Every snowmobile tour from Tromsø starts with a long bus ride, because the snow areas lie outside the city. A safari of seven or eight hours means roughly three to four hours of bus, ferry, briefing and suiting up, and somewhere between 45 minutes and 2.5 hours on the snowmobile. Our verdict rests on facts you can check on each listing.
Time on the snowmobile
Camp Troll states around 2.5 hours for its Lyngen safari and for the electric version. Reviewers describe the same for its 12:30 departure. North experience rides 1.5 to 2 hours, XLyngen about 90 minutes, the guided tour by Aurora wonderland about 90 minutes including a practice run, Best Arctic 60 to 90 minutes. At Camp Tamok the listing gives 45 to 55 or 80 to 90 minutes depending on the option, and the short tour about 45 minutes. The day tours page lists the times side by side.
Transfer and snow area
Camp Tamok is the snow-sure valley inland, about 90 minutes by bus each way. The Lyngen Alps take up to about two hours each way including a fjord ferry, and in return you ride below alpine peaks. The short tour starts from the camp closest to Tromsø, about an hour away. Camp Tamok or the Lyngen Alps compared.
Licence and minimum age
Whoever drives needs a valid driving licence, carried in person. Camp Troll and Best Arctic take drivers from 18, Aurora wonderland from 16. Children ride as passengers: from 6 with Best Arctic, from 7 with Camp Troll and Aurora wonderland, from 10 on the short tour, from 12 with North experience and from 16 on the Camp Tamok evening. Two people share each snowmobile and usually swap drivers on the way.
Petrol or electric
Camp Troll runs the first electric snowmobile fleet in mainland Norway, in the Lyngen Alps, with the same riding time as its petrol safari. You hear the runners on the snow instead of an engine. It runs by day only. The electric snowmobile safari.
Day or evening
Day safaris show you the landscape and give the most riding time. The evening tour by North experience includes dinner and 1.5 to 2 hours in the dark with stops to look for the aurora, which is never guaranteed. Camp Troll's 12:30 departure ends in the dark without dedicated aurora stops, and there are formats with dog sledding at Camp Tamok or a night under a glass roof. Day safari or evening tour and all evening formats.
Season
The tours need snow at the camps. The season normally opens around mid-December and runs to late March or early April, with January to mid-March as the most reliable window. In November the tours are usually not running yet. The season month by month.
