We made it! Part 1 of our Thanksgiving trip was a trip to Longyearbyen, the northernmost settlement in the world. After a day in Oslo due to flight timing, we were on our way with a brief land in Tromso. The Tromso airport deplanes on the tarmac so we got a few good pictures of the setting sun.
After takeoff, it wasn’t long before we caught the polar night. Landing in LYR was smooth with no issue on arrival – it was definitely dark!
The hotel shuttle bus was waiting when we arrived, and the Radisson Blu Polar Hotel is only a short drive into the main settlement. From there you can walk to just about all restaurants and other locations.
For this trip our places of choice:
Afternoon drinks at Café Huskies: https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/caf%C3%A9-huskies/252587/
Nuga for dinner on the first evening (reservation needed): https://www.nugasushi.com/
Drinks at Karlsburger Pub where there is an extensive whiskey/bourbon selection – we tried the Hankey Bannister varietals and the 1792 Small Barrel: https://www.karlsbergerpub.no/homepage/
Dinner at Kroa Restaurant (reservation needed): https://www.kroa-svalbard.no/?lang=en#
One of our primary hopes was to see the Northern Lights – unfortunately, the polar night included cloud cover and snow which prevented any views. We’ll hope to be back again for another try and to get some exploring via snowmobile.
