Sweden is also the home to the world’s first ICEHOTEL®, created in 1989 by the frozen Torne River in Jukkasjärvi it has become something of a unique bucket list item for travellers. Abisko is surrounded by a vast bowl of mountains which serves to break up cloud cover. North of the Arctic Circle is Abisko, a very small town which has become something of a priority destination for Aurora hunters. If you’ve ever flown over it at night and looked out the window, then it’s hard to spot any signs of human habitation the land is simply not lit up by artificial light which is why we think it is a great place to go in search of the Northern Lights. To say that Northern Sweden is sparsely populated would be something of an understatement. With a great Aurora record, very comfortable accommodation choices and a wide variety of daytime activities, Luosto has become a firm favourite amongst Aurora Zone clientele. Mention must also go to the small village of Luosto where we ran our first ever Northern Lights holiday. This is also where you’ll find two of our all-time favourite Aurora photographers Antti Pietikainen and Gareth Hutton plying their trade once darkness falls.
To the west, Harriniva, Jeris, Torassieppi and Kilpisjärvi all offer comfortable bases in remote locations with those all-important dark skies.
In the north-east, the heart of Sámi culture, destinations such as Nellim, Muotka, Saariselkä, Menesjärvi and Inari, are all extremely popular with knowledgeable Aurora hunters.
#Where are the northern lights free#
Indeed, the low density of human population where reindeer are more common than people means that Finland’s gorgeous lake, forest and fell landscapes are virtually free of any light pollution creating the perfect Aurora hunting conditions.įinland also has more than its fair share of places where we would recommend searching for the Northern Lights. We feature holidays to all of these countries, and every holiday we offer has been expertly designed to maximise your opportunity to see the Northern Lights.įinland is often overlooked in favour of its neighbours Sweden and Norway, but you are just as likely to see the Aurora there as anywhere else. The Auroral band stretches across Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Canada. To make sure you see the spectacle at its very best you will also need to ensure that you are in a location within that Auroral band that is far removed from any significant light pollution artificial light from large cities and ski resorts can dull the Aurora to the point of invisibility so we strongly recommend staying outside their confines. This will mean that the next few years will very probably see Auroral displays becoming much more localised to the Aurora Zone.Īs solar activity slows, it will become increasingly important to head north in order to give yourself the very best chance of witnessing a magical light show. Essentially, the ferocity of solar wind emanating from the sun is likely to reduce which means the reaction with the gases in our atmosphere will be less pronounced. However, we are currently in the declining phase of the sun’s activity cycle and, as a result, the Aurora is more likely to occur as a result of coronal holes rather than more violent coronal mass ejections. The band can expand when geomagnetic activity is high which is why we can occasionally see the Aurora from northern parts of the UK. The Aurora is most frequently visible in Northern Scandinavia in a band that stretches between 66°N and 69°N, which we call the Aurora Zone. Unfortunately, we’re not likely to be sending people into space on Aurora hunting missions any time soon so our focus remains firmly in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere and Northern Scandinavia especially. The lights also appear near the magnetic poles of other planets and if you search the internet you can find images of Auroras above the likes of Jupiter and Saturn. When the Aurora Australis is very active then the lights may be visible from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa but these occasions are few and far between and certainly don’t justify travelling to such places purely in search of the Southern Lights. The Southern Lights or Aurora Australis occur most frequently over Antarctica which really only appeals to a few research scientists and penguins. The lights appear in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and even on other planets but from an Aurora hunting point of view, only the Northern Lights are a genuinely viable option. Southern Lights, Northern Lights, Extra-Terrestrial Lights
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