The circuit
About 2.5 km round the lake through dwarf birch.
Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen — Public domain · Leonhard Lenz — CC0 · Leonhard Lenz — CC0 · Leonhard Lenz — CC0
No, but one substantially improves your odds. A tour drives you away from the city's glare and chases gaps in the cloud across tens of kilometres — and cloud rather than the aurora itself is the main obstacle in Tromsø. Without a tour: walk out to Prestvannet or the edges of the island on a clear night between September and March, and check the Kp index and the cloud forecast. The aurora is never guaranteed — do not build a whole trip on a single night.
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Prestvannet is a small lake at the highest point of the island of Tromsø, ringed by dwarf birch and a walking path of about two and a half kilometres — and it is where people from Tromsø come for their daily walk. The lake was the city's drinking water source until the middle of the twentieth century, and then became a nature reserve. Its relative height opens it to the horizon on every side: you see the surrounding mountains and the fjord without climbing a mountain. Its real value is seasonal and twofold. In summer under the midnight sun you can walk round it at two in the morning in full daylight. And in winter it is among the easiest places to see the northern lights within the city limits — far enough from the centre's glare and close enough to reach on foot or by bus, with no tour to book. Free and always open.
About 2.5 km round the lake through dwarf birch.
Mountains and fjord without climbing anything.
Prestvannet, Tromsøya, 9011 Tromsø