Prices
The king crab safari Tromso price starts at $265 for the cruise where you haul the pots yourself and then eat your own catch in a restaurant ashore, and that trip carries 87 reviews at 4.4. It is also our top pick. Two more crab boats leave from the middle of Tromsø at $310 and $361. Three more run from Kirkenes, eight hundred kilometres further north, from $279. Two Arctic fishing trips share the same quays from $96, and they catch cod rather than crab.
Quick answer
The cheapest king crab safari here is $265, and it is the one we would book: four and a half hours on the water, you pull the pots, and lunch is your own crab in a restaurant ashore. The Kirkenes RIB safari at $279 is the highest rated crab trip on the page at 4.8. The small-group boats at $310 and $361 put the whole haul on a handful of people. The full day from Saariselkä at $896 is the widest trip here, with transfers across the border folded into the fare. Separately, two Arctic fishing trips at $96 and $174 go out for cod and coalfish, and the second of those carries 743 reviews, the most on this site.
Every trip, current fare
Ordered as a shop window: our top pick first, then the crab boats from Tromsø and Kirkenes, then the two Arctic fishing trips. The cost-per-hour column settles most arguments, because a two-hour fishing run and an eleven-hour day across the border are different products that happen to share a page.
| Tour | How long | Price | What is included | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tromsø: King crab cruise & self-captured lunch in restaurantYou haul the pots, then eat your own catch ashore — our top pick | 4.5 h | $265 | Pots + lunch ashore | $58.89 | 4.4 · 87 |
| Tromsø: Exclusive King Crab Fishing ExperienceA small group that baits, sets and hauls its own traps | 3 h | $310 | Pots + seafood on board | $103.33 | New |
| Kirkenes: Summer King Crab Safari by RIB with King Crab MealThe Kirkenes RIB safari with a king crab meal, rated 4.8 | 3 h | $279 | RIB + crab meal | $93.00 | 4.8 · 27 |
| Tromsø: Fishing Sea SafariThe most reviewed trip here: Arctic fishing and soup on board | 3.5 h | $174 | Fishing + soup on board | $49.71 | 4.8 · 743 |
| From Tromso: Polar Fishing AdventureTwo hours with local fishermen, and the lowest price here | 2 h | $96 | Fishing + suits | $48.00 | 4.7 · 431 |
| The official Tromsø king crab fish tourA small-group crab hunt on the Senjafjell with a crab meal | 3 h | $361 | Pots + crab meal | $120.33 | 4.7 · 40 |
| Kirkenes: Winter King Crab Fishing & King Crab MealA snowmobile sled across the frozen fjord to your own trap | 3 h | $369 | Snowmobile + crab meal | $123.00 | 4.6 · 5 |
| Saariselkä: King Crab Safari to Kirkenes with lunchA full day from Saariselkä to the Kirkenes crab grounds | 11 h | $896 | Transfer + crab meal | $81.45 | New |
What the money buys
Handling, the meal, the distance, and whether crab is the point.
Whether you handle the pots. This is the line that matters most and the listings state it plainly. On our top pick at $265 you help haul the pots over the rail. On the small-group boat at $310 you prepare the bait, set the traps and pull them. The Senjafjell at $361 works the pots with a group small enough that everyone gets a turn, and the Kirkenes winter trip at $369 hands you your own trap under the ice.
How the crab reaches the table. Every crab listing here feeds you. The difference is where. Our top pick cooks your catch in a restaurant ashore with a red fish soup alongside. $310 serves seafood on board, still at sea. Both Kirkenes boats serve the crab where they catch it, one on a RIB in summer and one beside the ice in winter. The day from Saariselkä ends in a heated tent.
How far the fare carries you. A Tromsø crab boat leaves from a quay in the middle of town, so the whole fare buys time on the water. The day at $896 at eleven hours includes the run from Finnish Lapland to the Kirkenes crab grounds and back, which is most of what separates it from the three-hour trips.
Whether crab is the point at all. The two Arctic fishing trips at $96 and $174 go out for cod and coalfish with rods, suits and a skipper, and they cook your catch as a soup on board. They are the reason the table starts lower than the crab fares do.
Notice what is on every crab list: a pot coming up over the rail with a live king crab in it, and a plate of that crab afterwards.
What the headline fare does not always include
None is ruinous. All of them surprise people on the day.
Every crab listing here includes the meal. Beer, wine and soft drinks are sold on board or at the restaurant, by card, at a few hundred kroner for a table.
The three Kirkenes trips, from $279 up, assume you are already there. Kirkenes is its own flight, and that airfare sits outside this table.
Every boat here lends a full thermal flotation suit, boots and gloves. What goes under it is yours: wool rather than cotton, and a thin hat that fits beneath the hood.
The Tromsø boats meet at the quay, a short walk from the centre. Pickup is part of the fare on the Kirkenes winter trip and on the day from Saariselkä.
Book direct
Our top pick, the highest rated crab trip, the Senjafjell hunt and the most reviewed trip on the site.
★ 4.4 · 87 reviews
★ 4.8 · 27 reviews
★ 4.7 · 40 reviews
★ 4.8 · 743 reviews
Cost per hour
Compare like with like, or the table lies to you.
Divide the fare by the hours and the table stops being confusing. $265 for four and a half hours works out at about $59 an hour, with the pots, the crab and a restaurant lunch inside it. That is the lowest figure of any crab listing here, and it comes from the longest trip rather than the cheapest one.
The three-hour boats sit between $93 and $123 an hour: $279 by RIB, $310 in a small group, $361 on the Senjafjell and $369 on the ice. An hour on those boats is a denser hour: you are at the pots within twenty minutes of the quay.
The eleven-hour day from Saariselkä at $896 comes to about $81 an hour, which is a fair number and a misleading one: most of those hours are transfer across a border rather than time beside the pots.
Which is the real lesson of this table. Compare the Tromsø crab boats against each other on group size and where the meal is served, compare the Kirkenes trips against each other on season and ice, compare the two fishing trips against each other on hours, and never compare across those lines.
Three ways people overpay
None of these is the operator’s fault.
The trips at $96 and $174 are Arctic fishing: rods, cod and a soup of your catch. They are excellent and they are the best value on this page per hour. For king crab, start at $265 instead.
The Kirkenes trips are superb, and Kirkenes is its own flight. If Tromsø is already on your itinerary, our top pick at $265 puts the same species and the same pots twenty minutes from your hotel.
Every crab listing here includes the crab meal. Booking a restaurant table for the same evening is the commonest way people overspend on a king crab safari Tromso day.
In short
The crab floor, the Kirkenes line, and the fishing floor.
$265. The floor for crab, our top pick, and the lowest cost per hour of any crab trip here: four and a half hours, the pots in your hands, and lunch from your own catch.
$279. Where Kirkenes starts. Above this line you are buying the far north-east: a RIB in summer or a snowmobile sled in winter, and a town that calls itself the king crab capital.
$96. Where the fishing trips start, and the lowest fare on the page. Cod, a skipper and a soup, on the same water, for people who want the fjord more than the crab.
Everything else on the table sits between those three points, and every jump is caused by group size, a border crossing or a season — never by a bigger crab.
Common questions
From $265 a person for four and a half hours, with the pots in your hands and your own crab served in a restaurant afterwards. That is our top pick and the cheapest crab fare here.
Group size, the season and how far the boat travels. A three-hour small-group hunt and an eleven-hour day that crosses from Finland to the Kirkenes crab grounds are different products that both end with crab on a plate.
Yes, on every crab listing here. Our top pick serves it in a restaurant ashore; the others serve it on board, on the RIB or beside the ice.
The Tromsø crab grounds are minutes from the quay, so the fare covers time on the water rather than transfers.
They are Arctic fishing trips for cod and coalfish, at $96 and $174, and they cook your catch as a soup on board. The crab trips start at $265.
The fares hold steady through the year. What changes is the shape of the trip: in Kirkenes a RIB in summer and a snowmobile sled in winter.
Four questions that decide your budget
In this order, because each one narrows the field.
Then the best-evidenced answer is our top pick at $265: 87 reviews at 4.4, four and a half hours, and a crab lunch ashore.
Then $310, where a handful of guests prepare the bait, set the traps and haul them, and the seafood is served at sea.
Then $279 by RIB in summer, rated 4.8, or $369 by snowmobile sled in winter, where you pull your own trap through the ice.
Then $96 for two hours with local fishermen, or $174 for three and a half with a skipper, a guide and 743 reviews.
What the price does not change
Pay for what surrounds the pot, because the crab is fixed.
It is worth saying plainly, because the price table makes it look otherwise: the red king crab that comes over the rail on the $265 cruise is the same animal that comes up through the ice on the $896 day. Same species, same waters, same shell the width of a dinner plate with legs that reach past your elbows. The crab does not know what you paid.
What the money changes is everything around the pot: how many people share the haul, whether the meal is at a restaurant table or on a bench at sea, and whether you cross a frozen fjord to reach the trap. Those are real differences and they are worth money. They are not a bigger crab.
So read the table for what each fare adds around the pot, decide which of those additions you would remember a month later, and pay for those. On this page that usually lands on $265: four and a half hours, your hands on the rope, and your own catch on the plate.
Go deeper
Eight ranked for one decision, with a straight answer for each kind of visitor.
How it worksThe boat, the pots, the haul and the meal, hour by hour.
Tromsø or KirkenesTwo towns, two kinds of safari, and which one suits the trip you are already taking.
The mealHow much crab you get, how it is served, and what the boats cook alongside it.
When to goMonth by month: polar night, northern lights, midnight sun and the ice.
Fishing tripsCod, halibut and coalfish an hour from the quay, and how they differ from a crab safari.
Tromsø: King crab cruise & self-captured lunch in restaurant
★ 4.4 · 87 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h