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Tromsø Arctic Treat

  • Writer: Natalie Dimmock
    Natalie Dimmock
  • Jan 12
  • 6 min read

After an amazing but exhausting week, having started my fabulous new job at TASIS England, I picked Tiger up from her new school in Englefield Green and off we drove to the Premier Inn Luton Town, about an hour away. I was really looking forward to a good night's sleep (for the grand old price of £35) and the Premier Inn delivered. This weekend we were on our way for about 24 hours in Tromsø, Norway with Wizzair with the flight coming in at just £81.96.


Our packing for a January weekend in Norway (-10 degrees Celsius) was:


We had a very lazy breakfast (£10.99, child free) which was cooked to order for us - yummy and oh what luxury! We didn't actually leave the hotel until 12:30, when we took an Uber for £6.62 to 'near' the airport. My new trick is to be dropped at the Holiday Inn Express, walk down the steps to the road, through the tunnel and into the airport - this takes about 5 minutes and is a little easier for the Uber drivers than dropping at the Long Stay Car Park which is now the other option to avoid the Luton Airport £7 drop charge.



The only thing I forgot was my one pound coins to use the vending machines for the random plastic toys Tiger wants every time we pass them just before security!


Our flight was quite late - 14:50 departure landing at 19:30. Getting on the plane with enormous coats / all-in-one was interesting (lots to carry) but everybody was in the same boat and we managed to fit everything into the overheads.



We had drinks and snacks taking advantage of buying a 20 euro (£16.50) Wizzair cafe and boutique voucher ahead of time. I had paid for two seats in Row 7 on the left side of the plane (£44) which paid dividends as we saw the Northern Lights! The best photo came from the cockpit and was air dropped around the cabin!



When we landed in Tromsø, I couldn't find any normal milk but instead we picked up a few cartons of chocolate milk from Narvesen (supermarket) - one normal chocolate and one double ("dobbel") chocolate for £6 - lucky Tiger. It may also be of note that there is a decent Duty Free immediately as you exit the immigration, although we didn't buy anything here.



Norway is one hour ahead of the UK so we landed around 19:30 (lovely views as we landed), had a reasonable wait at immigration (but ok and the immigration guy was charming) before we exited the airport heading for the public number 42 bus. To reach the bus, we had to go downstairs from arrivals, across a parking lot and out the other side. I paid using the Svipper app where a single bus ticket for one adult and one child (free if under 6) was 72 Norwegian Krone (NOK) or about £5.30. We didn't have to wait long for the bus - around 20 minutes - and even though it was freezing cold, Tiger absolutely loved playing in the snow whilst we waited.



It was extremely easy to check into our Airbnb which was completely no frills but all that we needed (a place to sleep) and for £70.65 it was just perfect. The house was lovely and warm (great considering it was minus 10 outside!). We went straight to bed and slept well from about 10pm, only being woken briefly at 3am with people outside having fun!


On Sunday morning we showered in the separate bathroom on the first floor before we left at 09:30 to walk to the Tromsø Bus Station for our reindeer tour with Tromsø Arctic Reindeer and booked via Get Your Guide. This was supposed to be around £99 per adult with a child discount however they have dynamic pricing (I think it may work out cheaper in the week) and with a discount code we paid £158 for this 4 hour experience.



This is a very popular experience and there seemed to be several coach loads of tourists heading to it but only two coaches seemed to make it to where we were. So, it was busy, but the fact it was busy didn't seem to take away from the experience at all. We loved feeding the reindeer, had hot chocolate and coffee, reindeer stew for lunch (with tomato soup being the veggie option). Tiger made a new French friend, Elyes, and his Mum Sihem and whilst we all sat in a teepee listening to stories of the Sami people, the two kids rolled around in the snow and built a snowman! Seemingly, not getting cold at all!



After the reindeer tour, we were dropped back at the bus station and took an Uber (£16.95) to Fjellheisen Cable Car - aka best view in Tromsø! There is an option to take a one way journey - and believe it or not I saw one person walking up (in the dark!) but we bought return tickets for 880 NOK (£65.26). Adults are 595, and children aged 6-17 are 285. At the top we had ice cream, hot chocolate and a Coke Zero for £12.



Also from Fjellheisen we had absolutely brilliant Northern Lights views so - hurrah - we not only saw the lights from the plane but also from the ground!



We took an Uber back to Nerstranda (city centre) for £17.04 because I had promised Tiger she could play in the snow covered playground, and she wasn't letting me get away with not taking her there!! Then shortly before heading back to the airport we did a little shop in the 7Eleven where two vegetable samosas, more chocolate milk, a tub of Pringles and a hot dog set us back £25.


We could quite easily have taken the public 42 bus back to the airport but I was at a point where I didn't want to faff around anymore so we took another Uber, for about 15 minutes, at a cost of £23. We were at the airport 2 hours for 6pm ahead of our flight at 19:50 which was plenty of time (but you could allow less time). Once on the plane we had a short wait whilst the plane was de-iced but were soon on our way. We hadn't paid for seats this time around so we were in our usual row of two seats with no window - row 28! Wizz seat us here all the time so we are quite used to it.



Tiger was pretty amazing actually getting off the plane, compared to how she usually is. We had shoes on for landing and were straight out, marching through the airport, straight through passport control (it is ever so helpful having a child under the age of 10 as you are fast tracked), out of the airport, walked the 5 minutes to the Holiday Inn Express to get the Uber (£16) back to the Luton Town Premier Inn (£42). We landed about 23:10, we were in the Uber for 23:45 and in bed for just after midnight. I really feel this is a record with only the tiniest bit of grumpiness right at the end. Go Tiger!


My first ever trip to Norway - what a wonderful experience. Whilst we were both a tad tired the next day (having left Luton again at 06:30) it was really worth it. We will be back!





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