During my recent trip to Iceland I partnered with Grayline Iceland to do a Northern Lights Hunt. Now they say hunt not tour because there is no guarantee that you will see the Northern Lights. However November is the best time of year to try to see them, this was something I definitely wanted to do while in Iceland and the main reason I chose to go in November. And sure enough the first spot they brought us to we were able to see the Northern Lights!
We boarded the Grayline bus the same way as the Golden Circle Tour. You were assigned either a bus stop or your hotel as your pickup location, mini buses come around and pick everyone up and bring you to the Grayline bus terminal. Once we boarded the bus our tour guide started to tell us about the Northern Lights. Our tour guide Irma was great! She was able to answer all our questions about the Northern Lights and even helped everyone with their camera settings!
I wish I had done a little more research on how to photograph the Northern Lights. It is definitely something that takes some practice. My photos are not fantastic but I figured I would share them with you anyway! if you want to see some really great Northern Lights photos check out Graylines website!
I definitely would do another Northern Lights tour and this time do a little more research on how to best photograph them. Thank god our tour guide was able to help me with my camera settings or I might not have even got these ones! I found this really helpful article about how to photograph them that I will be booking marking for my next trip to Iceland! I definitely encourage you to invest in a tripod, even a mini one will really make a huge difference in your photographs. As I’m sure you can see I did not use a tripod so my photos came out a little blurry.
Seeing the Northern Lights was really incredible, and the Grayline staff was great. Its a 3-5 hour tour depending on how long it takes to see the Northern Lights. We were very lucky that we saw them as soon as we arrived. The one downside was there was no bathroom on the bus and no usb ports to charge phones and cameras. But we spent most the time off the bus so it was okay! Definitely dress in many layers because you could be standing outside for a few hours. Thank you so much to Grayline for making this experience possible!
I received compensation for this post in the form of a free tour, but as always all opinions are my own.
I must get further ‘up north’ someday, and see the Northern Lights proper. We’ve been able to see them here in Northern England a couple of times this year, but not quite as well as from Iceland!