As mentioned in the previous post, the first night is at Radisson Blu at Oslo airport at a pretty steep AUD$288. It’s a five-minute walk undercover.
It really doesn’t improve after that either.
Four nights at Radisson Blu Polar Hotel in Longyearbyen and that was $1335.
Then three nights at Comfort Hotel Xpress Tromso was $940.
I always like to stay at an Air B&B midtrip purely so I can do some washing so I can travel with less clothes and scored an apartment right in the heart of Bergen for around $390 and I made sure it has a washing machine.
Then three nights in Oslo at Comfort Hotel Grand Central right near the train station for $682. This would be handy as I’d be arriving by train and I could also get the light rail out to the airport on the final day.
As far a tours and trips go, I have booked a half-day ice cave tour in Svalbard which looks amazing, although claustrophobic. That was $310.
The scenic rail journey is about 7 hours and cost $210, but will be well worth it. I booked the Comfort First seat for a bit of extra legroom, but it’s definitely not luxurious by any means.
I’m going to say something now that will be controversial - I think the Aurora is slightly overrated.
Having seen it numerous times, people tend to look at them through a camera lens, but your own eyes don’t see nearly as much.
Throw in the fact that you are driving around on a bus all night searching for them and it’s usually hellishly cold, I’m not going to absolutely prioritise seeing them again.
Tromso is a great place to see them. I’m not ruling it out though. I’ll check the Aurora intensity and cloud cover when I get there and decide then. If it’s promising, I probably will do it, but I’m not hellbent on it.
Other than that, I don’t like to lock myself into anything. I prefer just to explore and see how I feel at any given moment.
I will almost certainly do a fiord cruise in Bergen.
Husky ride? Did it in Fairbanks. Reindeers? Ditto.
There is a midnight tour of Doha, which I am really keen on for my 8-hour layout on the way home.
It’s not cheap at around $365, but I’m almost certain I will do it. You get picked up and taken around by a local. This is with Souqs and Dunes, which gets rave reviews everywhere. The price is steep, but if you are ever considering it, the $365 is also the cost for two people so it works out much better.
It goes for three and a half hours so once I land at 11.45pm and get out of the airport and do the tour, I should be back in time to have a shower at the Al Mourjan lounge (I deliberately didn’t book a lite fare, so I could access this).
