What Do the Northern Lights Really Look Like? Expectation vs Reality

If you’re wondering what the Northern Lights really look like, seen with your own eyes, we’ll tell you.

Because here’s the thing.

Even though we knew Aurora Borealis in real life wasn’t what you usually see in pictures, we were still shocked by one thing.

Yes, the Northern Lights can be a lot less colourful, when seen through your eyes vs your phone.

But nobody told us that the colours you see depend big time on your eyesight.

And that some people see the aurora white!

Even when others see colours.

This is Mirka’s story from Lapland, when she discovered her eyes might not be the best for aurora hunting.

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

Aurora hunting

Okay, we didn’t really hunt for the Northern Lights. You could say they came to us! Let us explain.

For our first trip to Lapland, and our first attempt at seeing the aurora, we wanted to increase our chances as much as possible.

There are many things you can do, if you want to improve your odds and we went the ultimate lazy way – staying in an aurora hotel.

Just kidding! There are many reasons why you might want to stay in a northern lights resort, other than being lazy.

But yes, our Aurora Cabin majorly increased our chances of seeing the Northern Lights because:

• It is located high up north, away from light pollution of towns and villages
• It has a glass roof above the bed, meaning you can just look up and see the lights dancing right above you – if you get lucky!
• You’ll get a premium subscription to an aurora app, with custom alerts for this specific hotel!

Oh, and we did the hotel stay and our full Lapland trip on a budget, so we really can’t complain (and we can highly recommend!).

If all of this wasn’t enough though, the hotel does offer aurora hunting tours, on snowmobiles or in heated sleighs, so that’s also an option.

We were lucky to see aurora on 2 out of our 4 nights in Lapland (remember this 50% rule when planning!).

But in this post we want to share with you a heartbreaking story about what the Northern Lights really look like.

What to prepare for when chasing the aurora

When we were planning our Lapland trip, we did a lot of research into maximising our chances of seeing the Northern Lights.

Even though the actual reason for this trip was getting married (yep, we did, completely in secret, in Copenhagen!), seeing the aurora had been at the top of our bucket list our whole life, so it was a very close second.

So when we got to Lapland, checked into our amazing northern lights hotel, opened up the aurora app and discovered the aurora forecast was more than miserable for our whole stay, we were crushed.

We came all this way.

Spent all the money (okay, yes, we did do the trip on a budget, but still!).

It was our dream to see the Northern Lights. We did all we could to maximise our chances.

And it was all for nothing.

This is why it’s important to manage your expectations well. And start with this way before you are in Lapland, while planning your holiday, because once you get there, it will be a lot harder to convince yourself it’s okay if the aurora never shows up for you.

For us, night one was totally cloudy, with a zero chance of seeing anything.

But then, on night 2, something happened. Something nobody warned us about.

What do the Northern Lights really look like?

It was 1am on our second night in Lapland when our aurora alert went off.

Since the forecast was showing almost no chance of seeing the Northern Lights, hearing the aurora alarm go off and seeing a message that the Northern Lights are actually visible, was unreal. 

There literally are no words to describe the feeling.

Mirka speaking:

I was the first one up (we did the Lapland holiday with my sister, who was our wedding witness – unknowingly, of course, since we kept the wedding a complete secret!).

Heart racing, I shouted at sleeping Daniel and my sister: “The lights are out, get up, get up, get up!!”

I rushed out of our Aurora Cabin to check whether the Northern Lights really were there, so the guys wouldn’t come out pointlessly.

I checked the northern horizon. I checked directly above me. I checked everywhere.

No Northern Lights.

I checked the alert on my phone again.

I checked the sky.

No freaking aurora.

I stomped back into our Aurora Cabin, where Daniel and my sister were just getting ready to head out, and, I’ll be honest with you, I was royally pissed off.

Not because the Northern Lights didn’t show up. 

The aurora forecast told us they wouldn’t.

But because the app lied. It gave me false hope and at 1am that’s really not appreciated.

What I didn’t know was that the app actually wasn’t lying.

Northern Lights: expectations vs reality

Daniel, ever the problem-solver, was checking the sky through our glass roof (I know we’ve said this already, but such a hack, these glass igloos/aurora cabins!).

And right away he went: “Mirka, the Northern Lights are right there.”

To which I responded with: “WHAT? WHERE?”

And Daniel pointed to a streak of white, passing from the north, over our cabin.

Do you want to know what the Northern Lights really look like?

Like the Milky Way. 

If you think I was finally happy in that moment, you need to follow us on our Instagram and get to know me (/us) better.

Because I was just more pissed off.

“So we waited our whole life to see the Milky Way, which I can see from parents’ house in a village in Slovakia??” (Btw, the village is totally epic and you can visit it from Bratislava.)

To say I was not impressed by the Northern Lights is an understatement.

But, as you might be guessing, that wasn’t the end of the story.

What nobody tells you about the Northern Lights

Despite me being beyond disappointed, we quickly got stressed, grabbed our tripod and camera, and headed out to see the Northern Lights before they disappeared.

These are the 2 things nobody told us about seeing the aurora, that we discovered on that night:

• The Northern Lights can look like a white/greyish cloud or a Milky Way-style streak during weaker displays
• If your eyes don’t see well in low light conditions, you might see the aurora white even when others see colours

The second discovery was the shocking one.

Because once we were out and started talking, it became very clear that:

• My sister was seeing mint green Northern Lights
• Daniel was seeing a darker shade of green
• I was seeing plain white, with no colour whatsoever

If you know us, you know that we’re suspicious I am the source of the unreal amount of bad luck in our life, and this just confirmed that.

How to prepare for seeing the aurora to avoid disappointment

If you’re now thinking: “Great, we’ve got the Lapland holiday booked and I’ve just discovered we might be seeing the Northern Lights from AliExpress,” fear not! We’ve got aurora tips for you that will help:

1. Manage your expectations PRIOR to your trip. This is crucial. It’s also super important to have these conversations with any kids in your travel party, so their little hearts aren’t broken once you’re in Lapland.
2. Maximise your chances of seeing a good aurora display. From picking the right location to travelling during the best time of the year, there’s loads you can do to stack the odds in your favour. 
3. Look up photo vs reality shots of the Northern Lights. Warning: these are pretty depressing. The good thing, though? If your aurora turns out to be like the unedited pics, at least you’ll be prepared. And if you get a more intense display, you’ll be blown away, so no harm done.
4. If possible, take a good phone with you. Let’s talk more about this, because this was super helpful for me (still Mirka speaking).

Which phone to use for seeing the Northern Lights?

We’re all about saving money, so our phones are quite old by now. 

I have a Samsung Galaxy A52 and Daniel has an even older Samsung Galaxy S10e. 

While great, affordable phones, they were both absolutely rubbish at picking up the Northern Lights. As in not showing anything at all, unless the photo was highly edited.

My sister had an iPhone 15 with her. (She was also shooting on Nikon D5100, but those were pictures for future edits.)

It was her iPhone that saved me.

Not because it magically created Northern Lights that weren’t there, but because newer phones are so much better in low light.

I could actually see the colours of the Northern Lights on her screen, even without taking a photo or video—just by pointing the phone at the sky.

Yes, it’s sad, having to be on a phone even when something as amazing as Aurora Borealis is happening right above you.

It made me feel like when you’re at a concert, but you’re so far back (or so small) that you have to be watching it on the big screens, rather than live—that always upsets me. (Anyone else like that?? Let me know!)

But at least I could see what the Northern Lights really look like.

Are the Northern Lights really worth seeing? 

You might have been wondering whether the Northern Lights are hyped up just a bit too much.

It’s fair, especially with Lapland holidays costing more than half-a-year’s rent (unless you do it on a budget, like we did!)

Do we think Aurora Borealis is worth seeing?

More importantly, do I think it’s worth chasing the Northern Lights, even if your night vision comes with a budget mode setting only, like mine??

An honest truth?

Yes! Times infinity.

The Northern Lights are absolutely worth seeing.

But, you should do 2 things:

1. Do what you can to decrease the cost of your Lapland holiday. We shared how we did our Lapland trip on a budget and you can steal all our money-saving hacks, so that seeing the aurora doesn’t cost you half a kidney.
2. We said it many times in this post, but maximise your chances of seeing a good aurora display. This is the most important.

When the Northern Lights showed up on the second night, it was amazing, as an experience, even if the display wasn’t great.

But on the third night?

We lucked out with the most incredible show.

The Northern Lights were massive.

They lasted for hours.

We got a lot of movement – seeing them dancing above you is breathtaking, even if you see just white.

But, and this made us all super happy, the third night’s display was so intense, even I saw colour!

Not as much as Daniel and my sister, but I saw green and even a bit of pink.

So even with eyes that struggle in low light conditions, you can see amazing Northern Lights.

That’s why it’s so important to maximise your chances of catching strong Aurora Borealis.

Fun fact? Our third night’s display wasn’t even considered a very strong aurora. According to the aurora app it was in the mid-range. So now I’m slightly obsessed with seeing an even stronger Northern Lights one day and finding out how my eyes cope. (I might have been manically checking last-minute trips to Lapland. 🤭)

It’s hard to explain what the Northern Lights really look like, because everyone will get a different show and everyone’s eyes perceive the aurora differently (as we learned!). 

We hope you’ll see an amazing aurora display, whatever your eyesight settings.

If you’d like help planning your Lapland trip or got questions about chasing the Northern Lights, you can book a call with us—because honestly, planning Lapland for the first time can feel beyond stressful. 😬 (But don’t worry, magic awaits, once you’re there!)