The full Coastal Express round voyage under the winter sky, with a named astronomer on board, a programme of lectures, and an exclusive visit to the world's northernmost planetarium. Eight departures in 2026 and 2027.
12 Days · 11 Nights · Bergen to Kirkenes to Bergen
The Arctic night sky, properly explained
The Astronomy Voyage is the complete 12 day Coastal Express round voyage, sailed in the depth of the aurora season with a guest astronomer on board. Much of the voyage is spent above the Arctic Circle, under the polar night, which is both why the odds on the Northern Lights are good and why the stars are worth the trip on their own.
What sets these sailings apart is that someone is there to tell you what you are looking at. Through a series of lectures and guided tours of the night sky from the deck, your astronomer brings the stars, planets and meteors within reach, along with the myths and legends that different peoples have hung on the same constellations. And on day five the ship makes an exclusive visit to Tromsø's planetarium, the northernmost in the world and the largest in Norway, which is included in every fare.
£2,596per person, from
Eight departures between October 2026 and March 2027 · Northern Lights Promise included
The Promise
The Northern Lights Promise
Every departure on this page qualifies. Sail during the auroral season, between 20 September and 31 March, on a voyage of 11 days or more, and if the Northern Lights do not occur within sight of the ship during your voyage, Hurtigruten will give you a 6 or 7 day northbound or southbound voyage free of charge. This voyage is 12 days, so every sailing listed below is covered.
The free voyage is a 6 or 7 day northbound or southbound sailing on a half board basis; flights and any additional meals are not included. For new bookings only and not combinable with other offers. See special offers for full conditions.
Your Guest Astronomer
The lecturers on board
Each departure sails with one named astronomer, and which one depends on the date. Every sailing carries a programme of lectures and guided tours of the night sky from the deck, taking in the stars, planets and meteors alongside the myths and legends attached to the constellations. The lecturer for each date is shown in the fares table below.
Dr John Mason MBE
Sailing 6 October 2026, 3 November 2026, 28 February 2027 and 28 March 2027
An applied physicist by profession, John Mason has been chasing the great Northern Lights displays for over fifty years and has sailed with Hurtigruten every autumn and winter season since 2008. He is Principal Lecturer at the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester, a frequent broadcaster, and appeared many times alongside Sir Patrick Moore on the BBC's The Sky at Night. He has a rare gift for making complicated things sound obvious.
Dr Darren Baskill
Sailing 2 January 2027 and 30 March 2027
Darren Baskill has more than twenty five years of running public science events behind him. He lectures and runs outreach for the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sussex, delivering around a hundred events a year. He previously worked at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where he started the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, and before that was a calibration scientist on the European XMM-Newton space telescope.
Dr Sadie Jones
Sailing 5 November 2026
Sadie Jones is Astronomy Public Engagement Leader at the University of Southampton. In January 2020 she joined an expedition to Svalbard with the university's Space Environment Physics group to observe the aurora and gather research data. She runs talks and school workshops on aurora research, and is behind The Aurora Zoo, a citizen science project through which the public analyse short videos of aurora displays.
Dr Daisy Dobrijevic
Sailing 26 January 2027
Daisy Dobrijevic is Skywatching Editor and Astrotourism Lead at Space.com, covering auroras, eclipses, meteor showers and the rest of the night sky calendar. She previously wrote for All About Space, interned at BBC Sky at Night Magazine and worked at the National Space Centre in Leicester. She holds a PhD in plant physiology and an MSci in environmental science, and has chased the lights across Norway and Sweden since seeing her first in 2023.
Departures & Fares
Astronomy Voyage departures 2026 and 2027
All prices are in pounds per person, based on two people travelling together and sharing a twin cabin, voyage only. Each departure sails on a named ship with a named astronomer, both shown below. The from price is the cheapest fare available on that sailing; as cabins book up the price rises, so booking early genuinely pays on these dates.
Departure date
Ship
Lecturer
Polar Inside
Polar Outside
Arctic Superior
Expedition Suites
6 October 2026
MS Nordnorge
Dr John Mason
from £2,804
from £3,597
from £3,993
Call
3 November 2026
MS Nordkapp
Dr John Mason
from £2,815
Full
Full
Call
5 November 2026
MS Polarlys
Dr Sadie Jones
from £3,132
Full
Full
Call
Departure date
Ship
Lecturer
Polar Inside
Polar Outside
Arctic Superior
Expedition Suites
2 January 2027
MS Nordnorge
Dr Darren Baskill
from £2,815
from £3,470
Full
Call
26 January 2027
MS Kong Harald
Dr Daisy Dobrijevic
from £2,596
from £2,978
from £3,679
Call
28 February 2027
MS Kong Harald
Dr John Mason
from £3,111
Full
Full
Call
28 March 2027
MS Polarlys
Dr John Mason
from £2,804
from £3,224
from £3,993
Call
30 March 2027
MS Richard With
Dr Darren Baskill
from £2,804
from £3,224
from £3,993
Call
Not all cabin categories are available on every ship or departure, and categories marked full are sold out at the time of writing. Expedition Suite and Mini Suite prices are available on request. Prices may change at any time prior to booking, and the applicable price is quoted at the time of booking. Call 0333 405 0194 to check current availability for your preferred date.
Your Fare
What is included
Every fare covers the voyage in your chosen cabin category on a full board basis, the astronomy programme, the planetarium visit and an English speaking tour leader on board. Beyond that, what you get depends on whether you book the Basic or Select fare, or an Expedition Suite. Anything shown as an upgrade can be added to your booking for an extra charge, so just ask when you book.
What's included
Basic Cabin assigned at check in
Select Choose your cabin
Suite Expedition Suites
Astronomy on board
Guided tour of Tromsø's planetarium An exclusive visit to the world's northernmost planetarium, the largest in Norway
Included
Included
Included
Astronomy lectures and deck sessions A programme of lectures and guided tours of the night sky from the deck, led by your guest astronomer
Included
Included
Included
Food and drink on board
Full board Breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the voyage
Included
Included
Included
Unlimited tea and filter coffee A selection of teas and on-tap filter coffee, available all day
Not included
Included
Included
Welcome basket Sparkling wine and a basket of treats on arrival
Upgrade
Upgrade
Included
Flexible dining times Pick the dining slot that suits you
Not included
Not included
Included
Dinner in the fine dining restaurant Kysten Dishes built on the best ingredients of the Norwegian coast, on ships that carry Kysten
Upgrade
Upgrade
Upgrade
Accommodation on board
Cabin or suite selection Choose the location and grade of your cabin or suite. Choice of cabin number is included on voyages of more than 11 days, so it applies on this one
Not included
Included
Included
Priority check-in Fast-track check-in for a smooth start
Not included
Not included
Included
Life on board
Free WiFi In your cabin and throughout the ship
Upgrade
Included
Included
Knowledgeable Expedition Team Insights, guidance and activities, on board and ashore
Included
Included
Included
Access to the Photo Programme and app Share your photographs with fellow passengers and enter the daily competitions
Included
Included
Included
Traditional Norwegian wool sweater A warm Norwegian welcome gift to take home
Not included
Not included
Included
Not included: flights and transfers, travel insurance, optional excursions, luggage handling, gratuities and fuel surcharges. Flight packages can be added to any departure; call for a quote for your preferred airport. You can arrange travel insurance online here, and it is a condition of booking that every passenger has cover in force.
Your Voyage
Day by day, Bergen to Kirkenes and back
Thirty four ports over twelve days, seen from both directions, with the astronomy programme running throughout.
Day 1
Bergen
Ports today · Bergen
Your voyage begins in Bergen, the old Hanseatic capital hemmed by seven mountains, with the UNESCO listed Bryggen wharf leaning over the quayside and a fish market at the head of the bay. Come early if you can and take the Fløibanen funicular up for the view.
The ship sails at 20:30, out through the Hjeltefjord and into the dark. Your guest astronomer is on board from the start, and the first lecture sets out what you will be looking for over the coming fortnight, and why this coast in winter is one of the best places on earth to look for it.
The ship threads the skerries north and reaches Ålesund by the middle of the day. The town burned down in a single night in January 1904 and was rebuilt at speed in the Art Nouveau style then in fashion, which is why the whole centre matches. There are 418 steps up Mount Aksla for the view that explains it.
You are still south of the aurora zone here, but the skies are already darkening earlier than at home, and the lecture programme is under way.
Day 3 · Trondheim
Ports today · Kristiansund, Trondheim, Rørvik
Norway's first capital, and the ship gives you a decent stretch ashore. Nidaros Cathedral is the largest medieval building in Scandinavia, raised over the grave of St Olav and the end of the pilgrim road north. The Crown Jewels are next door in the Archbishop's Palace, and along the River Nid the old timber warehouses lean out over the water on their stilts.
Leaving the city the ship turns northwest past the Kjeungskjær lighthouse, threads the Stokksund narrows and reaches Rørvik in the evening.
This is the day it starts. Somewhere between Nesna and Ørnes you cross the Arctic Circle, marked by the steel globe on the islet of Vikingen, and from here north you are in the auroral zone proper. At Bodø there is an optional boat trip out to Saltstraumen, the strongest tidal maelstrom in the world.
By evening the Lofoten Wall fills the horizon and the ship berths at Svolvær. From tonight, if the sky is clear and the sun has been obliging, the lights are a real prospect, and your astronomer will be out on deck.
The centrepiece of the astronomy voyage. Overnight the ship slips through the narrow Raftsund, and after Harstad and Finnsnes you reach Tromsø for an exclusive visit to its planetarium, the northernmost in the world and the largest in Norway. It is included in every fare on this voyage and it is not something you can simply walk in and do.
Tromsø has earned its place in this story. Amundsen recruited crew and loaded stores here, the Norwegian Polar Institute is based here, and the aurora research that underpins much of what your lecturer will tell you was done in this town and the mountains around it.
After the run through Magerøysund and an early call at Hammerfest, the ship reaches Honningsvåg, the port for the North Cape. The plateau stands some 300 metres above the Barents Sea at 71 degrees north, and in midwinter it is snow, rock and a very large sky.
These are the darkest skies of the voyage and, statistically, your best odds. Under the polar night there is no true daylight here at all, which is precisely why the astronomy voyages sail at this time of year.
Day 7 · Kirkenes, the turning point
Ports today · Båtsfjord, Vardø, Vadsø, Kirkenes
Kirkenes sits at the far eastern end of the coastal route, further east than Istanbul and a few kilometres from the Russian border. Warmed by the last of the Gulf Stream, this corner of the Arctic stays largely ice free even in deep winter.
This is the halfway mark. By early afternoon the ship turns and starts south, and everything you passed in darkness on the way up you will now see by daylight, which is the logic of sailing the round trip rather than half of it.
Southbound, the Finnmark ports you slept through appear in daylight. Hammerfest is Norway's northernmost town and lit its streets by electricity as early as 1891; look for the Meridian Column, a UNESCO listed marker from the nineteenth century survey that first measured the shape of the earth, which is a rather fitting thing to find on a voyage about measuring the sky.
By late evening you are back in Tromsø, under the polar night, with a second chance at the lights over the harbour.
A day of scenery. Between Harstad and Sortland the ship uses the Risøyrenna, a channel dredged specifically for Hurtigruten to keep to the sheltered inside passage. At Stokmarknes, where Richard With founded the Coastal Express in 1893, the Hurtigruten Museum stands on the waterfront, built around the fully restored MS Finnmarken of 1952, preserved whole inside a glass hall. It is well worth the walk from the quay.
Then the Raftsund and, conditions permitting, the Trollfjord: barely wider than the ship, walls rising sheer on either side. Lofoten follows, this time from the north.
You recross the Arctic Circle this morning and leave the auroral zone behind. The Helgeland coast makes up for it: hundreds of islets against farmland and grey granite, the row of peaks called the Seven Sisters along the skyline, and Torghatten mountain with a tunnel bored clean through it, said to be the track of a troll's arrow.
It is worth noting how neatly the old stories and the new science sit together on this coast. The Sámi read the aurora one way, the Norse another, and your lecturer will have covered both by now.
A second look at Trondheim and a chance at anything you missed. Sailing on past the islet of Munkholmen the ship crosses open water to Kristiansund, which made its money on dried and salted cod, then Molde beneath the Romsdal Alps, and Ålesund again late in the day.
The final lecture usually lands about here, and by now the deck sessions have turned into a standing appointment.
Day 12 · Bergen
Ports today · Torvik, Måløy, Florø, Bergen
The last morning runs down through the islands off Måløy and Florø, past the mouth of the Nordfjord beneath the Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on the European mainland, and along the outer edge of the Sognefjord before the Bergen archipelago closes in.
The ship berths in Bergen and the voyage ends where it began, twelve days and 34 ports later, with a good deal more understanding of what you have been looking at than you arrived with.
