Tromsø, Norway

Arctic Adventures with Kids: Because Freezing is the New Family Bonding.

For Spring Break 2025 we decided to trade our cold Midwest weather for even colder arctic weather… did I question this choice many times and consider swapping for a beach vacation… yes… but I’m so glad we forged on with our icy plans.

We spent 5 magical nights in Tromsø Norway. Here is a breakdown of the activities we did (I will add separate posts for a few of these activities because they deserve to be spotlighted).

This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share products and services that I would use for my own family.

Activities

• Reindeer sledding and feeding- all of our kids loved this! You also get to learn about the Sami culture which was very cool. You can book just reindeer feeding but in my opinion it’s definitely worth paying for the sledding too! Pro tip: Book early- you will need to book this at least 1-2 months out.

• Dogsledding: MUST do! By far one of the coolest adventures I have ever done and it was magical to share with my husband and kids. Pro tips: book early especially if traveling with kids under 8 as it can be harder to find options. I will post on the company we used and our experience separately.

• Troll museum: Definitely surpassed our expectations! A number of fun interactive activities for the kids. It is a small museum but kept our high energy bunch entertained on a rainy day for several hours.

• Charlottenlund park: Local free park with sledding hills and playground. Pro tip: Bring your own sled- you can rent them from Tromsø outdoor. Supposedly they rent them at the park but the day we went they weren’t so we had to create our own fun without sleds. Our kids still had a blast playing in the snow here, watching people sled, and we even saw someone skiing behind two dogs!

• Fjellheisen Cable Car: 5 minute ride on the cable car up and 5 minute ride down. There is a cute café at the top where you can purchase drinks. Honest opinion we could’ve skipped this. It was closed for most of the day because of high winds and then we ended up being able to go up around 7pm. At the top it was pretty windy and I didn’t feel comfortable with my wild bunch running around so we came right back down.

• Northern lights: there is an app for tracking which is helpful but I found the Tromsø Facebook page the most helpful in knowing when to look. We did not go on a tour/chase because of the ages of our kids, I had read that it is long and late at night so we opted out. We got extremely lucky and were able to see them two nights in a row from our airbnb.

If you are interested in where we stayed, where we ate, and what we packed... just leave a message and I am happy to provide additional details!