Arctic Guide Service AS

With only two nights in Tromso that happened to be snow clouds I was delighted to be in the company of a local driver on the bus tour who was knowledgeable and a safe and experienced driver (Gregga). We drove to Finland as the skies were clearer there and saw this natural beauty. Grateful if the free photos also ✨

Very nice experience! This provider was not our first choice but since our original trip was cancelled they had some empty slots and let us in for this tour. Very good service, warm indoor with leather seats. Travel time and speed was fast for the whale watching location where we spent good amount of time. We spotted plenty amount of Orcas and some humpback whales! Stuff was professional! Trip was overall so immemorial so had to give 5 stars!

The team took us to a good spot where there was a weak aurora, but it was next to the road, so the passing vehicles with their lights annoyed us while we were trying to see the aurora. Also, the number of guests is too big, around 40 people, which creates noise, especially since they carry torches and flashes around. If there had been a small van, it would have been easier to reach darker spots. The experience was touristic in a sense and not aurora hunting. The guides and driver were polite and helpful. However, the whole experience wasn't satisfactory.

I signed up for the northern lights big bus chase last minute and did not expect to have much success in seeing the aurora after waiting fruitlessly for aurora to appear for the past two days at my place of accommodation. But I was wrong.. not only did I manage to see the aurora but I was also impressed by the professionalism of the guide Boris and colleagues. He has been very informative and and was very experienced in spotting the aurora even in its dimmest form.

Fabulous experience, fabulous people, best value tour, must do. We agonised over which tour company we would go with, some are really expensive for a family of four, or should we just drive out and see what we could find ourselves. In the end we went with Arctic Guide Services based on reviews and cost and so glad we did. Elisabeth our guide was lovely and worked with the driver, an old local, to find the best site that night based on weather and within minutes of arrival the lights were on. The overall experience was great, we only booked on the day and when we dropped into the office in town to confirm everything they were really easy to deal with. At the pick up point that evening we got on a very comfy full size coach and drove for about an hour. Upon arrival we had the best hot chocolate we have had in Norway and then just enjoyed the show. Elisabeth was very generous with the photos she took of us and time she spent with our kids. We couldn't ask for a better experience for a family, great value (Artic has student and child prices, many others didn't) and got several great photos from the night, would highly recommend. It was that good we went again two nights later. Elisabeth and the driver again found a secret spot that not only meant we got another fantastic evening of lights but was out of the wind. It was a very windy cold night in Tromso and we were worried it would be a bad night to be outside but where we stopped the spot was protected and calm. Fantastic night :)

Pro: > we were able to see the Northern Lights > and the tour bus was changed on request > we were dropped back in time to see the new years fireworks. Cons: > The guide arrived late and the bus’s heating was broken when it arrived, it was heating up too much, a person fell sick, threw up after feeling suffocated > No signage/person at meeting point: Participants were supposed to gather at the meeting point 15 minutes prior to departure however there was no signage or any indication at the meeting point about the tour, no person from the company was present for information. Everyone was thoroughly confused. > The tour is of 5-6 hours. We were only taken to one place which was just 30-40 mins away from the city centre. The whole time was spent in the same small location where the guide dropped us. Many people got bored and kept waiting in the bus after the initial viewing was over. Perhaps we could have taken to one more place for viewing.

Reserving with this company was a complete waste of money. It was raining in Tromso, we have booked a tour(directly at Arctic Guide Service office) on November 13th 2024 to see the Northern lights less than 2 hours before the tour departure hoping to see any aurora and being told that we will go to Finland if the conditions are not good around Tromso. We were driven to Finland but we have stayed less than 1 hour at the parking spot in Finland as the tour was lasting for 6h and we were told we can't wait more since it takes time to go back to Tromso. The weather conditions were awful, we haven't seen anything at all. We were with the guides Manuel and Gabriela. We would have preferred to be told there is no chance or very minimum chances and have the tour canceled instead of wasting the time and money. Very unprofessional. We have paid a tour hoping the guides would research in advance for the conditions, but we have ended up staying 5h in the bus with no results. It's clear that weather/aurora is not 100% predictable, but if the weather forecast shows rain and snow and a very low KPI, it's clear there is no chance to see anything, do your own research, don't trust the lack of research of this company. After the tour, we were told by other companies that they have canceled their tours given the very bad weather but this company chose to do the tour even if all the weather forecasts weren't showing any chances to see the Northern lights. We didn't find any value in booking the tour and chose to do our own research for the next evenings instead of wasting more time and money with such company keeping tours even if the weather conditions aren't good enough (on our way to Finland it was continuously/heavily snowing, so it should have been clear for the guides there's no chance to see any northern lights)

We did two trips on alternate days, one on the 13th of October, and second on the 15th Oct. In the first tour the guides atleast seemed interested while in the second tour they seemed highly confused and disinterested in the entire activity. Lack of proactive approach and no engagement with tourists left a bit of sour after feeling. We didnt see any northern lights in both the tours while it still is a natural phenomenon but a lot of it depends on the temperament of guides and that seemed like the major problem on our tour with Arctic Guide Service, Tromso. Lot of our acquaintances left at the same time but for different directions and did see some activity but unfortunately for us after spending close to 300 EUR over 2 days we didnt see any activity in a highly activity conducive environment like Tromso and surroundings. Over all it was an underwhelming experience and one we wouldn’t recommend atleast with the mentioned tour operators.