Where to go for Northern lights

Cable car to a panorama over the island, strait and peaks, best at blue hour.

White triangular church across the bridge, the city landmark by day.

Large modern harbour hotel, handy for tour pickups and the sky bar.

Titanium clad cathedral inspired by the aurora, in the town centre.

UNESCO listed rock carvings and the town's aurora research history, the best indoor day in Alta.

Riverside lodge and rebuilt Igloo Hotel on the Alta River outside town.

Reconstructed Viking chieftain longhouse, the substantial indoor day.

Traditional rorbu cabins inside the Hamnoy postcard view itself.

Beloved lunch stop for fish soup and stockfish by the yellow rorbu.

Lighthouse shore west of the Old Harbour, the closest darker sky to the centre.

Dome museum with an aurora film and deck, useful before a first real night.

Well run mid range hotel in converted houses near Laugavegur.

Icebergs in a lagoon, a great aurora foreground away from car park lights.

Basalt columns and sea stacks, daylight only, with a lethal wave warning.

Modern dark grounds hotel between Skaftafell and the glacier lagoon.

Chairlift to a mountaintop viewing station, a bonus not the whole plan.

Mountain station hotel, hostel and cabins, the village in practice.

Open lakeshore a short walk from the station, free and often superb.

Rebuilt each winter from Torne River ice, one ice night is enough.

Vast wooden church moved in one piece to its new site in August 2025.

Guided mine tours explaining the ore body and the town move it causes.

Arctic museum and science centre, the best indoor day in Finnish Lapland.

Meet Santa on the Arctic Circle line, commercial and joyful for children.

Suites on stilts in the forest, with big north facing windows.

The original glass igloos, with an aurora alarm in a forest clearing.

Fell tops and winter trails starting at the village edge.

National Sami museum on Lake Inari, the cultural heart of the far north.

Geothermal pools an hour from town, aurora watching from hot water.

Alaska art, natural history and aurora science on the university hill.

Forest domes and cubes with transparent roofs, the aurora sleep splurge.

Heated teepee viewing site outside town, comfortable even at minus 35.

Free museum of Dene and Inuit culture, aviation and northern wildlife.

Rocky viewpoint in Old Town over Great Slave Lake and the houseboats.

Small dense museum with a major collection of Inuit carvings and artefacts.

Hand built log lodge in town, the characterful independent base.

Mobile fine dining on the frozen tundra, dinner and sky in one evening.

Outdoor hot pools in the forest, aurora overhead on the right night.

Ice Age Yukon, mammoths and the first peoples of the Americas.

Glass fronted chalets south of town, built around aurora watching.

Summit panorama over the Derwent, sometimes above cloud on storm nights.

Private museum upriver by catamaran, the daytime heart of any Hobart trip.

Story led waterfront hotel on the Hunter Street pier.

Guided telescope stargazing in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve.

Small stone church on the shore, a night sky foreground, respect services.

Summit observatory above the lake, reached by guided tour at night.

Predator free sanctuary with fearless birds, reached by water taxi.

Working hardware store holding a famous motorworks collection.

Hill panorama over Foveaux Strait toward Stewart Island.