Tromso Killer Whale Watching: Orcas and Humpbacks at Skjervoy

What This Trip Actually Is

This is sold as a trip from Tromso, and the meeting point is in Tromso. It is not a boat trip from the harbour there. You meet by 05:20, the bus leaves at 05:30, and the whole day, out and back, runs to about 12 hours. The operator, Green Gold of Norway, says it has run whale watching for more than ten years.

The payoff for the long day is two and a half to three hours on the water at Skjervoy, in a small open boat, among orcas and humpback whales feeding on herring. Everything else on this page is either getting you there, keeping you warm once you are, or telling you plainly who this trip does not suit.

The reason the day is shaped this way is that the whales are not off Tromso. They are where the herring are, and in these winters that is the water around Skjervoy, a long way up the coast. A trip that leaves from the city centre is convenient. This one is built the other way round, around the animals rather than around the departure point, and twelve hours is what that arrangement takes.

Where the Day Actually Goes

Skjervoy is 265 km from Tromso by road, though it is only 88 km away in a straight line. The fjords roughly triple the distance, and the route shows why: south on the E8 to Nordkjosbotn, north on the E6 through the Lyngen country to Storslett, then county road 866 out to the island itself. All of that is covered by the bus, in both directions.

Skjervoy is an island and a municipality in Troms, in northern Norway, well north of the Arctic Circle. It is a working fishing harbour and a port of call for the Hurtigruten coastal ships, connected to the mainland by a bridge and an undersea tunnel. The municipality is small, in the low thousands of people, and none of that character is visible from a Tromso quay.

How Long the Whole Day Takes

Meet at 05:20, depart at 05:30, and expect to be back in Tromso around 12 hours later. Most of that time is the bus, not the boat: the drive north, roughly two and a half to three hours on the water, and the drive south again. It is worth planning the day around that ratio rather than around the whales alone.

After the boat there is a heated clubhouse with a changing room, so the return drive starts once you are dry and warm rather than straight off the water. In December and January that drive home happens in full darkness, since neither month carries any daylight hours at all here. The difficulty is described as medium, which reflects the length of the day as much as anything on the water.

The meeting point is Prostneset bus terminal in Tromso, on the ground floor behind the Magic Ice bar, at Samuel Arnesens gate 5. A large red bus, run by Bussring or Arctic Route, is what you board, and passengers are told to confirm the departure with the driver before it leaves.

The Boat Itself

The boat at Skjervoy is a rigid-inflatable, open rather than cabined, holding no more than 12 people and stated as taking 4 to 12 participants per trip. You spend two and a half to three hours aboard it, which is a long stretch of cold air and sea spray on an open deck in an Arctic winter.

Cold-weather kit is provided rather than something you have to source yourself: a warm flotation suit, mittens, balaclava, waterproof boots and ski goggles. Afterwards there is a heated clubhouse, baguettes, tea, coffee and biscuits, photographs from the excursion, and a year of access to a documentary series about orcas.

The baguette comes as a choice of chicken, ham and cheese, or egg, and other dietary requests are handled by prior arrangement rather than left to chance. Tea, coffee and biscuits are served in the same clubhouse where the day's photographs are eventually handed over.

When It Runs and What You See

The season runs from October to late January, tied to herring wintering in these fjords. Orcas and humpback whales come to feed on the herring shoals, and other cetaceans turn up occasionally. Outside that window the boat does not run at all, because the whales are not there to see.

December and January sit inside that season and carry zero hours of recorded daylight in Tromso. What replaces full daylight around the middle of the day is a long stretch of blue twilight, which is enough to watch the water by even without the sun clearing the horizon.

Who Can Join, and Who Should Not

The trip is not suitable for pregnant women, or for anyone with back problems, mobility impairments, claustrophobia, heart problems, respiratory issues, epilepsy or other pre-existing medical conditions. There is a minimum height of 140 cm and a maximum weight of 120 kg.

The trip runs in English, cancellation is free, and the difficulty is rated medium. None of the restrictions above are about the whales; they are about spending two and a half to three hours in an open boat in cold Arctic water, on top of a 12-hour day either side of it.