Booking for this tour has now closed – to receive updates on dates for next year’s tour sign up to our Newsletter

Tour Details

Dates:24th of Jun - 1st of Jul 2025
Availability:SOLD OUTGuaranteed departure
Group Size:FULL
Grading:Moderate
PricesFull price: £2,245.00 / person Single room supplement: £195.00 / person Deposit: £150.00 / person
Price includes: Accommodation, all meals, ground transportation, services of your guides, and a holiday report
Not included: International travel, drinks and other personal items, holiday insurance

Tour Highlights

  • An intoxicating range of highly-localised fritillaries, including Dusky-winged, Lapland, Arctic, Polar, Bog, Cranberry, Frigga's, Thor's, & Freija's
  • Further boreal specialities may include Northern, Pale Arctic, and Moorland Clouded Yellow; Arctic Grayling; Dewy, Lapland & Arctic Woodland Ringlet; and Northern Grizzled Skipper
  • Additional attractive highlights may include northern subspecies of Purple-edged Copper, Small Copper and Silver-spotted Skipper
  • There's always the possibility of a surprise or two - we found unexpected Amanda's Blue here in 2024
  • A great many alpine wildflowers will be at the height of their flowering period, including in their number some sought-after orchid species
  • Other wildlife is unmissable, with close encounters with confiding Long-tailed Skua a particular highlight to look forward to
  • Donations will be made to Butterfly Conservation Europe, and the European Butterflies Group, supporting proactive research and conservation

Tour Description

We are delighted to invite you to join us for a unique and exclusive tour up inside the Arctic Circle, in the far north of Norway and Sweden.

The land of the midnight sun confounds expectations – far from being bleak and austere, at the height of midsummer it is painted with an abundance of wildflowers at all elevations, from lowland bogs to mountain slopes. Where there is floral diversity there are, of course, butterflies – and while a week in the Arctic is not going to produce a list with a great many species, of the dozens of species on the wing there at this time of year, a great many of them will be new for those who have not ventured this far north ever before.

Foremost among them will be fritillaries – their names fire the imagination, for they include not only some extreme European rarities found at this latitude and nowhere else in the world, like the near-mythical Dusky-winged Fritillary, but also an array of regional and mythological names that firmly set the scene of the region we’re exploring. Norse mythology gives us Thor’s, Freija’s, and Frigga’s Fritillary; while the region itself lends its names to Arctic, Lapland, and Polar Fritillary.

The eponymous names continue away from the fritillaries – we’ll expect to encounter, in addition to many confiding Moorland Clouded Yellow, their Pale Arctic and Northern counterparts; Arctic Grayling and Arctic Ringlet; and Northern Grizzled Skipper.

Speaking of skippers, we may also encounter the catena species of Silver-spotted Skipper; being this far north, our week ranging between the 69°N and 70°N lines of latitude, we find a number of otherwise familiar species in novel subspecific form – including the ossiana subspecies of Bog Fritillary, and polaris subspecies of Small Copper.

Small Copper will be greatly outnumbered by subspecies stiberi Purple-edged Copper, and these are a particular delight – like all the European coppers that sport purple on their wings, the further north one goes, the more extensive the violet colouration becomes. Here in the north of Norway, their hindwings blaze with intense colour.

Colourful interest will not be restricted to the butterflies – it will be impossible to ignore the vast array of alpine flowers that bloom at this time of year, including a multitude of highly attractive and range restricted species. The intense blue starbursts of Snow Gentian compete underfoot with the snowy white blossoms of carnivorous Alpine Butterwort, the dusky pinks of Glacier Buttercup, and the rich yellow of Vanilla-scented Bog Orchid Pseudorchis straminea. While we won’t see a huge variety of orchids this far north, they make up for that in both abundance (Common Spotted Orchid fill roadside verges for mile upon mile in their countless thousands) and their exclusivity – we’ll find Alpine Dwarf Orchid Chamorchis alpina growing right alongside Vanilla-scented Bog and Frog Orchids.

It’s also impossible to miss the other wildlife of the region – not least the charismatic and fearless Long-tailed Skua, garrulous Fieldfare, and many Brambling in full breeding plumage. We may spot Moose or Reindeer, and will almost certainly find the latter’s cast antlers on the tundra while we photograph butterflies.

The entire region is bursting with life at this time of year, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Based at two extremely comfortable hotels during the week, this tour is a unique opportunity to set foot where precious few other naturalists or wildlife photographers have gone before.

BOOKINGS FOR THE 2025 BUTTERFLIES OF THE EUROPEAN ARCTIC TOUR ARE CLOSED

We will be running the tour again in 2026 - the opportunity to book will be exclusively shared with Mariposa Nature Tours clients in July 2025. Please join our mailing list if you would like the chance to join us in the Arctic Circle for an unforgettable wildlife holiday in 2026.

Tour Leaders

In the past decade David has devoted his life to butterflies - sharing them with guests, but also working proactively on the committee of the European Butterfly Group, and (until recently) as an identification consultant on the UK Butterflies website.

ButterflyFind Out More

Jon is a natural history writer, photographer and experienced wildlife tour leader based in the Shetland Isles, but with strong links in Europe and the Americas that see him travelling widely in search of memorable wildlife encounters.

ButterflyFind Out More

Tour Location

Map

Tour Itinerary

  • DAY 1
    Arrive at Tromsø airport, transfer to our hotel in Narvik*
    The journey north will be an introduction to the landscapes of the European mainland that lies within the Arctic Circle. We'll pass by deep fjords occupied by Arctic Terns and Black Guillemots, and craggy mountains that still retain snow from the prior winter. The roadsides will be painted purple with drifts of orchids.
  • DAYS 2 & 3
    Northern Sweden
    We will explore a variety of upland and lowland sites in the north of Sweden, with a number of butterfly targets in mind. Top of the list will be the enigmatic Dusky-winged Fritillary, but a variety of further species may be expected - Thor's, Arctic and Cranberry Fritillary; Northern Grizzled Skipper; Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow and Moorland Clouded Yellow; and Cranberry Blue, to name but a few.
  • DAY 4
    Transit day to our hotel in Alta
    We journey north to Alta, a charming town on Norway’s northern coast, at the head of Alta Fjord. The scenery becomes ever more spectacular, as we pass glaciers looming overhead, and we'll make a couple of stops en route to explore the changing butterfly fauna. We'll expect to bump into Arran Brown, Purple-edged Copper and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary in some numbers, but will have our sights set firmly on rarer species still in the coming days.
  • DAYS 5 & 6
    Northern Norway
    We will explore a variety of upland and lowland sites in the north of Norway, again with specific butterfly targets in these differing habitats. A visit to a lowland bog will hopefully yield the charismatic and striking Lapland Fritillary; while uplands provide the opportunity for Polar, Cranberry, Arctic, Bog, and Frigga's Fritillary; Northern Clouded Yellow; and Arctic Grayling. Near to our hotel, sloping roadside banks and verges abound with wildflowers, and here we will anticipate much nectaring activity, while nearby woodland margins give the chance of Arctic Woodland Ringlet.
  • DAY 7
    Morning around Alta, then transit to Tromsø
    The morning gives us the opportunity to either target any missing species, or to revisit former sites for second-helpings of favourites. We then transit back down to Tromsø, and overnight at a comfortable hotel.
  • DAY 8
    Morning in Tromsø, depart via Tromsø airport and tour concludes
    If time allows in the morning before our onward travel homeward bound, we will make a visit to the world-famous Tromsø Arctic–Alpine Botanic Garden, the world's northernmost botanic garden. A small, compact garden, it's a sight to behold at this time of year, home to an unparalled collection of wild gentians, primula, ranunculus, saxifrages, sky blue Meconopsis poppies, and so much more. With that many flowering plants, there's a chance of a butterfly or two also...
  • As with all of our tours, we want our guests to enjoy the very best views of the very best wildlife and, as such, we think it’s important to retain a little flexibility in the holiday itinerary. This means that we may choose to swap days around to take into account local weather conditions, or the timing of the flight or flowering season we find upon arrival at our holiday destination. Rest assured, we will ensure you visit all the best sites, and we have your best interests and comfort at heart!

    *We’ll meet at the airport as this is a convenient travel hub for many. However, we appreciate that some guests may have chosen to come overland via rail to northern Norway. There is no railway station in Tromsø, but trains do run from Sweden to Narvik, and there is a bus service connecting Narvik with Tromsø.

    https://www.visittromso.no/travel-to-tromso

Follow our tours on our Instagram!