Side by side
A king crab safari Tromso or Kirkenes decision comes down to the trip you are already taking, because both towns catch the same animal in the same kind of pot. Tromsø puts a boat twenty minutes from your hotel and sails all year, from $265. Kirkenes sits eight hundred kilometres further north-east against the Russian border, calls itself the king crab capital, and runs a RIB in summer at $279 or a snowmobile sled onto the ice in winter at $369.
Quick answer
Book Tromsø if Tromsø is already on your itinerary, and Kirkenes if Kirkenes is. The crab is identical; the journey is what differs. Our top pick at $265 leaves from a quay in the middle of Tromsø, runs four and a half hours and ends with lunch in a restaurant. The Kirkenes summer safari at $279 is the highest rated crab trip on this site at 4.8, and the winter trip at $369 crosses a frozen fjord to a trap under the ice, which is something Tromsø cannot offer because its fjords stay open water all year.
The case for Tromsø
The easiest to reach, and the far western edge of the crab’s range.
Tromsø is the practical answer for most people, and the reason is logistics rather than crab. It is the main airport of northern Norway, it is where the northern lights tours, the whale boats and the cable car already are, and its crab quay is a short walk from the main street. You can land at lunchtime, sail at four and be eating crab by eight.
There is also a piece of natural history in its favour. The red king crab reached the Barents Sea from the Pacific in the nineteen sixties and spread west along the coast on its own, and the dense population stops at Tromsø because the water further south is warmer than the crab likes. Booking here means standing at the western edge of everywhere this animal lives.
Tromsø fjords stay open water through the winter, so the safari is a boat in every month. That is a real advantage in January, when it is the polar night and the water is dark blue at noon, and again in June, when the pots come up under a midnight sun.
There is a second advantage that only shows up when a trip goes sideways. Tromsø has three crab boats on this page, at $265, $310 and $361, plus two Arctic fishing trips from $96 on the same quays. If a departure fills or the wind gets up, there is another sailing the same week. In Kirkenes the choice is narrower and the season decides most of it for you.
The case for Kirkenes
Ice in winter, a RIB in summer, and the densest grounds in Norway.
Kirkenes sits in Finnmark, almost at the Russian border, and this is where the crab arrived first and where the grounds are densest. The town has built an identity around it: a kirkenes king crab safari is the thing most visitors come for, alongside the snow hotel and the Hurtigruten turning point.
The winter trip at $369 is the one Tromsø genuinely cannot match. The fjord freezes, a snowmobile tows a sled across it, the crew cut a hole in the ice and the trap comes up through it while you stand on the surface of the sea. The crab is then cooked beside you and served Northern Norwegian style.
In summer the same grounds are worked by RIB at $279, which holds 4.8 from 27 reviews, the highest score of any crab listing here, and takes in headlands that still carry traces of the region’s wartime history. If you are coming from Finnish Lapland, the full day at $896 folds the border crossing and a meal in a heated tent into one booking.
Book direct
Our Tromsø top pick and the small-group alternative, against the Kirkenes summer and winter trips.
★ 4.4 · 87 reviews
★ 4.8 · 27 reviews
★ 4.6 · 5 reviews
Through the year
Both run king crab safaris all year. What changes is the surface you stand on and the light you stand in.
Sep – Nov
The northern lights season opens in September and the fjord is still open, calm and dark. Evening departures from Tromsø can have the pots coming up under a green sky. Kirkenes is between its seasons: the RIB runs until the ice forms.
Dec – Feb
Polar night in Tromsø from late November to mid-January, with blue light at noon and boats sailing all the same. In Kirkenes the ice thickens and the snowmobile sled takes over, which is the one trip on this page you can only do in winter.
Mar – May
Tromsø gains around twenty minutes of daylight a day through March, with snow still on the peaks and calm fjord water. Kirkenes keeps its ice into April in most years, then switches back to open water.
Jun – Aug
The sun stays up from late May to late July. Warm decks, long evenings and the easiest conditions of the year in both towns; the Kirkenes RIB safari runs through the whole summer.
Four ways people decide
Almost everyone choosing between these two towns is really answering one of these.
Tromsø is the northern hub. Kirkenes is a separate flight and usually a separate night. If the itinerary is fixed, it has already decided for you.
Then Kirkenes in winter at $369. Standing on a frozen fjord while your trap comes up through the ice is the single experience the two towns do differently.
Then our top pick at $265, which serves your catch in a restaurant with a red fish soup alongside.
Then $896 turns the crossing into the day itself: eleven hours, the Kirkenes grounds and a meal in a heated tent.
87 reviews at 4.4, four and a half hours from a quay in central Tromsø, the pots in your hands and lunch ashore.
Check dates for our top pick→Common questions
Yes. The same red king crab, introduced to the Barents Sea in the 1960s and fished to the same Norwegian quotas and size limits.
Tromsø, for most people, because the boat leaves from the town centre and sails all year. Our top pick at $265 is the one we would book.
A frozen fjord. From roughly January the Kirkenes trip at $369 crosses the ice by snowmobile sled and lifts the trap through a hole cut in it.
About eight hundred kilometres along the coast. Kirkenes is its own flight, usually via Tromsø or Oslo, and worth at least one night.
The Kirkenes summer RIB safari holds 4.8 from 27 reviews, the highest rating here. Our Tromsø top pick holds 4.4 from 87, the largest review count of any crab trip on this site.
Yes, and people on longer northern Norway itineraries do. Book the Tromsø boat for the restaurant lunch and the Kirkenes winter trip for the ice.
In short
Choose on the journey; the crab is the same.
Tromsø. Book it if your trip is already going there, which for most visitors to northern Norway it is. Our top pick at $265 gives you four and a half hours, the pots in your hands and your own crab in a restaurant afterwards, with 87 reviews behind it.
Kirkenes. Book it if you are heading to Finnmark anyway, or if standing on a frozen fjord is the memory you want. $279 by RIB is the highest rated crab trip on this site, and $369 is the only one that puts you on the ice.
Both towns serve one crab between two and both work the same quotas. Choose on the journey, and book a few weeks ahead either way, because the small-group boats in both towns fill first.
One last way to look at it. The red king crab is a Pacific animal that reached the Barents Sea in the nineteen sixties and walked west along the seabed for sixty years. Kirkenes is where it arrived; Tromsø is how far it got. Both towns put you beside a pot full of it, and the trip you regret is only ever the one you kept meaning to book.
Go deeper
Eight trips compared by price, by hours and by how much crab ends up on the plate.
VerdictEight 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.
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