Northern Lights Boat Cruise: A Mesmerizing Aurora Borealis Experience from Reykjavik's Old Harbour

Embark on a mesmerizing boat cruise from Reykjavik’s Old Harbour to witness the enchanting Northern Lights. Learn about the science behind this natural phenomenon and enjoy an alternative activity if the weather doesn’t cooperate. Book now!

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Special Tours - Join our Northern Lights by Boat tour, sailing out into Faxaflói Bay to search for the beautiful aurora borealis. If conditions are not suitable to see the northern lights you are automatically signed up for an alternative activity
What's Included
  • Short Northern Lights photography workshop at Whales of Iceland.
  • Entry, Northern Lights drink, short film, and guided tour of Whales of Iceland.
  • Free downloadable pictures from every boat tour.
  • Guaranteed alternative activity for unsuitable weather conditions.
  • Access to warm overalls, free wi-fi, restrooms, and snack bar on the boat.
    -…
What's Not Included
  • Snacks
  • Hotel transfers are not included but can be added for an additional cost directly with supplier.
Additional Information

Embark on an evening journey to witness the stunning aurora borealis from Reykjavík’s Historic Port. Your knowledgeable guide will explain the science behind this celestial display, narrate tales and myths, and satisfy any curiosities you may have about this wonderful phenomenon.
The visibility of the Northern Lights is reliant on suitable weather…

Location
Geirsgata 11
Geirsgata
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.3
(39 Ratings)
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Aimee_s
Nov 23, 2024
Great experience - Really brilliant experience. The lights started as we were boarding the boat so the team advised us to go up top immediately. Team were so knowledgeable and enthusiastic. An absolutely incredible show.
Review provided by Viator
Lian_m
Nov 23, 2024
Mesmerizing Experience! - Amazing experience! Our tour guide provided great guidance in locating the lights and tips to view and capture them through photography. Tour started and ended promptly, and check-in process was a breeze. We were fortunate enough to have great conditions - clear skies and calm waters. The lights got brighter and more active near the end of the tour, and it was mesmerizing to see them in person.
Review provided by Viator
Jjmarkp
Nov 7, 2024
Excellent experience - This was excellent. The guide was great, informative and fun. He was helpful in telling us the settings to use on our phones/cameras to get the best pix. The boat was comfortable with plenty of room to warm up indoors when I got cold. Fortunately, the NL were visible the night I went. So, I was a happy camper.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Inspire34165511315
Mar 8, 2024
Made our Trip - Our first night the tour was cancelled due to weather. The company offered a free backup plan for a small group tour to the whale museum with private tour guide. Learned a lot about whales and the northern lights. Really neat! Patrick was very funny and very passionate/knowledgeable about whales and the whole industry. Free northern lights drink at the end which was a nice touch. The beautiful thing is if your tour is cancelled you can book another boat tour that works with your trips schedule. We went the next night and saw beautiful northern lights that were all different colours. Really made our trip to Iceland complete. They even offer heavy duty overalls to help mitigate the cold winds if needed. Guide on the boat was fantastic and very knowledgeable as well. Thank you Special Tours! Would definitely recommend booking with them!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aida_v
Feb 13, 2024
Live to be on Lilja… - We are so grateful for having to get on the boat , Lilja and Andrea every night for a chance to see the Northern Lights . Appreciated much . We saw a glimpse on our 6th night . Anika was so gracious and very informative. Patrick was so hilarious and informative as well. Thank you much for such beautiful nights on board .
Review provided by Viator
Danielle_b
Jan 17, 2024
Excellent - Excellent service watched the sky dance on board, as soon as we arrived we were told to go on top deck that the lights had started, we watched a full display until we arrived back to dock!! Highly recommend
Review provided by Viator
Vesna_b
Dec 26, 2023
Excellent Northern Lights boat tour - Chasing the Northern Lights from the sea is an amazing experience. This is a wonderful, well organized boat tour. The staff are absolutely lovely, kind, friendly and professional. The boat is well-maintained and comfortable, which helped as the sea was quite rough. If we'd seen the elusive Northern Lights, it would have been perfect. I would highly recommend this tour and company to anyone.
Review provided by Viator
504fluffyb
Feb 11, 2024
Disappointing. You're better off trying yourself or booking a private tour. - Went twice (retry). On the 2nd retry the clouds were ok, but the other values were the lowest over the entire 10 days I stayed there. Expected a probably of roughly 5% (Polarlicht App) around 23:00, which was in the end the case. That is why I’ve asked them a day before, if I could change my free retry into a whale watching tour, which has the same price, but this was denied. I still went since I didn't feel like getting drunk on a night out and only had 2 days left before leaving (fortunately I've seen the aurora before). The positive first. The boat is in good condition and they seem to have the safety of their guest in mind. Plus points. The facilities offer heating, toilets, bar,… what you would expect from mass-tourist boat. They have different tour guides. Both of them were friendly. They will give you some trivia about the northern lights and on star gazing through a mic. Most of it you will already know, if you are familiar with the topic or know how to use Wikipedia. On the second tour I had a guy from the US who was actually funny. Enjoyed his talk. They don’t drive out far. This is understandable. It would be rather risky to pack 100 to 200 tourists in a boat and get into trouble on high sea. But it consequently means that the light pollution from Reykjavik is still noticeable. Not that bad, that it would stop you from spotting the Aurora, but it is certainly is not helping your odds. From a pure light pollution and positioning consideration you might as well just travel to the “Northern Light View Point” and walk a little bit towards Grótta in the northwest of the city. That is just one example I've picked from the coastline i.e. close to where this tour is operating. Theere are other good/better spots depending on weather conditions. Another drawback is that they only go out for roughly 2.5 hours in the early hours. You will back at port after 23pm'ish but definitely before midnight. The issue is that around Reykjavik in February the probability to spot something has most likely spike events around 11:30 to 01:30. You can see that on the Polarlicht App how the green (10 to 20%) probability zone moves in from the north east of Iceland to the south west of Iceland around midnight. I’ve inquired on this and got statements like that e.g. KP value doesn’t matter that much (yes it does and is one of many different values you have to take into considerations) or that it doesn’t matter staying longer (again yes it does). The way they communicate this really rubs me the wrong way and gave me the feeling that this is a corporation that counts on tourists having no clue about this and basically put everything on the “sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes not”. Yeah sure. That is somewhat true, but it is also true that you can increase your odds of sighting by taking according adjustments. I didn’t had the feeling this company is properly transparent about how they increase your odds (or not) for the money you pay them. The free retries are theoretically indefinitely, if the company exists in the far future, if you will travel again to Reykjavik, if you don’t have already plans on the other nights,… or if you are not so frustrated that you just won’t. There are a lot of ifs and I have a suspicion the company knows that. They might offer you on a failed attempt some free shots at the bar or a whale museum discount. Ok. But in my case, I don’t really drink and I’ve been to whale museums and won’t go to another whale museum if there are actually real whales swimming in the very same bay. I would have given 4 stars if they would have allowed to switch to the whale watching tour. Just so you have a viable alternative shortly before you go home when you (and everyone else using the publicly available data) clearly know the probability of sighting is very unlikely. Even 3 stars if they would be a bit more honest about the low likelihood. Just fyi... I’ve paid more for a private tour and didn’t see the aurora and was totally ok with that, because the tour guide was super honest about it and I could see how he genuinely tried to increase the odds as much as possible. While my sister was still here (flew home a little bit earlier) we god so frustrated with the mass tourist offers that we rented a car and did it ourself using the Polarlight App and drove to the borders of the Reykjavik suburbs (Don’t drive out into the wilderness by yourself!!! Stay close to civilization, you don’t want to be the missing idiot tourists reported in the newspaper.). Guess what... at 23:50 we spotted the aurora with bear eyes. No camera needed. At a fraction of the cost and we had way more fun by ourself. Yes you'll need luck, but you can give your luck an extra boost, but I don't think you get that extra boost on this boat tour. Feel free to use this tour as it is indeed very convenient, but if you really really really want to see the Aurora, use different approaches.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
G3560fetraceyl
Jan 29, 2024
Do not use, bad experience - Do not use, they still go out when cloudy and then you have experienced the boat ride and then youcannot have refund only other tries, super jeeps are better to see Northern lights as we saw on second try. These cancelled our second trip so have paid for nowt!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
T3076wajens
Dec 16, 2023
DO NOT BOOK - We booked this tour as we really wanted to see the northern lights whilst we were in Iceland. The main reason we went! We booked it for the first night and it got cancelled because of the weather, rebooked for the following night… got cancelled… rebooked it again for a third time… got cancelled. Did the back up tour which was going to a warehouse where they had plastic and rubber shaped whales dangling from the ceiling, and to rub salt into the wound was followed by a short video of the northern lights. Look what you could have won! We requested some type of refund because £50 a head was wasted and to have not seen the northern lights like we had planned was diabolical. Turns out they can get round the legalities of giving you a refund because they offer you to go see some rubber whales in a warehouse. Absolute joke and SHOCKING customer service. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. £100 down the drain for us!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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January 2025
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