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5 days - Stay in an Igloo Hotel for the Norwegian winter season
This tour combines the best of Norwegian winter adventures and hospitality. Spend three nights in the new Arctic Wilderness lodge by the Alta river then dress warming for one night inside an intricately carved Igloo room. Included in this tour is a range of sought-after wilderness experiences in Arctic Norway; hunting the Northern Lights, snowmobiling across the wide-open Finnmark plateau, husky sledding, and reindeer and Sami experiences.
As a Certified B Corporation, 50 Degrees North has designed this tour using handpicked local hoteliers and suppliers who share our ethos of delivering services and activities of high social and environmental standards.
The CO2-e per person per day of all tours is carefully measured following each season. We fully offset all emissions of our tours on your behalf, and we constantly look at ways to reduce emissions where possible.
Private transfers from Alta
Activities can change days, depending on the weather and schedule.
International flight tickets, meals other than described, alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, travel insurance, visas, gratitudes and any items of personal nature.
Optional activities that can be added: Hottub and sauna booking, longer dogsledding tour (5 hours), King Crab Safari and Snowshoeing.
Arrive at the Alta airport and private transfer to the Arctic Wilderness Lodge and Sorrisniva. This new wilderness lodge is built on the bank of the internationally renowned Alta River in Norway’s high Arctic. All of the rooms have panoramic windows extending from the floor into the ceiling, maximizing the views of the adjacent river and Arctic wilderness as well as enabling viewing of Northern lights. Settle into your room and enjoy a drink in the new panoramic lounge before heading outside for some snow fun and then your included evening meal.
After a late breakfast, head out to drive your own snowmobile through the wilderness of the Alta River valley up to the inland plateau. During the winter months the Arctic light often creates wonderful colours on the horizon despite the sun never rising. Your guide will provide you with your thermal suit, boots, gloves and helmet, as well as instruct you on how to drive the snowmobile properly so that you can go wild ways in safe hands.
Return for a late lunch and move into your igloo room for an experience of a lifetime. Designed with a unique and original theme, the Igloo Hotel is built and crafted by a crew of local artists each winter. You will have your own ice room with a shared bathroom. You’ll be sleeping on top of a layer of reindeer skins ond you get two Arctic sleeping bags per person, each withstands up to -30°C.
You might like to add another jacuzzi & sauna or try your hand at ice sculpture this afternoon before your final dinner.
After breakfast, get ready to mush a team of huskies through the Arctic Wilderness. Meet the local huskies and learn the skill of mushing most effectively for your three hour sled through the Norwegian mountains. You will enjoy interacting with the eager and excited huskies who love to be active and run in front of the sleds. You will have your own sled and team of huskies and travel in pairs, swapping drivers half way.
Then this evening at 8pm, you will join a Northern Lights search with an expert guide. Be driven along the coast or up onto the inland plateau searching for the best location to view the Borealis. The Northern Lights are allusive and sometimes can be seen from different locations whilst not from others on the same evening. Your guide will select the route which offers the best chance of viewing the Borealis given the prevailing weather and atmospheric conditions and explain the phenomena's part in the history of Alta as it relates to the scientific investigation and understanding of it.
Today, feel the rush of the winter air on your cheeks as you race along the frozen Alta River on a sled being pulled by a reindeer. This experience gives you a sneak peek into the Sami lifestyle and introduces you to some of their traditions while being surrounded by magnificent winter scenery. The combination of the reindeer sledding and storytelling in a traditional Lavvu around a bonfire provides fascinating insights into this special semi-nomadic culture.
After breakfast, transfer to the airport.
Price per person, twin share for a double room. Family triple and quad share on request and subject to availability.
Early indicative price for 2025.
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL:
The activities are also selected for their sensitivity to nature, with trekking and skiing available on your doorstep. The huskies that live on site each have their own kennel and welfare is of an incredibly high standard. The dogs also take part in races, including the Finnmarksløpet (Europe's longest dog race) so the quality of food and care needs to be the best possible to keep them happy and healthy.
The Snowhotel is also a champion of sustainability. The electricity is run 100% on renewable energy (hydro or wind), they are blessed with their own source of water (which is filtered to ensure it meets appropriate health standards) and they have a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. The igloo hotel is created with naturally formed ice, and the snow which is created with renewable electricity. The only carbon footprint is the transport used in construction, but they aim to make this fleet electric in line with their carbon neutral goal.
The Snowhotel is also family run and exclusively hires local residents who are considered part of the family and provided with attractive employment benefits. They also try to ensure that any contractors on site are, where possible, local, thus ensuring as much revenue is kept within the community that they are proud to be a part of.
50 Degrees North reveals their leading partner hotels and activity providers in the field of sustainable ecotourism. Innovations and Awards include Green Key Certification, White Flag International and the Grand Travel Award for Best Swedish Ecotourism business.
Planning your Northern Lights trip and want to get the best advice? As we approach another Solar maximum period, solar activity will start ramping up, and auroras should increase in frequency, peaking in 2025.
Norway is well known as a 'Northern Lights' hotspot and there is good reason. Above the Arctic Circle, many cities in Norway offer terrific chances to see the lights between mid-September to early April.
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