Svalbard is easy to reach and organize on your own, but once you leave Longyearbyen you need a guide, because polar bear protection is mandatory outside the settlement.
Backpacking Svalbard independently works like this: book your own flight from Oslo (about 3 hours) or Tromsø (about 1.5 hours), sleep in a hostel-style guesthouse such as Gjestehuset 102 or Coal Miners’ Cabins for NOK 450 to 800 (US$45 to 75) per dorm bed, and walk everywhere within
Longyearbyen. Hikes, boat trips to
Pyramiden or
Barentsburg and snowmobile tours are booked as guided excursions, usually NOK 900 to 2,800 (US$85 to 265) each.
Three to five days covers Svalbard well for most backpackers, with two days as the realistic minimum.
With 2 days in Svalbard you can see
Longyearbyen, its museums and one big excursion such as the 8 to 10 hour boat trip to
Pyramiden. Three days adds a guided hike like
Trollsteinen and a second fjord trip to
Barentsburg. Five days lets you add the 10 to 12 hour summer trip to
Kongsfjorden and
Ny-Ålesund while spacing out the long days. Reaching
Hornsund or
Sør-Spitsbergen National Park takes an expedition cruise of 4 to 10 days.
Yes, Svalbard is one of the few places where a car is almost useless, since roads end about 15 to 20 kilometers outside Longyearbyen and no road links any settlement.
In Svalbard, the airport bus meets every flight and costs around NOK 100 to 120 (US$10 to 12) for the 5 kilometers into
Longyearbyen, and taxis cover the rest of town. Everything farther away is reached by organized transport: summer boats to
Pyramiden and
Barentsburg (roughly June to September), snowmobile or dog-sled tours in winter and spring, and small planes or long boat days to
Ny-Ålesund.
The must-visits in Svalbard are Longyearbyen, the Soviet ghost town of Pyramiden and a boat trip across Isfjorden.
In
Longyearbyen, the
Svalbard Museum takes about 90 minutes and costs around NOK 150 (US$15). The boat trip to
Pyramiden across
Isfjorden runs 8 to 10 hours in summer for NOK 2,000 to 2,800 (US$190 to 265). For a summit, the guided
Hiorthfjellet hike (928 meters, 7 to 9 hours) gives the widest view of the fjord. With an extra day,
Kongsfjorden and its calving glaciers near
Ny-Ålesund are the most dramatic coastal scenery reachable without a multi-day cruise.
If you are short on time in Svalbard, skip Ny-Ålesund and the remote national parks, which each eat a full day or more for one stop.
The trip to
Ny-Ålesund and
Kongsfjorden takes 10 to 12 hours and runs on limited summer dates, so with 2 or 3 days the 8 to 10 hour
Pyramiden boat gives more for less time.
Hornsund and
Indre Wijdefjorden National Park need expedition cruises of several days. In town,
Galleri Svalbard can drop off a tight schedule, and choose either
Barentsburg or Pyramiden rather than both.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Svalbard in seconds. Try it out!
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