The best time to visit Narvik

6 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Narvik lies at 68 degrees north, well inside the Arctic Circle, and light shapes every season here. In early December the sun disappears for a month; by early May it is up for eighteen hours a day. The town also changes this winter: the gondola on Narvikfjellet is closed until a new one opens in January 2027.

Narvik through the year

The sun times below are astronomical values for a flat horizon from the US Naval Observatory. The mountains around Narvik hide the low sun for longer, so in town the days feel shorter than the table suggests.

Date	Sun	What is on
1 November	08:05 to 15:02	Aurora tours; Evenes averages just above 0 °C
1 December	10:44 to 12:34	Husky sledding starts
21 December	No sunrise, twilight 09:16 to 14:21	Polar night, long aurora evenings
1 February	09:14 to 14:54	Ski peak season from early February
21 March	05:47 to 18:10	Last month of the photographer aurora trips
1 May	03:44 to 21:54	Last days of skiing (until 2 May)
21 June	Above the horizon all night	Midnight sun, puffin boats
1 September	05:13 to 20:25	Dark nights return

November and December

The nights are already long in November, with about seven hours of sun at the start of the month. That makes it a good time for aurora tours, and the photographer-led evening trip from Dronningensgate runs from October. Visit Narvik is clear that the lights depend on cloud cover, weather and activity in the sky, and are never guaranteed. Husky Isogaisa starts its sledding season on 1 December if the snow allows. It lies about half an hour north of Narvik, and there is no transfer.

From 6 December 2026 to 6 January 2027 the sun does not rise at all. Around the solstice there is still about five hours of twilight in the middle of the day. Our page on the polar night explains what this looks like and what stays open. The war museum opens daily from 10:00 to 16:00; check its website for the hours over Christmas and New Year.

January to April

January is the start of the ski season. Narvikfjellet plans to open daily from 3 January 2027, and the new gondola is due the same month. At Evenes airport, the nearest station with long-term averages, January and February are the coldest months at about −3.5 to −4 °C. We found no long-term averages for the town itself, and the mountains are colder than the shore.

February and March bring back the daylight fast, with nearly ten hours of sun on 1 March and twelve by the equinox. The resort's peak season runs from early February, and race days on 23 and 24 January and 20 and 21 March mean the lifts open to the public only at noon. This is also the end of the dark season. Narvik's winter festival, Vinterfestuka, runs from 26 February to 7 March 2027 with concerts and cultural events. The photographer-led aurora trip runs until March. Huskies run until 30 April if there is snow. From 3 to 11 April 2027 the slopes are closed to skiers for the Norwegian championships, and skiing ends on 2 May.

Midnight sun from late May

By astronomical calculation the sun stays above the horizon from 25 May to 20 July 2027. Visit Narvik speaks of midnight sun from the end of May and into July, because high mountains can block the sun when it is low in the north. From 23 May, and still in early August, the nights do not get darker than twilight. Measurements in central Narvik gave a July average of about 17 °C in 2025, but one year is no climate record, and the long-term July average at Evenes is about 13 °C.

Summer is the season for a private puffin boat from the Harstad area, which looks for puffins, whales and dolphins and only sails in good weather. The boat is open, so you sit outside. The fjords and road trips page has more day trips that run in summer.

Autumn and the shoulder months

September and October bring dark nights back. October is the wettest month at Evenes in the older long-term figures, and September is not much drier. In Nordland, Troms and Finnmark tyres must have at least 3 mm of tread from 16 October to 30 April, and on snow or ice the car needs winter tyres or chains, which matters if you rent a car. Some things work in any month: the war museum opens daily, and the Arctic Train runs to Bjørnfjell all year.