london86

Very many thanks for your detailed reply, it was very helpful. I've received similar feedback on Trip Advisor, so we are now looking at the 4 night/5 day cruise from Tromso, with 4 nights in Tromso beforehand to maximise the chances of seeing the Northern Lights, and a final night in Bergen at the end (alternatively, we can do the Northbound cruise but this would reduce the time in Tromso at the end to 3 nights as the cruise is a night longer, so I'm undecided). Prices haven't yet been released for Autumn/Winter 2018/2019 so will keep checking back and then book once they have (the lady I spoke to from Hurtigruten advised that this would likely be around March time) this may also impact which way we decide to do it.

Very much leaning towards February as this works best for me in terms of work, and I think I prefer the sound of the weather then. It will also work nicely with the timings of our other trips as it will spread them out a bit, whereas if we do October we'll have 2 or 3 close together, and then nothing until the following July.

Good thing is I now have more time to research so I'll do some more digging. Also, do you have any recs for Northern Lights tour providers? There are so many out there and we want to go with a reputable company.

Hi all

New to this forum and also pretty much brand new to cruising (unless you count a 7 night Nile cruise way back in 2008!).

My mum and I have wanted to do a Northern Lights cruise for quite some time now, and are finally in a position where we can start planning. We're looking at booking with the Hurtigruten line, for a number of reasons (reasonable prices; good itineraries; flexible dates (biggest factor)).

Due to work commitments I'm tied into the school holidays, so our options are late October 2018; Christmas 2018; or mid-Feb 2019. My preference is for October or February as my husband doesn't want to come, and so will be home alone for Chistmas/New Year if we go then. However, this massively limits the time we can go for; at a push I can probably book 2 days leave outside the holidays, which gives me 10 nights/11 days to play with (eg dept. Thurs ret. Sun). This limits us to the following options:

-8 day arctic wonder cruise (Bergen-Kirkenes, with the final night in the Snowhotel at Kirkenes)

-6 day taste of the arctic Northbound (Bergen-Tromso)

-5 day taste of the arctic southbound (Tromso-Bergen)

The key thing is being able to see the Northern Lights, as that's the main purpose of the trip. If we do the shorter cruises, we would also tag on nights at one/both ends (locations TBC but possibly a hotel that offers chances to see the NL at one end/city at the other end).

Alternatively, we could go at Christmas and do the 12 nights round trip cruise (Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen) and also still have 1 or 2 nights at one end.

We will have to do a cruise-only package due to dates; the ones with flights don't offer enough flexibility. So flights will be booked separately (this is an issue with the arctic wonder one as there are no direct flights from Kirkenes; so we would need to book a connecting flight/travel internally).

I would really appreciate any help or guidance as I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment! There's no rush right now as dates haven't been released yet; but I would like to be in a position to book confidently when they are, if that makes sense.

Thanks very much in advance!