Northern lights with a photographer or a regular tour — what the extra money buys
Same sky, same dark field, €71 or €114. What a 'free photos' lights tour really gives you, and what the small-group Sprinter option actually costs.
Two northern lights buses leave Reykjavík at the same time and drive to the same dark field. One costs €71. The other costs €114 and comes with free photos. Same sky. Here’s what the €43 actually buys, and when it’s worth it.
The regular tour
BusTravel Iceland’s Northern Lights Bus Tour is from €71 for four hours on a coach. The guide checks the cloud and aurora forecasts, picks a direction, drives 30–60 minutes out of the city’s light, and you stand in a car park or a lay-by looking up. If the lights come, you see them. If it’s cloudy the tour is cancelled or you’re offered another night free. That refund-or-retry rule is standard, and it’s what makes a €71 gamble reasonable.
The downside: you photograph the lights yourself. On a phone, without a tripod, that means a green smudge or nothing at all. Most people’s first aurora photos are a disappointment.
The tour with a photographer
Three tours we list bundle photos into the price. BusTravel’s Northern Lights Small Group Tour with Free Photos is a minibus from €114. Nordur Travel Services’ small-group Sprinter tour with photos and cocoa is from €111 for an adult, and their 4x4 version with pastries is from €120 in a jeep that can leave the tarmac.
What you get: the guide has a proper camera on a tripod, set for long exposures. They photograph the lights, and they photograph you in front of the lights — the shot everyone wants and nobody manages on a phone. The files are sent to you afterwards. On a good night these are the pictures you’ll frame. On a marginal night — a faint grey arc to the eye — the camera sees green you couldn’t, and the photo is your proof you were there.
The downside: it’s one person with one camera and fifteen people who want a portrait. You’ll wait your turn in the cold. The guide is also driving, forecasting and minding the group, so the photography is competent rather than artistic. And a photographer can’t fix clouds. The retry rule covers a cancelled night; it doesn’t cover a night where the lights were faint and the pictures are dull.
The small-group effect is the real upgrade
All three photo tours are minibuses. A lot of what feels like the photographer difference is really the small-vehicle difference: fewer people at each stop, a guide with time to talk, a van that can turn round when the cloud moves. Nordur’s Sprinter tour, at €111, is close to BusTravel’s €114 minibus rather than a step down from it — the real price gap on this list is between any of the three photo tours and the plain €71 coach, not between the photo tours themselves.
Bring anyway
A phone with night mode on a small tripod gets a passable wide shot these days. Charge it fully — cold kills batteries fast. Wear more than you think. You’ll be standing still for up to an hour, below freezing, in wind.
Our honest take
Book the Nordur Travel Services Sprinter tour at €111, or BusTravel’s Small Group tour at €114, if a small group and photos matter to you — the two are close enough in price that the choice comes down to which time or vehicle suits you, not the money. Pay €120 for the 4x4 only in deep winter, when side roads are icy and a jeep can reach darker spots. Book the plain €71 coach if you already own a camera and tripod and know how to use them — you’ll get better pictures than the guide will, and save the money for a second night. The tradeoff with every option is the same: the sky decides, not the price. Budget for two nights. One is often cancelled.
