Longyearbyen itineraries for winter, spring and summer

7 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

A trip to Longyearbyen usually lasts a few days, and the season decides most of the plan. The plans below follow Visit Svalbard's three seasons: the dark northern lights winter, the bright sunny winter from March and the polar summer. All of them start and end with the airport bus, which meets every scheduled flight and stops at each place to stay in town. Accommodation is left open, since most tours mentioned here collect guests where they sleep.

Ground rules for every plan

Outside the town you need protection against polar bears, and Visit Svalbard advises visitors never to leave the settlement without a local guide. In practice this means that the town is yours to explore on foot, while everything beyond it is a tour. The weather can change quickly, and reviews mention trips called off on the morning they were due to start. Book the longest trip for the first or second full day, so there is still time to move it.

The airport terminal opens only two hours before a departure. On the last day, plan a short tour in the morning and keep the afternoon free for the flight. Flights and the ID check are covered on our page about getting to Longyearbyen.

Four days in the polar night

Between 13 November and 29 January it stays dark around the clock, even at midday. With luck the aurora shows up even around midday in these weeks, not only in the evening.

• Day 1. Arrive and walk through the centre. Svalbard Church, the northernmost civilian church in the world, is usually open day and night. In the evening, a two-hour aurora drive by car takes up to six guests to dark spots chosen from the forecast.
• Day 2. Spend the morning at Gruve 3, the coal mine that produced until 1996. The tour lasts three hours, starts at 09:00 or 13:00 and includes a crawl into an old production tunnel, so dress warmly. The Svalbard Museum, open all year, fills the rest of the day.
• Day 3. Keep this day for a second aurora evening or for whatever the weather pushed back. A two-hour drive up to the outside of the Global Seed Vault, with little walking, fits around it; the vault itself is closed to visitors. In November and December the kennels in Bolterdalen also take guests out by dog sled in the dark, booked directly with operators such as Green Dog Svalbard.
• Day 4. A last walk in town before the bus to the airport.

Five days on snowmobiles in the sunny winter

From March the days grow long quickly, and the sun returns to the town itself around 8 March, when the Sun Festival Week brings concerts and an outdoor church service. This is the main season for long snowmobile trips. Since 2025, motor traffic on the sea ice of selected fjords has been banned after 1 March, so operators plan their routes around those closures.

• Day 1. Arrive, collect any missing winter gear and check that you have your physical driving licence with you, which you need to drive a snowmobile.
• Day 2. A six-hour snowmobile trip through Adventdalen, Eskerdalen and Sassendalen to Tempelfjorden, with a view of the Tunabreen glacier and lunch out in the terrain. It is a good first day behind the handlebars.
• Day 3. The full day to Barentsburg: ten hours through Todalen and Grøndalen, with lunch and a guided walk in the Russian settlement. One reviewer notes that slower, less confident drivers in the group cut the time in Barentsburg short, which is a reason to do this trip after a shorter one. Another suggests bringing snacks for the long stretches before and after lunch.
• Day 4. An ice cave by snowmobile, about four hours with at most four guests per guide. This tour expects you to bring your own winter clothing and asks for a licence under the Geneva convention or an international driving permit.
• Day 5. Gruve 3 in the morning, then the flight home.

To swap one engine day for something quieter, book a dog sled trip of a few hours with a kennel such as Svalbard Villmarkssenter or Arctic Husky Travellers. These are booked on the kennels' own websites, and our page on things to do lists the dog yards around town.

Barentsburg and Pyramiden are run by the Russian state-owned company Trust Arktikugol, and Visit Svalbard does not currently market trips there. What each tour includes in the settlement is set out in its description.

Four days in the polar summer

From about 20 April to 23 August the sun does not set. The long boat trips into the fjords have reviews from June to September.

• Day 1. Arrive and walk through town, with the Svalbard Museum or the church as a goal. With light around the clock, the evening is as usable as the afternoon.
• Day 2. The RIB trip to Pyramiden, nine hours in an open boat with a drysuit, lunch in the former Soviet mining town and a stop at the Nordenskiöld glacier. Reviews say the day can run much longer than planned, and some found the stay in Pyramiden too long and the glacier stop too short. The trip is not offered to children under 12 or people over 75.
• Day 3. A wildlife walk of about five hours in search of Arctic fox, Svalbard reindeer and ptarmigan, with a guide who helps with photos. Seabirds are part of the picture from late May to mid-August.
• Day 4. A morning hike up Platåfjellet, 400 metres above sea level, in two and a half hours. Reviewers describe the slope as steep and stony. The mine tour at 13:00 is an option before the flight if time allows.

For more ideas in each season, see things to do in Longyearbyen and the best time to visit.