Norway Whale Watching Holidays

Dabbling its toes in deep-water fjords and surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the Arctic city of Tromso is renowned as one of Europe’s cetacean hotspots – and as it’s a winter phenomenon, you get to go northern lights watching as well.

Imagine watching a pod of orcas – twenty or thirty strong – rounding up vast shoals of herring on a winter feeding frenzy. Or witnessing humpback whales lunging at the fish, scattering their bodies like silver sparks across the surface of the Norwegian Sea. Heading out to beautiful Kaldfjorden, where the whales have gathered to feast on overwintering shoals of herring, you not only stand a good chance of seeing whales, but also observing their extraordinary feeding behaviour. The orcas round up seething bait balls of herring and then stun the fish with ultrasonic tail-slaps before hoovering up their prey, while the humpbacks lunge at the dense shoals from below, taking a 20,000-litre gulp of the hapless herring.