Top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway

Tromso is a small city in the North of Norway – North of the Arctic Circle. It’s a great place to visit to enjoy winter activities. Here are the top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway.

Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and make a purchase, I’ll get a small commission at no extra cost to you. All links are only to products I would personally recommend.

Where is Tromso, Norway, how to get there and where to stay

In the North of Norway, Tromso is a small city packed with charm and adventure. It’s just north of the Arctic circle, meaning it has cold, snowy winters. This means there are lots of options for the top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway.

Winters in Tromso can be dark – there’s no sun for much of December and January. But if you visit in February, you’ll get a decent amount of daylight for daytime activities. You can fly to Tromso in about 2 hours from Oslo, the capital city of Norway. There are some direct flights from Tromso to other European cities, but a lot of flights need a transfer in Oslo.

Being a city, Tromso has a good range of places to stay. There are some nice hotels, as well as some cheaper hotels and hostels. Prices in Norway are fairly expensive, so it’s best to book your accommodation at least several months in advance to get the cheapest rates before things get sold out.

Look up the best hotels in Tromso for your dates on Booking.com (affiliate).

Then, once your accommodation is booked, you can focus on booking the winter activities. Here are my Top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway.

How to fit the best winter activities into 4 days in Tromso

There’s so much on offer in Tromso, so it can be hard to work out what to fit into 4 days! Here’s the itinerary I did. It was very full on and tiring, but I felt like it gave a great range of experiences.

• Day 1: Morning/Afternoon – Arrive in Tromso. Evening – Night Sailing
• Day 2: Morning – Snowshoe Hiking. Evening – Night-time Reindeer sledding and Sami Experience
• Day 3: Morning – Daytime Sailing. Afternoon – Tromso Musuems. Evening – Northern Lights chase by minibus
• Day 4: Morning – Husky Sledding. Afternoon/Evening – Tromso Restaurants and Ice Bar

Keep reading to learn more about all of these activities in detail. And for more detail about what to wear and what to pack for these activities, check out my blog on what to pack for winter in Tromso here.

1. Night time sailing in the Fjords

The first of my top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway is night time sailing in the Fjords. Tromso is right on the coast, in the middle of Norway’s dramatic Fjords and coastline, so Tromso is a perfect base for sailing.

I really enjoyed relaxing on the boat and enjoying the views. It was so peaceful being on the water in the dark. The company provided us with warm suits, so it wasn’t too cold even when it was snowing. The water is flat and calm most of the time as it’s fairly sheltered in the fjords. I tried to sit outside as much as possible to enjoy the views. But there’s also a warm inside area on the boat, so as soon as you get a bit cold you can just go inside to warm up. Inside, there was plenty of tea and hot chocolate to warm up, before going back outside to take photos.

You can get involved in the sailing as well if you want – including helming, and helping to raise and lower the sails. It was good fun learning a bit more about sailing in this part of the world.

There’s a chance you could see the Northern Lights from the night time sailing. Unfortunately, the night I was there was snowing, so the cloud cover meant the Northern Lights weren’t visible. But even without the Northern Lights, it was still a really enjoyable experience and a great first night in Tromso.

Book your night time Northern Lights watching sailing trip through Viator (affiliate), or this similar night sailing trip through Get Your Guide (affiliate).

2. Snowshoe Hiking

Another of my Top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway is snowshoe hiking. This is a daytime activity that gives great views. But it’s hard work!

Snowshoes strap onto walking boots and make walking through snow a bit easier. But it’s still not super easy to walk through deep snow. And the route was uphill, so it was really hard. But at least the uphill walking and effort battling through snow meant it didn’t feel cold at all!

We were out for 5 hours, and spent most of the time walking. The minibus was only about 15-20 minutes, and then we were walking. This is definitely an activity to do with a group and professional guides. There’s no clear path to follow, so you’ll need the guides and their local knowledge. But the views are amazing right from the beginning.

Keep an eye out for wildlife as well. We were lucky and saw a white-tailed sea eagle, which was so impressive as it was huge.

At the top of the hill we were climbing, there were lovely views down to the fjords. The weather was very changeable, so we needed to wait for gaps in the clouds to see the view. But the view was lovely.

Going downhill was easier than climbing uphill, but still hard work as you were constantly trying not to slip. But on the steeper parts of the slope, we could use the sleds that the guides had brought – and that was a much more fun way to get down!

Overall, the snowshoe hiking was really enjoyable and the views were amazing. Just be warned that you need a decent level of fitness, as hiking through deep snow is hard work.

Book your guided snowshoe hiking trip through Get Your Guide (affiliate) or a similar snowshoe hike with a local guide through Viator (affiliate).

3. Night-time reindeer feeding, sledding and Sami Cultural Experience

The next of my top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway is to meet some reindeer! Reindeer are beautiful, gentle animals so this is a great activity for adults and children. This is offered as an organised tour, with coach pick up in central Tromso, so it’s really easy to do.

After driving for about 30 minutes in a coach, you’ll be dropped off at the reindeer camp. Here, after a short introduction, you can go straight to meet and feed the reindeer. Collect a food bucket and head over towards the herd of reindeer – and once they realise you’ve got food, they’ll come over to you as well! You just need to hold the bucket of food and the reindeer will be right next to you. Just be careful of their antlers so you don’t get poked in the eye! It’s great to be able to get so close to the reindeer to get some lovely photos.

You’ll also get a chance to go reindeer sledding. You sit in pairs in a reindeer sled, and it’s a really magical experience as the group of reindeer leave the lights and noise of the camp and head out into the snow. It’s so peaceful, and feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere. It’s a great way to get some amazing photos and also just sit back and enjoy the experience.

Sami Cultural Evening and Reindeer Stew

After the reindeer feeding and sledding, you’ll head into one of the Sami tents. Here, next to the warm fire, you’ll have some food. They offered reindeer stew – which was really nice, but I did feel a bit guilty eating the reindeer stew after I’d just spent an hour making friends with the reindeer!

After eating, you head into a second tent and sit around a fire. And here, you’ll get a chance to learn more about the traditional Sami culture and way of life, including hearing some traditional Sami songs. I found it really interesting to learn more about the culture and how it’s becoming more celebrated in Norway after years of oppression. It was a lovely ending to a lovely evening.

Book your reindeer sledding and Sami cultural experience on Get Your Guide (affiliate), or a similar reindeer and Sami experience on Viator (affiliate).

4. Daytime sailing in the Fjords

One of my favourite daytime activities in Tromso, Norway is to go sailing on the Fjords. You get very different views compared to night time sailing, so it’s worth doing both if you enjoy sailing.

Like the night time sailing, you get given warm suits so it’s not too cold. And you can sit outside if you want, to enjoy the views and take photos. You can also help with the sailing too. But there’s also the warm inside area, which is perfect to warm up before going back outside to take photos again.

The sailing trip also offered the opportunity to go fishing – and many people quickly caught some really impressively big cod! These fresh fish were then used to make a delicious fish soup for lunch.

The sailing was around 5 hours long, and was a really great way to see the fjord scenery from the comfort of a boat, where you could sit and watch the views and then head inside when it got too cold.

Book your catamaran trip on Get Your Guide (affiliate), or a similar catamaran boat trip in Tromso on Viator (affiliate).

5. Visit Tromso’s museums

If you want a break from Tromso’s adventurous outdoor activities in the snow, there are things to do in the city as well. It’s a pretty, small city that is lovely to walk around. And Tromso has several museums which are worth visiting.

Polar Museum

My favourite museum in Tromso was the Polar Museum. As a child I was always fascinated by polar exploration, so I loved this museum. They give you a booklet to read with loads of information – so you can easily spend an hour or two in the museum.

The first parts of the museum are mostly about hunting. It was a bit sad to learn about how the Arctic animals had been hunted, but it was also interesting to think about how hard life must have been for the people living and working in the Arctic conditions – hundreds of years ago, before technology and with limited warm clothing. It must have been a really hard life.

The later sections of the museum are about polar exploration, which I found fascinating. There’s details about Roald Amundsen and Nansen, with photos from their expeditions and replica models of the boats they used. It’s just amazing to learn about what they achieved and how brave they must have been.

Troll Museum

The Troll Museum is another museum in Tromso that is worth visiting. It’s a fun, unique museum – I’ve never been to a Troll Museum before! It’s not big, so only took me about 30 minutes to look around, but it was good fun. It gives details about some of the myths and legends in Norway about trolls. There are fun pictures and models as well – it’s a very visual, interactive museum.

6. Chase the Northern Lights (crossing the border to Finland!)

One of the top attractions in Tromso is the chance to see the Northern Lights. As it’s in the Arctic Circle, with long dark nights in the winter, Tromso has a good chance of being able to see the Northern Lights. However, it’s never guaranteed. To see Northern Lights, you need to be lucky to have clear night skies and also good solar activity. So it’s always a gamble.

I took a minibus tour to try to see the Northern Lights. We left from central Tromso. It was cloudy and snowing in Tromso, so the guides decided to drive inland towards Finland. The guides look at detailed weather forecasts, so they know the best places to go with a chance to see the Northern Lights. We drove for 2-3 hours, crossing the border into Finland. And then the guides found an area to the side of the road that we could park.

The guides dug out an area in the snow for us to sit with a warm fire while we waiting for the skies to clear and the Northern Lights to show themselves. The snow was really deep, so it was fun to jump into the deep snow!

It was lovely to sit next to the fire and hear stories from the guides and the group. We also drank hot chocolate next to the fire, and toasted marshmallows on the fire.

Northern Lights

After over an hour of waiting, we were rewarded with a gap in the clouds and some clear skies. However, at first there still wasn’t any sign of the Northern Lights. After a bit longer waiting, the guides’ professional camera starting to pick up some green light in the sky.

I have to be honest – the display of Northern Lights on this night didn’t look great to the naked eye. The professional camera was able to pick up some ok photos with a very long exposure. But to the naked eye, we couldn’t see too much and no colour. I’d read before that the Northern Lights often look better on a camera rather than naked eye, so I was prepared for this. But it was still a bit disappointing to not be able to see a great display of the Northern Lights with the naked eye. I guess I was just unlucky that there was a lot of cloud cover and low solar activity. So I definitely want to go back to Tromso to try to see a better display of Northern Lights! But it was still a nice evening sitting around the firepit in Finland.

Book your Northern Lights trip on a small group minibus through Viator (affiliate), or a similar Northern Lights trip through Get Your Guide (affiliate).

7. Husky Sledding

The last of my adventurous winter activities in Tromso is Husky Sledding. This was a really fun activity – but it was hard work. It definitely wasn’t as relaxing as the reindeer sledding!

Again, the companies offer pick up in Tromso, so you get taken by coach or minibus for a 20 minute drive to get to the Husky Sledding area. Here, you get a short introduction to Husky Sledding, and get given a warm suit and gloves to keep warm. Then it’s time to meet the dogs!

The dogs are super excited at first. I love dogs, so it was lovely to see them all so excited when they’re harnessed up to the sleds. They just want to get going! But if you’re nervous of dogs, you could find this a bit overwhelming – the dogs are loud, barking and howling, and lunging on their harnesses. But they’re just excited!

There’s two people per sled. One is the driver who stands on the back of the sled. And one is the passenger who sits on the front of the sled. And then a group of sleds follow the leader, and you’re off!

I enjoyed sitting on the sled as passenger. It was so lovely to take photos of the dogs and also the views all around. We went through areas with trees, and also more open areas with amazing views to the fjords. It was lovely.

Every so often, the group of sleds would stop so the passenger/driver could swap. I then had a go at driving. And it was sort of fun, but also sort of terrifying to be completely in control! You just have a brake – which is a piece of metal that digs into the snow. And you steer by (attempting) to lean to the side. It was fun driving when things were going well, but it was also a bit scary!

After the sledding, there was time to meet the huskies and gives them all a big fuss. I enjoyed this part – the dogs were so friendly and lovely. It was a fun activity.

Book your epic husky sledding experience through Get Your Guide (affiliate), or choose a husky sledding experience through Viator (affiliate).

8. Eat fresh seafood on Tromso’s waterfront

Back in central Tromso, you can spend your final evening enjoying the city and its restaurants. There are some really nice restaurants in Tromso, and fish and seafood is a speciality in Tromso. I’d recommend a restaurant called Kaia. It’s right on the waterfront in Tromso, so you get lovely views from the big windows to the harbour. And the food is lovely – the Arctic fish and chips was delicious. And well deserved after such an active few days!

If you’d like to get to know Tromso’s food and drink more, you can book this food tour in Tromso with a guide and tastings (affiliate) or this food tasting walk around Tromso (affiliate).

9. Visit Tromso’s Ice Bar

Tromso’s Ice Bar is a great way to end your final night in Tromso. It feels fitting to visit an Ice Bar after several days of icy, snowy adventures! The Ice Bar entrance fee includes a welcome drink and also a warm cape to help you keep warm.

Inside, the Ice Bar is stunning. There are amazing ice sculptures all around. It’s a great place to take some fun photos as well as enjoy a drink. It’s a great way to end your time in Tromso.

10. Enjoy mountain views on your flight home.

The last of my top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway is to enjoy your flight home. Make sure you get a window seat on the plane, so you can enjoy the mountain views. As soon as you take off from Tromso, you’re rewarded with some beautiful mountain views all around the plane. You can also look down to the city of Tromso and the bridge, and really appreciate how it’s tucked into the snowy mountains. I loved just watching the mountain views from the window and I reflected on an amazing 4 days in Norway.

Hope you enjoy the top 10 winter activities in 4 days in Tromso, Norway! Remember to also check out my guide to what to wear and pack for winter in Tromso. If you’re travelling to Tromso as a Solo Female Traveller, check out my guide for Solo Female Travel in Tromso. For more mountain adventures in Europe, check out my guides to Iceland and Austria.