Aurora Borealis Observatory

THIS PLACE IS A SCAM. Committing credit card and financial fraud. I booked my reservation in November 2023 for November 2024. They charged me the full amount. Then in February I sent them an email to extend the stay and paid more money. Their email was working fine. I cancelled the stay in May 2024, 6 months ahead of my stay and have been emailing and calling them ever since to get a refund. Nothing. They keep your money. I encourage anyone that this has happened to file a fraud claim with your credit card company.

PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING! We have been trying to receive our $2,200 refund from this company for six weeks now. We were to go to the resort from November 30, 2024 to December 6, 2024. We canceled our trip with them on April 5, 2024. They canceled our booking on April 11, 2024; however, to date they have not refunded our money, and we have not heard from them since April 18, 2024. We have e-mailed them multiple times and have provided them with all of the necessary information for us to receive our refund. To get a full refund, we were required to give them one-month's notice. We gave them seven. They are keeping our money and they can also rebook the room. This simply is not right. I have read other reviews where people have or are having difficulties receiving a refund from them. Please avoid this company at all costs!

Aurora borealis observatory was a really beautiful place to stay and given its remote location, gave us the best chance of seeing the northern lights when visiting Norway. We saw them two nights out of four! However, there is information I wish we knew before visiting which would have made our trip a lot more relaxing, which I feel wasn’t very transparent on their website. The observatory has a restaurant - which does an absolutely delicious tasting menu, however this is their *only* dining option available in the evening. If like us, you don’t fancy the same tasting menu every night of your holiday, a taxi to the nearest town/village/civilisation is 10km and £60 away (one way). The observatory will not book you a taxi as they’ve apparently had issues booking for people before. If you have a flight from Tromso leaving on a Sunday, there is no way to get to back to Tromso other than the once per day ferry (on a Sunday) which arrives about 6-7pm! Given how important this information is, it really isn’t emphasised enough on their website. When we were there, none of the activities that were mentioned on their website Ie photography classes were available or advertised to book. In addition, the advertised “northern lights text messages” were unreliable - the night we saw them best we didn’t receive any message at all and just happened to spot them ourselves. Given how remote the observatory is and few facilities there are on site, hiring a car is really necessary if you want to do anything. If we had known this from the get go, we wouldn’t have had to book an extra night accommodation in Tromso on the Saturday night and pay for an extra night at the observatory which we didn’t use. The customer service in the restaurant area was great, however the customer service from one member of the hotel reception staff (Peter I think his name was) was hands down the worst I’ve ever received, having travelled to more than 60 countries in the world. The breakfast was very tasty and the rooms very modern and comfortable, albeit with basic cooking facilities. Despite all of this, we did have a really lovely time, and knowing what we know now, we would stay in Aurora Borealis Observatory again!

We were mid-August there, just before the Aurora season (nights not dark enough). Had booked a cabin. As due to the high temperatures this was not recommended and wer were immediately offered an apartment. The whole hotel is relatively new and all is in excellent shape - nothing missing. You do not need a TV there. A special feature is the restaurant, by far the best we had on our Norway trip - and we had a few good ones. Pls. See separate review.