Kiruna has been on my radar for some time now, it’s the most northernly city in Sweden, a city that is located 300 kilometres beyond the arctic circle.
There is a very famous overnight train that leaves Stockholm at just after 18:00 daily, and arrives in Kiruna the next morning at around 09:00. It’s a sleeper train so there are various options to choose from to get a bunkbed or just a seat. The train then crosses over into Norway and onto Narvik at its final stop.
Choosing the right time of year to come here was a little tricky, because Autumn is such an awkward time to visit. Summer is well and truly over here, and therefore no summer activities. But the first snow fall isn’t until mid-end of October, so their winter season and activities haven’t started. Tourism is more or less at a complete standstill. Furthermore, a lot of the activities have a minimum of 2 person bookings (which is no use to a solo traveller), and many companies won’t confirm an excursion until 2 or 3 weeks out (depending on take-up), so planning far in advance isn’t easy.
I didn’t want to come deep in the midst of winter when there is virtually no daylight (not as a solo traveller anyway), and summer has 24 hour sunlight and no change of seeing the northern lights. Northern lights season starts mid August, so I thought going at the end of September would give me a decent chance to see them.
Not only is it one of the best places to see the northern lights, but this city has a very interesting story to tell…
Autumn 2023 
2 DaysBefore talking about Kiruna, first there is the matter of getting here. There is a 15 hour/overnight train that departs from Stockholm every day at 18:10 and arrives at 9:15 the next day in Kiruna. This train then goes onto Narvik, which is its last stop, and the train line is the most northernly train track in Europe.
On this train you can get beds (or couchettes) which I had tried to do, but unfortunately the app would not let me book this. So, I booked a standard seat which I thought (having seen something on YouTube) would be quite spacious and a seat which reclined! But, nope! It was a big standard train.
The first 5 hours where ok as the carriage I was in was fairly empty. But the train stopped at around 15 stations along the way, each time picking more people up. So, at about 11pm I lost the spare seat next to me. It was very difficult to sleep, with all the stops and new people boarding all time. Let’s put it this way, I was pleased that my return journey back to Stockholm was a 90-minute flight!
From about 6am (the last 3 hours or so) when daylight broke, and I was waking up (from a sleep I never felt I had), it was lovely seeing the scenery. Generally, the leaves hadn’t really turned brown yet (as far south as Stockholm), but the further north you went, it was very autumnal, and once crossed the artic circle it was winter! Leaves on many trees had gone, some snow on the ground (from a heavy snowfall earlier in the week), and just miles and miles of Swedish Christmas trees!
Underneath the city of Kiruna is the LKAB mine, which is the largest iron ore mine in the world.
Because of the years of mining, the city of Kiruna is sinking. 10 years ago they started a bold 25 year plan to move the city 5 or so miles east of its original city. A new downtown/city centre has been built, many people already rehomed, 40 wooden buildings will be lifted off their foundations and moved entirely to the new location, including the church.
One year ago (2022) the new city centre was opened, but my tour guide told me that people don’t really like it, because what has been built is a new downtown area that has lost its charm and originality from the original. I can understand this, but the new area does look smart, and to me (as an outsider) still looks in keeping with Scandinavian style.
The old part of the city is being demolished, parts you can still walk around, although I felt it was quite aiery, as everything is closed and literally abandoned.
Some facts about the LKAB mine:
It is well established that World War 2 lasted as long as it did because of Sweden’s supply to Germany of Iron Ore from this mine. Sweden were neutral in the war and apparently Germany took over this mine during that period.
This mine ships out £20 million pounds of iron ore from this mine per day.
80% of steel across Europe comes from iron ore from this mine. Chances are you have steel from Kiruna in buildings in your town or city.
There is 500 miles of road beneath the surface of Kiruna in these mines.
Obviously, a main part of coming here was to see the northern lights, but being a solo traveller it proved difficult because all the tours you had to book a minimum of 2 people. However, I did find a company that would allow just one booking. It was combined with a street food experience beforehand where you was served food and learnt about local cultures and of course facts about the LKAB mine and city move.
Zebastian and his wife were the tour guides and hosts, and they were fantastic. They run a street food van with a tipi, but also do private tours.
So, northern lights… these pictures I am showing, are what I took, but they are heavily edited. You couldn’t really see the lights with the naked eye unfortunately. Whilst the aurora borealis was strong on this particular evening, there was a lot of clouds which made viewing difficult.
Whilst you couldn’t see anything with the naked eye, you could certainly view it (faintly) through the camera and then with filters it really brings out the colours. But for now, I have these which is the closest I have gotten to see this phenomenon.
Whilst on the tour and speaking to Zebastian he offered to be my private tour guide the following day and pretty much chauffeur me for the day (of half a day anyway) at a reasonable price. Kiruna doesn’t have great transportation options and the city is too big and inaccessible to walk in some places, so actually, having this service for my second day, taking the stress away from thinking about how to get from A to B was well worth the money.
The second reason for coming here (and actually was probably my favourite) was seeing the huskies. Because of visiting here in the Autumn, there were not many huskie excursions possible. Summer ‘mushing’ had finished, and no snow for Huskie sledding.
I wasn’t able to do a husky sled run (or summer mushing) but I was able to do a kennel visit where they train the little puppy huskies. They had 6 puppies there at the time of visiting around 12 weeks old and they were just adorable. 70 dogs in total, each with their own personalities but all of them super friendly and sociable.
On this visit you learn about the dogs, their daily routines, their diets, and training. Afterwards you get to sit with the trainer and have coffee and fika besides an outdoor fire, this is Swedish nature at its best.
Choosing which 4 pictures to show here out of the 100 or so I took of the 70 huskies, is just impossible!
I had not realised this and perhaps missed it in my research but there is an ice hotel exhibit open all year round (which is a replica hotel indoors which keeps the ice cold) that you can visit.
The ice hotel is built during the latter part of October and throughout November each year to open its doors to customers from December through to April. So, I didn’t think this would be something I could do. But upon speaking to the lady in the tourist information she explained this and gave me as an option for something to do on my second day.
Apparently, the new hotel each year is built using the previous year’s ice (as it is harvest and cut into blocks, and kept in cold storage), the fresh snow fall in October and November then acts as the glue.
There is the hotel reception area and bar to see (and you can get a drink here) and around 20 hotel rooms, all created by different artists. As you can see from my pictures, they are stunning.
…the first day was a bit hit and miss, as there wasn’t as much to do in the city as a whole as I had hoped, and I felt a bit lost with lack of transportation and ways to get around the city. I just can’t express enough how lucky I was to have met Zebastian which made my second day here so easy and stress free. When coming to rem ote places like this, I would highly recommend looking into getting a private tour guide if you can afford it.
Even though I only got to see the northern lights through a lens, the huskie experience was amazing, and I loved the ice hotel. It truly was an exciting arctic adventure, and of course I stayed at Scandi Kiruna which, with a gym and 10th floor sauna with a view, topped it all off.
