Explore Iceland: Northern Lights Hunting without a car rental
If you’re planning to visit Iceland in 2024 to see the Northern Lights but you’re not comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road or want to stay worry-free about the weather? Don’t worry, because same! In this post, I’ll be giving all the details on what I did and heard about to watch the Northern Lights without a car rental.
This post contains affiliate links to help support the website, but at no extra cost to you
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This post contains affiliate links to help support the website, but at no extra cost to you 〰️
Is it possible to see the Northern Lights in Reykjavik?
Yeap, but don’t expect it to happen every night!
It’s all over social media and the news that solar activity is going to be at an all-time high in 2024! In short, this means that you may be able to see the Northern Lights from Reykjavik itself without having to drive anywhere if you’re in a dark enough location.
Here’s a short video from my TikTok explaining how Northern Lights ‘work’:
Recommended Northern Lights Tours from Reykjavik
There are two types of Northern Lights tours you’ll see: by boat or by bus.
Choosing either option is fine and up to personal preference, however, I would recommend choosing the boat option only if it’s summer. This is because a lot of the whales migrate out of Iceland during winter and only return around April.
Another reason why I recommend choosing a bus tour over a cruise tour is because you’re more likely to be allowed multiple retries if you failed to see the Northern Lights during your outing. This is based on the tour you’ve chosen but I recommend choosing the Northern Lights Bus Tour from Reykjavik by BusTravel Iceland to ensure it! You can also use the code ‘HBO10’ to get 10% off.
How do you rebook a tour after a failed attempt?
All you need to do is go on any booking sites you’ve used to book the tour, and :
Contact the tour company either via chat or email, and
Tell them you’d like to rebook the tour and the date you’d like it on.
That’s all you need to do! Super quick and simple.
They should then contact you in the same chat a confirmation that it’s been rebooked, and sometimes you’ll also receive a text message about further details on the tour bus you should be looking out for.
Where is the usual pick-up location?
This is usually written in the booking link, so make sure to double check there. However, I’ll also list out a couple common pick-up points if you’re booking a tour from Reykjavik.
Bus Tour
Based on my observation, the common FREE pick-up locations for bus tours are either Bus Stop #12 or the BSI Bus Terminal.
Both locations are still within walking distances from the city centre but on opposite sides of the city. There’s usually a paid hotel pick-up option as well for those less willing to trek out to the pick up point at 7am.
Cruise Tour
There aren’t any special pick-up points for cruise tours, because… well… the boat’s in the water.
I haven’t been on a cruise tour personally, but after some lurking on Viator, the most common pick-up location I’ve seen is the Elding Ticket Booth. It’s located at the Reykjavik Harbour, and you’ll all get up on the boat together.
What should you bring when you’re Northern Lights hunting?
You don’t need to buy a new fancy camera, just to take pictures of the Northern Lights especially if you already one of the newer smartphone models. I used my iPhone 13 Plus to take photos and it did what I needed it to do!
Extra things I also recommend to bring:
You don’t know exactly where you’ll end up when Northern Lights hunting, but it’s confirmed that you’ll be in the rural areas where there isn’t much light/stores around you.
I recommend also bringing the tripod to help stabilise your phone as you’re taking pictures, because if you didn’t know, you need to keep your phone still for about 10 seconds when taking it on night mode. If you move even a little, it’ll make the image blurry and that’s not what we want for you.
Also, don’t bother with any flash because it DOES NOT work. Repeat after me class. FLASH DOES NOT WORK WITH NORTHERN LIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHY.
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May your passports be full, and see you in the next post!
