December northern lights trip
Discussion
krunchkin said:
yes done it twice for work - once in Sweden , once in Finland. Saw f
k all. Dont get your hopes up. And remember all the photos you see of them looking impressive are Looooooooong exposures, and they are much less impressive in real life.
We get the risk, but I can still see it being an adventure, especially over Christmas.k all. Dont get your hopes up. And remember all the photos you see of them looking impressive are Looooooooong exposures, and they are much less impressive in real life. I shall be taking all my camera gear, so long exposures won't be a problem.
krunchkin said:
yes done it twice for work - once in Sweden , once in Finland. Saw fk all. Dont get your hopes up. And remember all the photos you see of them looking impressive are Looooooooong exposures, and they are much less impressive in real life.
I'm pleased I'm not alone in thinking that, I've seen them three times and each time it's not been that special.k all. Dont get your hopes up. And remember all the photos you see of them looking impressive are Looooooooong exposures, and they are much less impressive in real life. nellyleelephant said:
krunchkin said:
yes done it twice for work - once in Sweden , once in Finland. Saw fk all. Dont get your hopes up. And remember all the photos you see of them looking impressive are Looooooooong exposures, and they are much less impressive in real life.
We get the risk, but I can still see it being an adventure, especially over Christmas.k all. Dont get your hopes up. And remember all the photos you see of them looking impressive are Looooooooong exposures, and they are much less impressive in real life. I shall be taking all my camera gear, so long exposures won't be a problem.
king cold though. If you havent been that way before then dont even begin to think you can contemplate how bloody cold it is. nellyleelephant said:
krunchkin said:
It really is seriously fking cold though. If you havent been that way before then dont even begin to think you can contemplate how bloody cold it is.
Thanks, and noted!!king cold though. If you havent been that way before then dont even begin to think you can contemplate how bloody cold it is. I suppose a good way to appreciate how cold it is , is to turn the minuses into pluses. So if you think -5 is cold (and it is), then that equates to +5. So imagine the difference between +5 and a a day like last week when it was +34. It was regularly -30 or more every day at the Ice Hotel , as it is in a valley by a river. And on top of Abisko mountain it was -40. Fun though! And only being vaguely light for 4 hours a day is very very odd. There is a spectacular hour about an hour before sunsrise where everything is a bizarre,glowing blue.
Oh and last year I went to Yllas in Finland to cover the Father Xmas angle - again didnt see any bloody lights, But it has a sort of mini ice hotel which is quite cool, plus there is a ski slope attached to the resort. So quite a good option if you are bringing kids for the Father Xmas stuff, and if the lights dont show up then you can at least have a bit of a ski or toboggan.
I've been a couple of times, both early-mid december so all the Santa stuff is in full swing, which is actually quite fun, if not somewhat expensive.
The last time we went for a week, I think it was Akaslompolo, where they have a few (floodlit) ski slopes that you can go and play on (I'm a complete novice skier, but found it fun), and there are activities like Dog Sledding, snowmobiling, reindeer sledding etc that will keep you amused during the day.
As alluded to by someone else, the light is spectacular before dawn, and during sunrise, which seemed to last from 14:00 to 16:00 in the afternoon.
Didn't see the Borealis though, it was overcast every day, although I guess if you're going on a specific 'light' trip, you'll be taken above the cloud line to see them.
And yes, it's bloody cold. If the tour operator doesn't supply the adult sized padded baby-gro's that you need, there are places you can rent them cheaply from. Don't forget the thermal boots in the rental too.
The last time we went, we booked it all ourselves, as we don't really like using tour operators.
As an aside, I saw the Borealis over Stoke on Trent many years ago (late 80's, early 90's), it was one of those extremely rare occurrences when they came a long way south.
The last time we went for a week, I think it was Akaslompolo, where they have a few (floodlit) ski slopes that you can go and play on (I'm a complete novice skier, but found it fun), and there are activities like Dog Sledding, snowmobiling, reindeer sledding etc that will keep you amused during the day.
As alluded to by someone else, the light is spectacular before dawn, and during sunrise, which seemed to last from 14:00 to 16:00 in the afternoon.
Didn't see the Borealis though, it was overcast every day, although I guess if you're going on a specific 'light' trip, you'll be taken above the cloud line to see them.
And yes, it's bloody cold. If the tour operator doesn't supply the adult sized padded baby-gro's that you need, there are places you can rent them cheaply from. Don't forget the thermal boots in the rental too.
The last time we went, we booked it all ourselves, as we don't really like using tour operators.
As an aside, I saw the Borealis over Stoke on Trent many years ago (late 80's, early 90's), it was one of those extremely rare occurrences when they came a long way south.
Did 3 or 4 nights (can't remember now) in Enontekio in Finland last new year, and had a great time on Husky's, Snowmobiles, all sorts. Stayed in a log cabin at a small site call Lomakaya, full escorted tour including all the cold weather gear - although when we were there is was positively balmy at about -8C, the previous week was -38.
Didn't see the lights but as others have said the twilight hours are amazing and going just just for that.
Bit cheesy with Santa etc and the Reindeer ride but get in the spirit of it and it's all good. We are going to go again this year.
Didn't see the lights but as others have said the twilight hours are amazing and going just just for that.
Bit cheesy with Santa etc and the Reindeer ride but get in the spirit of it and it's all good. We are going to go again this year.
It got to -52 in Ruka (Finland) a few years back. It was seriously cold, but the wind chill did the damage. I took a glove off so I could operate my camera to take a couple of shots and in that short time my glove froze to the floor.
Didn't get to see the lights either as conditions weren't right. During that trip, we were advised to wear proper layers, base thermals etc, clothes, fleece and coat and they then give you an all in one suit to wear over the lot and it was still cold.
I'm not sure where the best location for seeing the lights is, but having visited Sweden and Finland, I'd be more inclined to go back to Finland. This is personal choice of course, but there was something about the place I just liked.
Didn't get to see the lights either as conditions weren't right. During that trip, we were advised to wear proper layers, base thermals etc, clothes, fleece and coat and they then give you an all in one suit to wear over the lot and it was still cold.
I'm not sure where the best location for seeing the lights is, but having visited Sweden and Finland, I'd be more inclined to go back to Finland. This is personal choice of course, but there was something about the place I just liked.
Just as an alternate, we went to Iceland in January this year and saw the Northern Lights (which easily met my expectations - so maybe we got particularly bright ones?). In 4 nights we only saw them one evening for c. 2 hours so they aren't that regular.
We flew on Sleazyjet (I survived) and stayed at Hotel Ranga (which was amazing, one of the few luxury places on the island), the food is to die for.
We hired a car so that we could do the lagoon, golden circle etc. Occty on winter tyres, so as long as you aren't a div you won't bin it on the snow and ice.
Couldn't recommend enough and the whole trip (exc. food/fuel) came to 1.1k (2 people).
We flew on Sleazyjet (I survived) and stayed at Hotel Ranga (which was amazing, one of the few luxury places on the island), the food is to die for.
We hired a car so that we could do the lagoon, golden circle etc. Occty on winter tyres, so as long as you aren't a div you won't bin it on the snow and ice.
Couldn't recommend enough and the whole trip (exc. food/fuel) came to 1.1k (2 people).
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