Have you seen the Northern Lights?

[Deleted]

Tell me about it?  Where did you go?  Was it awesome?

its on my bucket list and I want to plan a trip in the next couple of years.  I'm thinking the hotel in Finland with the glass igloos.  But my heritage is Swedish so it would be nice to go there.  Our Alaska trip is in the summer so that won't work.

[osumelissa]

I saw them in November 2012 in Northern Iceland. We did a trip through Icelandair for a week - it included our hotels, airfare, roundtrip airfare within country between Reykjavik and Akeuyri, and a Northern Lights excursion. They drove us a ways outside Akeuryi and we had perfect conditions for viewing them. My now ex-husband got some really really amazing pictures of the lights.

We went with a group of friends, and as a group on our own we also rented a car for a few days in Reykjavik to do the Golden Circle and drive the southern coast. While in Akeuryi we did a day long guided excusion around the Lake Myvtan region. Definitely that was one of the major highlights of the trip (aside from the northern lights of course).

All told, the trip (minus food and sightseeing money) was around $1100 per person (we flew roundtrip from Washington Dulles).

[Deleted]

No We went to Reykjavik trying to see them, instead it snowed.

We may try and go to Tromsø for Christmas to see them. It's something I'd really like to see before I die.

[mdgirl]

I saw them once when I was a teenager in Michigan where I grew up. It was a pretty rural area so we didn't have much light pollution. They were faint but there.

I also once saw them flying out of Seattle on a red eye. It made me think pilots get an excellent view of them a lot!

[chicago]

We tried to see them in Iceland. All the reports said it was going to be a good year for them (2013). We saw hazy gray that showed up greenish in photos. I really hope to see them more prominently someday!

[schilauferin]

mostly a lurker..but I have seen them twice, at a girl scout camp a long ass time ago, and in college 10 years ago (freshman year)...both in WI/MN (central/northern) was awesome and unexpected i could stare at them for hours...

[alleinesein]

February 14th/15th 2010 somewhere over Canada while flying from SFO to LHR. They were the green ones and we flew through them for a good 20 minutes.

[GilliC]

Saw a mild display in Tromsø once. I have bad luck with them. We were lucky that they made an appearance that night, because the sky happened to be clear. The next night had an extremely high aurora forecast but was cloudy. We went out with a tour and found a clear sky area, but then here was no visible activity all night.

Went to northern Sweden the next year and had another clear night with a nighttime snowmobiling excursion. The lights were only visible as a green tint near the horizon on a 1-minute camera exposure.

I will say that they are pretty cool, and I'm glad I've seen them once. But I will never plan a trip where that is the sole purpose, because there are too many variables. I know too many people who've made dedicated weekend trips up north and been disappointed.

[marina007]

Apr 1, 2015 15:35:16 GMT -5 GilliC said:

I will say that they are pretty cool, and I'm glad I've seen them once. But I will never plan a trip where that is the sole purpose, because there are too many variables. I know too many people who've made dedicated weekend trips up north and been disappointed.

I can't Agree enough with this. I've seen them twice, when I lived in Trondheim as a kid - but they are really elusive, even if you go to the "right place". A former colleague of mine went to northern Norway for a week to catch them. It was overcast the entire time. I think the clue might be to plan a fun trip doing "other things" and considering the aurora borealis a bonus if you get lucky.

I will say, a friend went to Lapland in northern Finland a few weeks ago, dog sledding and cross country skiing and it looked like a fab trip, and she got super lucky and saw spectacular lights too.

I think Iceland is a good destination because there are lots of "other things" to take the pressure off the lights .

[rupertpenny]

I've never seen them. Last time I went to Iceland I thought we might, but it jut didn't pan out.

I would love to see them though. I'm jealous of everyone who has seen them from a plane!

[dcn]

Yes, we live in Alaska and can see them from our bed sometimes! It is amazing every time

[schitzengiggles]

I grew up in very rural (in the country, 3 miles from nearest town of 500 people and 10 miles from the next nearest town of 200) Northern Minnesota so I've seen them many times.

[babsbunny]

Apr 3, 2015 8:23:39 GMT -5 schitzengiggles said:

I grew up in very rural (in the country, 3 miles from nearest town of 500 people and 10 miles from the next nearest town of 200) Northern Minnesota so I've seen them many times.

Is your sig the episode where ferangi have taken momma Troy and Pichard pretends to profess his love for her and threaten to blow up their ship if they don't return her? (I watched a lot if STTNG reruns.)

I spent some years in NH and saw them once. There was a dark park at the top of a hill and my dad was lucky to catch them driving home. It's probably easier now with cells and text to notify people they're happening. They were light green and faint but still awesome.  On a clear night, you can also see the milky way from that hill.  Truely amazing compared to the 10 stars I can see at night from my current home.

[m1and1m]

The first time I saw them was at summer camp in Puget Sound. That was maybe a month before we moved to Alaska, and they were beautiful but not nearly as colorful as further north. We did see them all the time in AK, though, gorgeous and beautiful. The last time I saw them was on the flight home after my Dad's funeral. Strange that I hadn't seen them up there before, I flew in/out of Anchorage once a month for years.