Head north to the Finnish side of Lapland, where you’ll be surrounded by 190,000 reindeer, 749 fells (or barren hills/mountains), and, one hopes, the northern lights. Up here, the lights appear some 200 nights a year from late August until April.
Where to see Northern lights in Finland
In Finnish Lapland, you’ll find plenty of architecturally striking hotels and cabin rentals that are prime for northern lights vacations. Some of the best known are the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, famed for its glass igloos, and Arctic Treehouse Hotel, which does indeed have cozy treehouses for guests. Oh, and you can visit Santa Claus in Finnish Lapland too—Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is a big hit with traveling families. While many accommodations offer indoor viewing options (from your bed, no less), active visitors also brave the elements with snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and even dogsledding.
Scotland
Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Scotland might not be that far north, but some of its northernmost locations—specifically the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland—are just far enough to catch the northern lights fairly regularly. Plus, Scotland has the benefit of having much milder weather than other aurora-viewing destinations during the northern lights season, which runs from roughly September through March. It’s often above freezing!
Where to see the northern lights in Scotland
You might also consider a visit to one of the International Dark Sky Association’s designated dark sky places throughout Scotland, including the Isle of Rum in the Inner Hebrides and Tomintoul and Glenlivet–Cairngorms International Dark Sky Park in the Scottish Highlands. During especially strong geomagnetic storms, the northern lights can cover the entire country.
An airplane
NASA astronaut Don Pettit once described flying through the northern lights in the International Space Station as having “been shrunk to some miniature dimension and inserted into a neon sign.” The closest most people can get to that experience? Seeing the northern lights from an airplane. Though the lights occur miles above cruising altitude, a very strong auroral show can bathe your plane cabin in a green glow nonetheless. And smaller displays of the northern lights can still be visible through plane windows—you just have to know when and where to look.
