{"id":10414,"date":"2019-10-27T15:09:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T13:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/2019\/10\/27\/voreio-selas\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T16:41:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:41:51","slug":"northern-lights-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/stories\/northern-lights-iceland\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing the Northern Lights in Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iceland, late October.<\/p>\n<p>The weather is good and conditions are right for catching the Northern Lights \u2014 the celestial lights of mythical proportions! So all day we drive around and explore, and once night falls we wait. Heading back in the evening to the house, hotel or cabin, we split up according to everyone&#8217;s priorities: some take a shower, others slip into comfy pyjamas and sprawl on the couch, and others put on hot soup and tea. And just as you&#8217;re sinking into the cosy warmth of the living room, into the laughter and conversations, ready to enjoy a sweet nap \u2014 suddenly your phone starts ringing!<\/p>\n<p>Through an app, it alerts you when someone relatively nearby has seen the Northern Lights. Ding! Someone saw it. Ding, ding, ding ding \u2014 the notifications don&#8217;t stop! And then you live some of the most magical seconds of your life, in slow motion.. Everyone starts shouting; chaos breaks out, a frenzy \u2014 &#8216;the Northern Lights, let&#8217;s go quick, it&#8217;s close!&#8217;. The thrill, longing and impatience you feel in that moment compare only to the anticipation of meeting your first love; emotions you never thought you&#8217;d feel again surge up inside you! At that moment, whatever you&#8217;re doing, however you are, you stop everything, throw on your jacket and head out to hunt. But a hunt unlike any other, a hunt you maybe never thought you&#8217;d go on. You set out to chase the unattainable, to capture the magic the very moment it unfolds..<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3409\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3409\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3409\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AltervanParea.webp\" alt=\"Altervan Roadtrips\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AltervanParea.webp 800w, https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AltervanParea-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AltervanParea-768x576.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altervan Travels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And at that very moment, the Northern Lights begin to appear. At first none of us believes it \u2014 it&#8217;s small, it&#8217;s far, it must be a cloud. But the cloud quickly grows, becomes a wave of light and spreads ethereally across the horizon. With an otherworldly glow, it shifts constantly. It lights a little here, more there, with intense greenish hues standing out across its whole expanse. And we start to shout. We hug and jump for joy: &#8216;Yes, it&#8217;s the Northern Lights, it&#8217;s real, look, look!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>What words could describe the moment? What feelings could fit into images of a group of 18 travellers from Greece, sitting and staring spellbound at the celestial wave? With a sense of unprecedented joy and of conquering something that was never ours. Our eyes wide open to take in as many minutes of the magic as we can. Tiny within the vast night, with the green flashes dancing above our heads, telling us something very wise: that anything can happen.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3408\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3408\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3408\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/aurora_iceland_altervan.webp\" alt=\"Aurora Iceland Altervan\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/aurora_iceland_altervan.webp 800w, https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/aurora_iceland_altervan-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/aurora_iceland_altervan-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3408\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Northern Lights &#8211; Iceland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Find <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/roadtrips\/\">here<\/a> the most budget-friendly roadtrips.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AltervanRoadtrips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/altervan_roadtrips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> so you don&#8217;t miss out.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">With love for travel, roadtrips and adventure.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">The Altervan team.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The wait, the midnight alert and the magical moment the green wave appears \u2014 chasing the Northern Lights in Iceland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[302,335,336,337,322,338,339],"class_list":["post-10414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destination-guides","tag-altervan","tag-aurora","tag-iceland","tag-northern-lights","tag-roadtrip","tag-338","tag-339"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10420,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10414\/revisions\/10420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.altervan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}