It’s always good to do some research before you book your trip! You simply doesn’t want to be surprised by any weather conditions… to start with.
We can start with my favorite areas if you choose to visit Sweden. Later I will write more about Norway. You can visit Finland and Iceland which are too located in the Northern Europe. Canada and Alaska in the North America are the good options too if you live close there. I don’t have experience in photographing the phenomena from those areas and would exclude them from Aurora story.
Heaving the biggest town as the base is the good start. Usually the most roads, railways, bus stations and airports are located around as well as the shops, rent a car and other useful information’s. Let’s start with North Swedish province Lapland and a town called Kiruna, our base.
Jukkasjärvi
Jukkasjärvi is the little village located east of the Kiruna. The distance is around 19 km or about 20min driving with reservation based on the water conditions. This little village is known round the world by attraction called The Ice Hotel. It is a beautiful hotel facility where you can stay as well as the other places in the area. Here in the local area you can even see the reindeer s which are the main interest of the locals.
Nikkaluokta
Nikkaluokta is a Swedish Sami village located 70 km from Kiruna. It is around 1 hour drive depending on the water conditions. In Nikkaluokta you can find a mountain lodge complete with a small grocery store and restaurant and even a small chapel. During the summer months when most tourist are here you can take flight trip around with commercial helicopter base. It is a popular starting point for several hiking and skiing trails in the Kebnekaise area. It takes around five hours to walk the 19 kilometer distance between the two mountain lodges in Nikkaluokta and Kebnekaise.
Abisko National Park
Abisko is a village located 94 km north-west from Kiruna which take approximately 1 hour and 15min by car. Abisko is near Abisko National Park, located 4 km west of the village. This area is the one of the best places in the world to experience the Aurora Borealis and my favorite place are well… Now when you know when and where to go you need to find some time to book your trip. It is many ways to book your trip and you probably have your favorite travel agency or simply prefer to do it by your self. You can visit North Sweden by car, buss, train and airplane.
If you can’t get enough with time to visit all 3 areas then visit one or two. If you have time for just only one then I recommend a small village and NP Abisko.
You can reach our base:
• By car is the one of the alternatives but it is going to take a time. It depends on of your start position from where your trip will start. If you are planing to spend some longer time in Sweden then just taking the trip to North Polar area is the experience by itself. If you are limited on the time then it is not recommended. It is long distance and for your information Stockholm – Kiruna is around 1235 km. Sweden has good roads and it is beautiful country to drive though. In this slow traveling category I will include buss and trains as well.
• By airplane is the not just safest way it is even the fastest one. From Stockholm, it takes in average 1 hour and 15 min to reach Kiruna airport. It is two companies, SAS and Norwegian which I usually used to fly with. They don’t charge extremely high prices (beside special dates) and they fly direct to Kiruna. Don’t forget that you can rent a car at Kiruna airport if you want to have freedom to explore around by your self.
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