Norway Arctic Express: Northern Lights in Tromsø

We land in Tromsø and step straight into the Arctic circle. Check-in, a welcome meeting, and suddenly the group exists.

• Dinner is at a cozy local restaurant with traditional North Norwegian cuisine, and it is over that table that everyone works out who is who.

• Cameras stay ready. If the conditions are right, the aurora borealis turns up on the very first night, with nothing booked and nobody quite expecting it.

First full day, and it belongs to the city right up until the light goes and we get on a boat.

• We wander the charming streets and colourful wooden buildings of the centre, then reach the Arctic Cathedral (Tromsdalen Church), whose triangular structure mirrors the mountain peaks behind it.

• The Polar Museum, in an 1830s wharf house, covers polar expeditions, indigenous Sami culture and Arctic hunting traditions. After dark, a Northern Lights safari by boat takes us into Arctic waters, an expert guide helping us spot and photograph the aurora.

Two vantage points today: one high above the city, one at the edge of a lake long after dark has fallen.

• The Fjellheisen Cable Car climbs 421 meters to the Storsteinen mountain ledge, with panoramic views over Tromsø island, the surrounding fjords and the Arctic landscape.

• Back down, Mack Brewery, the world's northernmost, on the traditions of Arctic brewing and its craft beers. Then Prestvannet Lake, away from the city lights, for our second Northern Lights hunt, the Aurora doubled in the water.

Today the shape of the day is ours to choose: an active morning, a slow afternoon and a very cold finish.

• The Arctic adventure is your pick: snowshoeing across snow-covered landscapes, cross-country skiing, a Sami reindeer sledding experience, or an Arctic floating session in the water itself.

• The afternoon is Nordic wellness: the Pust sauna, alternating heat with a bracing Arctic dip, or a luxurious spa. We end at the Ice Bar, in warm ponchos, with cocktails in glasses of ice among the ice sculptures.

And just like that it wraps up. The last morning in Tromsø goes on packing and goodbyes that run long.

• We say goodbye to the stunning Arctic landscapes and to the new friends the week produced, which is reliably the harder half of the morning.

• Then everyone travels home, safe trip and all, each on their own flight, with the next WeRoad adventure already somewhere at the back of the mind.