How Much It Cost To Go To The Arctic

Last Updated on: 7th May 2025, 09:33 am

Recently, we took a trip to the Arctic, a place that people would never think about going to for a holiday. But Tilly asked if we could do it, so there we were! Taking a train from Deal in Kent to the Arctic. I was happy to make this trip because of its sustainability. And also, I know how much I know Tilly zones out on the trains in Europe. So, how much did it cost to go to the Arctic?

I have broken down the costs below, and a list of the places we stayed.

What Was The Outlay?

The main cost was the Interrail ticket. A first-class 22-day Interrail pass is usually £632, but it was bought in the Black Friday sale with a massive 25% off. So it cost £474. I get a carer pass for free as I am registered as disabled and hold a British Railcard. I got the ticket as a Christmas gift from Kim. So the cost to me was zero for both tickets. There are some other costs involved in the train trips, but I will mention them later.

You can save money by going second class, but a first-class ticket includes a few more benefits, like station lounges and sometimes meals on high-speed trains. There are usually more seats available in first class, and there is more room with the seats in first class.

Accommodation Costs When You Go To The Arctic

We stayed in the following hotels or apartments. I always try to get my accommodation as cheap as possible, and I always book with free cancellation. Interrail trips change all the time as you travel, so it is better to book places that you can cancel at last minute.

Ibis Budget Osnabruck City £59 – Do not recommend, the staff were rude and I was left feeling uncomfortable. Breakfast was plain, uninviting and boring.
Ibis Budget Hannover Hbf £50 – Lovely welcoming staff, stored our luggage to save locker costs. Didn’t include breakfast.
Hotel and Hostel Malmö City £51 – Lovely Hostel and staff, but paper-thin walls. Extremely clean and not too busy.
Snow Flake Suites, Rovaniemi £126 (two nights) – Absolutely lovely, clean apartment on top floor with amazing views. But I was asked to do some of the cleaning and take rubbish down when we were leaving to help the maid out. We always leave places clean anyway, but they wanted us to do the maids’ work too. It was an odd request! I would stay there again, though.
STF Malmfaltens Folkhogskola, Kiruna £71 – This was only ever an overnight stopover, I wouldn’t stay again. The hostel is so far away from the station, and the customer service was pants. But it did the job for us. We had to make our beds after a long travel day.
Comfort Xpress Hotel, Tromso £114 (two nights), By far my favourite hotel. It was welcoming and comfortable.
Narvik Hotel Wivel, Narvik £82, Arrived at the hotel to find my room on the 3rd floor without a lift. I couldn’t get up the stairs with my bad knees and all my luggage. So we had to pay more at the hotel for a ground-floor room. The breakfast made up for the little problem as it was to die for.

The total Cost for accommodation whilst we were away was £553, a mixture of different places to stay.

Reservations For Trains And The Tromso Bus

Although the train tickets were paid for, there were still reservations to pay for. This included Eurostar reservations between London and Brussels were £64 for both of us, which was a bargain. The tickets for this trip were £250 each without the Interrail pass.

There were overnight travelling costs, like sleeping in couchettes or sleepers on overnight trains. Although this comes up as an added travel cost, it is cheaper than staying in hotels and saves on accommodation costs.
Hamburg to Stockholm in a couchette – £61.00 for us both, we had the best night’s sleep!
Stockholm to Narvik couchette – £40 for both of us in a 4-sleeper couchette. We had it to ourselves for the last 4 hours of the trip.
Narvik to Tromso Bus – £50 each way for the two of us.
Narvik to Kiruna – £7.75 for both of us.
Rovaniemi to Turku private sleeper with ensuite – £100 for both of us. I could have got a cheaper one, but I booked it 2 days before we went on there. I could also have got a room without a private shower and toilet for £10 less.
Stockholm – Malmo £25, you get free drinks and fruit as well as access to the station lounge for breakfast and drinks. So it paid for meals too.
Malmö – Hamburg – £30 for 2 train seats. Uncomfortable and would book a couchette next time.

So all of the additional train costs were £313.75, which included 4 sleeper trains. There was also an additional cost of £70 for us both on a Tallink cruise ship, which included a free upgraded cabin. Making additional travel costs of £383.75 in total.

Spending Money To Go To The Arctic

We did not have much money, we had on average £40 a day, sometimes slightly more. The only day I said ‘screw the budget’ was when we went to Santa Claus village and we spent £130. We spent most money on food and drinks. We stocked up on things from the supermarket and saved a lot of money. And we also made the most of the free food and drink on trains in the first-class carriages. As well as the train station lounges in Stockholm, Malmö, London, and Copenhagen. The Swedish lounges had meals to enjoy like cereals, fruit, cake, sandwiches, cheese and biscuits, etc.

Costs Of Days Out

We walked around a lot of the places. We were lucky to be gifted some excursions and work with places like Get Your Guide and Rovaniemi Tourism. I also used my Access card to get a carer into some of the museums we went to. So we got disabled prices and a free carer. We got a discount and 2 free drinks each in the Ice Bar in Tromso because we mentioned we had been to the one in Iceland. The free drinks were worth 10 euros for each drink, compared to the entry cost of £25. We rode around the metro to see the art in Stockholm, which cost us £3 for both of us, and it lasted a couple of hours.