Tromso boat tour: every trip on this page, and what each one does

Tromsø sells a great many boat trips, and this site is about one of them: going out to haul pots for red king crab. Around that we list the two fishing trips that leave from the same quay, because they answer the same question — how do I get onto this fjord for a few hours — at the lowest prices here.

So when you see Tromso boat trips compared on this page, they come in two groups. A king crab safari is three to four and a half hours: out to the pots, haul them over the rail, meet the animal, and eat it. A fishing trip is two to three and a half hours with a rod in your hands and a soup from the catch. Both leave from the middle of town, both supply the warm gear, and both sail all year.

The three Kirkenes listings are the same crab experience in a different town, and we say so on every card. Kirkenes is 800 km north-east of Tromsø with its own airport, so those trips suit a trip that already goes that way rather than a day out from Tromsø.

A Tromso boat tour in winter means dark water, snow to the shoreline and a heated saloon to come back into. From late September to late March an evening departure carries a real chance of the northern lights over open water, and between late November and mid January the polar night turns the middle of the day blue and rose. The boats hand out insulated suits and the crab is entirely indifferent to the cold.

A Tromso boat tour in summer is a different animal. From late May the midnight sun holds the light around the clock, the fjord flattens, and a nine-in-the-evening departure happens in full daylight. It is the gentlest time of year on the water and the easiest season to get a place on a small boat.

Either way it is the same stretch of water: a sheltered Tromso fjord boat tour with mountains on both sides, which is why seasickness is rare here even among people who expect it.

Tromsø is unusual among northern towns in that the water is the centre rather than the edge. The old town sits on an island in the middle of a sound, the main street runs parallel to the quay a block inland, and the working harbour has been the reason for the place since the whaling and Arctic expedition years. Everything on this page leaves from within that walking radius.

The practical effect is that a boat trip from Tromsø costs you almost no logistics. There is a transfer to think about, a departure point in a suburb to find, and a shuttle to catch in most Arctic towns; here you finish breakfast, walk ten or fifteen minutes with your hands in your pockets, and step aboard. Guests routinely fit a morning fishing trip and an afternoon crab safari into the same day because the two quays are a few hundred metres apart.

It also explains why the fjords reached on these trips are sheltered. The boats work the water between the island and the mainland mountains, which means the swell that builds out in the open sea arrives here reduced. Combined with the short transit, that is why a Tromsø boat trip suits people who would hesitate about a longer crossing.

One more consequence worth knowing: because the harbour is the city, the last hour of these trips gives you the town from the water, with the Arctic Cathedral on one shore and the bridge lit above the sound. It is the view Tromsø puts on its postcards, and it arrives as part of the fare.

$265. Our top pick and the reason this site exists: four and a half hours, the pots come up in your hands, and the crab is served to you at a table in town.

$174. The most reviewed trip here, 743 reviews at 4.8, with a skipper, a fishing guide and a soup from what the boat brings up.

$96. Two hours and the lowest fare on the page, which makes it the easiest yes when a morning is all you have.