Northern Lights Hunting in Iceland without a Car
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Is it possible to see the Northern Lights in Reykjavik?
Short answer, yes.
Personally, it's not something I've seen but I know friends who managed to catch sights of the Northern Lights while still in the city. However, this is only the case if the Northern Lights activity is high that night with no rain/clouds!
Best way to go Northern Lights hunting without a car
There are typically two types of tours you can go on when trying to see the Northern Lights: by bus or by boat.
Personally, I would recommend the bus tours instead because usually if you're unable to see the Northern Lights that night, then you'll be allowed to reuse your ticket and try again for free! Whereas the boat tours are usually one-offs.
There are also some bus tours that provide you a cruise option if you don't see the Northern Lights as it's replacement, so make sure to read the description properly when booking!
What tour do you recommend?
The bus tour I went and recommend is with BusTravel Iceland. You can either choose to book through my link or book through BusTravel Iceland directly! You can also get 10% off by using 'HBO10' on any BusTravel Iceland tours.
Booking link:
Where is the pick-up point?
Bus Tour
If you've decided on the free pick-up option of the bus tour, I've noticed that all BusTravel Iceland tours pick up at Bus Stop #12, i.e. in front of Storm Hotel.
You could choose to stay in this hotel during your trip to make things convenient for you but I'm going to be honest, it's about a 20 minutes walk to the city if that's fine with you.
It also got it's name Storm Hotel due to its location in town, and having strong winds in the area.
Cruise Tour
If you've decided to go on the boat tour for the northern lights, you will meet up at the Elding ticket booth and move to the boat together. There is no hotel pick-up and drop-off for this option, so keep that in mind.
How do you find the correct bus?
The BusTravel Iceland busses, have a HUGE orange logo on their bus. You'll know it when you see it.
In front of each bus it should say either the name of the tour or 'Pick Up'. If you noticed that the location is the same as yours, then you need to huddle around the tour guide and listen to when they call the main booking person's name.
Once they've called you, just make your way into the bus and you're done! If not, then repeat this process to the next bus. It's a little chaotic in the beginning but if they called you and you didn't hear, you will get a notification on your app if you book through Viator, and a text message of them looking for you!
Can you request for a different drop-off point?
On the way back, they will announce if they have multiple drop off stops. You could consider about asking if you could be dropped off in a different bus stop but it's up to the tour guide to decide on that!
Based on personal experience, the Northern Lights tours usually only drop off at Bus Stop #12 for everyone but the other BusTravel Iceland tours do.
How to rebook the tour after a failed attempt?
If you booked through Viator, all you need to do is:
- Go to your booking
- Contact Viator Support
- Tell them you want to rebook, and mention the date you want to try again on
They will send you a booking confirmation in the chat, and inform you the bus license plate, pick-up time, pick-up location and let you know if it does get cancelled due to the weather.
How can you see the Northern Lights?
The main things you need is some sort of Northern Lights activity, the dark and clear skies.
With that in mind, this is why you can also see the Northern Lights in Reykjavik sometimes! Just make you sure you go somewhere that is relatively dark, the darker the better, and you just might be able to spot something in the distance. However, don't expect the view of the Northern Lights to be as good as when you out in somewhere more rural!
Basically, when we're in the dark, our eyes turn on their own version of night mode and because the city has all the lamp posts around to illuminate the roads, it just won't work that well.
What should I bring?
All you really need is your phone. However, if you want to make sure you get the best pictures, you can also bring a tripod (or a standing selfie stick) to make sure your phone is stable while taking the picture.
You don't need a fancy camera to be able to take pictures of the Northern Lights since most phones have 'night mode' in their cameras now and works amazing!
This is a picture I took with an iPhone 15 Pro Max from the plane window and it was so good!
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