The one thing you probably want to know when thinking about splashing out thousands on a Lapland holiday is how to increase your chances of seeing the Northern Lights, right?
It’s definitely what we were researching like mad, before booking our crazy wedding and a Lapland holiday.
Turns out that even though Aurora Borealis is a natural phenomenon, there is a lot you can do to improve your odds of seeing it!
In this post, we share with you the 8 aurora watching tips we used to actually see the Northern Lights in Lapland.
From the best time to travel to common mistakes we see travellers make all the time, so you don’t end up like them – wasting a lot of money and then raging about it in a Lapland Facebook group. (Yikes!)
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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!
Do these aurora watching tips help?
We know what you’re asking.
If I do all these things, will I definitely see the Northern Lights?
Thing is, nobody can guarantee that – we’ll get to that exact issue in a minute.
But we’ll tell you this:
It’s all about doing what you can to improve your chances.
And if you’re curious whether these aurora watching tips helped us – yes, they did!
We saw Aurora Borealis on two nights in Lapland, one of which is was an absolutely mindblowing show!
Tip no. 1: Make the Northern Lights a bonus, not the whole trip
The first of our aurora watching tips might sound boring, but it’s actually the most important one.
The one thing everyone who’s ever gone aurora hunting will tell you before your first trip?
To accept the possibility that you might not see the Northern Lights at all.
And to definitely not build the whole holiday around that goal.
What does this mean?
Basically, it means that you should plan such an itinerary for your holiday, that even if the Northern Lights don’t show up for you, it will still be awesome.
Before the adventure starts — make sure you’ve got travel insurance sorted
For example, aside from our secret wedding (yep, you read that right), we planned for our Lapland trip:
- Sightseeing Copenhagen (and getting married there!)
- Exploring Helsinki
- Taking the sleeper Santa Claus Express train (would recommend!)
- Meeting Santa (don’t get scammed)
- Riding with the reindeer (choose the right experience)
- Finish sauna and an ice pool (only if you dare)
- Riding with the huskies (would not recommend!)
All of this combined would have made our Lapland holiday an awesome experience, even if we didn’t get to see Aurora Borealis.
Make sure you plan around seeing the Northern Lights, not as if that was the only goal of your holiday.
Tip no. 2: Prepare for not seeing the aurora
Wait, this isn’t the same aurora watching tip as the first one, just in a different shade of Santa’s red!
What we mean by preparing for not seeing the Northern Lights is mentally accepting the fact you might not get to see them.
And that’s harder than it sounds!
We all (us and Mirka’s sister) spoke about this before booking the trip.
We all thought we were prepared for the possibility of the lights not showing up.
But when we got to our Lapland cabin and checked the aurora app? (with a free custom subscription from the hotel, btw!)
And saw that the forecast for our WHOLE stay was miserable, as in low to no chance of seeing the aurora?
We were devastated.
To be honest with you, we’re not sure if you can really prepare for this, because if humans are good at one thing, it’s having hope.
So you will probably be hoping you’ll get to see the Northern Lights, even if you rationally keep telling yourself it might not happen.
But it’s at least worth having the conversation with everyone in your travel party, so people are aware that nobody, not even tour guides, can 100% guarantee an aurora show.
Tip no. 3: Manage your expectations
The real low blow of seeing the Northern Lights?
If Aurora Borealis does show up for you, but you:
- Expect to see a stunning display, like in all the pics and videos you’ve seen online, but reality doesn’t quite match that.
- Discover your eyes don’t perceive low light that well, meaning you see the lights just white. This happened to Mirka in Lapland and it was a proper shock on the first night.
We talked in more detail about this aurora watching tip in our Northern Lights expectation vs reality post, so make sure you check it out.
Because, we don’t know how about you, but nobody told us you might not see the colour of the aurora at all, if your eyesight is on a budget mode, like Mirka’s!
Tip no. 4: Choose the best time to see the aurora
Here are the 3 main things we considered when choosing when to travel to Lapland to see the Northern Lights:
1. The best months for aurora visibility
While the Northern Lights are technically visible from September to April, the edge-of-season months are a bit more of a gamble. For your best shot at strong, dramatic aurora displays, aim for October to March.
We travelled to Lapland at the very end of March – a great time to still see the aurora while saving a lot of money, because the high season is over.
Keep in mind though, that we travelled during the Solar Maximum – the most active part of the Sun’s 11-year cycle, when aurora activity tends to go absolutely feral.
One more thing to consider is that the closer you get to spring, the shorter the nights are.
That again decreases your chances of seeing the aurora – the longer the night, the longer you have to spot the Northern Lights, after all!
For us, end of March/start of April was the perfect combo of longer daylight to enjoy Lapland and all the fun activities, while still having long enough nights to see the aurora.
2. The best time for the right aurora weather
An interesting thing we see people complaining about all the time?
Travelling to Lapland in November/December and then raging that:
- There is no or very little snow in Lapland, so it’s not the winter wonderland they’ve dreamed of (plus activities like husky safaris or reindeer rides get cancelled when there isn’t enough snow!)
- The sky is too cloudy so watching the aurora is impossible
We get why people travel during those months, especially with kids.
Lapland during the festive season is the dream, right?
Well kinda.
You’ll have to deal with the:
- Crowds
- Super high prices
- Freezing temperatures
- Cloudy, possibly rainy weather
And this seems to be something that many travellers don’t consider before booking their bucket list winter holiday in Lapland!
To be honest with you, it all sounds like a proper nightmare to us, which is why we travelled at the end of March instead.
So pick your months well.
Look up the weather in your chosen location by month.
And remember that getting to actually see the Northern Lights depends on 2 things:
- The aurora being strong enough to be visible
- You actually being able to see it, in your location and with your weather conditions
You cannot influence the solar activity, but you can improve your chances by choosing the best location and time to see the aurora!
(And to stay in this awesome aurora hotel!)
3. The right moon phase
We never considered the role the moon plays during aurora watching, until we started planning our Lapland holiday.
It makes perfect sense though.
You need darkness to see the Northern Lights well.
Meaning you want to avoid the full moon and aim as close to the new moon as possible.
Some people say that the moon phase doesn’t matter that much, and yes, it’s true that the aurora is unpredictable, and people have seen it even:
- further south than expected
- in cities with light pollution
- with a bright moon overhead
But this is a post about smart aurora watching tips, to maximise your chances of actually seeing the Northern Lights.
And just think about the nights you’ve been out during the full moon – how much brighter are they, right?
So don’t make the mistake of booking a great hotel, because you find an amazing deal, and then realising the full moon falls on those dates.
Btw, if you’re wondering how we find amazing accommodation, like the budget-friendly aurora hotel we stayed at, grab our FREE guide where we share our secrets!
Tip no. 5: Pick the best location to see the Northern Lights
Two key aurora watching tips, when it comes to choosing your location?
- Going as far up north as you can
- Getting far away from light pollution
For instance, the awesome aurora hotel we stayed at – Northern Lights Village – has multiple locations in Finland.
One of the main reasons we chose the Saariselkä one was because it was the northernmost one at that time (they have since added another location even further up north).
But, when it comes to light pollution, we discovered an interesting issue during our Lapland trip.
Northern lights hotels are, obviously, located away from towns and villages, since their whole point is helping you see the aurora.
And while our Saariselkä hotel was within a walking distance to a village (another reason why we picked it), it was still far enough away to avoid light pollution.
Great, right?
Not quite.
It turned out that the motion-sensor lights around the Aurora Cabins activated when people went out – which happens a lot when an aurora alert goes off and everyone wants to see the Northern Lights outside!
That’s how we ended up in a forest, trying not to get run over by a snowmobile, but that’s a story from another post (and a useful tip you should be aware of).
Tip no. 6: Book more than 1 night (the 50% rule)
For some unexplained reason, this is one of the aurora watching tips that people seem to ignore.
We read about this issue in online discussions when planning our Lapland trip.
And we saw it at our northern lights hotel.
People book just 1 night in Lapland.
And then are surprised when they don’t get to see the aurora!
Yes, it does go back to our tips no. 1 and 2.
But there is also an unwritten rule, that, if you:
- are high up north, in aurora areas, such as Lapland
- and are there during aurora watching months (so not in August, for example!)
You are likely to see the Northern Lights on 50% of your nights spent there.
This rule seems to be more of a conclusion based on people’s experience and we can confirm – we saw the aurora on 2 out of our 4 nights spent in Lapland!
(pictured: the lobby bar at Northern Lights Village hotel)
But back to our point.
If you book just 1 night in Lapland.
And the aurora shows up on half of those nights…
Well, we’re sure you know where we are going with this.
Basically, the 1 night you book might be the 1 night when the aurora isn’t visible.
Your chances increase with the number of nights you spend in Lapland.
This is why we recommend trying to keep your costs down – so you can afford to spend longer chasing the aurora!
If you want to stay in a glass igloo, but can only afford 1 night there?
First, check whether it’s worth it for you.
Then see if you can book the glass-roof cabin we stayed at – you can often get a great deal and save so much money!
Lastly, if you book the 1 night in an aurora hotel, make sure you book more nights at a cheaper accommodation elsewhere, to increase your chances of seeing the Northern Lights.
Tip no. 7: Practise aurora photography
Why should you travel with friends and family?
So they can take amazing pictures of you during the trip, of course!
That’s why we took Mirka’s sister on this trip to Lapland.
Just kidding!
But we do have to give her a shoutout, not only for taking beautiful pictures of us and of the Northern Lights, but also for being our wedding witness, Mirka’s makeup and hair artist for the big day, and our wedding photographer! Yes, she is an awesome kid.
(Yes, we wore our Lapland boots on the day)
If you haven’t seen our wedding that we managed to pull off in total secrecy at the start of our Lapland trip, check it out!
Since we had Mirka’s sister, our own private photographer, with us on this trip, this aurora watching tip comes directly from her:
“If you don’t have experience photographing the Northern Lights, don’t worry— you can practise on other things at home!
For example, I photographed cars in motion at night to get used to the camera settings.
I went to a bridge outside the centre of Prague, with a highway running underneath, so there would be more movement in the shot. The moving lights from the cars behave similarly to Aurora Borealis, so it’s a good way to understand how motion shows up in long exposure.
I set my camera to a longer shutter speed, between 10 and 30 seconds, and lowered the ISO to the lowest possible setting.
Of course, it’s important to use a tripod to avoid blurry photos. Then all you have to do is press the shutter, or you can set a timer as well to avoid even a slight camera shake.”
Got a question about aurora photography? Give Mirka’s sister a shout on her Instagram!
Tip no. 8: Prepare for aurora nights well
One of the least talked about aurora watching tips?
Preparing for when the Northern Lights appear!
We wrote about this in our post on what to wear to see the aurora.
From tips on how to get your winter outfits ready to what to pack into a backpack or a tote bag.
The key?
All of this should be done before it gets dark, so if your aurora alert goes off, you are not running around, panicking.
A lesson we learned in Lapland is that the Northern Lights can show up whenever.
We had a decent forecast on night 3 of our holiday, but did not expect the aurora to appear till later in the night (the first time aurora appeared at 1am for us).
At 10pm, we were all freshly out of the shower, slowly getting ready, when suddenly our aurora alert went off!
You’ve never seen a hair dryer being blasted faster – Mirka’s sister’s hair was still wet at this point, and you really don’t want to head out into the arctic cold like that.
So be prepared:
- Plan evening activities like hair washing, night time saunas or late dinners well, so you don’t miss the aurora because of them
- Have your aurora watching outfits ready
- Pack your essentials before the excitement of an aurora alert going off sends everyone into a frenzy
Bonus tip: Don’t forget this when aurora watching
One of the most important aurora watching tips that forever gets ignored?
Having good travel insurance!
Because so many things can go wrong in Lapland:
- You can get ill, because you dressed wrong and ended up freezing your butt off for hours waiting for aurora to show up (or because you headed out with your hair still wet, not reading our aurora watching tip no. 8!)
- You can step off the path into deep snow, because you are looking up at the Northern Lights instead of at your feet, and break your leg
- You might crash your car as you’re chasing the aurora, because a reindeer might suddenly jump in front of it (happened to us TWICE on the bus from Santa’s village)
Scary stuff!
The best thing to do (other than being careful in the Arctic) is getting good travel insurance.
We recommend True Traveller, because their customer service is insane and their prices are so low you’ll be pissed off with yourself for not discovering them sooner.
(also this was such an amazing experience! Would recommend!)
Got questions about planning a Lapland trip or want a bit more help with your own aurora hunting? Book a call with us and we can chat all about it!
We hope these aurora watching tips help you have (at least) one of the “no way this is real!!!” nights.
And if the Northern Lights do show up for you, please let us know—we’re now totally obsessed with them, so we’d love to hear your story!
Hi!
We’re Mirka & Daniel — full-time travellers, professional overthinkers & bad luck magnets. We research EVERYTHING and then share all the weird travel tips with you here. Follow along to make your adventures easier! 🌴
