Tromsø Fjord Road Trip: Citizen Science & Arctic Picnic

4.90

(275 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

You open your eyes and the world is white-blue, the kind of cold that pinches your cheeks even inside the van. We’d just left Tromsø, winding out past sleepy houses and into Kvaløya’s open spaces. Our guide—Ingrid, who grew up nearby—pointed out where reindeer sometimes cross the road (none today, but I kept looking). The air smelled clean in a way I can’t describe; like snow and salt and something ancient. We stopped at Ersfjordbotn first—she called it “the postcard fjord.” I tried to take a photo but honestly, my fingers were too stiff to work my phone for long.

There was this moment by Grøtfjord where everyone got quiet. The wind had dropped, so you could hear the water lapping against stones and someone’s thermos clicking open. Ingrid handed around coffee—strong, almost smoky—and homemade cinnamon buns she said her aunt made that morning (I ate two; don’t judge). She explained how we’d help with their citizen science project: noting bird sightings, jotting down seaweed types. It felt small but real, like maybe it matters if enough people care. I didn’t expect to enjoy scribbling notes about seabirds as much as I did.

Lunch was a picnic on a patch of snow-dusted grass overlooking the fjord—vegan soup for me (they actually remembered), bread still warm somehow. We swapped stories with another couple from Germany while Ingrid showed us how to tell different animal tracks apart in the snow. I kept thinking about how quiet it was out there—no cars or city sounds, just our voices and the occasional gull overhead. On the drive back toward Tromsø, sun low behind the mountains, Ingrid sent us some souvenir photos she’d snapped earlier. My hair looks ridiculous in most of them but I still smile when I see that view behind us.