Want to Chase the Narvik Northern Lights? Here’s What It Actually Costs

Purple and green ribbons dance across the Arctic sky. Surreal, until you duck into a convenience store where a can of soda rings up at $5. Welcome to Norway.

The lights are still within reach. Narvik Northern Lights with Kids has the full story: the drive, the closed tunnel Waze sent us into, the family photo with the aurora, and how both boys went quiet in awe. This post breaks down the real Narvik northern lights cost, every krone, every dollar, all before you book.

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What’s in this post

• The Quick Answer: What It Costs
• The EV Rental: Cheaper Than It Looks
• Our Lodging for the Northern Lights
• Eating in Narvik: Four Places, Real Prices
• The Full Itemized Total, Every Krone
• How to Save Money in Norway
• Getting There, If You’re Curious
• What We’d Do Differently
• FAQ

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The Quick Answer: What It Costs

This is the Narvik northern lights cost once you’ve landed: the car, the place we slept, and the food. Not flights, not the train, not the layover. That part’s below, and everyone’s version will be different.

That number is for a family of four. Traveling as two adults changes less of this than you’d expect. The rental and the Airbnb charge the same rate whether two people or four sleep in them. Food is the one line that shrinks. Look for a cleaner two-person number, mile for mile, with our Tromsø budget post (coming this November).

The EV Rental: Cheaper Than It Looks

The rental ran $267.98 for one day: a Peugeot e-208 on paper, a Polestar at the counter, picked up at Evenes and dropped in Narvik. Roughly $30 of that was the one-way drop fee. The base rate itself already carries the discount from our Amex Platinum car rental perk.

The EV part earned its cost three times over. Norway waives road tolls for electric vehicles. A wrong turn into a closed winter tunnel cost us only time. A gas rental would have paid roughly $22 for the same mistake. Charging came to $13.36 total across two stops at Mer stations. That’s cheaper than a single tank of gas would have run for the same distance. Gas in Norway runs well over $7 a gallon as of September 2026, closer to $11-12 at current prices.

Before booking, we’d read that we’d need the card we paid with, plus a PIN for it. That’s for a self-service pickup machine, in case the counter wasn’t staffed. When we arrived, there was no self-service machine, and in the end we never needed a PIN at all.

Comparing rates before you book is worth it; GetRentacar pulls quotes across agencies at Evenes instead of locking to one brand.

Our Lodging for the Northern Lights

One night in a Narvik Airbnb, $234.04 total, including the service fee. Seven beds (2 bedrooms) for four people, more house than we needed, but it made things more comfortable. The alternative listings closer to town weren’t cheaper and had more light pollution.

Eating in Narvik: Four Places, Real Prices

This was not our first, or second, expedition to Scandinavia. I’d spent a few days before the trip scouting reasonably priced restaurants, with a handful of strategic options saved on the map for our short time in Narvik.

Our original plan was dinner at Restaurant Fiskekroken, but a long wait at the rental counter derailed that. Instead, we went for the crowd pleaser: pizza. Four 30cm pizzas at Pizzabakeren (a Mr X, a Sprekingen, a Kokkens BBQ, and the Pizzabakeren spesial) fed the family with enough left over for breakfast the next morning. Pay for the garlic sauce. The 34 kr was worth it! A stop next door at Extra, a grocery store, covered dessert, eggs for breakfast, coffee, and water for 353.40 kr.

The missed Restaurant Fiskekroken became lunch the next day: an excellent Arctic fish lunch for the whole family. Though big eaters may find the kids’ portion runs short. Our two 10-year-olds finished their own fish and chips, plus the adult order that was meant for us. We managed to sneak one bite each before the boys noticed, and split the crispy-skin Arctic char between the two of us.

Two quick stops before the train for snacks: a bakery and a grocery store. At Steinovnsbakeriet Myklevold Kafe we grabbed bread and pastries (a Søtbrød Ekstra, a Wienerstang, and a Kardemommeknute) because why not. And Bunnpris, the grocery store, covered snacks (which became dinner) for the train ride: cheese, chips, and apples. Last stop: a coffee at Jernbanecafeen, the station café, to warm up and kill time before the sleeper train.

The Full Itemized Total, Every Krone

Every line, added up: $734.93 total for 24 hours in Narvik.

The car rental through Amex Platinum helped reduce the cost of this trip. If you’re pricing your own version, booking through a travel credit card can make the single biggest impact on your total spend.

How to Save Money in Norway

Norway’s reputation for being expensive is well earned. These are our best tips for saving money here, and most apply to Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland too.

1. Rent an EV. Road tolls are waived for electric vehicles, and a full charge runs a few dollars. Ours came to $13.36 for the whole trip. A tank of gas would run you over $100 right now, even in the smallest car.
2. Book somewhere you can cook, or somewhere that includes food. An Airbnb with a kitchen cuts dinner costs in half. A hotel with breakfast included does the same job without the grocery run.
3. Turn breakfast into two meals. If breakfast is included, make it lunch too: build a sandwich and grab a piece of fruit before you leave the buffet. Breakfast and lunch for the price of breakfast. We always travel with a few tip-top bags and these so we can make the most of our money in expensive countries.
4. Eat like a local, not a tourist. Fish pulled straight from the fjord, fried, baked, or raw, or try reindeer. Both cost less, and taste better than anything imported or niche.

Getting There, If You’re Curious

This part isn’t in the total above on purpose. Where you’re flying from decides most of this cost, and yours won’t look like ours.

The one leg we can quote: the overnight sleeper from Narvik to Stockholm. Whether you’re doing this as one leg or a round-trip, our one-way fare gives you an idea of what to expect. A private couchette for four, two adults and two kids, cost 7,226 kr (about $802). Narvik Northern Lights with Kids shows both train and flight options side by side if you’re deciding how to route the trip. A full review of the sleeper train itself publishes later this fall.

What We’d Do Differently

One night in Narvik was enough to see the lights, not enough to do much else. Given the chance again, we’d stay three nights instead of one and try skiing and hiking during the day. Narvikfjellet runs ski lifts from mid-December, and Visit Narvik’s trail guide has routes for every ability if hiking is more your speed.

Three nights is probably the ceiling, unless you’re making it a ski or hiking trip too.

This post was about the numbers read this post to see the details on what we did and how you can plan your own self-guided Northern Lights trip.

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Keep Reading

• What We Actually Spent in Rome in 24 Hours — same real-numbers format, Colosseum to gelato.
• What We Actually Spent in 2 Days in London — the Tube, the palaces, and the real per-day number.

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Frequently Asked Questions

One night, one rental, one Airbnb: chasing the Narvik lights costs less than the flight to get there usually does.