Opinions VELKOMMEN NORWAY Tromsø

Lieber Gunnar, wir bedanken uns für dieses wunderschöne Erlebnis und für deine interessanten Geschichten. Es war schön zu sehen, wie sehr du dein Land und die Natur liebst. Deine Erfahrungen, deine Kollegen und deine Apps haben uns ein prächtiges Schauspiel am Himmel über Norwegen ermöglicht. Takk ????

Your copy/paste responses to one star reviews are disappointing, I wish I had seen this before booking.

Edit post guide gunnar response: While I appreciate the response from guide gunnar I now would like to add a few points to my review. I was aware that this was the partner chase that I had booked but I decided to do it anyway given the description on the website and guide gunnar reputation. I thought I would be able to trust the reputation you have built and that you would not risk your business by putting your name to a chase so subpar. While yes it is your partners chase, I still booked through your website, with your name and trusting your business. I can understand that you are trying to grow but it is clear from your response to me that I am not the first to bring this to your attention yet you still took my money and limited time. To this point, while I appreciate the invite to book again with guide gunnar this was really more of a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. Coming from Australia it is a difficult and expensive trip that I have dreamt of for a long time. I imagine that Tromso is a once in a lifetime destination for many of guide gunnars guests.

I booked a northern lights chase with the partner and was left extremely disappointed with the service. We actually got really lucky and saw some really great aurora's. However, having been on other tours I would suggest saving your money and just go with someone else.

I can see consistency amongst the poorly rated reviews which are the same issues I have had. Tour operator was late, unenthusiastic, little to no communication, no photos and bad snacks.

Review on Partner tour - March 2024

Tour guide arrived 30 mins late, provided minimal communication, and did not provide assistance viewing lights. More interested smoking cigarettes than helping anyone. No photos were taken or thermal suits etc offered. Drink offered was tepid in temperature.

Emailed the company directly about this and got fobbed off to someone else who never responded.

I do not recommend the tour, it is a complete rip off for the price you are paying - essentially for a silent driver.
I can see others have stated similar experiences for partner tours.

Instead go with Chasing Lights - They were much better (and cheaper!)

Edit - In reply to Gunnar's response the comments about being a "troublemaker" are completely untrue and a dissapointing attempt to save face. Please take accountability and listen to valid and constructive criticism rather than make up stories. I'd appreciate a genuine response to my feedback respectfully.

I had a tour with a GuideGunnar Partner. I was disappointed it was not Gunnar, but the partner Louay did a fantastic job. Constantly moving us to get a better view. He was able to find clear skies even when it was cloudy and windy and there was little hope. Quality pictures also. Very happy with the tour.

I did 3 aurora tours in Tromsø. If you are considering booking the "GG Partners Aurora Chase" or "GG Partner Aurora Chase," only book them as a last resort. There are dozens of aurora chasing tour companies in the area and the good ones will communicate with you and give you updates on what they are doing. They have an informal network of tour operators on a WhatsApp chat group who coordinate and share photos of what they're seeing in the skies and whether or not they match the weather.

The GG Partners tour did none of this. From my perspective they seemed to have a set destination with no course correction in case of weather change (it seemed like he had a couple phone calls, maybe to double check the route or end point), and no ongoing communication of what or where we were headed. There was no interaction with any of the guests, no talk of culture/aurora science, etc. The other 2 tours made bonfires, conversed with us, and offered us thermal suits (especially necessary if we were going somewhere particular cold).

Basically, if you want a silent tour with barely any interaction whatsoever except to offer you some cold juice or a lefse, then choose this one. Otherwise, go with a company that is better regarded like Arctic Photo Guide or Wandering Owls. They will be more likely to actually take you to clear skies, course correct when needed, and well, you. know, do something other than chauffeur you somewhere.

Maybe this is obvious based on my negative review, but we did not see anything but clouds on our tour, and we drove about 3 hours one way inland with 1 pit stop at a gas station. Which means we left at 7, arrived at the parking spot at about 10:30, waited around for about an hour, and got back at about 2:30.

It was a total waste of time and money and I don't want anyone else making the same mistake. You're better off checking meteologix cloud cover forecasts yourself and deciding if it's worth spending nearly half your evening getting driven around in the dark.

I've had the pleasure of travelling with Gunnar a few times now both with Aurora chasing and ice fishing. He is an excellent guide with great communication. He looked after all the guests well, kept spirits high and well all enjoyed his company.

Amazing Experience! We did the tour with one of his partner and it was excellent. He drove us for 3h to take us to the Finland border and we succeeded to see an amazing aurora.
He also made homemade cookies for us !
The only negative thing was that he did not have enough addittional cloths for every guest, but overall it has been amazing!

Super geniale Tour. Der Guide gab sich brutal viel Mühe. Vier Orte angefahren und dann endlich an der finnischen Grenze der grandiose Erfolg. Über eine Stunde Polarlichter in super Qualität. Danke für diese schöne Erlebnis. Wahrhaft ein Traum.

We had booked the tour with the partners and were very disappointed ????. The entire trip our guide did not explain us what was happening. We were stationed at 1 place for around 2 hours and were never alerted when the auroras were seen. Though that night only faint northern lights were seen, we were curious to know how to observe them.

Thank you for your response.
So, I understand that the weather was not very good and it was cloudy. We could see very little of the northern lights in the clouds. What was included in the tour was also some snacks, a campfire, a photograph. None of them were possible due to the weather and we were still fully charged. This was quite frustrating.

einfach magisch

Had an excellent experience chasing the northern lights with Gunnar. On the way out of the city he played an informational video about the lights and their history. Once he found a spot that he thought was best for us, we got out, took some photos, and watched while he set up a campfire. He then served a pastry and warm drink. It was a great time despite how cold it was and he was a great guide.

We went to the last Gunnar Dinner Aurora Chase on 31/12/2023.
it was just a perfect experience. Gunnar was super in finding a spot with no wind, no clouds, and warmer than surroundings. He gave us thermal suits and make great pictures of us and of the aurora.
He served a great dinner freshly cooked on the fire, reindeer and rice. He had very cozy chairs on which you can comfortably sit and place your neck to watch the sky.

The minibus was extremely comfortable.
I would surely recommend Gunnar to anyone, without even thinking about it.

We also went on another aurora hunting tour with another company (with 5 stars rating and higher price...), still a small tour with about 15 people, but honestly Gunnar was much much much better.
Everything with Gunnar was really on another level, the minibus, the location, the dinner, the feeling, the overall organisation, the chairs...

I am not posting photos of the Aurora, just check the arrangement of the camp!

Sehr erfahrener lokaler Guide (hier aufgewachsen und wohnhaft)

Insbesondere bei schlechten Verhältnissen (wenig Aktivität bzw. Sehr bewölkt) sehr zu empfehlen. Wenn es schwierig wird, hat man bei ihm die höchste Chance.

Zusätzliches Plus:
- kostenlose Fotos vom Guide (Downloadlink)
- professionelle Tripods für Handy / Kamera
- kostenlose warme Kleidung (Schuhe + Schneeanzug) bei Bedarf

2 Versuche (1 mal Wolkendecke 90% und einmal Wolkendecke 70%) und haben Dank Gunnar bei der 70% Wolkendecke einen Spotmit Sternenklarer Nacht gefunden.

Super Erfahrung, danke.

Außerdem kann er euch auch für anderer Touren sehr gute Empfehlungen geben.

Gunnar nailed it! Our family of 7, three generations including my 79 year old dad, all rate this tour 10 out of 10! It was on my dad's bucket list to see the Northern Lights, and this trip delivered. We booked a private tour so were picked up at our rental home right on time, in a fabulously comfortable spacious van. Gunnar found us a wonderful spot to enjoy the beach, nature, the mountain scenery was stunning, and for hours of gorgeous light show by a warm fire Gunnar built for us. He put up with all our silly family antics the whole time as well. The fire along with his garden sourced tea really provided a hygge experience. The snow suits and boots Gunnar provided kept us so toasty and we were able to lay in the snow and just stare up at the sky as it lit up and danced around us. Thank you Gunnar for all the photos you expertly took of our group (ones attached here are ours not Gunnar's!). Love this it is a must do.

Late November Northern Light chase. There are so many people doing this tour, plenty of cowboys to take your money, so we weren’t sure who to book to get a real experience, so we decided to go and ask Tourist Office, they recommended Gunnar. Boy we weren’t disappointed, he knew exactly where to go, lit fire to keep us warm, had thermal suits, socks, boots, and hot drinks and tasty snacks. We were pretty happy with what we had seen, but I could tell Gunnar wasn’t quite satisfied, so as we were driving back he was checking info, watching sky, and the all of a sudden he darted off the main road pulled up, we all jumped out and did we get the full experience, I never scene anything like it, all the colours, dancing, moving, bright as hell, its was an unbelievable moment, everyone on the bus was blown away with what Gunnar just pulled off. Could not recommend Gunnar more highly, a terrific night of Aurora chasing

Nous avons réservé une expérience GuideGunnar's Aurora Chase lors de notre visite à Tromsø mi-novembre. M. Gunnar n'était pas présent mais remplacé par 2 guides. Ces 2 personnes n'avaient pas l'air passionnées et expérimentées dans le sujet. Après un parcours aux villes à côté de Tromsø de 18h à 23h, nous n'avions toujours pas vu d'aurores boréales et les guides nous ont raccompagnés ensuite à l'hotel vers 1h du matin. Nous n'avons pas eu plus d'informations à propos des aurores, pourquoi on ne les a pas vues, pas de signe de déception des guides. On pensait que c'était simplement une mauvaise semaine pour voir les aurores boréales mais le lendemain on a rencontré d'autres touristes qui avaient vu les aurores boréales la veille mais que leur guide avait plus de volonté et de passion pour vraiment le trouver. Le lendemain, nous avons réservé à nouveau avec une autre agence et cette fois nous avons pu observer les aurores boréales à 3 endroits différents.

GREAT Aurora chases with Gunnar himself.

Thanks again for a great evenings with fun, passion, great hot drinks/snacks and of course polarlights. It was a pleasure to come along on your tours and when I will return, I definitely do another chase with you.
You can really tell, that he is an outstanding expert on his field and that he is not just doing it for money (of course, for that too) but with passion and care. The little things make the difference - and it awesome and great. He explaines things so that they are understandable and I learned a lot from Gunnar about the lights and what belongs to it. Besides that he also explaines things that are special in the area (traffic, spikes on tires, etc...) and that makes the trips with him really unique.

Thanks again and I will never forget the chases, especially yesterday with the hard breaking :-) for the lights direct above us. These were just so great and intense.

Thanks again and all the best for your next chases.
F.

Lovely experience with a 1st rate guide! Two thumbs up!

En riktig entusiast som brenner for det han gjør.

Flott natur og veldig hyggelig. Flinkeste nordlysguide.

Notre guide a fait tt son possible pour nous permettre de voir les aurores.
Je recommande

See the northern lights off the map and without any phone signal.. how a great adventure. i will always keep this feeling in the deep mind and thanks for Gunnar and his amazing car which seems have all the thing we need inside.

Ich habe zwei Touren mit Gunnar gebucht gehabt und bin völlig begeistert. Bei der ersten Tour hatten wir einen wirklich tollen Platz direkt am Fjord und die Berge im Rücken. Lady Aurora meinte es sehr gut mit uns und so entstanden wundervolle abwechslungsreiche Bilder. In der zweiten Nacht war das Wetter erst nicht auf unserer Seite , aber mit Gunnas Erfahrung und seinem Gespür wurden wir mit etwas Geduld belohnt. Und so standen wir mitten auf einem zugefroren See , inklusive Lagerfeuer, als die Lady zu tanzen begann. Zu jedem Ausflug gab es ein wärmendes Feuer, heiße Getränke, Snacks und selbstverständlich viele interessante Informationen. Wer möchte bekommt sich noch ein Foto von sich, natürlich inklusive Polarlichter.

Vielem lieben Dank für diese schönen Erinnerungen. Jetzt muss ich noch mal zum Vollmond wiederkommen ????

Gunnar ist ein Profi vom Scheitel bis zur Sohle. Er kennt die Gegend, die Leute in allen Orten, die ideal für die Nordlichtjagd sind, ist sehr naturverbunden. Er weiß Bescheid über das Leben der Bewohner. Seine Touren enthalten viele notwendige Details wie Overalls, Stative, Boots, darüber hinaus hat er die Tipps, die zum fotografischen Erfolg führen. Er ist ein Gastgeber, die seine Gäste unterhält, bewirtet und keine Mühen scheut. Bestimmt sind auch seine exklusiven Ausflüge authentisch. Aus Zeitgründen habe ich sie allerdings nicht mitgemacht. Gunnar, ich komme gern wieder!