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While visiting Tromso to see the Northern Lights, we slotted some time to see some reindeer and learn about Sami culture. I chose this specific tour specifically because the tour is owned by the Sami people themselves. I don’t think I have seen a reindeer in person, and I wanted to learn more about the Sami culture. I pretty much knew nothing about them, so I decided to give it a go. It included some sledding actually, but we were “lucky” to be in Tromso during the biggest storm in 30 years. The sledding itself was cancelled but thankfully the tour still went on (and they refund the difference).
We got picked up in the town centre. Originally I didn’t expect there were so many people; then 2 full bus worth people arrived! I was just hoping it was not too crowded. It was a 30 minutes drive outside the town centre, which was good especially in a stormy night. I heard that some other tours cancelled their tours because it’s about 90 minutes drive outside the town centre. In fact, people from their tours came to join our tour instead.
It was a particularly windy night; I knew there was bad weather in the forecast, but did not realise it was the worst storm Norway has seen in 30 years ! We were seated in a table, and while waiting for the food, we chatted amongst ourselves. The light was very low so I couldn’t capture any picture but we were served Sami reindeer stew. It was delicious, and warm stew is always great in cold winter weather. In the middle of dinner, there was a shout that the Northern Light is visible, so we rushed outside! It was beautiful. I wrote a guide on all the tips on how to see the Northern Lights! Bonus on how to capture them on your smartphone without any fancy gear.
The reindeer sledding was cancelled due to storm (they refunded us the money for that part) so we didn’t get that part, but we got some chance to feed the reindeers. It was a fun experience! The reindeers are so much
We then huddled together and were given a talk about Sami cultures, their food, their livelihood and some history. Personally, I don’t know much about Sami cultures previously; I was glad that I came and learned about the Sami culture.
I was sad that the reindeer sledding was cancelled. However, even without the sledding I would still go on this tour! I learned a lot about Sami cultures and the feeding the reindeers were fun.
There’s so much more to Norway, I highly recommend to check out Travel to Norway which is written by a Norwegian! She actually lived in Tromso too for 3 years and had great resources about travelling in Norway.