My Travel Diary of Tromsø, Norway

Last week I shared my first post about my trip to Tromsø in Norway: our Northern Lights tour in Tromso, our AirBNB accomodation and my favourite coffee shops. This week I’m sharing part two of my travel diary, writing about Tromsø’s restaurants, dog sledding tours and the Fjellheisen cable car.

Our original plan for the 4-day trip was to go on a different aurora tour every night, to increase our chances of seeing the northern lights at least once. But since we were lucky to get a strong aurora activity on the first tour, we decided to cancel the other tours and spend the next three days relaxing and exploring the city.

The highlight of the holiday was taking the cable car to the out­door viewing deck on mount Fløya. We took a bus to go from Tromsø island to the mainland, where we took the gondola. In just a few minutes we rose to 421 meters above the sea level: the view of Tromsø and the sur­round­ing islands and fjords was spectacular from up there!

The cafe at Fjellheisen is an amazing spot to enjoy the view while stuffing yourself with Norwegian waffles. A snow blizzard started while we were taking pictures and playing with the snow, so we cozied up in the cafe until the sun came down. The city of Tromsø was shining brightly underneath us!

On our last day in Tromsø we decided to join one of the Husky sledding tours in the Norwegian tundra. Most tours were fully-booked, but we found two spaces available with Villmarkssenter, which offer 4-hour long daylight tours departing from Tromsø every morning. We had breakfast at Koffebønna and then hopped on a bus to the Husky ranch.

The tour started with some information about Alaskan huskies and playing time with the puppies. The staff at Villmarkssenter are truly passionate about their job and they take very good care of the dogs, which love running and are “adopted” by the dog-sledders when they reach the age of retirement.

The centre is 45-minute drive away from Tromsø and the dog sledding lasts one hour, during which the huskies took us on a ride by the coast of the island, with great views over Tromsø, the white covered mountains and fjords.

After the ride we returned to the ranch to have lunch in a warm sami tent (called lavvo) with a typical sami meal (bidos – a reindeer and potato stew).

Reindeer is a local delicacy in this region and can be found on the menus of most restaurants in Tromsø. On our last night we treated ourselves with dinner at Tromsø’s best brasserie: Emmas Drømmekjøkken, located across the street from the city’s cathedral.

I ordered a dish from the “specials of the day” menu, a pie filled with minced reindeer meat and served with lingonberry sauce. It was really good, and so was the dish my husband ordered: a beet risotto with roasted salmon. Prices at Emmas Drømmekjøkken are around £30 for a main course (the average restaurant price in Tromsø) and advance booking is recommended.

A good alternative to overpriced touristic restaurants by the port and fast foods on the high street was Rå Sushi. We had dinner there one night and spent around £25 each for a starter, a big platter of great quality sushi and drinks.

This completes my Tromsø travel diary! I hope you enjoyed the photos and will find the information I shared useful. I didn’t find a great deal of travel tips when researching before my trip, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments or email me!

We went to Tromsø to see the Northern Lights, but the city offered us so much more than we had hoped for. Norway is a beautiful country with lovely and welcoming people. If Norway is not on your bucket list yet, I suggest you add it now!