70° North · Alta, Norway
Seven nights living in the true Arctic.
Hi, I'm Chicco. I've lived in the Arctic for 15 years. A few times each winter I open my doors to a small group of travelers and show them what it actually means to sleep at -20°C and ride a sled team through forests that haven't changed in a thousand years.
The host
A filmmaker who never left the cold.
I'm Chicco Mattos, a Brazilian filmmaker who fell in love with the Arctic on assignment and never went home. For the past fifteen years I've been based in Alta, Norway, a small city above the Arctic Circle known as the City of the Northern Lights.
I make documentaries about the polar regions for Brazilian and international audiences: Record TV, Globo, my own channels. Across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok 2.8 million people across platforms follow what I do up here.
But the work that matters most to me isn't on screen. A few times each winter I host a small, intimate group, and we spend a week chasing aurora, running dogs, meeting Sámi reindeer herders, and learning what the polar night actually feels like. Not a tour. A week in my world.
15
Years in the Arctic
2.8M
Followers
70°N
Latitude of home
Upcoming trips
Trips throughout aurora season.
Seven nights. An intimate group. Multiple departures across the polar-night window — the same week I'd plan for my closest friends if they were coming to visit me.
Alta, Norway
December 2026
December 10 – 17, 2026 · 7 nights
The opening window of the polar-night season. Full Arctic darkness, the highest aurora odds of the year, and the unique mid-winter add-on of whale watching in the fjords.
From
NOK 49,500
≈ $5,596 · €4,475
Alta, Norway
Early January 2027
January 7 – 14, 2027 · 7 nights
The classic January window. Deep polar night, peak aurora season, and the first hints of sun returning at the end of the week.
From
NOK 49,500
≈ $5,596 · €4,475
Alta, Norway
Late January 2027
January 14 – 21, 2027 · 7 nights
A newly opened week, right after the busiest departure of the season. Peak aurora nights with the sun just back on the horizon and hours of blue Arctic twilight.
From
NOK 49,500
≈ $5,596 · €4,475
Alta, Norway
February 2027
February 14 – 21, 2027 · 7 nights
Deep-winter window with the sun back on the horizon, generous twilight, and long, dark nights that keep aurora odds high.
From
NOK 49,500
≈ $5,596 · €4,475
What a week looks like
The Arctic doesn't perform on cue. We meet it on its terms.
Hunt the aurora
Drive to remote spots far from light pollution. We watch, we wait, we make hot drinks. Sometimes the sky stays quiet. Sometimes it explodes.
Run a dog team
Take the reins of your own husky team and glide through silent forest. The huskies do the work, you just hold on and feel the speed.
Cross the plateau
A snow-train expedition across Finnmarksvidda, Europe's largest mountain plateau and ancestral Sámi land.
Sit with the Sámi
A day with Sámi reindeer herders in Kautokeino. Joik, fire, reindeer stew in a lavvu tent. Culture, not theater.
The place
Why Alta?
Alta is the only city in the world officially called "The City of the Northern Lights." It sits at 69.97° North, sheltered from clouds by surrounding mountains, with one of the highest aurora-visibility rates on Earth.
It's also where Europe's first northern lights observatory was built, in 1899. The Sámi have lived in this region for thousands of years. The fjord doesn't freeze. The light is unlike anywhere else.