Things to do in Longyearbyen

7 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Most of what visitors do in Longyearbyen depends on the light and the snow more than on the calendar month. Visit Svalbard splits the year into a northern lights winter from October to February, a sunny winter from March to mid-May and a polar summer until the end of September. The sunny winter is the busiest time, and accommodation figures for 2025 peak in March and July. Whatever you plan, one rule applies all year: outside the marked zone in town you need protection against polar bears, so activities beyond the houses run with a guide.

Below is a run through the main activities, with links to the pages that compare every tour for each one.

In town, without a tour

The Svalbard Museum in the research park is open all year and tells the history of the archipelago from its discovery in 1596 to the present. Nearby are the North Pole Expedition Museum, about the airships America, Norge and Italia, and the Nordover art centre and cinema. Svalbard Church, the northernmost civilian church in the world, is usually open day and night. Most shops and sights also open on Sundays.

In summer the tourist information at the top of the pedestrian street rents out city bikes, and in winter it lends reflective vests for the dark. The office is open every day, from 10:00 to 16:00 for most of the year and until 17:00 from June to August. On days when cruise ships call, a second desk opens at the town quay. Inside the town zone you can walk freely. Drones are not allowed anywhere in Longyearbyen, because the whole town lies within 5 km of the airport.

The coal mine and the Seed Vault

Gruve 3 produced coal from 1971 to 1996 and has kept its machines since it closed. The three-hour tour picks you up at your hotel and takes you into the mountain in overalls and a helmet, and reviews often mention guides who once worked as miners. It runs in every season. The Global Seed Vault is close by, but it can only be seen from outside. Both are covered on our page on Gruve 3 and the Seed Vault.

Winter and spring

From late October the sun stays below the horizon until mid-February, and from mid-November to late January there is not even twilight at midday. This is the season for northern lights tours, which run from October to February. During the polar night the aurora can, with luck, appear even in the middle of the day. A two-hour tour by car takes up to six guests to dark places outside town; warm clothing is your own.

Snowmobile days run from winter into spring. The long day trip to Barentsburg lasts about ten hours, crosses Todalen, Skiferdalen and Grøndalen and comes back by another route, with lunch and a guided walk in the settlement. A review gives the distance as about 130 km, and some guests say the time in Barentsburg was short when the group rode slowly. Children under 12 cannot join. Other routes, such as Tempelfjorden, are on our snowmobile tours page.

Barentsburg, 60 km west of Longyearbyen, and Pyramiden are both run by the Russian state company Trust Arktikugol. Since 2022, Visit Svalbard has stopped marketing trips to either place. Some reviews also note that the booking did not make the Russian operator clear. The tour description shows what each trip includes.

Snowshoe walks run through the winter from town to nearby glaciers; see hiking and snowshoeing. The ski touring day is only for skiers with touring experience, and ski and avalanche gear can be rented.

Dog sledding with the local kennels

Huskies work in Longyearbyen all year. From November into May they pull sleds, and in summer Visit Svalbard describes them pulling specially built wheeled carts. These trips are booked directly with the kennels, which keep their dogs a few kilometres outside town:

• Green Dog Svalbard has its dog yard in Bolterdalen, 12 km from Longyearbyen, and collects guests from their hotel. Half-day sled trips run from January to May, polar night trips in November and December, and cart trips from mid-June to October.
• Arctic Husky Travellers keeps its huskies in Bolterdalen too, about 10 km out. Besides day trips it runs winter expeditions of two or three days to a lodge, and summer tours in a wagon pulled by the dogs.
• Svalbard Husky is a family business based in Todalen. It lists polar night sledding in November and December, sled trips through late winter and spring, and dogs on wheels from June.
• Svalbard Villmarkssenter calls its base the oldest husky yard in Longyearbyen. Winter tours run from November to May and summer tours from May to October.

On a half-day sled trip guests usually share a sled in pairs, one driving and the other sitting on the sled, while the guide leads on the first sled. Green Dog Svalbard counts about one and a half hours of actual sledding in its four-hour trip, and both Green Dog and Svalbard Villmarkssenter set the minimum age at 12. Dates and booking are on each kennel's own website.

Summer

The midnight sun lasts from about 20 April to 23 August. The full-day boat trip to Pyramiden is a summer outing, with reviews from June to September. It runs in an open RIB with dry suits, stops at Skansbukta, spends the middle of the day in the abandoned Soviet mining town with lunch and a long guided walk, and returns past the Nordenskiöld glacier. The tour is listed at nine hours. Reviews praise the town and the wildlife seen from the boat, but several say the stay in Pyramiden was too long and the glacier too short, and one warns that the ride back is hard on knees and backs. Our boat trips page compares it with the other boats.

On land, summer brings guided hikes to Platåfjellet and Blomsterdalshøgda and wildlife tours for reindeer, Arctic foxes and nesting birds.

The e-bike tour takes up to eight riders through the residential areas and past old mining installations at 10 to 15 km/h, with frequent stops; it is not open to children under 14. For something harder, the glacier ice climbing day starts with a walk of about an hour and a half to the ice, then lowers you into a meltwater shaft and has you climb back out. It is meant for beginners, but only adults between 18 and 70 can book.

Festivals through the year

Longyearbyen has a festival calendar out of proportion to its size. Polarjazz takes place in early February. In early March the Sun Festival Week marks the return of the sun to the town on 8 March, celebrated on the steps of the old hospital, because the mountains hide the sun until then. The Svalbard Skimaraton is held in April, the Spitsbergen Marathon in June, and Dark Season Blues at the end of October, as the dark season sets in. Check the exact dates for 2027 under What's on at Visit Svalbard.

For help fitting all this into a trip, our best time to visit page goes through the year month by month.