A 1 week trip with kids: April or June

[kt]

We are planning a 1 week trip with kids 6, 12 & 13 in early April, and debating whether June is better. We hope to see Northern Lights. Is early April too late? Thank you for the advice.

[Eric]

Hi! Sorry for the late response– your messages got caught in our spam filter.

So the northern lights will be tough in April. Not impossible, but very difficult. Take a look at the twilight data here:

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/iceland/reykjavik?month=4&year=2018

Note there are three different kinds of twilight: Civil, Nautical, and Astronomical. These are just different levels of dark. Something like:

Civil: Dark. Outside of civil twilight, people can’t really see outside anymore to do stuff without a flashlight.

Nautical: Very dark. Outside of nautical twilight, you can see some of the brightest stars

Astronomical: Super dark. Outside of astronomical twilight, you can see lots of stars

(The data is a little confusing, since this shows hours of daylight; you need to consider the times outside of the ranges given, since you want darkness.) So by mid-April, it never gets “super dark.” It’s only “very dark” from maybe 11 PM – 3 AM. And it’s only even “dark” from 10 PM to 5 AM.

You can see the northern lights during civil twilight, though it might be less impressive. But you’ll be up very late or very early. In my opinion, I wouldn’t choose to go in April just to try to see the northern lights, especially with a 6 year old.

There will be fewer tourists in April, though!

[kt]

Thank you! We booked for June 7 – 16. So excited!

[Author]

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