These popular bespoke breaks are perfect for those looking for a short break away to see the Northern Lights, and experience Iceland’s stunning volcanic highlights.
Classic Short Breaks in Iceland
Staying in some of the best places to see Aurora in Iceland you have the chance to self explore, as well as taking exciting super-jeep adventure tours to take you off the trodden path to some of the most dramatic and beautiful places in Iceland.
Stay in luxurious rural hotels, or celebrate a special occasion in your own private boutique wilderness cabin, with the Northern Lights dancing right outside your front door!
Explore our trips
Useful information
Our Classic range of breaks to Iceland are tried and tested Northern Lights Trips that we have been offering for 15 years. Over the years we have tweaked and crafted these breaks and truly believe they offer the very best opportunity to see the Northern Lights and experience the very best of Iceland.
We work with local small family run companies that care about your Northern Lights Trip and go out of their way to go above and beyond. Having built such a great relationship with them we are able to develop exclusive activities for Aurora Nights clients.
Our Northern Lights & Bonfire Trip is one of these where the guide will take you out to hunt down the Auroras. The guides have their favourite spots, one of them being near Porsmork. Surrounded by 3 Glaciers the dry air they create clears the skies which is what you need to see the Northern Lights. Often you will come back from a Northern Lights Tour in this remote region having had a marvellous display and then drive back into cloud with no possibility of seeing the Northern Lights.
We choose lodges and hotels situated in good areas for seeing the Northern Lights with Hotel Ranga in South West Iceland the most renown. They track Aurora sightings from the lodge and on any 3 nights stay you have about a 70% chance of seeing the Northern Lights. We think that is pretty good! Along with this enviable reputation for seeing the Aurora’s we can personally vouch for a very special experience sitting in one of their hot tubs, with a glass of wine, watching the Northern Lights dancing overhead. Don’t let the cold air put you off going into a hot tub as there is something pretty special about being toasty warm inside the hot tub as you watch the Auroras on a cold Arctic night.
For those who are not tempted by the hot tubs there is a superb observatory that Hotel Ranga has built a little way from the hotel. On clear nights an astrology expert will be on hand to show you how to use the highly sophisticated computerised telescopes, (and for those lucky enough to have the right type of camera hook up their camera to the telescope to take photos of the planets and Northern Lights in great detail) The Iconic Northern Lights Break is particularly popular for those wishing to stay at Hotel Ranga
In many of our choice accommodation we have an Aurora wake up call system in place so you don’t have to worry about going to sleep and missing the Northern Lights display! This is something that Hotel Ranga pioneered as they are so determined that your Aurora Trip lives up to your expectation.
For those celebrating a special occasion the Northern Lights Wilderness Iceland Escape is a wonderful break as you have your own private wilderness cabin. For many having this private space makes it the perfect location to propose, celebrate a big anniversary or birthday, or to take the family. There is a choice of 2 cabins and your food ingredients are pre bought and await your arrival in the cabin saving you precious time on not having to go shopping on your Northern Lights Trip. The first night the guide will cook for you, (we highly recommend his lamb sourced from a family farm- you don’t get more organic than in Iceland!), but of course vegetarian options are available. For those not wishing to cook on the other two nights there is the option to upgrade to eat at two local hotels, both of which offer excellent quality using locally sourced fresh ingredients. It may surprise many that the food in Iceland is superb, majoring on lamb and seafood and often presented in creative and delightful ways.
On these Classic Northern Lights Holidays Superjeep tours will take you off the tourist trail to visit stunning volcanic wonders away from the others. Glaciers, Geysers, Waterfalls, Volcanoes are all within reach on these tours and we balance our breaks so that you have time to self-explore the areas of Iceland that are easily accessible, and then invest instead in the superjeep tours to truly give you that wilderness adventure which you would not be able to reach yourself. It is a winning combination that has worked well for 15 years, but of course we can offer transfers and extra superjeep tours for those of you who don’t want to self-drive and who have a larger budget for your Northern Lights Trip. The beauty of what we do is that we can tailor your Northern Lights trip for you.
The Geothermal Blue Lagoon is considered a “must stop” for those visiting Iceland with its bright blue silica enriched waters. With in-water Massages, Spa treatments, Saunas and warm waterfalls what is there not to love? Increasingly people are looking to not just visit the Blue Lagoon but stay as well, relax and enjoy the peaceful surroundings. The Blue Lagoon Northern Lights Escape and the Northern Lights Paradise breaks are worth considering if that is of interest.
For those short of time Reykjavik is a good base and a great option for Whale Watching. Our Iceland Northern Lights and Whales Explorer is particularly popular as it combines hunting for the Northern Lights both by sea and superjeep, with whale watching and a superjeep to explore the Golden Circle.
For those looking to go Glacier snowmobiling then the Reykjavik Aurora Short Break should be top of your list.
Our Iceland New Year break books up fast and offers the contrast of the high energy celebration of Reykjavik’s stupendous fireworks with a 2 night stay in a rural retreat in the heart of what we call “Northern Lights Alley”. Having said that many of our clients have even been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights as well as the fireworks from the New Year’s Eve firework cruise we include on our Iceland New Year’s Eve Northern Lights Classic Break
Our Icelandic Aurora over the Golden Circle and the Fire and Ice Northern Lights Trip are the best value Iceland Northern Lights breaks and in include some dinners so it is easier for clients to estimate the total cost of their Aurora Holiday.
The Icelandic Aurora over the Golden Circle break is based in a super family run Hotel located on a working traditional family farm of around 300 hectares far away from artificial lights and therefore a great location for viewing the Northern Lights.
On the Fire and Ice Northern Lights Trip you will spend 2 nights at Hotel Ranga- celebrated for its high incidence of Aurora sightings, and have the option of choosing between a superjeep adventures or an exploration to a Secret Ice Cave.
See what our clients say
A fantastic short break which fulfilled all expectations. Well organised with a polished delivery, we could not have asked for more. The accommodation was perfect for us and the guides knowledgeable and helpful. Every day was packed with adventure, each lasting longer than scheduled but we were never rushed; the guides took pride in showing and explaining their beautiful country. We would certainly use Weekend a la carte again and recommend them to others.
Brilliant short break. Hotel Ranga was lovely, excellent food. Managed to see the Northern Lights as well! Iceland on the whole was quite expensive but a lovely place to visit, the people were very friendly.
1. Gourmet Cabins was excellent and Johan was a friendly and knowledgeable host. The food, cabins, hot tub and sauna were brilliant.
2. Dog sledge was a fantastic experience and we were given the opportunity to drive our own sledge
3. Snow Mobile – really got off the beaten track and into the spectacular mountains
4. Saw the Northern Lights twice in two days. There is no description that can really do them justice
Cannot thank this company enough. Our break to Iceland was the second time we’ve let them organise everything for us and once again they didn’t disappoint. Everything ran seamlessly and the organised tours were wonderful. This company knows what they are doing. If you want to experience the geysers, the volcano, the northern lights and all the other exciting things that Iceland has to offer then this is the company to use.
Thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The Abisko Mountain Lodge was fantastic, every member of staff was friendly welcoming and charming. Accommodation, upgraded room was excellent. The food in the lodge definitely deserves the high reviews. Good breakfast, great hime made lunch soups and extremely tasty evening dinners.
The included trips were great. The only let down was the camera night, couldn’t see the lights no one fault, but we were walked through thigh high snow to be left on a frozen lake for the duration of the trip. There was no warning of the difficult walk and we had a 91 year old with us and I have hip problems! That said the guide was great, as were the ones on the skimobile and husky rides. We went up to the sky station in a snow storm with high winds, added to the experience!
Would go back in a heart beat.
We had little communication with Weekend a la carte, no need as all communications were clear and contained all the information we needed. Very informative emails
Would use again if going back
Thank you for arranging a fabulous holiday, we had a really enjoyable time and would love to return in the future. Hotel Ranga is a lovely place to stay and the owner greeted guests in the restaurant, which was an unexpected welcoming touch. We didn’t see the Northern Lights due to the weather and the trip to the Eyjafjallajokull glacier and volcano was substituted by an excursion to Thorsmork, also due to the weather, which we thoroughly enjoyed; the brochure description doesn’t do it justice. We found Iceland and the people there really charismatic. Although the wind and snow cut short the amount of travelling we could do, we still covered a reasonable amount of what we wanted to see and our appetites are whetted for a return, perhaps in Spring or Summer. We found a couple of great places to eat near the Hotel in Reykjavik. Messin does tasty fish dishes and the Icelandic Street Food restaurant was excellent, offering simple but hearty soups with refills included in the price – great value.
We had five fantastic days in beautiful Iceland, as we had never been before Aurora Nights helped with everything and made the holiday so easy and stress free. We stayed at Hotel Ranga which was amazing, we very much enjoyed the tours and the guides were brilliant, very knowledgable and friendly. We will certainly be returning to Iceland and wouldn’t hesitate to book through Aurora Nights again, special thanks to Abigail as her experience and reccommendations made the trip even better.
An excellent holiday which was enjoyed by all. The super jeep ride on the second day to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano was memorable and thanks to our driver Margaret who proved to be a really good guide. We thoroughly enjoyed the facilities in the hotel Ranga. The staff were very helpful and we managed to see the Northern Lights. The Hotel Reykjavik Centrum was very nice with amazingly helpful staff. All in all, the whole holiday was brilliant.
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