Arctic Experience

Customer Reviews

• 

  Levani

  · March 26th, 2025
  I highly recommend avoiding the Arctic Experience tour organized by V.O.S – Vision of Scandinavia. It was an absolutely horrible experience, and all 15 people on the tour agreed it was the worst we’ve ever been on. The majority of the time was spent on the bus, with barely any stops to take photos or enjoy the scenery. The first day we only stopped at the Zoo. When we voiced our complaints, the driver would stop in completely inappropriate places—literally at crossroads—so we were right in the middle of the road. Our guide demonstrated poor planning as well. Knowing the roads would close at night for snow cleanup, they still brought us to an incredibly boring bakery for a 40-minute break, which caused us to be delayed. As a result, we were stuck on the road for about an hour while waiting for it to be cleared. We didn’t arrive at the hotel until after 11 PM. Several activities listed in the itinerary never happened. For instance, the Northern Lights hunt was canceled due to the weather. While this is understandable, the tour organizers made no effort to replace it with an alternative activity—even though we had paid for it. The final day was a disaster. We were forced to carry our luggage and walk to the harbor in snow to catch the ferry and then walk back from the harbor to our hotel in Tromsø. This was challenging for participants with large suitcases. To make matters worse, the hour-long walking tour of Tromsø that was scheduled for the last day didn’t happen, despite the fact that the weather was suitable. Overall, this tour was poorly organized, filled with disappointing experiences, and lacked any consideration for the comfort or satisfaction of its participants. I cannot recommend this tour to anyone. Save your time and money for a better experience elsewhere. You will do better if you just go to Tromso and stay there for 4-5 days and book all these activities on your own!
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  Trip date: February 2025
• XZ

  XiaoYing

  · March 25th, 2025
  We were not happy with the tour. Day 1: On the day of the tour orientation, our names weren’t even on the list. In fact, a lot of people’s names weren’t on the list. The tour guide had to keep adding names to his list. On booking, we were never asked for confirmation on whether the room was gonna be a double or a twin, so on arrival, we had to ask the hotel staff to kindly change the room from a double to a twin room. This issue was mentioned to the tour guide at the meeting and we requested for him to ensure all the hotels for days 2-6 was a twin. We weren’t the only people that made this complaint to the guide on the very first day. Unfortunately, we were given a double room again on the last evening and it took many complaints for the hotel to make the change for us. During this period, we attempted to contact the tour guide, but he was not reachable and we contacted the tour company which said we asked for a double room when we made the booking. Not true! There was no mention nor options provided to select the room type at the time of the booking. The tour company simply assumed it was all a double room for two people bookings. On the tour documents, it mentioned double / twin rooms but there were no follow ups, no option to choose room type and no confirmation, nothing from the tour operator so beware if you are travelling with two people when you want to book a twin room. Day 2: Three hours drive to Polar park and stayed for one and a half hours for the visit. Then another couple of hours drive to the hotel. You spend most of the time on the bus with only 1-2 hours of activity booked for the day. Day 3: Similar to Day 2, 3 hours drive for 1 hour at a Sami reindeer farm. Then drive to hotel and nothing else planned for the evening. Only day 3 had dinner included which was a buffet. Other days, you have to fend for yourself. Day 4: Long drive to Lofoten Islands, with a couple of short photo stops in between. This was a terribly long day and due to the extreme weather, we were meant to arrive at the hotel before 8pm for the Northern light hunting. We didn’t get to the hotel until 11pm and northern light hunt was cancelled due to weather. Originally we were meant to be able to eat dinner at around 7:30 to 8pm. In the end, everyone had to buy something at the gas station / convenience stores around 8-9pm. In the event of when activities were cancelled, there were nothing else offered as a replacement. My only compliment was to the drivers for trying to drive in the very harsh weather for such a long day. Day 5: Left the hotel at 6:30am to board the boat back to Tromso. We arrived around 10am and as per the itinerary there was meant to be another 1 hour Panoramic walk around 10:30am. There was no walk. There was no explanation either as to why this part of the itinerary was missing. Be prepared, once you get to the hotel, you were on your own and should plan for how you want to spend the rest of the day. Your tour guide leaves once you get to the hotel. Other complaints: - travel documents - you will receive a very simple itinerary for each day which only states the time of when activity starts and one line stating what the activity is about. Eg 13:00 - visit polar park. For most of the events, they won’t even tell you the duration of the event. There will be no description of what you are doing or anything about the places you are visiting. So don’t expect much from the travel documents, if you need details, you will have to come back to the descriptions on the website. - Poor hotel choices (mainly all the Scandic Hotels) For 2 nights, the hotel twin rooms were tiny. There is barely any room to walk nor open both your luggages. In one of the hotel rooms, ventilation sound was very loud. You could hear this sound the entire night so it was very difficult to sleep. One hotel had poor hot water system where it randomly switched between cold and hot water. - Poor hotel service (Scandic Grand Tromso ) - At the last hotel, we were once again given a double room. We requested to move to a twin room, the hotel staff lied and told us all twin rooms were already booked out when there are were still plenty available for booking on Booking.com. When confronted, they were unwilling to change the room type and simply told us it’s not their fault. When we requested for two extra blankets (in an attempt to use as temporary mattresses since they refused to move us to a twin room), they also refused and would only provide one. Either way, if your tour operator booked the wrong room type to begin with, good luck as you are on your own in trying to rectify this issue. - optional activities: likewise there are no details about the optional activities and be very cautious about the activities you are booking. Request for details before you book so you are not mislead. E.g aurora husky visit is not a husky ride. It’s a visit to just play with the dogs. If the Husky activity is booked for the evening, then it’s likely this is not going to be a Husky ride. The northern light cruise is a three hour cruise where you spend 1 hour cruising out and 1 hour back. The remaining hour you are indoors on land learning about how fisherman preserves fish. No comment on the snowmobile as this activity was cancelled due to bad weather. Conclusion: Ask for a lot of details before booking any optional activities so you know what you are getting into. If you book this tour, be prepared to be on the bus for the majority of the trip and only 1 activity (1 - 2 hours max) per day. Make sure you have lots of snacks with you for the long bus ride as you might not get the time to even stop and buy lunch and/or dinner. If you are traveling with a friend, make sure you ask the tour operator to confirm whether it’s a double or a twin room and ask them to provide the confirmation in writing so they cannot shift the blame to you. In the event tour operator booked the wrong room, you will need to negotiate with the hotel staff yourself because the tour operator will not rectify the issue for you. If you are ok with all of the above, this is the tour for you. Olivia & Grace
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  V.O.S – Vision of Scandinavia commented on this review

  Dear Olivia and Grace, I’m truly sorry to hear about your frustrations with the trip, and I appreciate the opportunity to clarify a few points. As we discussed, the booking on Tour Radar clearly listed the room booked as a double. If a twin room was... Show more
  Trip date: March 2025
• PB

  philippe

  · March 22nd, 2025
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  Right from the first evening's briefing, things weren't looking too good. The guide's list of participants was not up to date. We'll have to manage as best we can to eat, which is a bit surprising given the weakness of the planned program. Day 2: an hour and a half of activity for four to five hours of driving. No time to visit Narvik in the evening. Day 3: one hour on a Sami farm (of very average interest) for four to five hours' driving. The only dinner scheduled for that evening was imposed at 5:30 p.m., which prevented us from visiting Slovaer during the day. Day 4: a long bus journey to visit the Lofoten Islands, the only full and interesting day, but we had to extend the journey because of the snowy weather and arrived late at the hotel in Harstad at around 11pm. Not much opportunity to eat that day, and no way to visit Harstad either, as we left the hotel the next morning at 6.30am without breakfast. No Northern Lights on the program due to the weather. Understandable, but it's one less thing. Day 5: Arrival in Tromso by boat at 10.30 a.m., then nothing else planned for the day. A bit short for an organized trip. Two positive points: the quality of the hotels and the professionalism of the bus drivers, who had bad weather to drive in. We won't be advertising because we're disappointed with your service. Sincerely Evelyne and Philippe
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  V.O.S – Vision of Scandinavia commented on this review

  Dear Evelyne and Philippe, Thank you for sharing your feedback. I’m sorry to hear that your experience didn’t go as planned, and I’d like to take a moment to address some of the points you raised. Firstly I apologise for the miscommunication in the... Show more
  Trip date: March 2025
• CS

  Clelia

  · February 3rd, 2025
  Details of currency needs to be informed to prevent extra changes in the airport or avoid excesive usage of credit card charges.
  Trip date: January 2025
• YH

  Yong

  · January 31st, 2025
  There was a long of long distances travelling. Even though there was only one activity a day, we still felt tired due to the long bus journeys. The last hotel room was an attic sized room which was extremely small. The saving grace was the superb tour leader, Stefano. He was very responsible and took good care of the elderly group members. We were also blessed to have caught the elusive Northern Lights, thanks to Stefano's constant lookout for the lights' occurrence on the apps.
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  Trip date: January 2025
• JW

  Janet

  · April 7th, 2024
  Tour more than met our expectations. Our tour guide, Stefano, was good and very helpful when I sustained an injury.
  Trip date: March 2024
• CF

  Constance

  · March 18th, 2024
  I would have like to receive a detailed itinerary with approximate arrival times in each new location when I booked the trip so I could have planned excursions I would have liked to to do.
  Trip date: March 2024
• 

  kimberley

  · March 16th, 2024
  This trip was amazing. The accommodation was...
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  Trip date: March 2024