If you’ve decided to visit Svalbard, congratulations: an incredible adventure is ahead of you, no matter when you decide to visit.
But more than anywhere else I’ve ever visited, the time of year you visit Svalbard has a huge impact on what your trip will be like.
And I’m not just talking season to season or even month to month. Honestly, from week to week or sometimes even day to day, Svalbard can be a completely different experience.
So much so that I’ve actually written a full guide to when to visit Svalbard — it outlines everything from daylight hours (and how they change over the course of the month… if they change at all) to the typical weather conditions to the activities that you can likely do during that time.
But if you landed on this post, it’s likely because you’re specifically considering a trip to Svalbard in February. Or you’re just a daydreamer, in which case, same — and I hope this post is interesting nonetheless.
After visiting, I can say that yes, it is worth visiting Svalbard in February… but I do have some tips to make the most of it and so that you have the right expectations for your trip.
My February Trip To Svalbard
I made my first trip to Svalbard this past February of 2024, specifically from February 12 to February 16.
Though it may seem like overkill to tell you my exact dates of travel, hopefully by the end of the post, you’ll understand why these dates matter so much!
I was going with my friend Megan, who is a true Svalbard expert! She had been to Svalbard many times before, but never in February.
While we originally had booked the same dates, she ended up extending her trip until February 20th, and frankly — she had the right idea! She got to do a lot of things that I didn’t get to do, as many tours began operating again on February 15th.
Expert Tip
If planning a trip to Svalbard in February, the later in the month the better. Several tours don’t even begin until February 15th!
7 Key Things to Know About Visiting Svalbard in February
Daylight conditions change quickly, as in, from day to day.
The first half of February, there’s no sunrises or sunsets at all in Svalbard. And even by the end of the month, the town of Longyearbyen won’t have seen the sun, as it won’t have risen high enough above the horizon to shine on the town.
That said, the light conditions are incredibly different throughout the month, because even before the first sunrise of the year, there are prolonged periods of civil twilight. Colloquially, the twilit period gets called “blue hour,” even though it actually extends throughout much of the day, far longer than just an hour or two.
Here is an example of how much “blue hour” you can expect:
February 1: Blue hour from 10:40 AM to 1:40 PM [~3 hours]
February 14: Blue hour from 8:30 AM to 3:55 PM [~7.5 hours]
February 28: Blue hour from 6:30 AM to 5:45 PM [~11 hours]
Technically the sun rises for the first time each year around February 15 (about from 11:30 AM to 12:50 PM).
That quickly extends, until by the end of February, the sun is up between 8:30 AM to 3:45 PM, but you won’t see it unless you leave Longyearbyen and find a spot that isn’t blocked by the mountains.
Blue hour in Svalbard is absolutely stunning.
If you’re a photographer coming to Svalbard, the light conditions in February are a dream. How does it sound to literally never worry about harsh mid-day light?
The downside of not having a lot of hours of light is pretty obvious. But the upside, also probably obvious, is that there is truly no part of the day where your photos will come out in harsh light or overexposed.
The blue hour light means that you’ll mostly have beautiful dawn-like conditions all day long, with mostly robins egg blue and deep, rich jewel-toned blues the likes of which I’ve never seen elsewhere.
As the middle of the February creeps nearer and sunrises and sunsets are soon to return to Svalbard, you’ll also get some beautiful pastel pink and purple tones.
If you have a keen and creative eye, you’ll surely find no shortage of photo opportunities that inspire you in February!
Photography Tip
If using a camera with RAW capability, be sure to use it! Due to the lack of sunlight, your photos can end up looking quite dark in JPEG form. You can revive a lot of those colors if you shoot in RAW and capture the landscape more accurately!
Expect to have your rhythms thrown off.
I visited Svalbard before the sun had officially risen for the first time that year, but there was plenty of “blue hour” light, at least 6 hours a day of semi-lit conditions.
I was aware of that going in, and I had previously spent a lot of time in the Arctic, including January in Rovaniemi and other parts of February in Tromsø and Alta, and never really had any significant issues with my energy.
But I wasn’t prepared for how significant those few hours of sunlight that places north of the Arctic Circle, but south of Svalbard, truly would be for my body.
I drank so much coffee during the day yet I always felt tired. I was in my bed every day by 5 PM, feeling as if I could pass out at a moment’s notice… and then somehow, time would pass, and I’d find myself still awake at 2 AM.
When I returned to Tromsø, I instantly felt revived and my energy and sleep schedule got a lot more normal, even though there wasn’t that much daylight there. Just don’t underestimate it, especially if you have ever experienced seasonal affective disorder!
The weather also changes quickly.
Given the fact that Svalbard is roughly halfway between the North Pole and the northernmost tip of Norway, you’d think that the weather in Svalbard in February is brutally cold.
But that’s actually not the case, especially on the western side of Spitsbergen, where Longyearbyen is. You may be surprised how warm (relatively speaking) it can be in February in Svalbard!
During my 4-night, 5-day trip, we had temperatures ranging from a high of 2° C (36° F) — which is far too warm and alarming for the Arctic, but I digress — down to a low of -15° C (5° F).
Since Megan stayed a little longer, she had some even colder weather… it went down to -25° C (-13° F) on one of the days she was there!
The key to staying warm in Svalbard? Layers! You’ll need: wool base layers, a wool sweater to wear atop it, wind-proof pants, a wool neck gaiter, a parka, mittens, a hat, wool socks, and snow boots.
Some tours only start running again mid-February.
Personally, I think I made one critical error on my February trip to Svalbard — I came just a few days too early in the season.
It’s hard to overstate just how critical a few days here and there can be in an environment as extreme as the Arctic.
Megan quickly realized how much she’d be missing if she left on the 16th as we originally planned and extended her stay so she could do a really cool snowmobile adventure to the eastern side of Spitsbergen and take a few boat tours of Svalbard.
She was kind enough to share some of her photos from the East Spitsbergen snowmobile tour (above) and her fjord boat tours with Henningsen Transport & Guiding (below) so that you can have an idea of what you can do in the second half of February.
I can admit when I’m wrong — I definitely should have extended my trip and stayed extra so I could see Svalbard from the water as well as taken a snowmobile to Svalbard’s eastern edge.
In the moment, I was too exhausted by the extreme low-light conditions to feel like I had enough energy to stay longer, but I wish I had powered through because I can truly see how much more she got to see by staying later in the month.
Looking now, I see that the tour she took – the polar bear snowmobile safari – actually runs as early as February 11, 2025, but this wasn’t the case when I visited.
Note that while this tour calls itself a ‘polar bear’ safari, you won’t actually track polar bears as that is illegal in Svalbard… for good reason, because these animals are dangerous!
However, it will take you to the eastern side of Spitsbergen, where there are a lot more polar bears since there is a lot more sea ice for them to hunt from.
This tour will bring you to the eastern side, where you can see the Barents Sea, look out on Königsbergbreen Glacier and Rabotbreen Glacier, and see the Barents and Edgeøya islands, both of which are uninhabited.
Accommodation prices are usually quite low throughout the entire month.
I stayed at the Svalbard Hotell Polfaren during my February trip and found that prices were extremely reasonable for such a nice hotel at the northernmost edge of the world!
Looking forwards next year, I can see that prices are quite reasonable for February 2025.
What I find interesting is that the prices don’t really change much at all throughout the month of February.
As of the time of writing, weekday prices are a consistent $177 USD per night whether you visit at the beginning of February vs. the end of February. For that reason, I’d suggest booking your stay near the end of month if you can!
The Northern lights are still a possibility if you’re lucky!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky during my trip and despite staying for four nights, I didn’t get to see the Northern lights in Svalbard during my trip.
Actually, Svalbard is a bit interesting because it is outside what scientists have deemed the ‘aurora oval’ where the aurora borealis appears the most often. It’s actually a little too far north for its own good!
But that doesn’t mean you can’t see the Northern lights in Svalbard — you definitely can, as pictures show! It just means that actually, places like Rovaniemi in Finland and Abisko in Sweden have higher chances of seeing the Northern lights.
One thing to note is that you can’t leave the town of Longyearbyen independently without an armed guide due to the threat of polar bears. So if it’s cloudy in the village, you won’t be able to see the aurora even if there is a spectacular solar storm happening.
For that reason, I suggest taking a tour like this snowmobile tour to an aurora camp in Sassendalen to get a bit more inland (where there is less chance for clouds to obscure your vision) and away from light pollution.
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
While Svalbard is a beautiful place to visit, it’s also an extremely expensive one… which means it becomes even more imperative to pick the right time to visit Svalbard for the experiences you’re hoping for.
Here’s the rub: for many, Svalbard is a “once-in-a-lifetime” type of place. Between expensive flights and the necessity of taking a lot of tours because independent travel is all but impossible to non-locals, you can expect to spend a pretty penny in Svalbard.
But here’s the other thing: there’s no way you can ever do all the activities that make Svalbard so special in one single trip, simply because this place is so seasonal and conditional upon the weather.
Planning your Svalbard itinerary means making some hard choices. Unless some very specific conditions align, you won’t be able to dog sled across the frozen tundra and go kayaking among glaciers in the same visit.
If you’re not bound to a specific vacation schedule and have the luxury of choosing when to visit Svalbard, I advise you think about what activities you want to do first, and then from there, pick the right month within that time period.
The Three Seasons of Svalbard
Forget what you knew about the four seasons in temperate climates or the two seasons in tropical climates. Being so close to the North Pole, Svalbard really has three seasons — and two are just different flavors of winter.
As agreed upon by Svalbard residents, the three proper seasons in Svalbard are:
Sunny Winter (March through Mid-May)
Polar Summer (Mid-May through September)
and Northern Lights Winter (October through February)
This post will start with sunny winter as that’s really when the tourism season starts in Svalbard, although some snow activities like visiting the ice caves do begin a little earlier in February.
February was when my visit was, so I have the most personal tips and advice from that period, and I’ll be writing a dedicated post about visiting Svalbard in February soon.
Sunny Winter (March to Mid-May)
Pick sunny winter if… ✔️ You want to go snowmobiling and dog sledding ✔️ You want to enjoy Svalbard before cruise ships start docking ✔️ You want to enjoy the cold of winter with the benefit of long sunny days
Skip sunny winter if… ❌ You want to see the aurora borealis ❌ You really can’t handle the cold ❌ You want to see lots of wildlife
March in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of -8°C (18°F), average lows of -14°C (7°F), with much lower days possible.
Sunlight: The sun returns on Longyearbyen at the beginning of the month and days are bright, almost endless by the end of the month.
Activities: Snowmobile safaris, visiting ice caves, dog sledding, aurora tours possible at the beginning of the month
March may be the most rapidly changing month in all of Svalbard’s winter season!
The beginning of the month has days that are about 7.5 hours long, with sunrise around 8:30 AM and sunset around 4 PM. But by March 15, sunrise is already at 6:30 AM (a full two hours earlier in just two weeks) and sunset is around 5:45 PM (nearly two hours later), giving you 11 hours of daylight.
By March 30th, days stretch as long as the longest summer days in lower latitudes. By now, the sunrise is around 5:20 AM and sunset isn’t until 8:45 PM — plenty of time to explore and enjoy!
As usual, you can expect twilight hours to stretch about two hours before and two hours after sunset, giving you even more light… and thus ending the aurora season in Svalbard rather abruptly.
With so much sunlight and also so much snow, this is the best season for all the snow sports!
Snowmobiling trips like this one to East Spitsbergen or this one to the ice caves are a great way to enjoy the sunny winter months. It’s the only way to see certain parts of Spitsbergen that are generally inaccessible at other parts of the year.
A particularly unique snowmobile excursion only available in March and parts of April is this blue light snowmobile safari, where you get to see Svalbard in its most beautiful colors, not quite day and not quite night!
March is also a very festive feeling month in Svalbard because this is when the town of Longyearbyen celebrates Sun Festival Week, the week leading up to March 8, full of concerts and fun cultural activities.
While the first sunrise for the year will have been in mid-February, it takes about 3 weeks for the sun to rise high enough above the horizon to peek above the tall mountains that block light from the east from falling on Longyearbyen.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5): The sunlight is beautiful and snow is plentiful for snowmobiling and winter sports, but this is often the coldest month of the year, so bundle up and pack wisely. Coming during Sun Festival Week can be a ton of fun to celebrate the unique return of the sun to this high Arctic town!
April in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F).
Sunlight: The month begins very bright and ends in midnight sun, starting on the 18th.
Activities: Snowmobiling, ice caves, dog sledding,
It may be hard to believe that a month where the Midnight Sun begins can be considered winter, but Svalbard is an unusual place!
On April 1, sunrise is around 5:15 AM and sunset is at nearly 9 PM… already almost 18 hours of daylight! By April 18, though, you’ll see the last sunset for several months, when the sun sets for the final time for several months, translating to 24/7 sunshine at the end of April.
This is also still prime dog sledding season, and you can join tours to the ice caves or around Adventdalen or Bolterdalen if you want a less strenuous, more relaxing dog sled experience.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5): The combination of midnight sun and all the snow sports you can dream of is a perfect combination. However, most boat tours haven’t yet started, and the migratory birds and other wildlife generally haven’t returned yet.
May in Svalbard*
May in Svalbard*
* Technically, the first half of May falls under “sunny winter” and the second half falls under “polar summer”. But since you can still often do many snow activities at the beginning of the month, I’ll put it in the winter section.
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of 1°C (34°F), average lows of -3°C (27°F)
Sunlight: Full sunlight all month long
Activities: Snow sports like snowmobiling at the beginning of the month, changing to boat tours and hiking-based activities by end of the month.
Welcome to the full-on midnight sun season: there are no sunrises or sunsets all month! May is the transitional month between Svalbard’s sunny winter and polar summer seasons, but it feels very summery with never-ending days. Plus, average temperatures finally climb above freezing: what passes for balmy in this part of the Arctic Circle.
This isn’t quite a shoulder season month, because it’s very much high season in Svalbard. However, the unique opportunity to enjoy both snow and boat activities is only possible at this time of year. However, the timing is hard to get exactly right, so it should be thought of as a bonus if everything aligns.
It depends on the temperatures this time of year, but usually around halfway through the month, snow sports like snowmobile safaris and dog-sledding on the snow come to an end. Until then, though, you can enjoy activities like midnight sun snowmobilingand evensnowmobiling all the way to Eastern Spitsbergen in hopes of spotting polar bears where they’re most likely to be.
Once there’s not enough snow for snow sports, activities shift more towards boat trips (such as ones to walrus coloniesas well as RIB safaris to glaciers), hiking tours, and dog-sledding on dry ground using a cart with wheels rather than a dog sledge.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5): Midnight sun, boat season starts, and if you’re lucky you may still have enough snow for some snowmobile trips! This is the best of all worlds for Svalbard… and it’s before cruise season starts.
Polar Summer(June to September)
Pick polar summer if… ✔️ You want to go on boat trips and visit other parts of Svalbard ✔️ You want to see wildlife, including possible polar bears ✔️ You want to experience the sun never setting!
Skip polar summer if… ❌ You’re bothered by cruise ship crowds ❌ You’re traveling on a tight budget ❌ You want snow and Northern lights
June in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of 6°C (43°F), average lows of 3°C (38°F)
June is full polar summer at its best — all the outdoor activities around this time of year focus on boat trips out on the Arctic Ocean!
Now that it’s finally calm enough and sea ice has subsided some, it’s possible to visit some of the more remote places likeNy-Ålesund,the research town that’s the northernmost permanent settlement in the world, and Pyramiden, an abandoned Soviet-era mining town.
Also, sea kayaking season begins again! This is one of the most unique things you can do in Svalbard but you can only do it for a short window of perfect conditions during the summer months, from June through August.
This is the first month that the migratory birds begin to return to Svalbard, meaning you can do fjord safaris to bird cliffs and also do land-based photo safaris. This is also when you have the best chance to see polar bears on a boat tour, especially if you’re going further afield.
Wildlife lovers will also love the chance to go on a walrus safari to Borebukta, a walrus colony where you’re basically guaranteed to see these enormous sea clowns.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) Relatively warm temperatures, all the boat activities you can dream of, and endless summer days! The downsides are that all the snow sports have ended and cruise ship season has begun.
July in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of 10°C (50°F), average lows of 6°C (43°F)
Sunlight: Full sunlight all month long
Activities: Boat tours, sea kayaking, wildlife safaris on land and sea, guided hikes, enjoying the midnight sun
Boat season continues under the midnight sun all July, which also happens to be the warmest month in Svalbard… though that’s not necessarily saying much in the polar regions.
If you’re looking for some stuff to do on land, you can take a wildlife photo tour from Longyearbyen,where you’ll travel by car around the wilderness parts of town and see what you can spot, including Arctic foxes and birds.
You can also go on a variety of hiking tours in the mountains around Longyearbyen, but note that you must always hike with a guide due to polar bear safety measures.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) The warmest month in Svalbard! This is a full month under the midnight sun, lots of different boat tours you can choose from, but this is another peak season month with lots of cruise ships arriving and making Longyearbyen extremely busy. Also quite pricy.
August in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of 9°C (49°F), average lows of 5°C (41°F)
Sunlight: Full sun for most of the month, with midnight sun coming to an end around the 25th.
Activities: Boat tours and excursions, kayaking, hiking tours, birdwatching and wildlife excursions
If you’re looking for something land-based to mix it up, consider this wildlife photography safari, which departs by car from Longyearbyen and brings you on guided hikes to areas where some of the archipelago’s most iconic land-based wildlife, such as Svalbard reindeer and Arctic foxes, like to hang out.
Note that you are unlikely to see a polar bear on this tour, as they don’t tend to hang out very close to Longyearbyen, but anything is possible — that’s why you always have to have a guide with polar bear protection!
If you want a chance to see polar bears, you’ll have more luck on a tour like this one, the fjord cruise to Nordenskiold, which goes near the abandoned mining town of Pyramiden, a popular polar bear hangout spot.
Note that if you’d like to go to Pyramiden, not many tours go there due to the war in Ukraine and tensions that have arisen with Russia as a result of it. However, Henningsen Transit and Guiding does offer tours there, though you won’t find it advertised by Visit Svalbard (again, due to the war).
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) Beautiful nearly endless days and the chance to see the midnight sun end make this a special month in Svalbard. Great conditions for all sorts of boat excursions, although August is also another peak cruise ship month, the only thing that knocks it down a star.
September in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of 5°C (41°F), average lows of 1°C (34°F)
Sunlight: Generally long days and short nights. The month starts with 18 hours of daylight and ends with about 11 hours.
Activities: Sea kayaking season ends, but aurora season begins near the end of the month.
As September begins, the seas begin to get a bit rougher and sea kayaking season comes to an end, as do several boat tours, such as the one to Ny-Ålesund and the walrus watching tours.
This month is quite spectacular because now that the midnight sun is over, you get some really spectacular sunsets and sunrises, and at this latitude they’re particularly long-lasting and beautiful.
You can still do some hikes and many of the land animals of Svalbard are still able to be easily spotted on a wildlife photography safari.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) Cruise ship season comes to a close yet still you can do a few boat tours and see some of the last remaining wildlife of the season, especially if you visit in the beginning of September rather than the end. Long days near the beginning of the month, with the chance of auroras increasing near the end of the month!
Northern Lights Winter (October to February)
Pick Northern lights winter if… ✔️ You want to see the Northern lights (obviously!) ✔️ You’re curious about experiencing a day in the polar night ✔️ You’re on a budget and want to cut costs significantly Skip Northern lights winter if… ❌ You get negatively impacted by low light conditions, such as if you have SAD ❌ You want to see the diversity of Svalbard’s wildlife ❌ You’ll feel like you’re missing out on a lot of its activities
October in Svalbard
At a Glance:
Temperatures: Average highs of 0°C (32°F), average lows of -4°C (25°F)
Sunlight: Short but still distinguishable days at the beginning of the month with the final sunset of the year on the 25th. Twilight hours only at the end of October.
Activities: Northern lights tours begin again, some boat tours continue
A select handful of boat tours continue through most of October, including the fjord safari to Nordenskiold, though the birds will have usually left by mid-September so this tour is more about enjoying the landscape by now, rather than the wildlife.
The month starts out with about 10 hours of sunlight, with sunrises at 7:30 AM and sunsets at nearly 6 PM. But you start losing daylight quickly, about 15-20 minutes per day for the entire month of October, speeding up rapidly in the last days before the final sunset of the year in late October.
On the 25th, there are a mere two hours of daylight, and by October 26th, the sun is down all day and will be for the remainder of the year, as polar night approaches.
But that just means more time for aurora tours, and they are abundant in October — I suggest this land-based one, as none of the snowmobile tours will be running.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) This shoulder season is a great time of year for those looking for good value! You compromise a bit and can do some of the last of the summer activities, like fjord safaris, while also getting to have a good chance of seeing the Northern lights. Cruise ships are gone and prices are lower, it’s not too cold yet, and the island of Spitsbergen turns a beautiful orange autumn color as it transitions into winter.
November in Svalbard
Temperatures: Average highs of -3°C (27°F), average lows of -8°C (18°F)
Daylight: None at all, but the first 10 days have some twilight before the true beginning of Polar Night.
Activities: Cozy city activities around Longyearbyen like museums and cafés, Northern lights tours.
November is the first month of the winter in Svalbard where there is no sunrise or sunset. However, the first 10 days of the month have some hours of civil twilight, which is when the sun is still more than 6° below the horizon, giving you enough light that it doesn’t feel like pitch blackness.
If you come around the beginning of the month, things are a little better. November 1 starts off with a decent amount of light, with civil twilight starting around 8:45 AM and ending around 2:35 PM.
However, that quickly fades about 20 minutes per day, with November 11th being the final day with any twilight at all, and only from 10:50 AM to 12:25 PM.
The good thing about November 11th? That’s when the Christmas hotel opens at Base Camp Explorer, adding one small cozy spark to an otherwise slightly lackluster month.
There’s not enough snow for snowmobile based activities, and it’s too dark to safely be able to do any boat tours, so you’re limited to land-based activities… by car, since there’s almost certainly not enough snow for snowmobiling yet.
There’s not much happening at this time of year, to be honest, but you could join a Northern lights chase by car if you want to increase your chances of seeing the aurora.
Other than that, this is a time of year to nest, eat comforting food at restaurants, shop along the main street, and just accept the darkness.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐ (1/5) With no sunlight and just a very brief period of twilight, this is a rough time of year to visit Svalbard. There aren’t yet Christmas festivities and it’s too early for snowmobile season. However, it’s not that cold yet, it won’t be crowded, and prices are very low.
December in Svalbard
Temperature: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
Daylight: None at all, not even twilight.
Activities: Christmas events, museums and restaurant hopping, Northern lights tours, a few snowmobile tours might begin.
There is no twilight at all in the month of December, making this a full month of the true Polar Night. The light conditions will not change virtually at all during the month of December — except during the full moons, which in the pitch black of Svalbard’s polar night, almost feel like a proper day.
Svalbard does get into the Christmas season, though, which helps add a little light back into this incredibly dark month. On the first Sunday of the Advent, there’s a torchlit march up to Santa’s mailbox (he takes up residence in a mine above Longyearbyen during December) and then back to watch the Christmas tree be lit.
Other than that, this is mostly a month about trying to embrace the dark rather than resist it.
Think bowls of soup in cozy restaurants, enjoying drinks at the pub by a fireplace, and giving scritches to retired sled dogs at the local husky cafe.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐ (2/5) The Christmas décor and festivities make polar night more festive, and there’s a chance of having enough snow to do things like dog sled and snowmobile as long as there has been enough snow. Still, the darkness is quite oppressive and doesn’t let up at all, so it’s hard to see the beauty of the landscape.
January in Svalbard
Temperature: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
Daylight: None, although polar night officially ends on the 29th, and a few hours of twilight begin to appear each day as the “Blue Hour” season approaches.
Activities: Museums and restaurants in Longyearbyen, Northern lights tours, some snowmobile tours.
Polar night continues until the end of January, officially ending on January 29.
That’s when civil twilight returns, even if just for less than an hour (from around 11:50 AM to 12:30 PM, in fact). By January 31, that extends to a few hours of twilight, from 10:55 AM to about 1:25 PM.
Even though there’s enough snow, not all the snowmobile tours are back up and running: just the Northern lights-focused ones. That’s because you can’t really see much, so the landscape-focused tours won’t start up again until February or even March.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐ (2/5) Still a very dark month, though there’s some light at the end of the tunnel near the end of the month. Snowmobiling is generally possible, but with polar night very much on for nearly the entire month, most tours do not run. Dog sledding is a good option too, but like December, you won’t get to see much of Svalbard’s landscape in the pitch black.
February in Svalbard
Temperature: Average highs of -6°C (21°F), average lows of -11°C (12°F)
Daylight: None at the beginning of the month, but some twilight and “blue hour” The sun rises above the horizon after the 15th, but won’t yet fall onto Longyearbyen until March.
Activities: dog sledding, ice caves, Northern lights tours, snowmobiles
This month changes quite rapidly in Svalbard, and it’s when the real winter tourism season begins in earnest… yes, after four months of ‘winter’ have already passed. That’s what happens when there’s about 2/3 of the year in some state of winter!
The first half of the month has no true sunrise or sunset. On February 1, civil twilight lasts from 10:40 AM to around 1:40 PM… a whopping 3 hours of mild blue light. But by around February 14, the last day without any sunrises, that civil twilight period lasts between 8:30 AM and 3:55 PM, giving you what feels like almost a full daytime.
The sun starts to rise around February 15, but you won’t see the sun in Longyearbyen village until March. Still, as soon as the sun starts rising, days get a lot longer and brighter even if you can’t lay eyes on the sun.
On the 15th, the sun rises from 11:30 AM to 12:50 PM, but then by February 28th, the sun is up from between 8:30 AM and 3:45 PM, and twilight extends that brightness by about two hours before and two hours after sunrise and sunset.
As the sunlight returns, so do the snowmobile tours that explore more of the island for more than just the Northern lights.
Overall Rating for Visiting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5): Another slice of shoulder season perfection, especially if you visit near the end of the month. The twilight conditions are quite beautiful, giving Svalbard its famous “Blue Hour” color. But if you visit near the beginning or the end of the month, the sunlight conditions can still be quite challenging for many visitors. It’s quite cold, which is fine, but there are often a lot of winter storms this month, making it less likely to see the Northern lights.
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Endless nights livened up by candles and string lights underneath a galaxy of stars and streaking auroras. Pastel blue light washing over snow-capped mountains with not a tree in sight. Brilliant sun shining day and night above snow-covered tundras, pristine nature marred only by a few snowmobile tracks showing the path to adventure.
Believe it or not, these are all the same season, just different flavors. Welcome to Svalbard in winter.
🏔️Planning your winter Svalbard trip in a hurry? Here are my quick picks!
Ever since I first saw Svalbard on a map, tucked in a top-most corner near the seam of a page, and truly processed how remote it was, I wanted to go. At this age, I knew nothing of polar nights and midnight suns, or even polar bears. I just knew that it was far and that I liked the idea of far.
Then I fell in love with the Arctic, slowly but surely over many visits: first a trip to Kiruna and Abisko, later a trip to Tromsø, next a trip to Rovaniemi, and then back to the Norwegian Arctic again. And Svalbard? Svalbard is as Arctic as it gets, and winter there is an experience like no other.
I visited Svalbard in February, right at the tail end of Northern Lights winter but before the dark season properly came to an end.
As a result, I got to experience a nice mix of many of the activities that make Svalbard winter so unique: Northern lights tours, snowmobile rides, and gorgeous pastel light.
Here are my favorite activities to do in Svalbard in winter, and some that I want to do on a future visit.
You really need to visit Svalbard at multiple times throughout the year to properly do everything on your Svalbard bucket list, because the seasons in Svalbard are each so different and that really impacts what activities you can do.
When is Winter in Svalbard?
How long does winter last in Svalbard? Quite a long time, about two-thirds of the year. Only the period between May 17 and September 30 is considered Polar Summer by locals. Even part of the Midnight Sun season coincides with what is still considered “Sunny Winter”!
Winter in Svalbard is divided into two main parts: dark winter (which they’ve tried to rebrand as “Northern Lights Winter”) and sunny winter. But dark winter, too, can be divided into the true Polar Night, which has 24-hour darkness and two periods of Twilight preceding it.
The Twilight period lasts from October 1 through November 10 and again from February 1 to 28.
February’s twilight hours are called the “blue hours” for the beautiful azure light mimicking daylight, even though the sun never rises above the horizon.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the sub-seasons of winter and when they fall. Note that this has a lot more to do with light conditions (and thus what activities are available to you!) than it does with temperatures.
October 1 through November 10: Northern Lights Winter (Twilight Period, Part 1)
November 11 through January 31: Northern Lights Winter (Polar Night)
February 1 through February 28: Northern Lights Winter (Twilight Period, Part 2)
March 1 through May 16: Sunny Winter (note: Midnight Sun begins around April 18)
Winter Temperatures in Svalbard
Northern Lights Winter
While these are the average highs and lows, extreme temperatures are possible during storms.
Icy cold temperatures of -20° C (-5° F) are frequent in the winter, and on my February trip, the high temperature one day was -15° C (5° F), but it felt much colder due to the windchill!
October: Average highs of 0°C (32°F), average lows of -4°C (25°F)
November: Average highs of -3°C (27°F), average lows of -8°C (18°F)
December: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
January: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
February: Average highs of -6°C (21°F), average lows of -11°C (12°F)
Sunny Winter
While these are the average highs and lows, extreme temperatures of up to -35° C (nearly -40° F) are possible during winter storms. Temperatures of -20° C (-5° F) are frequent, especially in March.
Windchill can significantly impact the real feel of the winter conditions. It can seriously increase your risk of frostbite, so be incredibly cautious when doing outdoor activities during colder seasons.
Note that while sunny compared to other parts of the winter in Svalbard, March is typically the coldest month of the year.
March: Average highs of -8°C (18°F), average lows of -14°C (7°F)
April: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
May: Average highs of 1°C (34°F), average lows of -3°C (27°F)
15 Cool Things to Do in Svalbard in Winter
This guide to Svalbard winter activities is a little unique in that I’ve also included when you can do each activity.
The winter season in Svalbard is broken into so many unique parts, so I don’t want you to be disappointed if, say, you arrive at the end of March and realize you’ve missed aurora season or you arrive in December and snowmobile season hasn’t started yet.
Svalbard’s winter covers many different conditions: there are days when you can see the aurora borealis literally in the middle of the day, and there are days when you won’t see a moment of darkness at all.
This is an adventurous tour, not for the faint of heart. We got on our snowmobiles and drove more than 50 kilometers to and from an ice cave near the Tellbreen Glacier, deep into the heart of Spitsbergen.
It was only my second time driving a snowmobile but I felt safe and pretty confident as we navigated first through the huge valley expanse of Adventdalen before later zig-zagging our way through slightly more treacherous terrain to get to the interior where we could find the glacier.
Once we reached our endpoint, our guide made sure the area was safe and led us down a rickety ladder into a beautiful ice cave, crystals glittering in the glow of our headlamps.
It was a magical experience seeing the glacial ice and the air bubbles that had been trapped inside of it for thousands of years, water just as pure as they were the day it froze.
One of my favorite places in Svalbard, the newly-renovated Svalbard Museum, is equally educational and entertaining. You’ll learn all there is to know about Svalbard here, from its geological roots stretching back millions of years to its more recent history of exploration (and exploitation).
You’ll learn about its fascinating history as both a whaling station and fur trapping hub, as a base for scientific research and expeditions, and its time as a major hub for mining… before now shining as an icon of sustainable tourism in the Arctic.
Go on an Arctic wildlife photography tour
When: October, February-May (not available during Polar Night)
Here’s the thing about visiting Svalbard: even if you fly in as an independent tourist, you can see very little of the Svalbard archipelago (basically, just a few streets in Longyearbyen) without an organized tour.
Why? Because it’s not permitted to leave the settlement of Longyearbyen without a rifle, and that’s not something the average tourist can obtain while traveling to Svalbard on a quick trip.
So doing a car-based tour like this Arctic wildlife photography safari is the perfect way to see the nature around Longyearbyen as much as the roads will allow.
Admittedly, there’s not as much wildlife in the winter as there is in the summer. Expect to see a handful of Svalbard reindeer—they’re pretty much everywhere on the island of Spitsbergen.
If you’re lucky, you’ll see an Arctic fox (we saw two!) and possibly a walrus (we saw one way out in the water).
Note that many of the Arctic foxes near Longyearbyen wear a collar around their necks, which helps researchers at the local university identify them and track the health of the population. As cute as they are, they’re definitely no one’s pets!
Most birds migrate away from Svalbard in the winter months. Still, we were lucky enough to see some cool Svalbard rock ptarmigans.
This is a unique and very hardy species that lives on Svalbard year-round (this fascinating bird literally grows feathers on its feet to act like snowshoes—wild, right?), as well as some common eiders out in the water.
This was one of my favorite activities I did in Svalbard in winter because it gave me a sense of the area around Longyearbyen and what would be your backyard if you were a local.
When: All winter, but better in twilight or daylight
Did you know that Svalbard is home to a ‘doomsday vault’ of more than 1 million unique species of seeds — representing nearly every country on planet Earth?
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was chosen to be located here for two main reasons: one, Svalbard is demilitarized and far from the European mainland so it’s unlikely to be affected in the case of war; and two, the permafrost (theoretically) keeps the seeds at a safe and stable temperature in case of power outages.
Eventually, this massive vault can hold up to 4.5 million different seeds, and in the event of some big catastrophe, it can possibly help us repopulate the world’s biodiversity in food supply.
Of course, you can’t actually enter the building… that’s humanity’s future at stake, they’re not going to let some random tourists in! But it’s still quite cool to see, and it looks even more otherworldly surrounded by snow.
Visit the world’s northernmost brewery, Svalbard Bryggeri
When: All winter
While Mack Brewery in Tromsø stubbornly (and erroneously) claims to be the world’s northernmost brewery, that honor actually belongs to Svalbard Bryggeri, which you can visit all year round in Svalbard.
Unfortunately, due to health reasons, I’ve had to quit alcohol and thus didn’t go to visit during my trip to Svalbard…
… but I did taste their delicious carbonated water, which you can pick up at the Svalbardbutikken and restaurants all over Longyearbyen.
If you’re curious about visiting the brewery, my friend Megan has written a comprehensive guide.
Have coffee and cake in a lovely husky cafe
When: All winter
One of the things I was most excited to do in Svalbard in winter was visit Cafe Huskies, a cute little coffee shop and bakery staffed by a team of retired sled dogs (oh, and some humans who help take orders).
Their coffee was absolutely perfect and they had a really excellent selection of pastries and cakes. Megan had a delicious caramel cheesecake and I had an otherworldly raw cake with all sorts of nuts, agave, and chocolate.
They also have sandwiches and (somewhat confusingly but I’m sure deliciously) poké bowls pre-made that you can grab for a light lunch.
There’s also a small gift shop where you can grab husky-related and Svalbard-related gifts!
Grab chocolates from the world’s northernmost chocolate factory
When: All winter
You’ll find when visiting Svalbard that almost everything is labeled with the superlative “northernmost” — this is the northernmost lamppost in the world! — and so on.
And mostly, I just nod along, as it’s not much of a contest when you have only Ny-Ålesund north of you. But I find a hard time being blasé about anything chocolate-related.
Fruene makes their own chocolates at 78° N, so it can boast exactly that. It’s also a lovely little café and wine bar! This is another great place to grab some souvenirs and also a cup of coffee or light lunch.
Enjoy the cozy pub and restaurant scene of Longyearbyen
When: All winter
I was pleasantly surprised by just how lovely the restaurant scene in Longyearbyen is!
You’d think that this small settlement on an Arctic archipelago wouldn’t have a ton to offer in the food department, but considering the town’s small size, there was a very wide range of delicious places to eat.
You can have everything from a simple soup of the day at Kroa for about 160 NOK (about USD 15) to an exquisite multi-course meal at Huset, the best fine dining restaurant on the island, where an exquisite tasting menu costs 2200 NOK (about USD 206).
For something in the middle, try dining at Polfaren in Hotell Svalbard. It has delicious mains roughly in the 300-400 NOK range (that’s about 28-37 USD) and is a nice place to enjoy a more substantial meal without seriously breaking the bank.
Other recommended restaurants:
Stationen for delicious and affordable burgers around 200-250 NOK (about 18-23 USD)
Funktionærmessen for good value 4-course tasting menus (850 NOK or around 80 USD) and main courses around 400 NOK (37 USD)
Gruvelageret for high-concept 4-course tasting menus (1250 NOK or around 115 USD)
Svalbard is located so far north of the Arctic Circle that it’s outside of the optimal “aurora zone,” and daylight hours shift so rapidly that the aurora season is about two months shorter in Svalbard than in other places like Abisko, Rovaniemi, and Tromsø.
That said, you have the unique opportunity to see the aurora in the middle of the day during polar night, so that certainly makes up for it. It’s one of the most special things about the Polar Night time of the year!
You can sometimes see the Northern lights as you’re just walking around Longyearbyen if there is a lot of solar activity and you have a clear sky.
But there are other ways to see the Northern lights in Svalbard, such as going on a dog-sledding tour under the night sky, going on a car chase tour of the Northern lights, visiting a wilderness camp, or going snowmobiling during dark skies, hoping the lights appear overhead.
Here are a few of the different Northern lights experiences you can try!
Admittedly, this museum could use a facelift, as it’s a bit hard to navigate and pales compared to the Svalbard Museum. But that’s not for lack of the lovely staff’s efforts, who will do their best to tell you the best way to tackle this museum, which feels like it’s been put together by a hoarder rather than a curator.
I was expecting something similar to the Polar Museum in Tromsø, one of my favorite museum experiences. However, it’s a bit scatter-shot, with a disproportionately large section of the museum dedicated to airship exploration and rescue missions, as well as challenging the varying accounts of people who claimed to be the first to reach the North Pole.
Despite some of the shade I’m throwing towards the museum, I think it’s worth going. There are only a few museums in Longyearbyen, so you might as well enjoy them!
I learned even more than I previously knew about Roald Amundsen, one of the greatest polar explorers, and his attempts to reach the North Pole — and also about many polar blunders of other explorers along the way.
Admire the brightly-colored houses of Longyearbyen
When: Year-round, but best lighting in October, February-May
Of course, the brightly-colored Longyearbyen houses in candy-bright colors are there all year round… but during the darkest of the winter months, you won’t really be able to admire them in all their colorful glory the same way you would once Twilight Season or Sunny Winter rolls around.
The hillside neighborhood, Lia, is one of the most spectacular parts of Svalbard’s architectural scene. With beautifully painted rows of housing, it has earned the nickname “spisshusene,” the pointed houses, for their shape as well as their brilliant color.
The idea behind these colorful houses was the brainchild of Ingvald Ohm, who then worked with the color designer Grete Smedal — a female designer from Bergen (a city that knows a thing or two about color) to create a color palette that complemented Svalbard’s tundra and its ever-changing seasons.
She also considered how the snow-covered landscape would look with these colors, as well as how the colors would look in the dark of the Polar Night — pretty cool, huh?
She eventually chose colors in red, yellow, green, and teal to represent the naturally-occurring colors of the Svalbard tundra. Those colors are now part of the government’s official color scheme for all buildings in Longyearbyen and are now codified into Svalbard’s building codes.
I didn’t get a chance to do this tour because I left Svalbard before these tours began again, but my friend Megan stayed a few days longer than I did. She enjoyed this tour so much that she said it’s the best thing she ever did in Svalbard — and she’s visited five times!
That is strictly illegal on Svalbard, and for good reason. Polar bears are extremely dangerous to humans and also vulnerable to extinction. An interaction, particularly on land, between tourists and polar bears should be avoided, not sought out.
However, the largest concentration of polar bears in Svalbard can be found on the Eastern coast of Spitsbergen island. This is because this side of the island has far lower average temperatures than the rest of Spitsbergen because it is not impacted by the Gulf Stream, which brings warmer, more temperate weather.
As a result, there is a ton of sea ice and glaciers here, making this the wildest (and coldest) part of the Svalbard archipelago and where you are most likely to see polar bears.
This is not a ride through peaceful trails but rather an active, all-day adventure that will leave you exhilarated (and exhausted).
Expect to travel at least 150 kilometers and for it to take the entirety of a day. On her tour, Megan did not see any polar bears, but she still ranks it as her favorite Svalbard adventure she’s ever done.
Go dog sledding, night or day
When: All winter
One of the most incredible things you can do in winter in Svalbard is go on a dog sledding trip — many different ways, in fact, depending on the time of year, how much daylight you have, if there’s a lot of snow on the ground, and if there’s anywhere cool you want to go, too.
While doing the ice cave tour of Svalbard by snowmobile, I was surprised to see a few teams of dog sleds roll up right to the same place as we were!
Since I love dog sledding so much (and have done it in four places — Tromsø, Alta, Rovaniemi, and Abisko), I found myself briefly regretting going by snowmobile instead of by dog sled.
If you go dog sledding in Svalbard in the winter, you can have several different types of experiences.
During the season, when you have enough daylight or twilight, as well as enough snow, you can do a variety of dog sled rides through a few different landscapes of Svalbard.
If you don’t want to go to the ice caves, you can also go around in some of the more accessible, less hilly areas around Longyearbyen, like Bolterdalen and Adventdalen.
If you’re visiting Svalbard during the complete darkness of the Polar Night season, you can also do combination dog sled and aurora tours… at any time of day or night!
Here are a few different dog sled tours you can pick from:
When: All winter, but better photos in twilight or daylight
Besides the typical colorful houses of Longyearbyen, the other most iconic photo of Svalbard is the polar bear danger sign, which can be found on the outskirts of town.
We visited it during our Arctic wildlife photography trip as we made our way towards the abandoned mine area. It won’t take you too long to see it, but it is a great photo souvenir of Svalbard!
Go on an icy boat cruise
When: Depends on the sea ice, but some boats start again mid-February
Again, this is another tour I could not do because I visited Svalbard too early in the winter season to enjoy all of its best activities.
If I had to pick the best time for Svalbard, late February is better than mid-February, and March is even better than February. It’s unbelievable what just a few weeks will do in a place that changes as rapidly as Svalbard!
Your wildlife-focused boat tours and ones that include a sea kayaking component typically start up again in polar summer, but my friend Megan clued me in on a little hack. You can go on a boat cruise with Henningsen Transport, which begins running its boats as soon as it is safe to hit the seas!
You can take the Glacier Cruise they offer on Fridays, as early as mid-February. They also provide transportation to Pyramiden and Barentsburg, but there is no guarantee you can dock (and in the case of Pyramiden, it is all but a certainty that you can’t until at least June).
However, these are towns owned by Russian state-owned mining companies. As a result of the war in Ukraine, Visit Svalbard does not promote them out of solidarity with Ukraine. Whether or not you choose to visit is up to you but I leave you this information to make your own choices!
Take a tour of a now-defunct coal mine
When: All winter
Svalbard is slowly trying to shift away from its mining roots, with the last mine in Longyearbyen planned to close in 2025. But it still values its mining history, as the Arctic island shifts more towards tourism instead of mining as a sustainable economy for the future.
You can visit a former mine, Gruve 3, which was shut down in 1993. This mine is located on the outskirts of Longyearbyen on a Gruve 3 Mine Tour near the Global Seed Vault.
The tour lasts about 3 hours and includes transportation and a full guided tour including equipment like coveralls, headlamp, and helmet. Just be sure to dress warmly as it is very cold in the mine in the winter!
There’s a brief period of time during polar night when there’s no daylight but there’s also not enough snow to safely snowmobile around Longyearbyen.
Luckily, no one in Svalbard just sits on a problem without trying to solve it: this is a hardy Arctic community where people come up with solutions, not complaints.
If you happen to plan your Svalbard trip for November, you can go on an ATV ride in search of the Northern lights, checking out frozen ice formations and other cool sights under the polar night sky.
This is the same tour company I did my Northern lights snowmobile tour with and I can highly recommend them if you arrive in Svalbard before snowmobile season starts.
Where to Stay in Svalbard
During my trip to Svalbard we stayed at the charming Svalbard Hotell Polfaren, which had spacious rooms and a really cozy lobby with a fireplace roaring at all times and 24/7 free coffee, which I appreciated in the darkness of winter.
It’s a great mid-range option with prices right smack-dab in the middle of what’s normal for Svalbard. In off-season we paid about $180 USD per night for a double room; in high season, expect to pay more like $250-300 USD a night.
If Polfaren is booked up, there’s also The Vault, another branch of the Hotell Svalbard, located right across the street and offering all the same amenities.
For a slightly nicer option, Funken Lodge is a gorgeous boutique hotel locate just a short walk from downtown.
The rooms are more modern and stylish, but it’s not that much more expensive than other offerings, typically around $250-300 USD per night. It’s also home to one of the best restaurants in Svalbard!
If you’re trying to stick to a budget in Svalbard, it’s not easy… but there are some more affordable accommodation choices, like Coal Miners Cabins, where private rooms with a shared bathroom start around $100 USD per night.
Winter Festivals and Events in Svalbard
There are a number of winter festivals and fun events in Longyearbyen to make the long, cold winter just a little more pleasant.
The dates change every year and aren’t yet determined for the 2024-2025 season, but the approximate timeframe should remain the same, so I’ll just give an outline for when you might expect them to occur.
October: Taste Svalbard food festival in the beginning of the month, Dark Season Blues Festival at the end of the month
November: Christmas Hotel at Basecamp Explorer reopens mid-month
December: Torchlit walk to “Santa’s Mine” and lighting of the Christmas tree on the first Sunday of Advent
February: Polarjazz Festival at the beginning of the month, Arctic Chamber Music Festival at the end of the month
March: Sun Festival Week is the first week of March every year as the sun returns to Longyearbyen
April: Svalbard Ski Marathon occurs around mid-month, close to the midnight sun’s return
What to Wear in Svalbard in Winter
This post is already so long so instead of going into a huge amount of detail, I’m going to refer you to my Svalbard packing list post here. But here’s a quick bullet point list of what an average “Svalbard winter outfit” should entail!
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Svalbard is home to the world’s northernmost settlements, endless nights that stretch on for months, and enough polar bears that residents can’t leave the main town without a firearm.
So perhaps you’d assume that the Svalbard archipelago, located far north of the Arctic Circle at 78°N, would have some of the best chances for Northern lights viewing in the world. Well, not exactly so!
The Northern lights phenomenon is a lot more complex than just North + Dark = Lights, but many people don’t quite get that. And many people who haven’t actually experienced Svalbard in winter themselves erroneously think it’s one of the best places in the Arctic region to see the aurora borealis.
While there are a few unique perks of Svalbard for seeing the Northern lights (yes, it is true that you can sometimes see the aurora in the middle of the day!), there are also some downsides.
Those cons usually aren’t conveyed very well by bloggers who don’t know much about the science of auroras or the unique location and geography of Svalbard and how that impacts its ability to see the lights.
But me? I’m nothing if not pedantic. As a self-professed neurodivergent nerd who loves science (and particularly astronomy or any sort of study of space), I’m here to clear up some misconceptions about seeing the Northern lights in Svalbard.
This is not to say that you can’t see them in Svalbard — you absolutely can! — nor that you shouldn’t go to Svalbard in winter. There are many great reasons to go, like visiting ice caves, dog sledding, snowmobiling, and more!
But if you are going to Svalbard specifically to see the Northern lights, there are better places in Northern Norway to do just that, in my opinion, such as Alta or Tromso… or better yet, see the lights in Abisko in Sweden or Rovaniemi in Finland.
But if you’ve planned a trip to Svalbard in winter in hopes of seeing the lights, don’t fear — you absolutely have a good chance of seeing the Northern lights, and I’m sure you’ll have a perfect trip!
However, you’ll want to read this important information in order to have reasonable expectations.
Here’s what people don’t know about seeing the Northern lights in Svalbard, so you can be more informed before your trip.
The Svalbard aurora season is actually shorter than most places in the Arctic
This surprises many people because they think that since Svalbard is located so far north, their winter season (and thus Northern lights) go on for nearly all the year. In reality, there are many places further south of Svalbard that get the Northern lights both earlier in the season as well as later.
For example, in places like Rovaniemi and Tromsø, you can see the aurora starting in late August. It’s not particularly common as there is still a lot of daylight, but it is possible.
Well, in Svalbard, the midnight sun ends on August 23rd… meaning there is absolutely no nighttime during the first few weeks of August, and the final week of August still has skies too bright to properly go aurora hunting.
The aurora season in Svalbard doesn’t start until late September, a full month later than places further south (but still north of the Arctic Circle). Similarly, the Northern lights season ends in Svalbard far earlier than in other Arctic destinations.
Aurora tours typically stop running Svalbard in the first week of March, when the sunlight hours start to stretch too long to have much chance of seeing the aurora. Meanwhile, aurora tours are still running strong in other Arctic destinations until around the first week of April.
So as you can see, the overall aurora season in Svalbard is nearly two months shorter than you’d find in other Arctic destinations, running only from late September to early March.
This is because while the dark season and polar night are quite long, midnight sun is never far behind. This makes picking the right time to visit Svalbard for the aurora quite crucial!
As soon as Svalbard leaves its dark period, it takes a running leap towards never-ending sunny days. The change happens much quicker than you’d think, ending the aurora season abruptly in March, while the summer months are still quite far away.
There is one very cool caveat to this, though: due to the extreme darkness of polar night at this latitude, the archipelago of Svalbard is the only permanently inhabited place on earth where you can see daytime auroras.
Yes, you can see the Northern lights in the middle of the day if you visit during Polar Night (November 11 to January 30). The daytime lights are typically fainter, but it’s certainly still possible to see them.
Visiting during the true polar night will undoubtedly increase your chances of seeing the Northern lights, since you don’t need to wait for darkness to happen… it’s literally dark all day long!
But this comes at a cost of not being able to properly see the beauty of Svalbard, since you have zero hours of daylight… and not even any twilight conditions.
If you really want to see the aurora and experience a polar night, this could be a really cool experience.
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’ve been to Svalbard before, especially since the extreme light conditions can be a huge shock to your body and circadian rhythms. Honestly, I’ve never been more tired in my life than when I visited Svalbard in February during the period when the sun doesn’t rise!
Even though we still had about six hours of twilight “blue light” hours that simulated daylight and signaled the passage of time, I was so thrown off! I can’t even imagine if I had visited during the true polar night.
It’s harder to chase Northern lights on Svalbard than elsewhere in the Arctic
I’ve taken aurora tours in many different places, and I’ve seen the aurora in Norway, Sweden, and Finland many times each — over a dozen times in total — so I know a little something about seeing the aurora at this point!
A good aurora tour is willing to do whatever it takes, within reason, to find a clear patch of sky. To paraphrase a friend of a friend who runs Northern lights tours: you’re not aurora chasing, you’re clear sky chasing.
But here’s the problem about doing that in Svalbard: there are only 45 kilometers of road on the entirety of the island of Spitsbergen, mostly all around the town of Longyearbyen.
That means if the immediate area around Longyearbyen is completely clouded over, you pretty much have no chance of finding clear skies. There’s just literally nowhere to go.
Oh, and also, due to the persistent threat of polar bears, you can’t leave Longyearbyen without a firearm, and you need a permit for that… which is not exactly easy to get as a tourist. So even if you were to rent a car in Svalbard, it’s not permitted to leave the village unless you have access to a firearm.
If you want to get out of Longyearbyen and have a better chance to see the Northern lights, you need to go via guided tour if you’re a tourist.
There are fun options such as a snowmobile tour or even a dog sledding tour, where you traverse the snow-covered Svalbard tundra in the pitch black in search of clear patches of the night sky. But even that’s a gamble!
Personally, I did a Northern lights snowmobile tour during my February trip to Svalbard. While it was definitely fun to zip around in the pitch black night, we didn’t see a single glimpse of the aurora, despite a prediction of high activity levels.
In fact, in my four nights in Svalbard, I didn’t see the Northern lights even one time due to persistent cloud cover. Oh no… I guess I just have to go back!
If you want to see the aurora at its best, I suggest getting outside of Longyearbyen town.
While you can definitely see the Northern lights in the village, as it’s not that bright, you’ll have a much more impressive impression of the aurora if you get away from light pollution.
There are a variety of Northern lights trips in Svalbard you can book that bring you outside of Longyearbyen, which you can’t do on your own due to polar bears and the regulations about needing firearms outside the village.
Being as close to the North Pole as Svalbard is means you’re out of the aurora zone
Here’s another counterintuitive thing about seeing the aurora in Svalbard: it’s not actually in what many scientists call the “aurora zone,” the latitude band in which seeing the Northern lights occurs the most frequently.
This isn’t a particularly well-defined term, so I can’t give a perfectly-agreed upon definition, but the rough range scientists give is between 65-72°N — leaving Svalbard, at a staggeringly high 78°N, out of the club.
It’s kind of confusing why this happens, but basically, it’s because when there are particular strong amounts of solar activity, the aurora band actually moves to lower latitudes.
Solar activity is measured by the Kp index — the higher the number, the further distance the aurora extends away from the polar regions (in the case of the Northern lights, the further south it goes).
When the Kp index rises above a certain amount, the aurora oval (the area in which you can presently see the aurora) shifts south — and due to Svalbard’s high latitude, when this happens, the Northern lights are no longer visible.
Contrary to what some people think, a lower Kp index in Svalbard is actually generally a good thing!
The middle of winter may not actually be best time to spot the aurora in Svalbard
So, we’ve already established that Svalbard’s aurora season lasts from late September through early March. But what’s the best month in that period?
You might think that picking a time smack-dab in the middle of the winter season might be your best chances. Well, not so — I think that the “fall” months in Svalbard are actually probably a better bet.
OK, so technically Svalbard doesn’t have a proper fall — they divide the seasons into “Northern lights winter”, “sunny winter”, and “polar summer”. But when I say fall, I’m talking about what really feels like fall in other parts of the Northern hemisphere: namely, the months of October and November.
However, one thing that note that in October and November, there’s not enough snow to do certain activities like snowmobiling, so you’re somewhat limited in terms of ways you can see the lights.
That said, the Northern lights are a natural phenomenon that are reliant on a bunch of different factors. There’s solar activity, which itself can be broken down into the presence of the solar wind particles, the speed at which they’re moving, the density of these particles, and the direction that they’re moving (towards the earth’s magnetic field or not).
There’s also the need for enough hours of darkness for your eye to be able to perceive the lights. And, the most fickle factor of all, you need clear nights (read: no cloud cover) to see the lights.
You also need a lot of time and patience for all those factors to collide, so be sure to pack warm clothes (and maybe some hand warmers).
So, why is “fall” better in my estimation? Simply because usually, the majority of the winter storms haven’t moved into Svalbard yet by this time of year, meaning there is a higher likelihood of clear enough skies for aurora viewing.
My friend who lives in Finnish Lapland swears by the fact that the fall is generally the best time for the aurora, with the spring months close behind, and the middle of winter actually being the worst due to frequent snow storms, which bring in dense, low-lying clouds.
The aurora is not nearly as brightly colored as you might think it would be
This is the number one thing I always try to convey to my readers about the Northern lights: no, it’s not really that bright in real life.
Once, when photographing the Northern lights in Alta, a girl came out and asked if I was photographing the lights. I said yes, and she scrunched up her face before asking, “so when do they go neon?” I had to hold back a little chuckle.
I don’t want to bring down your excitement about seeing the magical lights of the aurora.
Having seen them at least a dozen times, I can attest that they are spectacular and jaw-dropping, and I’m in awe of the universe and my small role in it every time I see it. As a person without any particular faith, they’re one of the closest things I have to a spiritual experience.
However, you have to understand how light works differently in a camera versus to your naked eye. The pictures you see of the aurora generally are taken with a shutter speed of about one to three seconds. Meanwhile, your eye takes in a lot less light, so you don’t see the color at the same saturation level.
When the Northern lights are quite faint, they look almost indistinguishable from clouds, and you can really only tell that they are Northern lights by the time you aim your camera at them and wait to see if some green color appears.
That said, in a few instances, I’ve seen the Northern lights during particularly explosive shows. On those instances, I’ve seen pretty vivid greens and once even some beautiful bursts of red with my naked eye. It was pretty spectacular, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
It’s better to have low expectations and have them blown out of the water than to have absurdly high expectations and leave disappointed. I want you to have the best trip possible, so hopefully this doesn’t discourage you, but instead just helps you have the right perspective.
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Usually, when I create an itinerary for a place, I take my cumulative experience there (often collected after multiple trips) and streamline it into one timeline with only the best options. However, that approach creates a problem when creating an itinerary for Svalbard.
Why? Well, the ideal sequence of events for a February Svalbard trip vastly differs from an August trip. Nearly all of the activities I did in winter are not even doable in the summertime.
Ice caves? Yeah, not when it’s above freezing. Northern lights snowmobiling? It would help if the sky, you know, ever got dark in the summer. Snowmobiling in general? Yeah, you need snow for that.
On the other hand, had I followed the other generic Svalbard itineraries I’ve seen on the internet, I wouldn’t have been able to do… well, basically anything on my trip to Svalbard.
I visited in mid-February of 2024, just before the first boat trips of the year started up again (although my friend Megan, who stayed a few days longer than me, did get to experience some winter boat trips!) — so that ruled out glacier cruises and kayaking. Seeing the walrus colonies? Also not possible. Birdwatching? Try again.
Due to its extreme location smack-dab halfway between the North Pole and the tip of Northern Norway, Svalbard is a place of drastic, rapid change. Though I imagine those changes don’t seem to happen so rapidly when you’re in the middle of a nearly two-month-long period of complete and total darkness that is the polar night… but I digress.
Even in February, I noticed a difference in the light every single day of my trip. Had I visited Svalbard even two weeks later, I would have had a completely different impression of the place. That’s how quickly the hours of daylight shift as the Svalbard archipelago exits polar night.
Temperatures swing wildly, too — it was just above 0 C a few days in February before swinging back down to -25 C in March. Cold isn’t the problem here; you can always add layers if it gets cold (hence all the layers on my Svalbard packing list).
Rather, unseasonably warm weather can significantly impact what Svalbard activities are available to you, particularly ones that depend on how long the snow lasts.
With that in mind, that’s why I created two similar but specifically curated Svalbard itineraries that highlight the best activities for each season, opting for snow-based land excursions in winter and boat trips and wildlife spotting in summer.
At-a-Glance: My Two Itineraries for Svalbard
This post is very detail-oriented and goes into a lot of logistics about Svalbard… but I also understand you may just want a quick summary of my recommendations for a Svalbard itinerary!
Before we dive into the bulk of the post, here’s a quick preview of how I’d recommend spending up to 5 days in Svalbard in both winter and summer.
Note that you don’t have to do it all — since Svalbard requires a tour-based approach, you can select the day trips and activities that appeal to you the most in the time you have and leave the rest.
*Note for Readers: Barentsburg and Pyramiden are both Russian settlements and the land is owned by state-owned mining companies. You can visit these places via Henningsen Transport, but Visit Svalbard does not promote them due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Depending how you feel and where you want your money to go, you may or may not want to include Barentsburg or Pyramid on your Svalbard itinerary — this is up to you!
I am fully aware that these two itineraries for Svalbard are very tour-heavy. While some bloggers cram a lot of tours on their posts for affiliate purposes, that’s not my intention here—first of all, I don’t recommend anything I wouldn’t enjoy doing myself!
But here’s the reality with visiting Svalbard: if you don’t go on a tour, you won’t see anything of the island beyond the main streets of Longyearbyen. At all.
That’s because it’s not permitted to roam the island of Spitsbergen (or any of Svalbard’s smaller islands) without firearm protection from polar bears. As you can imagine, it’s not exactly easy for a tourist to obtain a firearm license (and a firearm) to use for just a few days.
So, unfortunately for independent-minded (and budget-minded) travelers, you do have to do tours if you want to get out of Longyearbyen village. While Longyearbyen town is great for a short period, there are only so many times you can wander the main street before you get completely stir-crazy and need a change of scenery.
Luckily, Svalbard is resisting mass tourism as much as possible and prioritizing small-group travel to achieve that. As a result, tour operators keep group sizes as small as possible.
Plus, the mindset of someone who lives and works on an island as unique as Svalbard values independence, quiet, and solitude. So, despite taking several tours in Svalbard, I never felt worn-out and exhausted like I do from mass tourism-style tours, where I feel shouted at and corralled all day.
Personally, in terms of logistics, I used Manawa to book my tours all in one place for Svalbard because I love their curated inventory and customer service. Visit Svalbard also offers a huge range of tours, so I’m recommending tours from both to give you the most options!
Whichever you choose, I recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment if your preferred activity gets booked up.
Seasons on Svalbard
So, how do we break down seasonality on an island as singular, in terms of climate and sunlight hours, as Svalbard?
I frankly have no idea, so I’m deferring to the experts at Visit Svalbard, who divide the seasons into three seasons: Northern lights winter (October 1-February 28), Sunny winter (March 1-May 16), and Polar summer (May 17-September 30).
However, during that “Northern lights winter” period, the month of February is the twilight season (and that’s when I personally visited). No sun falls on Longyearbyen, but there is still quite a bit of beautiful blue light during the day — enough that it almost tricks your body into thinking there’s some daylight.
In contrast to the inky darkness of the pitch-black night, the blue twilight period absolutely sparkles like a summer day. It’s one of Svalbard locals’ favorite times of year: they call those robin-egg blue skies the “blue hour” or tussmørket in Norwegian.
For this post, I won’t include an itinerary for the polar night period. While you absolutely can visit during this season, your choices for what to do are pretty limited and mostly take place in Longyearbyen village.
Frankly, since a trip to Svalbard is such a pricy endeavor, I generally don’t think it’s an ideal time to come for your first visit to Svalbard (unless you have an alternate reason to visit, like friends, or you’re really curious to visit a place experiencing true polar night).
The biggest downside is that most tours don’t simply run during polar night because there’s not enough light to enjoy your surroundings, so you’re basically stuck in Longyearbyen… cozy for a few days, but maybe not how you want to spend your entire vacation.
Instead, I’m combining the tail-end of Northern Lights winter and sunny winter into one season, which I’m calling… wait for it… winter. February through mid-May is when there is likely to be still enough snow on the ground to do land-based snow activities.
Polar summer, from May 17 through September 30, gets a bit of an extension as well in my classification: We’ll call the period from mid-May through the end of October summer, since the final sunset isn’t until October 26.
But it doesn’t switch to polar night overnight. Just like in February, there’s still the impression of faint blue light during the Twilight period until Polar night begins on November 11, when the months-long darkness begins in earnest!
Detailed Day by Day Svalbard Winter Itinerary
After visiting Svalbard in February 2024, this is more-or-less the itinerary I followed during my stay there… with a few additions for what I would have done differently if I had a little more time during my stay.
Day One: Longyearbyen Town
Morning: Start your day at the Svalbard Museum, which is just at the end of the main road in Longyearbyen (there’s basically only one: you can’t really miss it).
This newly-renovated museum was just re-opened and it’s a true treasure trove to the natural and anthropological history of the archipelago, from its geology to its wildlife to its roots as a whaling destination — and how it quickly had to adapt when it became clear that whalers were destroying the balance of life in Svalbard. Adults and kids alike will adore this museum.
Coffee Break and Lunch: Time to visit my favorite place in Longyearbyen: Cafe Huskies! This café hosts a rotating crew of adorably lazy retired sled dogs, who are living out their final days in a peaceful state of bliss.
Dog lovers will be in paradise, as will sweet tooths: their coffee is delicious, and their cheesecakes and raw cakes are absolutely addicting. You can get sandwiches and lunch here too. There’s also a small little shop area where you can buy some cute souvenirs, both of the husky and Svalbard variety.
Afternoon: Next up on your Longyearbyen itinerary is visiting the worthwhile but confusingly laid-out North Pole Expedition Museum. This museum has a ton of promise but frankly, it needs a redesign in the same vein as the Svalbard Museum does, which is now a world-class museum.
This museum explores airships and different Arctic explorers, including rescue missions for expeditions that went awry… but the layout is very unclear, and it’s hard to navigate the media. It’s still worth a visit for adults, but kids may get a little stir-crazy and bored here. Frankly, Longyearbyen doesn’t have too many cultural sights (it’s a town of just 2,500, after all) so beggars can’t be choosers!
After you’ve visited the North Pole Expedition Museum, head back up the main street towards town and pop into some of the shops.
There are a number of really good souvenir and clothing shops, specifically clothing stores that specialize in cold weather wear. Svalbard offers tax-free shopping, so clothing here is actually a little cheaper than you’ll find on the Norwegian mainland, if you need any incentive to shop!
Explore the world’s northernmost proper grocery store, the Svalbardbutikken, which is remarkably well-stocked for a grocery store this remote at this high a latitude. I found it interested just as a thought experiment in all the logistics that are involved in keeping in stocked.
Evening: Time to cap off your day exploring Longyearbyen with a meal at the city’s surprisingly innovative food scene. You’d think a town at the end of the world wouldn’t have many options, but no: Huset is the best fine-dining option that will cost you an arm and a leg, but it’s said to be on its way to earning a Michelin star.
There’s also the restaurant at Funken Lodge, Funktionærmessen, which won the best restaurant in town award last year (2023). There’s also Polfaren located in Hotell Svalbard (where we had our first meal, a very lovely one) and Kroa, Svalbar, or Stationen if you want more down-to-earth pub food. And that’s not to mention the sushi options at Nugasushi.
Alternate evening (February and first days of March only): If you are visiting in February like I did, you have one gorgeous advantage in exchange for the lack of sun — the fact that Svalbard’s Northern lights may still come out to play and make one final spectacular dance across the sky!
Frankly, even though it was a good deal that only added about $10 to the tour price, I didn’t really love the meal (a salmon wrap and reindeer stew) and it took a long time to prepare in the cabin. I would have preferred to just eat my own meal before showing up to the tour, even if it cost a bit more money.
We didn’t see the Northern lights on our snowmobile as it was far too cloudy to even see a single star, but it was still a fun (and slightly scary) experience roaring around on snowmobiles in the uncanny pitch black of a Svalbard winter night.
Day Two: Ice Cave Tour
Morning: Have breakfast and then get ready for an epic ice cave adventure! This was my favorite activity I did in Svalbard this winter — an adrenaline-pumping ice cave tour by snowmobile, where we rode 53 kilometers roundtrip to Tellbreen glacier to find one of the new ice caves that had formed over the winter season.
I wrote a full post about my experience (that also gives you some other ideas on how you can do an ice cave tour, including by dog sled, hike, snow cat, and even overnight camping), so rather than recap that day here and risk making this post far too long, I’ll simply direct you to that post here.
Late Afternoon: You’ll have a small meal of the freeze-dried variety while you’re out on your tour, but once you arrive back from your snowmobile (or dog-sled) tour, you’ll likely want a light pick-me-up to hold you over until dinner.
Luckily, one of my favorite Svalbard cafés, Fruene Café, is the ideal place for just that. Grab some of their locally-made chocolates or a pastry (though I’ve heard their cinnamon buns are skippable) or a bowl of soup to keep you happy and satisfied until dinnertime. And of course, make like the Norwegians and have a cup of coffee — their espresso drinks here are excellent!
Evening: I gave you a huge laundry list of possible places you could eat in Longyearbyen in the previous section, so check out that list again and see what entices you from the list that you didn’t get to try the night before. You could also grab some cold cuts and sandwich bread from the Svalbardbutikken if you’re trying to save money.
This isn’t really because you can expect to see a ton of wildlife — in winter, your options are fairly limited to walruses, Arctic foxes, rock ptarmigans, and reindeer — but because it’s one of the only chances you’ll have to see the entire road network of Svalbard.
Being so isolated, Svalbard only has about 45 kilometers of roads that you can drive — and on this tour, you’ll see basically all of it. You’ll go down to Bjørndalen as well as Adventdalen.
In addition, you may be stopping by a variety of spots based on local tips, like if walruses have been spotted hanging out at the harbor or if Arctic foxes have been seen around the Global Seed Vault.
It’s a relatively brief tour, lasting about 4 hours, so this is a good half-day activity.
Afternoonand Evening: The brevity of the wildlife photo tour lets you have a relaxing second half of the day, enjoying more of Longyearbyen or simply nestling in one of the cozy hotel lobbies with a book about the region to learn more next to a cozy fire.
Part of the joy of visiting Svalbard in its more wintry, sleepy season is adjusting to that pace of life and giving yourself permission to slow down.
However, if slowing down simply isn’t in your vocabulary, there’s still more you could do: you could walk up to Svalbard Church on a hill above town, walk to — but not past! — the famous polar bear warning sign (if you didn’t see it on a past tour), or visit the Nordover Art Center to see a little culture.
You could have a meal at a café (Cafe Huskies also has some really nice sandwiches and even poke bowls in addition to their sweets selection) for lunch, explore a little, and then pick one of the restaurants you haven’t tried yet for dinner.
Day Four: Dog Sledding
Morning or Afternoon: One other activity not to be missed in Svalbard is the chance to go dog sledding in Bolterdalen. Personally, I had just gone dog-sledding in Alta the week before and I spent all my travel budget in Svalbard on a variety of snowmobile trips, so I elected to skip this dog sled tour… but now that I’m writing this, I regret it!
Dog sledding is one of my favorite activities in the world — I’ve done it in Alta, Tromsø, Rovaniemi, and Abisko — and if you’ve never done it before, it’s simply a can’t-miss Svalbard activity.
The tour lasts four hours and you can choose a morning tour (from 8 AM to noon or from 9 AM to 1 PM) or an afternoon tour (from 2 PM to 6 PM or 3 PM to 7 PM). Depending on whether you prefer to have a relaxed morning or free time in the afternoon, pick what works best for your preferred travel schedule.
Evening: In addition to a meal out, why not grab a drink at the best (read: only) proper bar in town, Svalbar? Fruene is also a wine bar in addition to a coffee shop if you prefer a more robust wine selection.
Day Five: Choose Your Own Adventure
If you have a fifth day in Svalbard, fill it up any way you choose! Here are my two very different suggestions, requiring different levels of fitness, comfort, and budget.
For a more high-octane adventure that will also bruise your wallet a bit, but give you one of the most memorable experiences of your life, you can take this epic snowmobile ride to Svalbard’s remote east.
I left Svalbard before this tour was offered (starting after February 17 this last year) so I couldn’t go, but my friend Megan did it and adored it — she said it was probably the best thing she’s ever done.
Note that this tour is ‘marketed’ as being able to go to the land of the polar bears… this is only part true. Any polar bear ‘safari’ is illegal in Svalbard and you can’t actually track a polar bear, even if you see footprints or signs of life of a polar bear. Rather, this tour goes to Svalbard’s icy east, where the Gulf Stream doesn’t impact the weather as much, leaving a lot more sea ice for polar bears to hunt on.
Past guests have reported seeing polar bears but Megan did not see one on her tour, and honestly, it’s quite unlikely that you would. This tour is more about embracing the remoteness and wildness of a 150 kilometer plus ride across the most remote parts of Spitsbergen.
For something a little less grueling and requiring less of a time and money investment, a winter guided hiking trip up Platåfjelletis also available.
Remember that you cannot hike alone in Svalbard as you need to have a weapon with you if you leave the settlement. The views are stunning here! You can do this hike in summer, too, but the wintery panorama of the icy fjord is even more spectacular, I think.
Detailed Day by Day Svalbard Summer Itinerary
I adored Svalbard but admittedly struggled a bit with the low light conditions and I immediately vowed to come back in the summer season, when my California ass can properly photosynthesize as I was meant to do.
I haven’t personally experienced this Svalbard summer itinerary yet for myself, but I put it together for my next trip.
It’s collected from my friends’ personal experiences visiting Svalbard in summer, the fact that I’ve watched nearly every single episode of Cecilia Blomdahl’s midnight sun series on her YouTube channel, and my obsessive spreadsheet of plans for my next trip to Svalbard.
Here goes my rough sketch for what I would do on a Svalbard summer itinerary!
Day One: Exploring Longyearbyen
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here — refer above to what I outlined for day one of the Svalbard winter itinerary, as it’s the same, including:
Morning at the Svalbard Museum
Coffee break and lunch at Café Huskies
Afternoon visit to the North Pole Expedition Museum
Shopping on the main street of Longyearbyen
Dinner at one of Longyearbyen’s excellent restaurants
Note that if you are here in October, there are Northern lights tours again, but the rest of the summer season there are not.
Day Two: Sea Kayaking Among the Glaciers
This is perhaps the most perfect and quintessentially Svalbard summer activity you can do: sea kayaking with glaciers on the Arctic Sea, paddling between the broken-off floes of sea ice and the Svea glacier towering above you.
It’s not a cheap activity — you need to take a RIB to the northern edge of the Isfjord first, then you disembark in tandem kayaks — but it’s perhaps the most sublime thing you can do in Svalbard.
It’s like a little slice of Antarctica, without the hefty price tag (well, with only a fraction of it) and the hellish Drake’s Passage.
If you’re very lucky, you may even get to see a glacier calve (break into multiple parts) into the water, creating a new mini iceberg.
Note that due to often-rough seas, the kayaking season is quite short, with tours only running in June, July, and August. If you travel outside that part of the summer season, RIB boats are better.
As the winter snow melts, the tundra of Svalbard’s Arctic desert climate comes to life and it’s the perfect time to enjoy the brief but beautiful hiking season.
There are a ton of mountains around Longyearbyen to choose from: in the interest of making things easy for you, I’m just going to highlight two choices, both of which I think are excellent options.
If you want a less strenuous hike, there’s the moderate-difficulty (and inexpensive) guided hike up to Platåfjellet which affords you stunning views over the town of Longyearbyen and its home fjord, the Isfjord.
For something more challenging, why not summit the highest mountain in Svalbard — the Nordenskioldtoppen summit hike is a real challenge, but one you can walk away quite proud from.
The hike to the top of Platafjellet is only 424 meters or 1,391 feet — not too hard for a hike, though note that the rocky, loose rock terrain of Svalbard can itself present a challenge.
Meanwhile, Nordenskioldtoppen maxes out at 1,050 meters or 3,445 feet, presenting a far greater challenge that should only be taken on by more experienced hikers who are used to tackling intense elevation gains.
Day Four: Nature Photography Tour and Boat Cruise
Run by the same company I did my winter photography tour of Svalbard with, this is a similar version but in the summertime, adding on a boat cruise as well so you can see another side of Svalbard’s biodiversity as the water and sea cliffs come to life with migratory whales and returning sea birds.
This nature wildlife photography tour with boat cruiseis an excellent and affordable way to see a wide swath of Longyearbyen that would otherwise be inaccessible to you since it is not possible to travel outside the village limits without a firearm.
Summer Svalbard animals you might see include: dozens of variety of birds, Arctic foxes in their brown summer coats, tons of walruses, several different species of whales, and of course… the ubiquitous Svalbard reindeer. Will you see a polar bear? Likely not, but taking a boat cruise does slightly increase your odds.
Day Five: Choose Your Adventure – By Land or By Sea
This final day of the summer Svalbard itinerary presents one of the coolest options of what you can do in Svalbard… but I warn you, it’s a pricy experience.
But will you ever have another chance to take a boat tour the world’s most northernmost permanent settlement, the radio-silence enforced research settlement of Ny-Ålesund?
Home to only 35 people in the winter and 117 in the summer, this tiny, barely-inhabited part of Svalbard is literally the northernmost place people live year-round… and it’s utterly fascinating if you get the chance to visit.
Due to the immense amount of sea ice that blocks in Ny-Ålesund for most of the year, these boat tours only run from May through August — and they’re quite pricy, just under 500 euros per person.
You also really need to book the boat tour to Ny-Ålesund in advance: nearly all of the 2024 bookings are already made. Luckily, this tour has somewhat flexible cancellation — you can cancel for a full refund up to 30 days before your tour if you want to reserve a spot but aren’t fully ready to commit.
Another boat tour idea is visiting the still-active Russian mining town of Barentsburg, the second-largest settlement in Spitsbergen, or visiting the ‘ghost town’ of Pyramiden, once a large mining town but now virtually abandoned, with frequent polar bears roaming through town and just one lone hotel serving curious summertime guests.
I mentioned above that there are some ethical concerns for some about visiting these two towns as they are owned by state-owned Russian mining companies.
The Russian government may profit slightly from your visit, so if you do not want any money at all going towards their government due to the war or other personally held beliefs, this may be something you elect to skip. I don’t judge either way, as I believe the impact is incredibly small — I am simply informing.
If you want to stay land-based, don’t worry — there’s another option you can do, which is go dog sledding on wheels.
Yup, the dogs in Svalbard need exercise all year round, and so the crafty dog sled tour operators figured out a safe way for the dogs to run in the summer, too!
And since Svalbard remains so cold even throughout the summer, it’s safe for the dogs to run year-round (with the exception of a few days of extreme heat — well, extreme for Svalbard — in which case the tours would get canceled)
***
And there you have it — two incredibly detailed and customizable Svalbard itineraries that you can use to plan your trip any time between February and October.
I hope this unlocks a world of possibilities of what you can do in Svalbard throughout the year and inspires you to plan a trip of the snowy or sunny variety sometime soon!
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The furthest north you can fly on a commercial flight, Svalbard is so far above the Arctic Circle that it’s equidistant to the North Pole and the northernmost point of Northern Norway!
Since it’s known for its polar bears, the Svalbard archipelago conjures up icy images, but in reality, Svalbard is warmer than other places at similar latitudes like Canada and Russia due to the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream.
While winter in Svalbard is cold, it’s doable — and this advice is coming from a perpetually cold Californian with woeful circulation — you simply need to know how to dress.
As the Norwegians say, there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. And after much grumbling (and more importantly, learning to finally wear wool, despite my previous insistences that it’s too itchy), I’m here to say: I think they’re onto something.
This Svalbard packing list reflects what I brought (and a few things I wish I brought) from my winter trip to Svalbard in February 2024, which included a lot of outdoor activities on my itinerary, including an ice cave snowmobile trip, a winter photography hike, and snowmobiling in search of the Northern lights.
While much of what you want in winter and summer are the same, I’ve also adjusted the packing list slightly for a summer trip based on my friend’s Megan’s recommendations.
I visited Svalbard with her this past year, and she’s previously visited Svalbard in the summer several times, so I trust her recommendations!
Quick Svalbard Packing Checklist
This blog post will explain the weather in Svalbard, including what temperatures to expect and what that means for what you should pack. It also goes into detail on specific products I recommend and why.
But maybe just don’t want to read all that — I’ve got you. Here’s a bullet point list of what I recommend, and if you want more detail and product recommendations, you can just scroll down and read further.
Winter Clothing:
Warm outer layer (parka)
Merino wool base layers
Wool sweaters
Waterproof pants
Snow boots
Wool socks
Warm hat (beanie)
Neck gaiter (or scarf or balaclava)
Warm mittens
Photography gloves
Reflective vest (recommended)
Summer Clothing:
Mid-weight, windproof outer jacket layer
Merino wool base layers (not necessary, but recommended)
Variety of long-sleeve layers (lightweight Ts, fleece layers, lightweight wool like cashmere)
Variety of pants (jeans, hiking pants, rain pants)
Rugged boots that you don’t care too much about
Lightweight gloves
Hat
All Season Essentials:
Reusable water bottle
Waterproof bags / dry bags
Small day pack
Lip balm
Moisturizer
External battery pack
Spare camera batteries
Rechargeable hand warmers
Sunscreen (except in polar night)
Binoculars (I guess you don’t need these in polar night, either)
Weather in Svalbard Throughout the Seasons
This guide to how to pack for Svalbard will go through what to wear in Svalbard for winter and summer. For the purposes of this post, I’m defining winter as October through May and summer as June through September.
This isn’t exactly a perfect definition of the seasons, since the temperatures and weather patterns can be quite volatile in Svalbard (making picking the right time to visit quite tricky!).
To clarify on how I’m defining seasons here, I’m going more by the daylight hours, since the sun sets for the final time of the year on October 4.
This marks the beginning of polar night, or as Svalbard’s tourism board is trying to rebrand it, ‘Northern lights winter’ — I guess ‘total f***ing darkness’ isn’t as catchy.).
The midnight sun begins on April 20th, nearing the end of the winter season and transitioning towards summer, though keep in mind that April and even May can still be rather cold.
With a location so extreme, you may think that Svalbard is a no-go zone during the winter months. In reality, the average temperature in Svalbard is probably not as cold as you might think, and you can actually have a really enjoyable trip to Svalbard even in the colder months.
When I visited Svalbard in February, the coldest temperature we had during my 5-day, 4-night trip was -15° C (9° F) — it was cold but tolerable, especially bundled up in the right clothing (thank you, merino wool — I’m sorry I doubted you for so many years!).
The average high temperature is -8° C (18° F) and the average low temperature is -13° C (9° F). While yes, that’s certainly cold, it’s not too far off from places I’ve lived like New York, Prague, and Sofia, which have all reached around -20° C (-5° F).
In the summer, Svalbard’s temperatures typically stay around 3 to 7 °C (37-45 °F). It can reach temperatures as high as 20 °C (70 °F) in summer from time to time.
While it’s good to prepare for unseasonably high temperatures, summer weather that warm is definitely unusual for Svalbard and not something to celebrate as it’s a pretty bad harbinger of what’s happening with the climate (the Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average).
Average Temperatures in Svalbard
Here’s a quick list of the average temperatures in Svalbard year-round.
January: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
February: Average highs of -6°C (21°F), average lows of -11°C (12°F)
March: Average highs of -8°C (18°F), average lows of -14°C (7°F)
April: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
May: Average highs of 1°C (34°F), average lows of -3°C (27°F)
June: Average highs of 6°C (43°F), average lows of 3°C (38°F)
July: Average highs of 10°C (50°F), average lows of 6°C (43°F)
August: Average highs of 9°C (49°F), average lows of 5°C (41°F)
September: Average highs of 5°C (41°F), average lows of 1°C (34°F)
October: Average highs of 0°C (32°F), average lows of -4°C (25°F)
November: Average highs of -3°C (27°F), average lows of -8°C (18°F)
December: Average highs of -5°C (23°F), average lows of -10°C (14°F)
You’ll want to have a warm parka as your outer layer for any winter trip to Svalbard. You want your outer layer to break the wind, be water resistant so that any falling snow on it won’t get you wet, and have some more insulation to keep you warm.
Down jackets are the most warm, but also the most expensive. They’re worth it if you plan to make many trips to Arctic environments, but you can skimp a bit on the fill material of the outer layer if you have really warm base layers.
What matters most with the outer layer is that it is fully water-resistant and windproof — insulation is also important, but that can be made up for on your other layers if you really need to save on cost.
True story — I hated wool, even merino wool, until I was introduced to Kari Traa wool base layers from my friend Megan — and since she lives in Arctic Finland, she knows a thing or two about dressing warm.
I always thought of wool as itchy, since I’m neurodivergent and have high sensory sensitivities to clothing. But Kari Traa does some beautiful sort of witchcraft that makes the wool buttery-soft and not itchy at all. I literally put aside my 30+ year long tirade against wool purely thanks to this amazing brand (not sponsored, I’m just a pro bono Kari Traa evangelist).
I have a set of the Rose long-sleeve base layer top and the Silja base layer bottoms (or something quite similar, as I can’t find my exact pattern). Be sure to look for something that is 100% merino wool, not the ones that are 60% wool, 40% modal as they won’t be warm enough for Svalbard winter.
Kari Traa doesn’t make men’s clothing — sucks for them. So for men, I’d suggest this Helly Hansen base layer top and matching Helly Hansen base layer bottoms top for your thermal underwear. These have a 2-in-1 construction with 100% merino wool on the exterior and a moisture-wicking interior layer.
A second layer of wool is essential when properly layering up — this locks in all the wool between your body, the base layer, and your outer layer, keeping you nice and toasty!
I love Norwegian brands for 100% wool sweaters, and Dale of Norway is one of the best brands you can get. I love this soft, feminine Falun Helon sweater for women; for men, I like the classic Vail sweater.
These pieces are pricy but a true Norwegian wool sweater will last you basically a lifetime (better yet, protect your clothing investment with some hanging cedar planks that prevent moths!)
Plus, you don’t need to wash your wool sweaters very often because they are anti-microbial and odor resistant. This means you can get away with bringing 1-2 sweaters, depending on how long you’ll be in Svalbard and how many choices you prefer to have.
It’s remarkable just how helpful having wind-resistant, waterproof pants can be when it comes to keeping you warm in a cold climate like Svalbard’s. You don’t necessarily need heavy-duty ski pants — just something that will stop the wind in its tracks.
If you don’t have a very thick ski pant style layer, something water-resistant will do, but I’d add another layer between your base layer and your waterproof layer to really lock in the warmth.
Warm boots and wool socks are an absolute essential, easily the most important items you’ll pack on your trip to Svalbard.
Admittedly, the Fubuki snow boots I recommend are currently a little hard to track down because they’re so popular, but if you do — they’re the best snow boots you’ll ever own!
Lightweight, trendy, comfortable, warm in temperatures as low as -30 C… need I say more? Oh, they’re also trendy as can be, beloved by everyone in the Nordics as they were designed by a Swede inspired by Japanese aprés ski wear. Rubber boots don’t get any more aesthetic than that!
And of course, you’ll also need wool socks (what else?) to keep your feet toasty in your boots. That’s the most important thing when it comes to Svalbard footwear, actually!
You’ll absolutely need a warm hat that covers your ears when visiting Svalbard. Skip those fur trapper hats, as they don’t actually keep you as warm as they look, since they don’t really stay flat and warm against your ears.
Go for a typical beanie that covers your ears, preferably wool, and you’ll actually be way better off!
Neck gaiter
My friend gifted me a Kari Traa neck gaiter and it was the best thing to add into my winter wardrobe!
Less fussy than scarves, more comfortable than balaclavas, it’s the perfect way to keep your neck, lips, and nose warm if you pull it up!
You lose so much heat through your hands and fingers, so high-quality mittens is absolutely an area where you should invest in order to make sure you enjoy your Arctic adventure and aren’t freezing too much to enjoy it. I recommend Hestra — they’re a Swedish company who literally only produce gloves and mittens, so it doesn’t get better than that level of specialization!
While if you do a snowmobiling tour or a dog-sledding tour, they’ll let you borrow really warm (and huge!) mittens, you’ll want it for other activities, like the wildlife photography tour I did, looking for the aurora borealis, or even just walking around town.
You can get a wool pair (cute!) or a waterproof pair (practical!) depending on how likely you are to get your hands wet during your activities.
If you plan to take a lot of pictures, you may want both mittens and photography gloves, which allow you to quickly remove the finger tips of the gloves to access the camera control dials.
Here’s a little insider tip: anything marketed as photography gloves are often up-charged, but you can grab a pair of ice fishing gloves that do the same thing for half the price!
This is not technically something you must bring to Svalbard, but I would recommend it if you are staying on the outskirts of the main town during a part of the year that is still rather dark.
My hotel was along the main street in Longyearbyen so it was OK for me to go without it, as that particular road is well-lit, but if you are staying at a hotel off the main drag, you will likely want to wear one. Every local wears this Y-style reflective vest that just clips on over their winter jacket — so you’ll feel like you’re in good company!
Visiting Svalbard in the summer means lots of boat trips with whipping winds — you want something strong enough to break the wind and take the bite out of it, but not overheat you at this time of year.
You won’t necessarily need a parka — though if you already have one, it might not hurt to bring it if it’s not too heavy and you prefer to be on the warmer side.
A thin layer that’s wind-resistant but warm will probably be the best choice. I always opt for Scandinavian and Nordic brands when I can when traveling in this part of world… after all, they understand their mercurial climate the best!
Helly Hansen makes some of my favorite lightweight but waterproof outerwear at affordable prices given the high quality of the garments (which should last for a decade with proper care!).
Merino wool base layers (optional, but recommended)
Depending on the temperatures and how you personally react to the cold, you may or may not want to have some merino wool layers with you.
Remember, summer temperatures in Svalbard are not that high — roughly 3-7 °C (37-45 °F) — so if this is cold for you like it is for me, you’ll still probably be happy to have base layers… especially on a boat trip in a lot of wind!
As above, I recommend Kari Traa’s layers for women and Helly Hansen’s layers for men — both are good quality Norwegian clothing brands that adhere to the Nordic mentality of “no bad weather, only bad clothing.” It’s the best thing you can pack if you run cold!
How much warmth you will need in the summer depends entirely on the weather that you’ll happen to get during your trip.
In the summer months, weather is quite unpredictable. As I wrote in the above section, average summer temperatures are pretty mild (read: cold), but higher temperatures do happen, including a record-setting 23 °C (73 °F) recently, in July 2020!
To combat this unpredictability, I suggest bringing a nice variety of long-sleeve layers. I’d bring at least two basic, lightweight long sleeve T-shirts in case it’s unseasonably warm (which can double as a sleep shirt or shirt for lounging in hotel rooms if you can’t wear it outside).
In addition to that lightweight long-sleeve, which you can substitute for a wool base layer if it’s not too cold, I’d also recommend some nice mid-weight layers like fleece jackets or lightweight wool sweaters.
For summer wool, think alpaca, merino, or cashmere instead of heavy-knit sweaters like you’d wear in winter. For lightweight wool, I recommend the classic cashmere brand State Cashmere, which has a range of colorful, simple 100% cashmere sweaters for women and for men as well.
You’ll likely want to check the weather forecast a few days before your trip and finalize this part of your summer Svalbard packing list at the last minute and change things out if it seems like it’ll be colder or warmer than you expect.
Jeans or pants
Recommended items: Normal denim/cotton pants from home, optional recommended rain pant like theColumbia Rebel Roamer rain pant(men’s)
In a Svalbard summer, if you’re wearing a base layer, you can probably get away with wearing just your average pair of jeans over them or a regular pair of pants that you’d typically wear in the winter back home.
It doesn’t rain too often in Svalbard — remember, Svalbard is actually an Arctic desert climate! — but with temperatures above freezing throughout most of the summer, any precipitation headed towards the Arctic island will result in rain.
A thin waterproof pant layer would be a great choice to stash in your bag just in case it rains.
Rugged boots (and hiking shoes or running shoes, if hiking)
Be careful with the boots you bring to Svalbard in the summer… it may be the last place you ever wear them! No, you’ll be fine — it’s your boots that I’m alluding to, here.
You’ll want warm shoes that won’t get your feet cold in the just-above-freezing temperatures… but you also don’t want to bring anything that has a fragile barrier, like patent leather. Why?
Well, once all the snow melts from the island and you’re walking around Longyearbyen in the summer, pretty much every step you take you’ll be kicking up gravel and rocky dust.
After all, Svalbard was a mining settlement for a reason — its mountains house an unfathomable amount of coal, and the mountain terrain gets weakened by snow and ice every year, knocking off fresh layers of dust and gravel.
These shoes aren’t good for hiking, however, so if you want to hike in Svalbard during the summer, pack some running shoes or (better yet) hiking boots that you don’t mind getting sooty and dirty.
You don’t need heavy-duty gloves like you do in the summer, but with temperatures not far above freezing, your hands will still likely get cold if you’re out and about all day.
I’d recommend getting a light pair of gloves with touchscreen-friendly capabilities so you’re not always having to take them on and off. These are usually marketed as running gloves and have touchscreen capabilities!
You’ll also want to bring a hat to keep your ears warm and covered — just a normal beanie should be fine.
Other Things to Pack for Svalbard (Year-Round)
Reusable water bottle
Svalbard’s water is some of the world’s best. I mean, this is the island that launched perhaps the cringiest bottled water campaign of all time, promoting their ‘eco-friendly’ glacial water (which of course, becomes decidedly un-eco-friendly when shipped to rich oligarchs all around the world, but I digress)…
While you won’t exactly be drinking glacial water from the tap in Svalbard, you will be drinking deliciously pure drinking water that comes from the pristine Isdammen reservoir, which is fed by meltwater from the snow of the surrounding mountains.
You likely already have one from home, but if you need a new one, I recommend this Hydro Flask.
Waterproof Bags
If you’re doing boat trips… or even an Arctic adventure in heavy snow… you’ll want some sort of waterproof bag to keep all your valuables dry on your trip!
I do a lot of dive trips where I spend the entire day on a boat, and I swear by Sea to Summit for their affordable, high-quality dry bags.
Small Day Pack
You’ll want to bring a small day pack, like this classicFjallraven mini backpack(or any similar-sized backpack you already have at home) for packing any essential items for your day out.
Don’t make it too bulky — you want to be able to strap it easily to a snowmobile like I did on my winter tours, as well as be able to carry it comfortably while hiking and walking around.
Lip Balm and Moisturizer
Svalbard is an Arctic desert, which means it is dry, dry, dry! I never had drier hands (especially my cuticles) and drier skin than when I visited Svalbard!
A high-quality moisturizer like this one from Peter Thomas Roth with loads of hyaluronic acid will keep you super moisturized, even in Svalbard. It’s quite pricy but worth it.
And don’t even get me started on how chapped my lips got! Aquaphor is my gold standard for hydrating my lips during the winter, and it’s super cheap.
Battery Pack and Extra Camera Batteries
You will never use up your batteries faster than when you’re in Svalbard! Between snapping all the photos and videos on your phone and the quick battery loss that happens at extreme temperatures, it all goes quickly.
This Anker battery pack is super useful, since it charges quickly and holds a ton of juice — about 2 charges worth.
Just remember that it only uses USB-C, so if you have an older iPhone (anything below iPhone 15) you’ll also need a Lightning cable adapter.
Rechargeable hand warmers
If you’re going to be out in the cold a lot, especially if you are taking pictures and can’t always wear your thick mittens, rechargeable hand warmers can make a world of difference.
We used them during our winter photography tour and I’m low-key convinced it’s the reason I still have fingers.
Sunscreen
OK, I guess you can leave sunscreen behind if you’re visiting during the polar night….
But any other time of year, even though it’s cold out and you’re pretty far away from the sun’s rays in the polar regions compared to the equator, you should still bring sun cream, especially if there’s still snow on the ground, which can reflect the sun’s rays and increase your chance of sunburn.
You absolutely want a good pair of binoculars while in Svalbard!
Whether it’s trying to spot an Arctic fox in the winter, being teased by its mocking laugh, or you’re on a boat in the summer and want to zoom in on walruses and details of the glacier and sea ice, there’s so much you can see in Svalbard that you can’t get very close to. And that’s not even mentioning all the birding you can do in Svalbard in summer!
If you want to splurge on a top-of-the-line brand, I recommend these ZEISS Terra binoculars — ZEISS is beloved in the photography world for making some of the best lenses in the world. They’re not cheap (nor are they exorbitantly expensive like some other options, like Swarovski), but they will last you a lifetime if you care for them properly and ensure the glass doesn’t get scratched.
For a more affordable but still good quality pair, I recommend these Steiner Safari binoculars, which are beloved by birders and even trusted by many country’s militaries (so it’s probably good enough for your wildlife-spotting needs).
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Of all my memories of the frozen world of my February visit to Longyearbyen, snowmobiling out to a remote ice cave in Svalbard was definitely the highlight of my trip.
… even though it was an activity I almost didn’t do because I was suffering from the most intense anxiety I’d experienced in the last decade during the entirety of my trip to the Arctic this year.
Luckily, my anxiety about wasting money is more significant than any other anxiety… because I somehow managed to push every alarm bell shrieking in my head to the background and go on my Svalbard ice cave tour regardless.
And by the end of the day?
Oh, I was so glad that I did: there’s simply no replacement for exploring this frozen wonderland with the thrill and freedom of a snowmobile!
Planning your Svalbard trip quickly? I’ve got you covered!
However, on this tour, I realized you could visit the ice caves differently, including by dog sled (I’m jealous!) and Snowcat.
And there are even more intense and unique ways to see the ice caves in Svalbard, such as ice climbing inside of them or even spending the night in one!
The Snowmobile Ice Cave Tour I Recommend!
Duration: 5 hours Departure Time: 10:30 AM Seasonality: February 15, 2024 through May 10, 2024 Approximate Cost: 2,390 NOK per driver (or $228 USD as per April 2024 exchange rate) and 1,190 NOK ($114 USD per passenger) Where To Book: Check here for the best rates!
Our tour started at 10:30 AM, and we were picked up at our hotel (we stayed at Hotell Svalbard Polfaren, which I highly recommend!).
We were then transferred to the Svalbard Adventures office, where we received a safety briefing, picked up our necessary safety equipment, and were dressed in thermal gear to brave the cold temperatures we’d be facing outside.
Once we had watched the safety briefing (learning about how to use the snowmobiles, polar bear safety precautions, and specific things to know about the nature of ice caves), we headed outside to our snowmobiles!
If you book this tour via Manawa like I did, you can select each person to have their own snowmobile. Alternatively, if you want to save money as I did, you can book one snowmobile to be shared between two people (a driver and a passenger, and yes, you can switch it off!).
If you are new to snowmobiling, don’t worry; they’ll give you a thorough briefing, and snowmobiles couldn’t be easier to operate.
I had only driven one once before—the night before, in fact, in the pitch black of Svalbard while we searched (fruitlessly) for the Northern lights!
We disembarked from the starting point, weaving our way through the vast expanse of Adventdalen, a river that freezes over each winter, creating an epic runway for all sorts of snow sports adventures. We even saw people kite-skiing out on Adventdalen, which I never knew people could do!
After a certain point out in the wild of Adventdalen, we swung left into the hills and mountains, traversing a slightly more rocky and challenging terrain, though one still suitable for beginners.
We arrived at the entry point for the ice cave after a little more than an hour of snowmobiling. However, we had some stops during that active snowmobiling time, taking the opportunity to take pictures and switch drivers if we wanted along the way.
Once we reached the ice caves, we took in the beautiful landscape: it was still blue hour, that classic February aesthetic that is one of the most beautiful times of year in Svalbard, but a tiny tinge of pastel pink lit up the tips of the snow-capped mountains, signaling the end of the polar night.
We walked a short distance to the entrance of the ice caves, finding the ladder that had been placed there by previous tour operators.
The exact location of the visited ice cave changes each year—it is a natural and, thus, ever-changing phenomenon, after all.
Each year, the companies that run the ice cave tours work together to find the most impressive and safest glacier ice caves for travelers to explore.
The ice cave we got to explore this year (winter 2024) was utterly spectacular. This year, we went to an ice cave inside Tellbreen (or Tell Glacier, breen is Norwegian for glacier).
Everything was covered in thick layers of ice crystals that glittered in the shine of my headlight, and the fantastic ice formations were mesmerizingly beautiful.
Time passed too quickly here: I could have spent hours reveling in the beauty of this spectacular, unique experience, memorizing the details in the ice right down to the air bubbles trapped in the glacial ice for thousands of years.
After about 20-30 minutes of enjoying the ice caves—I really can’t tell exactly how long because I truly lost track of time and the outside world—we re-emerged from the depths of the ice cave up the same icy ladder we traversed down, back to reality.
We then ate some freeze-dried meals in a bag from Real Turmat, a Norwegian brand you’ll see everywhere. It was actually much tastier than it sounds!
They had a huge variety of meals available, but let them know if you’re vegetarian or vegan in advance so they can ensure they have enough suitable options.
The meal is hearty, but if you need to eat quite a lot of calories to feel full, you might want to bring some extra food. They’ll also give you cookies and warm drinks, though, if you need a sugary pick-me-up after your meal!
4 Other Fun Options to Get to the Svalbard Ice Caves!
Ice Cave Tour by Dog Sled
Duration: Approximately 6-7 hours Departure Time: 9 AM and 10 AM daily Seasonality: January 10, 2024 through May 25, 2024 Approximate Cost: 3,390 NOK per person ($317 USD as per exchange rate in April 2024) Where To Book: Check here for the best rates!
Another option for getting to the ice caves in Svalbard is a dog sledding tour. I didn’t know this was an option… until when, walking up to the ice caves, we stumbled across the temporary lines they installed to tie up the dogs!
This tour is operated by Green Dog Svalbard, and you can find more information here. I have yet to personally do any tours with Green Dog, so I can’t speak to their practices. Still, I know they’re a highly reputable company that’s been in operation for nearly 15 years and that Svalbard places a really high emphasis on ethical wildlife tourism.
I have done a lot of dog sledding—no, really, a bunch: in Alta, Tromsø, Rovaniemi, and Abisko, in fact—and it’s one of my favorite ways to see the scenery, so I’m certain this tour would be epic!
This dog sledding trip takes you to the same ice cave we visited deep in one of Svalbard’s glaciers — we literally saw them arrive after we got there on our snowmobiles. Like the snowmobile tour, this tour also includes a hot drink and a warm lunch after the ice caves.
Ice Cave Tour by Snow Cat
Duration: 3 hours Departure Time: 9 AM, 1 PM, and 5 PM Seasonality: February 12, 2024 through May 16, 2024 Approximate Cost: 1195 NOK per person (or $112 USD as of April 2024) Where to Book: Check here for the best rates
For a shorter, less adrenaline-pumping tour that will give you that gorgeous ice cave experience, the Hurtigruten offers a tour by Snow Cat.
The Snowcat is heated and traverses the icy landscapes of Svalbard expertly and comfortably, bringing you to the ice caves without much difficulty. However, you’ll still need to be fit enough to head down any ladders into the ice cave and navigate its internal twists and turns.
However, if dog sledding or snowmobiling presents a physical challenge for you, but you do want to see the ice caves, this is a great chance to see the underground ice caves for those with health or mobility limitations.
Note that this tour visits the closer glacier, the Longyear Glacier. In contrast, the tours by dog sled and snowmobile take you to a landlocked glacier further away, the stunning Tellbreen (Tell Glacier) deep in the mountains of Svalbard.
Ice Cave Tour (With Ice Climbing and Caving Deeper!)
Duration: 6 hours Departure Time: 9:30 AM Seasonality: February 9, 2024 through April 28, 2024 Approximate Cost: 4040 NOK per person (or $378 USD as of April 2024) Where to Book: Check here for the best rates
This unique spin on the Svalbard ice cave tour has you going further, past where others turn around! Equipped with ice axes, crampons, and climbing ropes, you’ll explore the interior of the ice cave system like a true explorer.
If you’ve never ice-climbed before, don’t worry—you’ll have the proper equipment, and the guide is a certified climbing instructor who is prepared to teach absolute beginners. This is an intense and highly adventurous tour, so it’s only for the bravest among us!
Also note that because you go deep into the cave system, the period where it is safe to explore this deep into the caves is shorter than it is for other tours, so the end date of the tours is much sooner.
Overnight in an Ice Cave
Duration: Overnight, from 5 PM to 11 AM Departure Time: 5 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays only Seasonality: November 3, 2023 to May 15, 2024 Approximate Cost: 3900 NOK per person (or $378 USD as of April 2024) plus sleeping bag rental of 600 NOK ($56 USD). Additional fees of 1000 NOK ($94 USD) per person if your group size is only two, or 500 NOK ($48 USD) if your group size is only three. Where to Book: Check here for the best rates
I just found out you could do this when researching this post, and now I feel compelled to share it because it is one of the most unique ways to spend a night in Svalbard.
Better yet, this is one of the very few tours that runs even during the polar night, so if you happen to be visiting Svalbard during one of the days of total darkness—and I do mean 24/7 darkness—you can still do this activity!
This tour involves snowshoeing from Nybyen (the new part of town) towards Longyearbreen (Longyear Glacier). You’ll climb up the glacier until you reach a plateau with an ice cave, where you’ll have a warm drink before continuing on a climb further up the mountain.
You’ll spend the night in the glacier cave, enjoying a hot meal, a drink, and even a tasty breakfast the next day before you return to Longyearbyen by the next morning.
What to Know Before Doing an Ice Cave Tour in Svalbard
It’s not for the claustrophobic.
My close friend and travel buddy Megan joined me on this tour, and she struggled a bit due to her claustrophobia. Wearing the giant polar suits on the snowmobiles already triggers her claustrophobia. So, by the time we reached the ice cave, she was already a little mentally overwhelmed by the prospect of the ice cave and its tight passages.
I told her I’d go in and take a look for her. The beginning of the ice cave portion was fine, but there got to a part where there were relatively narrow passages where you really had to squeeze to fit in between the gaps in the ice.
I concluded that she wouldn’t have enjoyed the ice cave portion of the tour due to her claustrophobia. However, she truly enjoyed the snowmobiling parts of the tour and didn’t regret going.
So if you have just one person in your party who is claustrophobic, but everyone else wants to see the ice caves, there is still enough for them to do even if they don’t feel like braving the tight squeeze of the air caves.
You should be in decent physical shape to visit the ice caves.
While this is by no means an extremely physical activity, there are a few things that you should be aware of before booking a Svalbard ice cave tour.
Number one, riding or driving a snowmobile is quite jerky at times, and if you have back problems, this would be a fantastic (read: highly unpleasant) way to trigger some back pain.
I wouldn’t recommend it if you have pretty ongoing severe back problems. I have mild recurrent back and shoulder pain from a years-old injury, but the pain was in remission during my snowmobile tour, and I was okay, and I didn’t further aggravate any old injuries.
Number two, you need to be comfortable going up and down a rickety, icy ladder about 15 feet tall (~4 meters).
It’s not dangerous, but you have to be somewhat comfortable with heights and OK with tight enclosures for this tour to be a comfortable experience. In general, you’re in poor physical shape, you will likely not enjoy the tour.
Be prepared for extreme cold.
We were somewhat lucky in that it was not particularly cold when we did our snowmobile tour—it was only a few degrees below freezing on the day we did our tour.
However, temperatures of -20° Celsius (that’s 5° Fahrenheit) are quite common in Svalbard, especially in March, which tends to have the most cold days of the year (so be aware when picking when to visit!). Weather conditions vary greatly here, so be prepared for Svalbard winter conditions in all their extremes with the right warm layers!
You will be given extra warm clothes to wear as your outer layer… but that doesn’t negate the need for your own high-quality thermal underwear or base layers. (Read my packing guide here!)
For women, I recommend Kari Traa thermals and a separate layer of a wool sweater on top and some warm pants on the bottom. Over that, you’ll layer the thermal suit you’ll be given, as well as the mittens, balaclava, some solid hiking boots, and other protective gear that will be given to you by the tour operators.
Don’t expect to see a polar bear.
I know, I know, Svalbard markets itself left, right, and sideways with polar bears. But the reality is that you are extremely unlikely to see a polar bear during a land-based tour of Svalbard (your chances go up if you are doing a multi-day circumnavigation-style expedition boat cruise).
That said, encountering a polar bear is always possible on Spitsbergen… this island is home, after all! During your tour, your guide will carry a flare gun and a loaded (or half-loaded) rifle for polar bear protection.
You must be comfortable around a visible firearm if you are doing this tour (or any tour) on Svalbard. However, the guides are highly professional and will always explain what they are doing with their firearm, so it’s not frightening.
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.