Seeing the Northern Lights is an unforgettable experience, but standing outside in the cold waiting for them to appear is pretty tedious.
So, what if you could enjoy the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of your bed? And what if your bed could be moved, depending on where the Aurora was strongest?
That’s the concept behind a new, slightly bizarre, portable cabin-on-a-sled created by luxury adventure company Off the Map Travel.
At the beginning of each Aurora season, Off the Map guides will drag the three cabins to the best destinations to spot the lights.
Guests arrive, are guided to their quarters and then left to enjoy the wilderness, Arctic beauty and, with luck, Aurora above.
Best of both worlds
“[The designers] wanted to create an opportunity for people to stay out in the wilderness, but also have a nice comfortable warm night,” Off the Map representative Mark Hayward tells CNN Travel.
Inside each cabin there’s a large bed, cooking facilities, a table, toilet and gas heater. The huts are designed to be warm and snug, while offering stunning views of the luminous skies above through the glass ceilings.
Upon arrival, a guide will show guests around, grill them a local delicacy for dinner and then leave them to be alone in the wilderness – albeit in touch via the cabin’s satellite phone.
“The beauty of this is actually the isolation, and the fact that they are 6 kilometers away from the nearest town or village,” says Hayward.
“They’ve got the best in terms of the night sky, they’ve got incredible Arctic wilderness, they’ve got snow skis and kick sleds if you want to go a little bit further afield to explore the area.”
But Hayward says the real appeal is having your own warm cabin, surrounded only by scenes of snow and ice.
Ideal surroundings
The portable cabins are 8 feet wide, 14.7 feet long and 6.5 feet tall, but the vast aerial views give them an extra depth and dimension.
The huts are currently in the Kilpisjärvi area in Finland, supposedly one of the best spots to catch the Aurora.
Kilpisjärvi is in Northern Finland, where the country borders Sweden and Norway. “It’s got some stunning, open Arctic tundras, it’s got some great wilderness areas,” says Hayward.
Of course, Northern Lights hunting is by its nature unpredictable – even in these ideal surroundings there’s no guarantee you’ll spot this natural phenomenon.
But Hayward and his team think guests will enjoy themselves regardless.
“That’s part of the thrill of the chase when it comes to the Northern Lights,” says Hayward.
A 3-night, 4-day itinerary with Off the Map Travel costs from £1,599 ($2,239.50) per person, based on two adults sharing on a full board basis. This includes private transfers to and from the Airport in Tromso, accommodation for two nights in a log chalet and one in the Aurora Wilderness Camp with all meals included. Flights not included.