When we booked our flights to Tromso last year and started looking at accommodation, we knew we wanted to stay somewhere where we would have the maximum chance of seeing the Northern Lights.
For us this meant not staying in the city of Tromso itself, but somewhere fairly close by and easily accessible by public transport since we wouldn't be hiring a car. The Troms region is vast and there are beautiful villages scattered all over, however most required a car or were several hours drive from Tromso, which meant we wouldn't be able to partake in any activities like a Northern Lights chase or Dog Sledding.
Arriving in the snow at the tiny Tromso airport
After much searching, we came across the beautiful village of Ersfjordbotn located on the island of Kvaløya and an easy 25 minute drive from the centre of Tromso. The accommodation choice was easy, the cosy cabins of Ersfjordbotn Kystferie.
There
are four cabins available to rent, and we discovered the prices were
actually cheaper than what we would pay if we stayed in Tromso, plus
they are located on the edge of Ersfjord, one of the most beautiful
Fjords in Norway.
There
is a bus service that runs frequently on weekdays, however Henry, the owner
of the cabins, will also take you wherever you need to go at any time for
a small fee. Since we stayed over the weekend, we used his services
several times, including once when he picked us up in Tromso at 3.00 a.m. in the morning after our Northern Lights Chase.
We stayed in cabin 3, a cute two bedroom cabin located below the other cabins, right on the water's edge. We had a full kitchen with all necessities included, plus a big lounge overlooking the Fjord.
Henry picked us up from Tromso airport, stopping at a supermarket on the way to Ersfjordbotn, so we could pick up the groceries we'd need for our three night stay.
We found the supermarket only slightly more expensive than in the UK, and of course we brought way too much food, but it all got eaten in the end.
We had very few plans for our long weekend in Norway, only a Northern Lights chase the next night, and Dog Sledding the night after. We were glad we had kept our weekend mostly free because we could have spent the entire time just standing on the deck of the cabin staring out at the Fjord.
Looking towards Ersfjordbotn
Ersfjordbotn doesn't really have a village centre or any shops to speak of, just one cafe called Bryggejentene that we visited several times during our stay. It has a large deck outside with some seats where you can sit and admire the scenery, and several tables inside.
It also sells specialist food items and homeware, and is a place lovely to browse before sitting down with some carrot cake and a coffee.
What we loved most about Ersfjordbotn was the silence, and the feeling of being one of only a few people in the village. I don't think we saw more than about 15 people during our entire stay.
We mainly spent our days sleeping in, before dragging ourselves out of our comfy beds, having breakfast and staring out the windows, trying to decide how many layers we would need before stepping outside.
The temperature hovered between about -4 and 2 Degrees Celsius while we were there, so it would usually be about three or four layers on top and bottom, plus coat, gloves, hat and boots!
Some of the best Carrot Cake I've ever had
After a long weekend of relaxing and taking gentle walks around the village, Monday night was supposed to be spent Dog Sledding in the evening with the hope of seeing the Northern Lights.
We'd had such an amazing clear night the previous night on our Northern Light's chase and we were hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately after having beautiful sunshine for most of the day, the afternoon rolled round and brought with it a blizzard with visibility down to almost zero.
Our booking was with Active Tromso and they took us halfway to the Dog Sledding location before everyone agreed that it wasn't safe to continue since we couldn't see the road in front of us.
It was disappointing not being able to go Dog Sledding, and we couldn't reschedule since it was our last night. At the same time we'd never seen so much snow in our life and it was exciting standing outside whilst the wind and snow swirled around us.
So with nothing else left to do, we headed back to Ersfjordbotn and settled down in the cosy warmth of our cabin, half convinced that the winds outside would blow down the cabin overnight. That's the only thing being right on the water, it feels like you could wash away at any time.
Still, it was an adventure in itself and everything was still standing with no issues whatsoever the next day. Clearly Norwegian houses are built out of some strong stuff!
We had an amazing time in Norway and can highly recommend staying outside of Tromso in a smaller village like Ersfjordbotn. It really added so much to our experience and it was extremely hard to leave the peaceful village and make our way back to London on Tuesday afternoon.
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