really wowed us. No matter how the rest of the cruise went, this show of lights made the entire trip worthwhile.
Day 4: Lødingen
Still feeling overjoyed from our previous night, we got up and watched the morning scenery around 7 am and once again it was beautiful!
Around 10:30 the view had changed. The mountains were not as high but lots of small communities were scattered along the shores.
By the time we reached the port of Lødingen, it was snowing so hard you couldn’t see anything out the window. We decided that another day on the ship would be ok due to the weather. Many people did venture out and one excursion group got stuck out. The road back had been closed due to the weather and they had to wait for it to reopen.
We left an hour late due to the delayed excursion. Once we got out to sea we had 4 meter waves hitting the boat on its side from 4 pm when we left until about 9 pm. The boat literally rocked us to sleep.
Day 5: Rørvik
The views around the boat were less interesting this day. We didn’t have any towering mountains around us like previous days. We did see a small mountain with a small hole developing in the center from wind erosion.
It was another cloudy day and it rained the entire time we were in port. We decided that we needed to get off the ship anyway. We went for a walk around our port town of Rørik. There was a line of cute old wooden buildings. They also have a unique church. After the Rørvik church burned down in 2012, this modern church was built in 2019. It is made of glass and concrete. My best attempt to describe its appearance is like white and clear Legos on top of a glass bottom. Other than that there wasn’t much to see. Our whole walk and exploration of the tiny town took maybe 40 minutes.
The boat left port around 3 pm and we had 6 meter waves this time. The waves rocked the ship back and forth, and then sometimes in a circular motions. We weren’t feeling so great after a couple hours of this. The rocking ended just as I was falling asleep.
Day 6: Cancelled Port Due to Weather
The afternoon of day 5 the captain made an announcement that a storm was causing a problem. We would have to skip our port on day 6 to beat the worst of the storm. If we didn’t, we would end up with 8-9 meter waves which she said were “too much”.
So day 6 was spent all day on the boat with lots of waves back and forth. We didn’t do much but try to not be seasick. It actually ended up not feeling as bad as the day before had been. We managed to get past the open water part of the trip before the wind and waves built up too much thanks to the captain’s decision.
Day 7: Arrive in Bergen
We docked in Bergen sometime during the night, arriving early due to our skipped port stop on day 6. We got off the boat around 8:30 am and headed to our hotel.
After the Cruise – Staying in Bergen
This was the end of the cruise, but we spent a few days in Bergen afterwards. It rained every day here, which is common in Bergen. The first area we visited was Bergenhus Fortress which contains Rosenkrantz Tower and Hakon Hall. Rosenkrantz Tower was the residence of King Eirik Magnusson who was the last king to live in Bergen in the last 1200’s. The tower was extended and fortified in the 1500’s by Erik Rosenkrantz.
Hakon’s Hall was built in the mid-13th century. It was used to entertain and to celebrate important events including a few royal weddings. It is the largest secular building from the Middle Ages still standing in Norway.
We saw the famous buildings along the Bryggen. The Bryggen is the old wharf wooden buildings in Bergen. It was important to the merchants in the 14th century when Bergen was the biggest trading center in Norway. Although many fires over the years have damaged buildings, they have been repeatedly rebuilt using old patterns and methods and therefore retaining the original structure. The Bryggen is a world heritage site and the best known tourist site in Bergen.
We even saw the view over the city from Mount Fløyen. The Fløibanen funicular quickly transports people up and down this hill in just a few minutes. We chose to take the hard way and hike in the rain up to the top. The hike was a couple miles and took about 1 hour 15 minutes at a slow pace, enjoying views along the way. We actually could see the city from the top, though it was fuzzy from the fog and rain. (I was happy there was any view! I had been here in 1999 and we could only see clouds then.) A bit wet and cold now, we chose to ride the funicular back down to the bottom.
After a few days in Bergen, we took the train back to Oslo. The 7 hour journey was filled with lots of lovely landscapes along the way. Back in Oslo, we hopped on the train to the airport, spent the night right next door at the Radisson, and left the following day.
Our trip to Norway has concluded. We truly enjoyed our time here and hope to come back in the summer one year. Next up, southern Spain.
If you are interested in reading about another Hurtigruten cruise, I traveled to Antarctica with them in December of 2018. That cruise was really spectacular. Almost every moment of the experience was exciting. Check out my blog post about that amazing experience: Antarctica: Cruising to the final continent with Hurtigruten!
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