Want to be amazed by the Northern Lights or experience a solar or lunar eclipse? You’re not alone. Whether you call it noc-tourism or astro-tourism, planning a trip around celestial phenomena like these is a major travel trend for 2025 and beyond.
The 2024 total solar eclipse helped kick off this enthusiasm for looking up, and it shows no signs of slowing down. According to Booking.com’s 2025 travel predictions, around 60% of Americans are considering visiting darker sky destinations in 2025 to take part in activities like once-in-a-lifetime cosmic events and constellation tracking. Priceline’s travel trend report for 2025 noted that one in four Gen Zers are interested in traveling for celestial events, and 35% of travelers say they would travel to view the Northern or Southern Lights.
Why tours are good options for skygazers
Booking a travel tour centered around or including activities focused on the skies can be a good way to up your chances of the stars aligning during your trip. Tour companies often have the lowdown on the best locations and timing to increase the odds of magical moments to remember. And with a travel tour, all the logistics are taken care of, so you can just sit back and enjoy the celestial show.
TravelQuest International, which specializes in solar eclipse tours, works with eclipse metrologists to determine the best viewing locations when planning tours. It also researches locations years in advance to scout the ideal viewing spots that line up with an eclipse’s elevation in the sky—and has backup plans if the weather doesn’t cooperate with a chosen locale.
Adventure tour company Backroads has seen such increased interest in exploring dark sky areas and trips timed with eclipses that it’s had to add additional trips and departure dates for some Northern Lights tours and U.S. national park glamping trips to keep up with demand. Stargazers are also flocking to Road Scholar, which is seeing an enrollment increase of 68% year over year for astronomy programs in 2025.
“We’ve seen growing interest in astro-tourism and dark sky travel, particularly among travelers looking for more transformative and purpose-driven experiences,” says Sasha Andrews, director of industry sales for North America at Exodus Adventure Travels.
Ready for your own out-of-this-world experience? Here are my picks for the best tour companies for astro-tourism.
1. Exodus Adventure Travels
Celestial-focused travel has been part of Exodus Adventure Travels’ portfolio for years, but the company has seen a notable increase in demand for dark-sky and astro-tourism itineraries in 2025. Its trips include the Arctic Circle Aurora Adventure, a seven-day winter excursion designed for optimal Northern Lights viewing; the Iceland Northern Lights tour, a week-long winter adventure that includes visits to black sand beaches and lava fields during the day and aurora-hunting at night; and the 15-day Costa Rica Adventure that includes a rainforest night walk and plenty of time for stargazing.
“Our Northern Lights itineraries are designed to offer more than just an evening of aurora viewing,” says Andrews. “They combine optimal dark-sky conditions with immersive activities like dog sledding, snowshoeing, and backcountry skiing to create a deeper connection to the landscape. For many of our travelers, moments like staying off the grid in a remote Arctic log cabin and watching the sky come alive with color are incredibly powerful. These are the kinds of experiences that stay with you long after the trip ends.”
2. Backroads
Backroads offers lots of opportunities for travelers to seek out the Northern Lights in an active way, including its Iceland Northern Lights Multi-Adventure Tour (a trending tour for 2025), Finland & Sweden Northern Lights Multi-Adventure Tour, and Finland Northern Lights Walking & Hiking Tour. These tours combine skygazing with activities like hikes among steam vents, snowshoeing, and sauna sessions.
Travelers can also stick closer to home and glamp under the stars during the company’s Utah’s Bryce & Zion Glamping Multi-Adventure Tour, Black Hills & Badlands National Park Multi-Adventure Tour, and Utah’s Arches & Canyonlands Walking & Hiking Tour. The trips include stays at Under Canvas properties in dark sky regions for excellent constellation-spotting conditions.
3. Smithsonian Journeys
Known as a leader in cultural travel, Smithsonian Journeys offers immersive travel experiences “through the Smithsonian lens.” The company has offered Northern Lights tours since the 1990s, and is currently taking travelers to Iceland and Finland. On the latter, travelers can gaze at the aurora borealis from a cozy glass-roofed cabin north of the Arctic Circle in Lapland.
Demand has been so high for its 2026 eclipse tours that its Mediterranean solar eclipse at sea journey has already sold out. But it has added additional departures for its Solar Eclipse Over Spain land tour, where participants will view the eclipse from a winery in Spain’s Old Castile region. “By traveling with a group, you will be assured of your accommodations, transportation, and ability to view the eclipse (unless the weather doesn’t cooperate of course!),” says Angela Ferragamo, vice president of marketing for Smithsonian Travel. “And with Smithsonian Journeys, you will be accompanied by a Smithsonian Journeys Expert who will provide deeper insights and enrichment about the phenomena.”
4. TravelQuest International
Specializing in solar eclipse tours, TravelQuest International still has spots on land tours and small-ship cruises to places like Spain and Iceland to catch upcoming eclipses in 2026 and 2027. But some tours, like its Greenland & Iceland Total Solar Eclipse Cruise, are already sold out. You can thank the 2024 eclipse for bringing new skywatchers to the company. “Some people may have seen their first eclipse and want to see one again,” says company spokesperson Mark Dorsten. “And we have a lot of travelers who regularly travel with us.”
Every tour includes an astronomer who accompanies the group, offering guidance and tips on viewing the eclipse. Land tours range in size from around 30 to 100 people, while cruises depend on the size of the ship. And the company is already hard at work planning tours to take in eclipses in Australia in 2028 and southern African in 2030.
5. Road Scholar
Education-driven tour company Road Scholar has seen growing interest in its astronomy programs. Those include everything from a 15-day “study cruise” of coastal Norway in search of the Northern Lights, which includes astronomy-focused lectures along the way, to multiday experiences closer to home at places like Pennsylvania State University, the Grand Canyon, and southern Texas.
“Many people find astronomy to be a fascinating subject, because it encompasses some of the most fundamental questions that humans have pondered (How was the universe born? Is there life elsewhere in the universe?) and phenomena that are visually striking,” says Kevin Luhman, a Penn State astronomy professor and instructor for Road Scholar’s program there. “In addition, we are fortunate to live during a time in history when our knowledge of the universe is expanding rapidly because of technological advances in telescopes.”
6. Natural Habitat Adventures
In collaboration with conservation travel partner World Wildlife Fund, Natural Habitat Adventures offers small group trips with the mission of conservation through exploration. Astronomy fans will love its Grand Canyon, Bryce & Zion itinerary, which includes a dark sky experience at Bryce Canyon National Park and stargazing at Grand Canyon Lodge. Dark sky experiences also take place on other U.S. national park tours like the Moab, Arches & Canyonlands Escape.
Travelers in search of the Northern Lights will want to check out the Northern Lights & Arctic Exploration tour to Churchill, Manitoba, which has often-clear skies and some of the most intense auroral activity on Earth. Aurora-viewing locations visited during the trip include a remote cabin in the boreal forest and the company’s custom-built Aurora Pod, offering a 360-degree view of the night sky through its glass top and sides. Other tours that offer chances to see the aurora borealis include Iceland & Greenland: A Nordic Discovery and East Greenland Arctic Adventure.
7. Intrepid Travel
Intrepid operates under a mission to “create positive change through the joy of travel,” and in 2018 it became the world’s largest travel company to achieve B Corp certification. An appreciation of and respect for the natural world underlies many of its experiences, and the company offers tours in the U.S. that help travelers experience both the country’s many national parks and the splendors of the night sky, like its nine-day Hiking Utah’s National Parks tour.
If seeing the Northern Lights is on your bucket list, Intrepid offers six trips that can help you do that, like the new eight-day Northern Scandinavia in Winter excursion that features a Northern Lights tour in Abisko National Park and a visit to a hotel made entirely of ice. Other options include the eight-day Finnish Lapland in Winter trip and the best-selling Northern Lights Escape in Iceland, a six-day tour that combines aurora chasing with visits to iconic Iceland sights.
8. Butterfield & Robinson
Luxury travel company Butterfield & Robinson can help make your celestial dreams come true in a number of ways. “We’ve noticed a growing interest among our travelers in exploring destinations around the world that offer unique experiences both day and night,” says Kristi Elborne, Butterfield & Robinson’s chief experience officer. “With this trend growing in popularity, we’re curating adventures around the world where our travelers can experience the night sky and stargaze both on scheduled and bespoke trips.”
That includes wintertime tours in popular skygazing locations like Norway and Iceland as well as trips to more under-the-radar destinations. “Newer spots are emerging, predominantly around New Zealand, with the island country of Niue in the South Pacific, South Island’s Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, as well as off-grid islands like Aotea (also known as Great Barrier Island) and the peaks in Queenstown,” says Elborne. The company’s nine-day New Zealand biking trip, for example, includes stays at Lakestone Lodge and Lindis Lodge, both excellent spots for stargazing.
9. HX Hurtigruten Expeditions
HX Hurtigruten Expeditions has been taking travelers to some of the most remote places on earth since 1896. Its new Ultimate Norway – Arctic Expedition under the Northern Lights expedition cruise will sail a flexible itinerary during the “winter wonderland” season, considered the best time to see the Northern Lights. Other activities could include snowshoeing, hiking, kayaking, and a Nordic sauna.
If you’d rather chase the sun, check out the company’s Solar Eclipse Expedition 2026 – Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard. The flexible-route itinerary allows the cruise to take advantage of the best conditions during sailing and includes the opportunity to witness the solar eclipse over East Greenland.
10. Collette
The longest-running tour operator in North America, Collette offers celestial-focused tours like Iceland’s Magical Northern Lights, The Northern Lights of Finland, and Alaska’s Northern Lights that get rave reviews from travelers. The company has also introducing new Northern Lights tours for 2026, including the Aurora Adventure in the Canadian Rockies and The Yukon and its Best of Iceland tour that will include visits to Thingvellir National Park, the Gullfoss waterfall, and the Langjökull glacier along with opportunities to view the aurora borealis.
11. Sky & Telescope
Astronomy-focused Sky & Telescope magazine has been offering solar-eclipse travel tours for decades. Interest has jumped since the 2017 and 2024 eclipses visible in North America, and 2026 eclipse tours include a trip to Mallorca and a Mediterranean eclipse cruise. “We have this saying when someone has seen a total solar eclipse for the first time, the first four words out of their mouth are, ‘When’s the next one?’” says J. Kelly Beatty, a retired editor for the magazine who now runs its tour operations. “And often these solar eclipses happen in places that you’d love to visit.”
Beyond eclipses, Sky & Telescope leads other astronomy focused travel experiences, like its new Galileo and Italy tour, where participants can travel in the footsteps of the astronomer, and its Chile Astronomy and Stargazing trip, which includes visits to renowned observatories. “There are other places you can go that have an astronomy component that are still engaging on a broader level,” says Beatty.
