Here is the story of Svalbard and Longyearbyen, by winter or… by Polar Night! If you figure it out how to make enough money to sustain the burning fire of the desire to see the entire world, many remote places, then every sweet dream can become reality. Since I didn’t figured that out yet, I am trying to take it one step at a time and to leverage every advantage in order to keep traveling as much as possible. The glamorous experience of a New Years’ Eve in Svalbard come to mind not long after we initially visited Tromsø, in same year 2023, experience I have written about consistently here and here. Now, Tromsø is north, “very” north, but Svalbard is even… norther! For those who might not know too much about this archipelago, it belongs to Norway, and it is situated somewhere middle range between mainland Norway and the… North Pole.

Now, I won’t hold a geography lesson here, because all information are available on Google. What I will do is, present our full experience of almost four days, packed with many activities. Well, not a lot off, but! very enjoyable pieces of life, that not only remain memories for a lifetime, but also determined us to be even more decided to return here during daylight, as in December and January the polar night makes it dark 24 / 7 in Svalbard. So, what to do then?

Norwegian Airlines has a pretty good time schedule

It is not as easy as you might think to find a direct flight from Tromsø to Longyearbyen, the main settlement from Svalbard, as it is too much to call it even a town, but Norwegian Airlines operates a direct flight of about one hour and 40 minutes, with arrival on 13:40 and departure back to mainland 16:15. So, basically, you can enjoy almost four full days if you take a three night accommodation, like we did. The cost was about 400 euro / each, not very cheap, but we could get it far more expensive stil. Cheap is not a word you can use in Norway anyway. It is one of the most expensive countries in the world, but they have many, many reasons.

Now, since to reach this location we needed a total of… four flights, from Bucharest, we tried to take most of the island we arrived in. Then, after checking in at Svalbard Hotell Polfareren for the first two nights, we went for some groceries at Svalbard Butikken, the only big store in Longyearbyen, and then, a short walk thru the town. A walk where we enjoyed our first two… reindeer! Yep, in Svalbard there is an endemic species, smaller than on the mainland, and it is often they wander around Longyearbyen. These were just digging for some grass, in the snow, as it is very seldom to find food in the wintertime, when everything is covered in thick white snow!

SvalBad – the sauna from the middle of the Arctic!

We would like to explore more of the reindeer, as they didn’t gave a fuck about us anyway, they were just minding their own business, but at a point in time, we needed to get ready, because at 20:30 we had scheduled a complete two hour of sauna, in a beautiful location at SvalBad. Would have been very nice to try also the water, but I passed that this time, as it was pitch dark and preferred to alternate the 85ºC inside with the -5ºC from the air, outside. While enjoying the hot air inside, we had a lovely overview of the water and the mountain and imagined we can see some polar bears swimming. Those were not there of course, just some birds, but we have decided to go back to the hotel by taxi, as the location of the sauna was in the harbor, which was around 2 kilometers from the city center, and quite close to the indicator that warned us about the risk of meeting polar bears.

Is there a real threat of polar bears?

Since we are at this chapter, polar bears actually enter the perimeter of Longyearbyen or Nybyen once every year or every two years, if the case, and it mostly happens to young animals, just separated from their mother, that are exploring things, but it is very well known that you cannot leave the perimeter of the cities without having an armed guide with you, or without hiring a rifle. No joke, the polar bear is the biggest carnivore in the world and Svalbard is one of its main playground and in the archipelago there are actually more bears than people, around 3500, against 2500. OK, they mostly leave on remote places, near water, to hunt fish and seals, their main source of food, but you can never be too careful!

Getting back to the saune experience, I should say that alternating those temperatures for two hours offered us a wonderful detox and energized it for the days about to come, were more experiences were planned. For the SvalBad we have paid 2000 NOK (around 180 EUR) and we had the beautiful sauna only for ourselves for two full hours of complete silence, time in which not a single soul was present in the port.

Cafe Huskies & Freune!

Until our next booked adventure, a sled dog ride with Green Dog, we visited three unique facilities from Longyearbyen:

1. Café Huskies – a very lovely place where you can drink a good coffee, and enjoy, in the same time, the company of at least two white huskies. Drunk some peruvian dark beverage, great choice, petted and photographed Tequila, and her son, Tycho. In Svalbard there reported around 1200 dogs as pets, one for each two persons, and since cats are forbidden, it is understandable. And from these 1200 many are huskies, a lot retired sled dogs, many come visiting the cozy place. I got some souvenirs from there as well.
2. Fruene – now, in Svalbard it is very easy to find the world’s northernmost many things, you can imagine… In this case, the northernmost chocolatier! We couldn’t miss the opportunity so we went for another coffee and some fine local chocolate that we wild bring also home with us, but that will be told later. Some manual shaped small pieces of chocolate were ordered, photographed and… eaten, of course!
3. The local post office – it is not the northernmost in the world, but for sure it is one of the most and we made it there two minutes before closing, by running 300 meters, also passing by a lazy reindeer, and we have managed to send to ourselves the post cards bought from… Café Huskies!

Riding a sled with dogs in the middle of the Svalbard white snow!

Since it was 30th of December, we needed to check all of them because the next days we couldn’t find them open anymore. Going back to Green Dog, we have booked a three hour excursion, that included pick up and drop off from the hotel, briefing, dog petting, changing into proper equipment, and, the cake from the menu: 1.5 hours of sled rides with five dogs attached. On top of everything, at the end, our guide for the whole activity, Marcell, took us to a very nice cabin for some coffee, pancakes and cookies, and these were a bonus, as nothing was mentioned in the itinerary! The full journey extended to more than 3.5 hours in the end! 🙂 A experience you really need to try. The price for this: 1790 NOK (approx. 160 EUR) each – decent bargain for the wonderful experience.

First dinner in Longyearbyen

Having finished with that, now we are concentrating on preparing our turkey dinner with desert, between 20:00 and 22:00 from our hotel. How are we preparing? With a two kilometer run thru the main pedestrian street of Longyearbyen! The location is too exotic not to be exploited with a nice run, and the idea for this was, to be honest, Anca’s. 🙂 We take a shower, we change and we go to drink and eat for the evening. For this we have paid 400 NOK (approx. 36 EUR) each and we have really enjoyed fine food and some good wine, also. After this, we hung out in the lobby one last evening to chill, talk and drink some hot tea – by the way, in Norway free or very cheap tee and coffee can be found almost everywhere. And the coffee it is really of good quality!

Three nights, two hotels

In the morning, before going to our hike, we need to check out and to switch hotels – the modern Polfareren is exchanged with Basecamp Explorer, a very rustic location, located… 50 meters away! We have taken this decision, to try both hotels, just to see how it is in both of them. The total price, by the way, for three nights in Svalbard, was around 7300 NOK (roughly 650 EUR for the rooms). Oh, very important, before moving to Sarkofagen… in Svalbard there is a very interesting tradition, that in many location you need to take your shoes off before entering. This applied in both hotels and also in Café Huskies. I am not 100% why, but I guess it is not about good manners, but mostly because of practical reasons, since many things in Longyearbyen are built out of wood and you can really drag and drop a lot of water inside, in different stages…

Hike to Sarkofagen and a beautiful lunch at the top

I have mentioned hike, Sarkofagen… What is this all about. Well, in the last day of year 2023, we have decided to go for a white hike, on a peak from nearby, surrounded by glaciers, millions of tones of snow, and a very tick night. Now, as I was saying, the activity was booked thru Svalbard Wildlife Expeditions. For 1300 NOK each (approx. 115 EUR) we booked an activity of six hours, that included pick up and drop off, briefing, instructions, a guide with a rifle – I was telling you that you cannot leave Longyearbyen without being armed, because of polar bear risk, even minimum – and also a… dog guide. Gandhi, a cute retired sled husky dog, that I have found later also as a constant guest in Café Huskies. The hike itself lasted for four and a half hours and it included a lunch brought by the organizer and prepared on the top of Sarkofagen, with a good view to Nybyen, kind of suburb of Longyearbyen.

7.5 kilometers thru the wilderness near Longyearbyen

The hike was really amazing from so many perspectives. We had the luck of having a very clear weather, not so low temperatures – maybe -5ºC, a joke for that place – and a lot of visibility. This is how we managed to see a reindeer very close by and also the… northern lights! This happened one kilometer before the end of our 7.5 kilometer hike, with around 450+ meter of ascent. So, a complete journey! And both the hike and the sled ride themselves were amazing experiences as we could watch some deserted, white, never-ending surrounding, the type of winter everybody would dream of, but few can experience as years pass by. The darkness, even complete, faded when colliding with the pure white snow so everything seemed to have ignited in a way.

Nansen – the first New Year’s Eve spent in a restaurant!

As we arrived back from the challenging hike, around two other couples – we were seven people and Gandhi – the preparation for the New Years Eve have started. Well, a short walk first, but not too serious, considering we needed to be ready for Nansen. You see, at first, we took in consideration to just spend the night at Basecamp, maybe in the lobby to enjoy the facility, but we discovered that Nansen, the restaurant of Radisson Blu from Longyearbyen, still had slots for the New Years Dinner. Six dishes, two glasses of sparkling wine and additional one local Svalbard beer cost 1305 NOK (around 115 EUR) for an unforgettable in the probably most luxurious restaurant from the archipelago. Now, to make yourself an idea, this is far cheaper than most of the shitholes from our country. And, yeah, Norway, as said, is not a cheap country. On the contrary!

You can’t drink outside in Norway!

We enjoyed our meals, the desert, and we were preparing for the pass in 2024, and to see the fireworks from the port, the same location where we went for the sauna. And, of course, we wanted to celebrate this outside, where, as if magic, started snowing like in the fairytales and it seemed a bit more chilly also, by cheering and drinking the prosecco. Unfortunately, a lady from the restaurant came in speed outside and informed us imperatively that in Norway is forbidden to drink outside, after 12:00 AM. Woooow, but it is NEW YEAR’S EVE! OK, though, we needed to comply, and so we did. Took a sip, left the glasses on the table, enjoyed outside the fireworks, and the drank it all. Shortly after, we walked back to Basecamp, because, um, it was a 500 meters walk, under a heavy snow fall. Just sublime!

Last evening in the lobby, with beer and chocolate

We have entered in 2024 in the most epic and amazing way, so now we need to take advantage of the momentum.  Some nice time spent in the lobby of Basecamp Explorer, with a lovely senior couple from Austria, who offers us some chocolate, as a gift for New Year and with a lady from South Africa. We chat a bit, I am drinking some beer left from the store and, prepare for the last hours of our stay. We wake up to have breakfast, like each day and enjoy some interesting goodies, including, caviar, we check out and proceed in a final sublime walk in Longyearbyen. The longest of them all, taking advantage not only of the great temperature, of the heavy snow, but also of our desire to take pictures, a lot of pictures, to explore the location in depth and to… see some more reindeer.

No more reindeer on the roads, but a lot of snow!

Unfortunately, in our last day in Longyearbyen, we couldn’t see any of the wonderful animals. Cannot figure out why. Maybe they don’t like to show up when it is snowing? Could be… We saw, though, a lot of people with huskies, and also explored closely all the buildings and all the main streets and discovered such a silence and such a tranquility and peace in the air, almost addictive, almost begging you to stay at least for a while… Because, by the way! Svalbard itself it is not working like a common wisdom community, for a full life cycle, because normally you stay here while you can support yourself. There are no pension plans, and no type of social support. Which is very good. But it is half story that it is illegal to die or to give birth in Svalbard.

Myths and legends about Svalbard

It is just common sense that if you cannot support yourself anymore, you need to leave the place, and also, if you would give birth, the ideal situation is to go to a fully equipped hospital. The one in Longyearbyen can support premature births, but it is not a hospital you would rely on anormal basis. Also, because of the permafrost, to be buried there is not something very easy – and it seems you need to be cremated first, anyway – but if there is a solid reason, then you can be given a rest place there. It is just that it doesn’t make too much sense to remain there until a very old age.

Back to Polfareren for souvenirs

This was only an interlude before the fine ending of this story. Because once we finished taking pictures, before preparing to be picked up by the airport shuttle – a seven minutes road trip – we went back to Polfareren, to take some souvenirs. Now, as mentioned earlier up, we bought a chocolate from Freune with big peanuts and some salt, and we ate it shortly after arriving back home. To finish in adding some extra costs from Svalbard, let’s just say that a round trip from the airport cost 170 NOK (15 EUR) each and for a laundry at Marry Ann’s – be careful, Polfareren doesn’t offer laundry services, they are supported by Marry Ann’s, but this hotel is around 1.1 kilometer away, and you need to take the clothes back and forth yourselves – cost 100 NOK (roughly 9 EUR).

More to come in the daytime!

So this was Svalbard for us and this is what we can recommend you to do if you go there by Polar Night time. Of course, everything can be explained in detail, and much more artistic, but truth being said, the main purpose of this article is to offer real and valuable information, based on our own experience. I can write much more about the hike in Sarkofagen or about the dog sled experience, but those are things one needs to discover himself, or herself. One thing is sure, there are plenty more activities that can be done in Svalbard, but mostly by summer, or, let’s just say… Polar Day! Including polar bears and whales spotting, but also a better view on the wonderful landscapes, and maybe further expeditions to Pyramiden, and Ny Alesund, for example. We will be back, at some point, and I will write another guide, that will make it a whole for everybody interested in taking a shot in Svalbard.

Oh, total expenses for Svalbard… Well, let’s consider the following:

• plane tickets – from Tromsø!: 2 x 400 EUR (800 EUR)
• hotel accommodation: 650 EUR
• groceries: 160 EUR
• activities: 2 x 365 EUR (730 EUR)
• dinners: 2 x 155 EUR (310 EUR)
• souvenirs: 100 EUR
• taxi, laundry: 55 EUR
• other expenses: 50 EUR

Overall, three days and three nights in Longyearbyen can cost around 3.000 EUR. This is not a small amount, but neither is it too high, a fortune, comparing the experience itself. Because there are few places in the world where you can experience what you can see here. So, if you still have any doubts, I hope I convinced you 100% that Svalbard is a place worth to be explored! 🙂

Photos: My Magic Lenses