What advice can you share for a short February trip to Norway?
We are planning a trip to Norway in February (toward the end).
The plan is to arrive into Oslo and take the first flight to Tromso, and spend several days there enjoying the city and embarking on several activities including:
- Fjord River Boat Tour
- Dog Sledding
- Aurora Chasing
- (maybe) Cross Country Skiing
- Visiting the Ice Domes
- Visiting Museums
- Visiting a spa
On the way back we'd like to visit Bergen for a couple of days and have yet to plan this part at all.
Any locals or people who have already visited: Is there anything you think would be a shame to miss out on while we're there? Anything you think is a waste of time and / or money?
We are doing this trip on a budget. Ultimately, Norway is expensive so "on a budget" means, we're taking cheap flights and not staying in luxury accommodation for the most part.
One last thing: I am planning to propose on this trip. I would love any advice on somewhere romantic to actually pop the question. My current plan is to do it on the aurora chasing trip if we get lucky, but otherwise I need a couple of backup plans.
I don't know shit about Norway, but congrats!
Thank you so much!
As a local who has lived in Tromsø before... It's kind of hard to appreciate what you have (I didn't go do any of the tourist things when I lived there, I was busy studying at the university). However, I can give you a couple of tips:
This was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for when I posted this. Thank you so much.
Part of the reason I want to go on the Aurora tour is that you get driven around and see a bunch of the landscape. I've never driven in Nordic went (or anything colder than -3c really), so I've deliberately not gotten us a vehicle. Do you think that's a mistake?
When you put it like that, no, not really. If you get a rental it will come with winter tires, so it should be well equipped, but if you're not experienced driving on icy and snowy roads it might be unreasonably stressful, and you might not know where to go for scenic views anyway.
By the way, this is a Norwegian weather forecast site that has an aurora forecast. Look out for high activity and low cloud cover (scroll down).
Having been to Tromso in January before... dress warm ;) Sadly didn't have much time to sight see there. I did get some time in Oslo - if you have any time to stop over for sightseeing, it's worth seeing the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and the Viking Ship Museum, and they're around the corner from one another other and accessible by bus.
The Viking Ship Museum is actually temporarily closed until 2025/2026! But having visited the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, I also highly recommend it, one of the highlights of my recent Oslo trip.
Yes we're definitely packing warm. Thank you for the tips. Not planning to spend much time is Oslo as we've been told Bergen is the better city to visit during the winter by a few close friends, but I'll keep that in mind if we change plans on that.
I'm currently learning Norwegian and would love to go one day, please make a follow-up post! I'd love to hear how the trip+proposal went.
I totally will :)
I haven't been to Norway since I was a child, so I can't give any advice about your list of activities - I will say however that it looks like you are trying to cram a lot of things into what you are calling a "short" trip. Especially going from Oslo to Tromsø to Bergen? Norway is really quite big, so this is a lot of travel time which means you are spending entire days, or at least halves of days, only going from A to B. You don't specify how long your trip is going to be except for calling it short but I would definitely recommend double checking your itinerary to make sure you aren't rushing everything.
At least in my opinion it makes for a nicer trip if you take it easy rather than rushing to make sure you see everything possible. That means leaving a couple of things out, but that's just how it is because doing the latter leaves out the possibility of smelling the flowers or doing whatever you feel like doing on a particular day - like deciding on the spot to stay at a nice restaurant for a little longer, but you can't because you need to hurry along.
To be clear, Oslo is only a stop-over, and we're just choosing to fly back from Bergen so we can spend a little time there before heading back. Tromso is really the core of this trip.
That said, I've noted your advice and will certainly keep it in mind as I now start to book flights and activities.
Hi, if you've got the time, I recommend going on a whale safari. My ex is from Tromsø, so we went on one during one of our visits to her family. I don't remember the name of the agency we went with, unfortunately. There are likely several agencies you can check in with - some do the trip on a RIB, others with a solid hull vessel. We went on a RIB and witnessed a spectacular view as orcas had a feeding bonanza on codfish just a few meters away from the boat, while two humpback whales were lurking about in the background.
I also agree that Fjellheisen and Polaria are worth checking out. :)
I really wanted to do this, but have been told by several agencies that the season stops in January (on the 31st).
They said it's possible to find some agencies that might continue out of the season but that this is overly disruptive for the animals.
I think this will have to stay on the list for when we come back.
Thanks for the suggestion.