The Northern Lights – one of nature’s greatest shows on Earth – tops the bucket lists of travelers all over the globe. Join us on a thrilling hunt from Reykjavik to spot this ghostly glow in the dark sky. We escape the city’s artificial lights and drive into the deep darkness of the countryside. Our guides keep a close eye on weather conditions to find the perfect spot to admire the Aurora Borealis. Your encounter with these ephemeral lights will make for a magical night!
Your guide will take free photos of you and the aurora for your travel album, so you’ll always have a reminder of this dazzling moment!
Availability
Sept. - Apr.
Duration
~ 4 hours
Duration Overwrite
Level
Easy
Suitable for most people in fair condition.
Pickup
Yes
Meet on location
No
Min. Age
6 years
Ratio
1:28
Guide to client ratio
Departs from
Reykjavik
Departs from Overwrite
Price from
9.990 ISK
Tour highlights
Small Group Experience
Northern Lights Photos
The Northern Lights
Guided Tour in a Minibus
Budget Option
Iceland Countryside
Included
Pick-up & drop off from Reykjavík
Minibus Transport
Expert Guide
Northern Lights Photos
English Speaking Tour Guide
Free WiFi on Board Your Bus
Business Hours
Our service desk is open every day From 8:00 am – 09:00 pm GTM. You are always welcome to send us an email using our contact form. Our friendly customer service will assist you every day during business hours.
Our minibus tour of the Northern Lights is one of our most popular tours. We follow the best aurora and cloud forecast available to optimize your chance of seeing the aurora borealis dancing across the night sky. Due to its proximity to the Arctic Circle and the magnetic pole, Iceland’s auroral activity is some of the most intense in the northern hemisphere.
Chase the Northern Lights
Our tour of the Northern Lights starts off with the thrill of the pursuit. Once your guide picks you up from Reykjavik, be prepared for the hunt. You’ll drive out into the unparalleled beauty of a starry night. As the forecast changes daily, unfortunately, we can’t tell you in advance exactly where our quest for the aurora borealis will take us. But one thing is guaranteed–we will take you far away from the city lights! We could go to Hvalfjörður, Þingvellir, Reykjanes, or to some other rural area in South Iceland to escape light pollution. Traveling by minibus means we can get to offbeat locations that the big buses just can’t reach.
The Magic of the Aurora Borealis
If the Northern Lights show up–and it might be at any time–it can be simply awe-inspiring. They may appear quite subtly, then before you know it, stretch and expand into swirling and dancing patterns across the sky. Whether dramatic or delicate, they’re always a surreal and special sight to behold. Green and yellow auroras are the most common. Less regular, but equally as stunning, are blue, violet and rose auroras. Red hues the rarest, yet they’re more common in Iceland than anywhere else in the world.
Pose for a Memory
During our minibus tour, your guide will snap a photograph of you and the aurora free of charge that you can access online after the tour. See photos from previous tours. We guarantee you that this is a moment you’re certainly going to want to have on film!
Pick-up Information
Pickup is at 21:30 pm from your hotel or a nearby meeting point in Reykjavík. Picking everyone up can take up to 30 minutes, your patience is much appreciated. Available pick-up points: Arctic Adventures’s pick-up list.
Practical Information
Please remember to bring:
Hiking boots or very sturdy footwear, warm outdoor layers, a weatherproof top layer, headwear, gloves, and scarves. There is no such thing as too many layers on a Northern Lights tour! We also recommend bringing a tripod for your camera.
What if I don’t own all of these clothing items? Don’t worry, you can always rent sturdy hiking shoes, waterproof jacket and pants during the booking process. We do not rent gear from locations, it must be ordered in advance.
Please note
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. If the tour goes ahead and no northern lights are seen we offer clients the chance to join another evening’s departure free of charge upon availability. Note that you need to contact us to re-book.
The Northern Lights are natural phenomena and we unfortunately cannot promise you will see them. Their appearance depends upon atmospheric and weather conditions.
Unfortunately, there isn’t just one simple answer to this question.
There isn’t just one single setting for your camera that ensures great photos. But 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
A refund is not available if the northern lights tour goes ahead and no northern lights are seen but we do offer you the chance to join a Northern Lights Minibus tour free of charge.
Like you might have heard, the northern lights are a pretty difficult thing to predict. You can 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. We do update our website’s tour departure sheet with the information at 17:00 pm the latest. If the tour is cancelled, 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 to see the lights.
The Northern Lights season is said to be from late August until mid-April. However, if you want to increase your chances of seeing them, it is best to wait until the clear winter months of mid-September until March.
If luck and weather are on your side, then you will be able to see the Aurora Borealis above the inviting streets of Reykjavik. Whether you see the lights or not are dependant 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.
Magical Auroras - Northern Lights Tour | Average rating: 4.9/5 based on 41 customer reviews
"Good company" | By Anne Leaver 17/12/2018
We had Sam as our guide. He was a good driver, very smooth. Gave us some information and kept us updated with the plans. Got to see the lights, unfortunately not all of his photos uploaded and we were one of the ones that didn’t. Would definitely recommend them.
"Our guide, Nick, was exceptional" | By Tom W 15/12/2018
Our guide, Nick, was exceptional. Very knowledgeable, very friendly. Could not have asked for a better person to lead the trip.
"Such an amazing experience" | By Ioannis Pitsillides 14/12/2018
It's a bit expensive but it was such an amazing experience. The tour guy was telling us small stories about Iceland and he was explaining everything about all the landmarks in our road. The snowmobile was the best bit. We had so much fun! Highly recommended!!!
"Everything was perfect" | By Jerome 11/12/2018
Very professional and friendly Guide. I had a lot of fun and the tour was amazing.
"Great experience" | By Erik Guillot 08/12/2018
We went with Samuel and he didn’t disappoint. Knowledgeable guide and full of positive energy. He kept the motor running so we could warm up every now and then. It took a while but we waited just long enough to get a solid northern lights show. Very impressive! Would go again any day. My tip for anyone going hunting for northern lights: it can get bitter cold out there with heavy winds so dress double socks, multiple layers and so on. And be patient!
"Great tour" | By Britt S 08/12/2018
"Hi there, The tour was great. Seeing the northern lights was a huge highlight in my life. I would definitely recommend this tour and company to others. There was some confusion about picking us up for the northern lights tour. We were dropped off by the company at the Cabin hotel and apparently were supposed to go back to the Cuty Hall bus stop because that’s where we were picked up in the morning. Since we were dropped off at the hotel, we were under the assumption that it was where we would be picked up later. Better communication about this would be helpful for future tours. Overall I can’t recommend you enough. I will definitely be back in a summer or two to check out your other tour with more friends and family. Thank you for your help and I look forward to working with you again in the future."
"Great tour, but website could use improvement" | By Steve Young 04/12/2018
We were not lucky enough to see the lights on the first night out. The website allowed us to rebook our tour for another night. After we rebooked for the next night, and the tour was canceled due to clouds, the website stopped working. It continued to show that our tour for the second night was still ON even though it was cancelled. There was no opportunity for us to rebook on the website. We had to call them on the phone in order to rebook. Other than this one hiccup, everything else went smoothly. They texted the status of the upcoming night's tour to our phones. The pickup was timely - didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes, and the driver even gave us tips on how to set our cameras to take photos of the lights.
"No lights but still fun" | By H 04/12/2018
The guide Mika made this tour fun although there were no lights. He told us where we were going and we really felt like we were participating in a hunt for the lights.
"Great tour!" | By Tom Phelan 03/12/2018
Frimann was our tour guide and was brilliant. He navigated is away from the clouds to a secluded spot where we could wait for the northern lights to appear. Frimann not only found a quiet spot for our minibus he also correctly predicted what time the lights would appear. He was very knowledgable about Iceland and told lots of funny stories about growing up in Iceland. He took brilliant photos too which topped off a fantastic night.
"Amazing experience!" | By Lilian 15/11/2018
Nick was our tour guide the first night and found the northern lights, but the weather did not cooperate and storms kept rolling in and crashing our fun. So he let us book the tour again and we went out the second time with Sam, who was also awesome! We ended up meeting up with 3 other vans from Artic Adventures and got an awesome light show for over an hour! We stayed there until the clouds rolled in and blocked the lights. And Nick was there patiently taking as many pictures as our hearts desired and he shared all of them with all the groups! Thank you so much for the experience!!!
"Totalmente recomendable" | By Daniel Jiménez Quiñones 13/11/2018
Experiencia totalmente recomendable. Nick fue nuestro guía y intentó cambiar de localización varias veces hasta que conseguimos ver las auroras. Mágica experiencia.
"Great tour" | By Vanessa Orfao 12/11/2018
I really enjoyed the tour, but I did not like my photo that came out very dark. I understand that it is difficult to take a photo, but only had one photo of me, when other participants took more photos. But, the tour was really cool and super recommend.
"Northern Lights Tour 03/11/2018" | By Katie Delve 11/11/2018
We booked our Northern Lights Tour with Arctic Adventures after they were recommended to us by a friend and I am so glad we did. Our guide was fantastic and we were really pleased we had opted for a smaller group tour when we saw all the other operators taking coaches from the bus station, it looked manic. It was an added bonus that Nick took photos of the lights and shared them all the next morning via a link as we didn’t have a camera capable of getting the shots he did. It was a fantastic night, thank you so much.
"Everything about the trip was good..." | By Praveen 10/11/2018
Everything about the trip was good, we even could see the Northern Lights. The only terribly disappointing thing was the quality of the pictures taken by the guide (Nick I think) was very blurry. So blurry cant even see who's in the picture. However the Northern Lights backdrop in the picture was amazing.
"Great experience" | By Paul Degiorgio 10/11/2018
Although I consider myself lucky to have booked this tour on a day where there was high activity in Aurora particles, I still think that luck wasnt just the only factor. The local experience and knowledge of this company along with the friendly, funny and helpful guide made this tour a great success. I would highly recommend this company for their very professional and dedicated approach with attention to a lot of detail. 5 star and worth every penny.
"Positive: we got to see the lights!" | By K Midgley 10/11/2018
We seemed to spend more time collecting people from hotels than we did travelling out of the city to find the lights. Thankfully we were lucky enough to see them however the tour was very impersonal and no information was given regarding the lights or help given to try and get your own photographs as mentioned in other reviews read. I am happy we got to see the lights but next time would probably go with a smaller more intimate tour so we could spend more time out of the city. We did use arctic adventures for another trip though and that was great!
"Booked the combi tour..." | By Joanne Scott 09/11/2018
Booked the combi tour: golden circle snow mobiling and Northern lights. absolutely brilliant tour and we especially loved the snow mobiling! drop offs and pick ups were straight forward and Nick was very knowledgeable and persistant on northern lights tour. transport was very comfortable. the company were very understanding when our circumstances changed due to bereavement. cannot recommend highly enough.
"Magical Auroras" | By Rosana 05/11/2018
The tour was nice, but it was initially canceled and it was too hard to reschedule. I tried to contact the company on several occasions through the phone and left messages on their website, but they did not answer. They rescheduled the tour a few hours before the tour itself. I was able to attend the tour, but I had to cancel other plans I already had.
"Tour Guides Went Above & Beyond" | By Penny Johnson 22/10/2018
We were impressed by the Northern Lights, they were beautiful. The tour guide was just as impressive. He knew so much about Iceland that he shared throughout the tour, and kept us out way past my early bed time trying to get us an even more impressive viewing if the Northern Lights than our first sighting. Our first sighting was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Northern lights tour" | By Melissa 13/10/2018
Was good to have a tour guide to drive you around once you're outside the city as it is really dark. No guarantee that you will get to see the Northern Lights, but we were very lucky and had a beautiful show that evening.
"A Night to Remember" | By Joyce Jennings 10/10/2018
We had a wonderful experience from pick up to drop off. Our guide, Nick, was helpful and informative. We enjoyed having a smaller group in a minivan. And to top it off, we just downloaded the photos taken of us in front of the Northern Lights. What a treasure!
"My family agrees that this was one of the top..." | By Laura Allen 09/10/2018
My family agrees that this was one of the top, if not the top tour we’ve ever been on-our guide, Arnar Saevers, was the best guide we have ever had. It was a fantastic trip and some friends and I are planning to come out again in the Spring-Skal!
"Outstanding" | By Alessandra Curcio 09/10/2018
I had a great time with both tours that I have booked with you! I will certainly recommend it to my friends. But if possible, I would like to receive the northern lights photos of this tour that I went on October 2nd. Thank you!
"Twas a late cold night..." | By Rebekah 20/09/2018
We knew it was a long shot because of the weather and so when we did see the lights we were all so happy! Pics taken - beautiful - glad we went. We did learn some great photography tips and tricks from our guide. If I could give those booking the tour a heads-up though, plan on just the pick-up and drop-off at all the available locations to take an hour or so each way. We didn't get dropped off until about 240 am that night. Also, the bus was FREEZING and after long bouts of standing outside in the relative cold of a September Iceland dead of night, it would have been nice to have some heat on the bus.
"Best tour company there is" | By Tim 13/09/2018
I can't say enough great things about Arctic Adventures. Their guides are great and their customer service is the best in the industry. We were scheduled to take a tour to see the Northem lights but my wife became ill as the tour bus reached our pick up location. He told us not a problem and would make sure we got rescheduled for the following night. 20 minutes later, we get an email confirmation that the reschedule was confirmed for the next night.
"Martis was a great guide!" | By Jesse 18/04/2018
Martis was a great guide! My friends and I had a blast snowmobiling. We got to go fast with a small group and it was awesome.
"Great tour and great company to travel with" | By Mike 09/04/2018
We did a three-part combo tour with Arctic Adventure and overall the company was great and I would highly recommend booking with them. They kept the groups informed, the communicated well, the vehicles were clean, the groups were small and the guides were very knowledgeable of their surroundings. Everyone we came in contact with was very kind and humble. Great job across the board.
"Lifetime experience" | By Aniket Shiyal 03/04/2018
The tour experience is really awesome. Tour guides were really good in the forecast reading. Had a awesome experience of the Northern lights. Enjoyed and memorized a lifetime experience.
"Nice and accomodating staffs" | By Charisse Mendoza 28/03/2018
We really like the attitudes of your staffs/tour guides in our entire trip. They always lending a hand and making sure that we are enjoying the whole trip. Some even do their best to give extra places for us to see when there is still enough time. If we will get a chance to go back to iceland again we will definitely book our tour with you again. Thank you so much for the very unforgettable experience! -️ God bless! And more power Arctic Adventures!
"Magical Auroras Mini Bus Tour" | By Felicity Stone 01/02/2018
We set off on our tour with the wonderful Clements as our guide. As we drove he explained the science behind the Northern Lights and why they are such an unpredictable phenomena. Clements then took the time to tell us all how to set up our cameras to take photos of the Lights should we be fortunate enough to experience them. We drove out into the darkness and waited in hope for the Lights to present themselves. While we only saw a tint in the sky with our own eyes, thanks to Clements we dd obtain pictures of the Lights on our cameras. As per Arctic Adventures’ policy, wehad the opportunity to re-book the tour free of charge to try again another day. We couldn’t fault the tour. We were picked up where we said we would be on time and Clements did everything in his power to give us the opportunity to see the Northern Lights. Through no fault of Arctic Adventures it just wasn’t happening that night. Clements was friendly and had lots of interesting facts to share with us. He was happy to answer our questions and help us with our cameras. He was patient and obviously very enthusiastic about sharing the Northern Lights with his tour group. I hope to return to Iceland and will certainly use Artic Adventures again to continue my hunt for a glimpse of the Northern Lights.
"Dedicated light hunters" | By Andrew Webb 23/02/2018
This was an excellent tour. Clemy was a brilliant guide with a real passion for the magic of the Northern Lights. Would really recommend.
"Absolutely amazing experience!" | By Lauren McClelland 09/03/2018
My boyfriend and I took the Sensational Iceland - Waterfalls, Glacier Hike and Northern Lights tour in the last week of February and it exceeded all of our expectations. Our tour guide, I think his name was Thomas (he mentioned he was greek) was absolutely fantastic- probably one of the best guides i've ever had anywhere in the world. He was kind, thoughtful, and very knowledgable. He took time to explain things to us about the country and the stops we were making. He was very patient with the group and allowed us some extra time at rest stops along the way even though it meant he was back in the city a little later than expected. The northern lights tour was cancelled a couple times due to the weather so we didn't have him as our guide for that unfortunately. However, we were happy that they did cancel it until it was a clear enough night. I appreciated that they didn't waste our time as other companies have in the past. I would definitely recommend this tour to others!
"Wonderful experience" | By Luis Uribe 10/03/2018
The tour guide was simply extraordinary, he educated us about the phenomenon of the boreal aureoras, besides the history of Iceland, tricks of how to take the photos, his patience to take pictures to each one and have a memory for life. It is evident that he loves his work and his country, he gives the best of himself so that everyone has the best experience.
"A personal touch, a great guide and the Northern Lights spectacle in full flow!" | By Dan Bullock 13/03/2018
We chose one of the mini-bus tours due to the positive things we'd read and, even more so, the hope that something a little more focused would bring us a more unique evening and... we were very lucky to be perfectly right! Clemmy was our host for the evening, picking us both up on time and joining others already on the mini-bus, I'd say there was about 15 of us in total so a good small group. After some great history on the way out of history on how the Northern Lights form, he kept us up-to-date on all aspects from the science to the hope of luck in seeing some. Conditions were perfect with a clear sky but, of course, it was also very cold on the wind-chill so ALWAYS BRING LAYERS for these tours. It's the very nature of what you're doing, as you could end up anywhere! Once we reached our destination, and weaved our way past the large coaches, we were alone in the darkness and stepped out to see the beginning of nearly 2 hours of 'action', and it was spectacular. Other than layers, I'd highly recommend taking a camera (DSLR) to take some photos should the phenomenon occur. If you also get Clemmy, then he may even help with your settings, even though I was reasonably close to getting it right, he changed one thing to give the best results. Awesome evening, we felt so lucky! When the expectation meets what you hope, and exceeds it, well, that's the perfect match-up.
"Fantastic tour, fantastic guide" | By Judith Gilbert 17/03/2018
This tour was fabulous! Of course there is never a guarantee that you will see lights, but our guide Klemmi was a real full-blooded aurora hunter, so enthusiastic. He knew how to beat the clouds and found a spot. He explained so much about the lights, what they are, how they come to the earth's poles, what conditions are necessary for them to be visible, or, if not visible to the naked eye, then visible to the camera (yes, there's a difference). He was great! A great guide and a great teacher - and a safe driver. I am a photographer but never photographed the aurora - he had great tips and I got wonderful shots. Definitely want to go out with Arctic Adventures again the next time I am in Iceland. Thanks so much for a great tour, Klemmi!
"Excellent Tour" | By Daniel G 17/03/2018
We had a very informative and charismatic tour guide who was very knowledgeable. He made some adjustments in location we needed to get a great show.
"Beyond expectations" | By Renke 26/03/2018
Tour guide was very knowledgeable during our glacier hike. He was proactive in sharing with us information about Iceland. Open for questions. Ready to take pictures of us at any stage. Clean and comfortable mini vans. Pick up timings were accurate and driver easy to locate. We DID see the Northern lights, the sane day of our tour I got an SMS about the weather forecast and the fact that the tour was confirmed as the northern lights remain a natural phenomenon and not guaranteed to see. It was an amazing experience. Professional pictures taken of us and shared on website. Just a wonderful tour company to book a tour with. Recommended 100%
"Northern Lights" | By Janet 16/03/2018
Our family took a Northern Light tour with Arctic Adventures on 03.08.14. It was well worth traveling on the tour they new actually where the lights would be best seen and can't say enough on the beautiful pictures that were taken from that event. This was a top event on our bucket list and it didn't disappoint. Thanks again.
"Very happy with our guide" | By Edalene 16/03/2018
Very happy with our guide for the tour (my apology, cannot spell his name) He tried his best to make the Long drive interesting and fun. V knowledgeable in controlling the special vehicle by deflating the tires when on soft ground and filled it up on our return to hard tarmac road.
"Our guide was very informative friendly" | By Peter Kardys 10/03/2018
Our guide was very informative friendly. The small group was the way to go. We were very lucky to see a Great show of lights including red visable to the eye, no camera to see the colors. This was our fourth adventure with Artic Adventures and every one was Great!!!
"Nothing short of spectacular" | By Christian Mera 14/03/2018
My girlfriend, Aubree West, and I went on our tour with Clemney who was nothing short of spectacular. He went above and beyond in explaining what exactly we were looking for and described the formation of the lights with every relevant detail possible. He made the tour very enjoyable to where we requested to be placed with Clemney on our second attempt to see the lights when we did not get to see them on our first try. Overall, a great experience!
By Anne Leaver 17/12/2018 
By H 04/12/2018 
By K Midgley 10/11/2018