TownBest Late September – March for the aurora

Abisko

A village of under a hundred people, 195 km north of the Arctic Circle, at the edge of a national park with almost no light pollution.

Abisko had 85 inhabitants at the last count, and almost nothing around it to light up the sky: that, and its position about 195 km north of the Arctic Circle, is why it's on every aurora list. Abisko National Park starts 4 km west of the village; summer hikers come for the midnight sun.

You can get here without a car. Daily trains between Stockholm and Narvik in Norway stop at the village, at Abisko Östra.

Northern lights near Abisko, by Lake Torneträsk

Photo: Pavel.shyshkouski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where to stay in Abisko

Stays shown via Stay22 — booking through the map supports the log.

Part of

Northern lights

The Best Places to See the Northern Lights

Seven places under the auroral oval, with the honest odds: far enough north, dark enough, and — the hard part — clear enough.