Canada
Yellowknife
Aurora borealis so vivid the colours reflect off Great Slave Lake like a second sky below.
The aurora borealis ignites above Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and the colours are not subtle — vivid green curtains ripple across the sky, sometimes pink, sometimes violet, reflected in the black mirror of Great Slave Lake below.
Yellowknife sits directly beneath the auroral oval, making it one of the most statistically reliable places on Earth to see the Northern Lights — visible an average of 240 nights per year. The Old Town is built on rock islands connected by short roads, with houseboats and float planes moored between them. Aurora viewing lodges on the outskirts offer heated cabins with roof windows for all-night sky watching. In summer, the midnight sun doesn't set and the aurora reflects off the lake's open water; in winter, the frozen lake surface doubles the light show. Ice roads to remote diamond mines open each winter, crossing the frozen lake like highways over the Arctic.
Solo
Solo aurora chasers find Yellowknife unbeatable — 240 viewable nights per year means you're almost guaranteed a display. The Old Town houseboats and pilot bars add character between light shows.
Couple
Watching the Northern Lights from a heated aurora lodge, then crossing the frozen lake by dogsled — Yellowknife delivers the ultimate winter romance under the most reliable aurora on the planet.
Friends
The combination of aurora viewing, ice road driving, and Yellowknife's eccentric Old Town — houseboats, bush planes, and pilot bars — makes for a group trip unlike anything in southern Canada.
- Aurora borealis is visible an average of 240 nights per year — one of the most reliable viewing locations on Earth.
- The Old Town is built on rock islands connected by short roads, with houseboats and float planes moored between them.
- The aurora reflects off Great Slave Lake in summer and off the frozen lake surface in winter — doubling the display.
- Ice roads to diamond mines open each winter, crossing the frozen lake surface like highways over the Arctic.
Lake trout smoked over birchwood by Dene elders at the Yellowknife Farmers Market.
Bison tenderloin at Bullock's Bistro — a legendary local joint in a converted log cabin.
Wild rice soup and bannock at a lakeside camp under the Northern Lights.
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