Discovering the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) – A Top Travel Experience

Feet deep in snow, hands cradling the tripod and camera while the eyes stare up at the dancing colours in the sky.

This week’s travel experience that makes it into my 30 Top Travel Experiences Before I’m 30 is chasing the Northern Lights in Norway.

I’d had a brief attempt prior in Iceland, but the northern city of Tromso in Norway was my best bet yet.

Imagine a little port village covered top to bottom in snow and cute little colourful buildings amongst it and you’ve got a pretty good image of Tromso in your mind.

I’d organised a few mates to come along since Norway is so expensive, to help with the costs and do two trips out to see the Northern Lights. Night one was with a photography tour so that we learnt the correct camera settings for capturing these amazing colours in the sky and night two was a cheaper tour out towards Finland to get away from the light pollution of any towns. Doing the tours in this order was a great decision (if I don’t say so myself) because accurately photographing the Aurora Borealis is not an easy task.

Seeing the Aurora Borealis properly is something that I may never have another chance to experience. This is why it makes it into my Top 30 Greatest Travel Experiences. Seeing these lights are never guaranteed so you have to take your chances when booking tours.

Here’s a photo slideshow of my Northern Lights shots from this trip:

If you’d like to read more about my experience with the Northern Lights check out my post called Chasing the Northern Lights »