Tag Archives: Aurora Borealis

Gondwana Ecotours Taking Reservations for Alaska Northern Lights Winter Expedition

Gondwana Ecotours is accepting reservations for its flagship eight-day Alaska Northern Lights Adventure, an all-inclusive winter expedition designed to give travelers an intimate look at Interior Alaska while maximizing opportunities to witness the Aurora Borealis (photo: Gondwana Ecotours)

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Gondwana Ecotours is accepting reservations for its flagship eight-day Alaska Northern Lights Adventure, an all-inclusive winter expedition designed to give travelers an intimate look at Interior Alaska while maximizing opportunities to witness the Aurora Borealis. Operating annually from September through April, the tour boasts a 99 percent guest sighting rate over the past three seasons, achieved through specialized lodging locations and dedicated nighttime sky monitoring.

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Base camp for the itinerary consists of cozy countryside lodges situated outside Fairbanks, positioned far from urban light pollution directly under the Auroral Oval. A dedicated nocturnal guide tracks geomagnetic activity and local weather patterns through the night, providing personal wake-up calls to guests whenever the lights appear. To ensure visitors capture the phenomenon, guides assist with camera and smartphone settings for optimal low-light photography, and rental camera kits with tripods are available on site.

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By day, the tour introduces travelers to authentic local culture and classic winter activities. Guests participate in dog sledding through snowy forests, walk alongside reindeer at Running Reindeer Ranch, take a private curling lesson from local players, and soak in the outdoor thermal waters at Chena Hot Springs. The itinerary also includes home-cooked breakfasts, a visit to the Museum of the North, and meals shared with local homesteaders.

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Jared Sternberg, founder of Gondwana Ecotours, emphasizes the personal connections that make the trip unforgettable. “The best part of this tour is the people we meet,” Sternberg says. “We visit a local family who lives off the grid and hear about their lifestyle in the Alaskan backcountry. We learn the game of curling from interesting locals, and even have tea with a family who raises reindeer.”

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Eco-conscious travel remains central to the program. Gondwana Ecotours operates as a certified green business, balancing the environmental impact of its operations by maintaining a carbon-neutral footprint across all departures. Each group is accompanied by three professional guides to handle daytime excursion logistics, driver duties, and nightly aurora tracking.

Packages include six nights of lodging outside Fairbanks, one night in Fairbanks, daily home-cooked breakfasts, entry fees to all featured attractions, local ground transportation in spacious vans, and full guide services. Detailed itinerary options, current departure dates, and booking information are available at gondwanaecotours.com or by calling 877-587-8479.

Gondwana Ecotours creates small group travel experiences focused on nature, culture, and sustainability in bucket-list destinations worldwide. By partnering with local communities, employing expert guides, and maintaining strict carbon-neutral standards, the company offers immersive adventures that preserve the natural environments and cultures visited.

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Brilliant Displays of Northern Lights Anticipated this Winter

Northern Lights (photo by Ian Ange)
Northern Lights (photo by Ian Ange)

(Björkliden, SWEDEN)  Aurora travel experts agree that the 2015 winter season is set to be the most active start for geomagnetic storms — which cause spectacular Northern Lights displays — this solar cycle. Seen very early this fall, strong solar storms have brought the Aurora Borealis as far south as the United Kingdom. This suggests that the upcoming solar season will bring significant viewing opportunities.

Data collected in August 2015 that measures activity from the Sun, has seen a 60%*1 increase in geomagnetic storms (K index 5 or more) compared to the same time in 2014, with very powerful storms (K index 7 or more) trebling*1 over the same period.

The difficulty has been that many of the solar storms that have caused these recent displays of the Northern Lights have been difficult to predict, with many of the bigger events taking Aurora hunters by surprise.

Northern Lights travel expert Jonny Cooper, Director of Off the Map Travel, explains; “All of the data we’ve seen suggests that this could be the most active start to any Northern Lights season we have had this solar cycle. This is great news for Aurora hunters.”  He continued, “The ability to forecast solar activity, and therefore displays of the Northern Lights, is however not an exact science, with many of the recent events taking experts the world over by surprise, making it impossible to estimate how this will develop for the rest of the Aurora season.”

For those looking to get the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights, experts recommend northern destinations under the Aurora Oval such as northern Sweden, Norway and Finland.

A ten-night small group guided Original Grand Aurora tour visiting some of the best Aurora viewing destinations across Norway, Sweden and Finland with Off the Map Travel costs £5999 ($9220 USD at the time of this writing) per person based on double occupancy. Flights are not included. The Grand Aurora includes an expert guide, accommodations with some meals, reindeer sledding, a Tromso guided city walk in Norway, Northern Lights dinner cruise, dogsledding tour, Aurora photography evening, Aurora Sky Station exclusive dinner trip, a visit to the ICEHOTEL in Sweden, a three-border point snowmobile trip in Finland, Northern Lights tour in a snowmobile-pulled sled, and a reindeer and culture tour. Other extras include meals in distinctive restaurants and traditional Scandinavian coffee stops on travel days.

For more information on Northern Lights holidays visit www.offthemaptravel.co.ukwww.ILoveNorthernLights.com, call +44 0800-566-8901 or email info@offthemaptravel.co.uk.

 

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