Rebecca Douglas has been to Iceland 29 times. She has booked her 30th trip.
The goal on every trip is the same: photograph the Northern Lights.
Douglas has been photographing this spectacular phenomenon since 2010. The result of the reaction. With the current solar cycle Reached its peak during the 11-year period and is expected to be even more prominent in the coming years four years.
douglas, a professional photographer Headquartered in Kent, England, it also travels to Finland, Norway and Iceland every year to photograph night skies. But she said she was also able to photograph the Northern Lights in the British countryside last year.
The rise of “night tourism”
Douglas unknowingly became an early adopter of “night tourism” – a trend that focuses on nighttime travel experiences.
Booking.com named it The Hottest Travel Trends of 2025describing it as a desire to “forsake the daytime crowd for midnight magic.” A global survey of more than 27,000 travelers by the company showed that nearly two-thirds of travelers said they had considered “dark sky destinations” for stargazing (72%), once-in-a-lifetime cosmic events (59%) and horoscope tracking (57%).
Rebecca Douglas’s Northern Lights seen above her holiday home in Lofoten Islands, Norway.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Most activities involve the night sky, but some take place on the ground, from city tours and nocturnal truffle hunts in Italy to beachside picnics under the full moon.
Luxury travel company Wayfairer Travel said it had seen a 25 per cent increase in nighttime travel experiences last year, with requests for Northern Lights viewing in Norway and Iceland and night diving in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Egypt’s Red Sea. Nighttime safari safaris in Zambia and Kenya and stargazing in Chile’s Atacama Desert are also popular, the company said.
“Nighttime travel will transform the travel industry in 2025 as night owl travelers increasingly seek unique after-dark experiences,” said Jay Stevens, the company’s CEO.
Travelers can sign up for nighttime truffle hunts with professional hunters and their dogs.
Stefano Guidi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Luxury travel executive Scott Dunn says chasing a solar eclipse could become a new “bucket list” experience.
A spokesperson for Scott Dunn said: “Travelers are venturing to remote corners of the world to witness these celestial wonders, and Greenland’s high Arctic… is becoming the next must-see destination due to its remote, light-pollution-free coast. land.
But the journey doesn’t have to be that far, with hotels from Hawaii to Austria now offering stargazing. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on March 14 Found in most parts of the worldThat includes the Americas, Western Europe and West Africa, according to NASA.
looking for darkness
Douglas avoids hotel packages, preferring to plan her trips on her own because she plans a lot of activities in the evenings. She also said she prefers to stay away from large crowds, which often consist of people new to night wandering who unintentionally create light pollution with their smartphones and camera flashes.
Northern Lights seen from Iceland.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Douglas said she plans most of her trips to coincide with the best time to see the Northern Lights — usually between August and April. She said she also chooses remote accommodations away from towns or even neighbors because just one street or home lights might affect the photos.
“I spent a lot of time looking for accommodation on Google Maps,” she said. “If there are lights in the photo, I would ask the presenter if they could turn off the external lights… Even some of the most inactive performances can be very beautiful if you’re in a really dark area.”
She said she also considered the phases of the moon.
Auroral storm seen from Elmley Nature Reserve, Kent, UK.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
“The sky is probably the darkest in the two weeks around the new moon. Then not only are the auroras at their best, but the stars are breathtaking,” she said. “You could see the Milky Way, and there was just a rainbow of dust and flash in the sky.”
Douglas created a Online courses Help people photograph the Northern Lights.
At night, she said, she also photographed noctilucent clouds (shimmering clouds of ice crystals high in the atmosphere) and polar stratospheric iridescent clouds. She sometimes shoots from 8 pm to 5 am and in temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
“They say you have to work for your art,” Douglas said.
But for her, traveling to take photos at night is “a privilege,” she said.
About The Author
