in depth on aurora hunting in Norway vs Finland 🇫🇮🇳🇴

Northern lights viewing in Norway or Finland? or BOTH?

As someone who has been to both... they're both awesome 😭 but let me break down the difference between the 2 for you. I'm comparing between tour programmes from the big Singaporean tour companies (I joined Chan Brothers for Finland, and EU for Norway), not free and easy trips!

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Activities

If you're looking for fun "activities", then Finland is the place for you. The northern lights tours to Finland usually bring you to places like the Santa Claus Village, a bonfire/northern lights tour, in certain months you can even try dog sledding. Both countries will bring you to reindeer farms (p6) and winter animal zoos (p8) though!

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Accommodation

Finland has more "gimmicky" accoms, such as the igloo hotel, and this other glass rectangle "chalet" (p2-4). Both places are so that you can view the northern lights more easily. In Norway, there hotels are a bit more basic, nothing so gimmicky. I only stayed in one that I'll consider more "gimmicky" in my whole trip in Norway (p7). So if you're looking for more "fun" hotels, Finland is for you!

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Food

Honestly both countries just serve basic western cuisine. I'd say Finland is more tolerable, I honestly struggled with the food in my Norway trip. They tend to eat much more salty food! I brought 3 cup noodles and I regretted not bringing a bit more... if you pick Norway, then make sure to check out the reindeer hotdog stand in Tromso! Absolutely delicious, I think of it every now and then...

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Scenery

Norway HANDS DOWNNNNNN! I can't even describe it. Norway is so scenic and picturesque everywhere. The bus could just drop you in the middle of nowhere in between your long journeys, and its just beautiful ice-snowy mountains anywhere and everywhere. And their famous bright red houses? Fun fact, the houses are painted this particular shade of red because it was the cheapest colour back in the days.

Finland was extremely bland to me. Not much natural scenery compared to Finland, just lots of trees. Fellow photog enthusiasts, Norway is the place for you!

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Shopping

If you're into cities & shopping, you'll only get to do it at Finland! Finland northern lights tours get to stop at Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Most tours give you a day on your own at Helsinki, so you'll get to do your shopping and have your city life! From Moomin to luxury brands, you'll get to shop them all!

Norway doesn't have any shopping other than souvenir shopping. There are loads of souvenir stores around Tromso! Tromso is an extremely small university town, so there's unforch not much shopping (zero luxury shopping) in their city centre.

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Chances of seeing the northern lights

A quick look at the map and you'll realise that Tromso (Norway) is way above the Arctic line, compared Rovaniemi (Finland). Tromso will be the base point for Norweigian tours, and Helsinki for Finnish tours. From the base point, you'll then travel around and finally head back to the base point. For Norway, almost each and every city you'll be in everyday has a chance of viewing the northern lights. Basically, you have a chance every night! In Finland, a northern lights viewing at basepoint is extremely rare, people don't usually go to Helsinki hoping to see the lights. Helsinki is considered too “southerly” for the *cough* northern lights, not to mention the fact that it’s a big city with lots of light pollution.

A quick google search will also show that a lot of websites agree that Northern Norway is the best place of the 3 Scandinavian countries to view the lights.

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Overall

It really depends on your travel style/party! Personally, I'd recommend heading to Finland first, simply because there are more activities to do. Norway is more of a chill, purely scenery kinda place. Those into photography need to head for Norway.

Sweden also has spots that can view the lights, but not many as the other 2 and hence is a less popular choice. Most likely because there’s only one specific place in Sweden for the aurora, which is extremely little compared to Finland/Norway. Swedish food might be more acceptable though, if we’re basing it on IKEA 🫣 Unfortunately there are no tours going to Sweden JUST for the lights though, because there’s only one place in Sweden for the lights as mentioned earlier. There are tours going to Finland, or Norway, or both, or even all 3 Scandinavian northern lights viewing countries! So do your research and pick based on your preferred style 😉

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