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Magical Auroras is our most popular northern lights tour for a reason. During this tour, we head out away from the city to search for magical auroras. We never know where the chase will take us, but we know it will be exciting!
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Escape the city's lights and come with us to look for the magical Northern Lights. Experienced Northern Lights guides will decide, on travel day, where to go, after considering both the aurora forecast and cloud cover to maximize your chances of seeing them in all their glory. We travel in a minibus with small groups, which ensures a personal and intimate experience.
We never know where these conditions will lead us. The weather changes quickly, and the destinations vary accordingly. We might head to the National Park Thingvellir, Reykjanes (The Southern Peninsula), covered with lava and extreme landscape, or Borgarfjordur, a beautiful fjord in the west of Iceland, to name a few.
What is the best way to prepare for the Northern Lights hunt? A visit to the Aurora Museum. Now, with the Northern Lights and Aurora Museum combo deal, learn what there is to know about these beautiful lights and how to take striking pictures of them before going on the actual chase.
Save up to 10 % on the deal and focus on the Icelandic beauty instead of worrying about any logistics, as you’ll be picked up from the museum to search for Aurora Borealis.
This natural phenomenon happens because of chemical reactions in the Earth‘s atmosphere. Gaseous particles collide with electrically charged molecules and atoms released from the sun‘s atmosphere. These particulates from the sun are blown towards earth by the solar wind and can enter both the northern and southern hemisphere because of weak magnetic field at the poles.That‘s the reason for why we only see those dancing lights close to the Northern pole (Auroras Borealis) and south pole (Auroras Australis).
The different colours are due to different molecules, oxygen forms the most common one, yellow/green and nitrogen produces blue/purple-red for instance.
For the Northern Lights adventure, pick-up is at either 20:30 (8:30 p.m.) or 21:30 (9:30 p.m.), depending on the season. You’ll find the actual pickup time in the booking process and on your final voucher. Picking everyone up can take up to 30 minutes, your patience is much appreciated.
Available pick-up points: Arctic Adventures’s pick-up list.
Note: The ticket to the Aurora Museum is valid throughout the day of the tour and can be visited at any time. The Museum closes at 18:00, so recommend visiting no later than 17:00. Keep in mind that pick-up for the Northern Lights tour will be from bus stop #15 - Vesturbugt / Mýrargata, close to the Old Harbour.
As the success of the northern lights tour is heavily dependent on weather conditions, we reserve the right to cancel the northern lights part of the tour until 18:15 on the day of the tour if the aurora forecast is not looking good. When this happens your payment is fully refunded.
Went to a tour but didn’t spot the Northern Lights? No worries, you can book another tour to see the lights free of charge. Note that this deal is unlimited and is valid for 3 years. So, don’t give up on your first time, get in touch with our Customer Care to witness this natural phenomenon. During a re-try, the tour is operated on a minibus.
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:
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.
This natural phenomenon happens because of chemical reactions in the Earth's atmosphere. Gaseous particles collide with electrically charged molecules and atoms released from the sun's atmosphere. These particulates from the sun are blown towards Earth by the solar wind and can enter both the northern and southern hemispheres because of a weak magnetic field at the poles. That's why we only see those dancing lights close to the Northern pole (Auroras Borealis) and south pole (Auroras Australis).
The different colors are due to different molecules. Oxygen forms the most common one, yellow/green, and nitrogen produces blue/purple-red.
