Offer: The Northern Lights Trip in Sweden You Can’t Miss

If you are looking for offers to travel and see the Northern Lights with your significant other, relatives or friends and don’t want to spend a lot of money you just came to the right place.

Keep on reading because I want you to know more about the trip I did with my wife last winter in February 2020 to the North of Sweden. If price is your main concern I am telling you straight ahead that the cost of this travel package is 4375 SEK (~425 € / $500 / £380) per person and I am giving my readers at sweetsweden a discount. You will find more about it at the end of the post.

Northern Lights in Kiruna, Sweden
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

Sweden, a Northern Light Destination

On this inexpensive trip to see the Northern Lights, the chosen destination is Kiruna, in northern Sweden, one of the best locations to see these types of celestial lights. In the heart of Swedish Lapland, Kiruna and its surroundings, among which Abisko stands out, usually enjoy many clear nights that make it possible to enjoy the northern lights from anywhere. We were in Kiruna for four nights and we could see the auroras in three of them.

Northern Lights in a Forest in Sweden 
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

When to Travel

To be able to see the Aurora Borealis it is necessary that several things happen at the same time:

• darkness
• nights with clear skies
• somewhat intense solar activity

If you also want to do some activities in the snow, it is obviously necessary … a snowy landscape. So if the Northern Lights can be seen in the night skies starting in August / September, snow is usually present in Kiruna between the end of November and the end of April. So those winter months are the best to plan this Northern Lights trip and add some winter activities to it.

Aurora in the sky of Lapland, Sweden
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

What dates would I recommend? If you can combine it with your work, it is better to try to see them in January, February or March (if Easter falls in April). January is a good month because flights are cheap as people have traveled and spent a lot on Christmas. February has a bit more tourism but you could plan a trip like ours including some extra sightseeing like visiting the Jokkmokk Winter Market, experience the national Sami day or explore other corners of Lapland. March is good because the days are longer (in February there is only light between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m), the weather is usually better with many sunny days with blue skies which grants you spectacular landscapes.

Who is the Trip Organizer

The low-cost trip to see the Northern Lights that we did, propose and recommend is organized by the Swedish company 90degreesnorth AB. When we were in Kiruna I was able to meet its founder Pranav. He is someone who went to study in Sweden and decided to go up to Kiruna to see the auroras. He liked so much what he experienced that he decided that more people should be able to experience the same. So he set up his own company to be able to offer this Northern Light experience without having to spend a lot of money which makes it suitable for all budgets.

What is Included

The Northern Lights trip to the north of Sweden that I propose here includes the following things in its basic package:

• Roundtrip transportation between Kiruna airport (KRN) and the accommodation
• All necessary winter clothing for the activities. You must bring your own for the rest of the time or hire from them at an extra cost.
• Accommodation for 3 nights in a camp with shared kitchen and bathroom.
• Free ice fishing activity
• Free access to the sauna and unlimited wood
• Snowmobile route (35 km / 22 mi) to the ice hotel ICEHOTEL
• A stop to meet the Sami, the only indigenous people in Europe
• A tour on a dog sled driven by a guide (four people per sled). It is also possible to pay a little more and drive it yourself in an exclusive sled for two.

Below these lines I am sharing some photos of the day trip to meet the Sami and their reindeer that we were able to feed ourselves.

Feeding Reindeer While Visiting a Sami Family
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

Also some pictures from the snowmobile tour through forests and lakes Alttajärvi and Poikkijärvi.

Snowmobile tour in Lapland, Sweden
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

Depending on when you visit Lapland after getting dark and if the weather conditions allow it you will be able to be out in the open surrounded by a good fire ready to contemplate the Northern Lights if they occur. It is also very important to have a camera and other necessary material ready to snap the best pictures.

There are also additional night and afternoon tours to specific places to spot auroras so you won’t need to hurry if during the day you were visiting some other place.

What is NOT Included in the Trip

In this trip to see the Northern Lights there are some things that are not included. These are:

• The flight from your airport to Stockholm and from there to Kiruna. We flew from Barcelona with Norwegian with free wifi onboard and a great experience overall but other flight companies may be better suited from where you live. If you start searching for a flight ticket well before your trip you will find very cheap prices, especially in low season.
• Food. As stated before, the accommodation has a shared kitchen and when they pick you up at the airport they will take you to a nearby supermarket so you can buy your own food.
• Ticket to the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi  The ice bar, the souvenir shop and the surrounding areas are free but the hotel itself is not.

We paid the entrance fee to the ICEHOTEL and walked around its facilities contemplating the ice yearly turned into temporary art.

At the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi in Sweden 
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

What can be included

The appropriate clothing to be able to enjoy seeing the Northern Lights and other activities in the snow without freezing is included so you don’t need to worry about that and can spend money on activities like:

• Visiting Narvik in in Norway with several stopovers at scenic places on the road.
• Tours to Abisko National Park and the unique northern lights observatory Aurora Sky Station.

Obviously to go on more daytrips you may have to stay longer but that also can be achieved thanks to tailor-made trips that 90degreesnorth AB can arrange for you.

We did the dog sled tour without driving them. Then later we tried to drive it ourselves and it is much more fun so I recommend the second option. Here are some photos of that day.

Dog sledding in Kiruna, Sweden 
Photo: Israel Úbeda / sweetsweden.com

The Offer Price for This Northern Lights Trip

The price for this Northern Lights trip including everything mentioned above is SEK 4,375 (~ € 425 / $500 / £380) per person. To this price you must add the extras among what is not included (food,  ticket fee to some place, extra activities).

Some prices are:

• The ticket to the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi costs about € 35 ($40 / £30) per person and is paid directly at the hotel entrance.
• The price for the whole package but with the option of you driving a two-person sled costs SEK 4,750 (~ € 460 / $540 / £415) per person. As I said before, the experience is much more fun this way.
• Cross-country skiing 3 hours for 200 SEK (~ €20 / $22 / £18)

If you don’t want to buy your winter clothes and prefer renting them these are the prices for the whole stay:

• Snowboots 250 SEK (~ €25  / $28 / £21.6)
• Overall 200 SEK (~ €20 / $22 / £18)
• Scarf, gloves and wool cap 300 SEK (~ €30 / $33 / £26)
• Towel 20 SEK (~ €2 / $2.2 / £1.8) and bed linen 50 SEK (~ €5 / $5.5 / £4.3) but you can also bring your own

If you have more time, 90degreesnorth AB also arranges group trips of 4 or 5 days that include one more night of accommodation, a guided visit to the Kiruna church, an trip to Narvik in Norway as well as a stop in scenic places of the Abisko National Park, an arctic beach and in the Norwegian mountains at the border. All for just ~ € 60 ($70 / £55) more per person.

Special Discount for Traveling “With Me”

Well, it’s not really with me (or yes … who knows if I’ll go with a group just on the dates you and your travel companions choose) but with this offer you get a deal price by using the booking code “sweetsweden“ since you get a discount of SEK 200 (~ €20 / $22/ £17). You just have to book here on the 90degreesnorth AB website and include that discount code.

How about seeing you in Swedish Lapland next winter? Who knows if we will spend a few days together next to a bonfire late at night scanning the sky looking for our best photo of the magical Northern Lights. As you see price now cannot be an excuse …