What a trip out of Longyearbyen costs: all nineteen listings, line by line

Private or shared. This is the biggest single lever, and you can watch it work twice on this site. $201 is a private guided drive lasting two hours; $129 is a shared drive covering much the same ground in the same two hours. Same town, same road, the fare is different because one vehicle carries only your party. It shows again on the summer boats, where $508 is the shared nine-hour day and $1,209 is eight private hours in the same town.

Machine or feet. A snowmobile is a fuelled, maintained, guided machine and it prices like one. The four cave listings all use one, and they sit between $318 and $926. The walking trips sit far below: $143 for two and a half hours up to the plateau, $185 for a three-and-a-half-hour guided walk out into Adventdalen. $302 sits in between, because snowshoes reach a glacier without an engine but still need five guided hours to do it.

Hours. The cost-per-hour column in the big table below exists for exactly this reason. Long days are dearer in absolute terms and usually cheaper by the hour, which is why $926 looks steep next to $344 until you notice it runs seven hours against three and a half. Read the two columns together and the shelf stops looking arbitrary.

Two smaller things nudge the number as well. A meal is included on $508 and a warm lunch on the glacier on $402; hot drinks and snacks appear on $302 and $259. And a handful of listings include pickup or transfer rather than expecting you to make your own way, which is worth more in a dark February morning than it sounds in a browser.

$129 — two hours by car. The lowest fare on this site: a short Arctic drive through Adventdalen, the historic mining ground and the Seed Vault seen from outside, with stops for photographs. 89 reviews at 4.7.

$132 — two and a half hours on foot. The town itself with a local guide: its history, the coloured neighbourhoods, and what living this far north involves. 24 reviews at 4.7, and the cheapest way to have the place explained to you.

$143 — two and a half hours uphill. A guided climb to the wide plateau of Platåfjellet with a historian guide covering the geology, the mining era and the tundra. 9 reviews at 4.6 — the cheapest guided hike here.

$158 — three hours underground. Gruve 3, a real coal mine, entered on foot, with the working life of a miner in the northernmost settlement in the world as the subject. 515 reviews at 4.8: more feedback than any other listing on this site by a wide margin, and it runs all year.

$185 — three and a half hours on foot. The walk out into Adventdalen towards the vault, with its role in protecting the world’s food supply as the story and a hot drink in the landscape. 9 reviews at 4.7.

$190 — two hours by car. A scenic drive to the vault’s glowing entrance and the landmarks around town, small group, pickup available and wheelchair accessible. 38 reviews at 4.8, the best rating among the vault drives.

$201 — two hours, private. The same ground as a private guided drive: the vault from outside in more detail, the town’s history, and views over the glaciers and the fjord. 33 reviews at 4.5.

$206 — four hours after dark. A photography evening with a guide whose job is knowing where to stand and how to set a camera for it. Small group, pickup available, and it can be booked as little as three hours ahead. 36 reviews at 4.6.

$235 — two hours after dark. The shorter version, by car, with a local guide. 13 reviews at 5.0 — the highest rating on this site alongside our top pick.

$249 — five hours, animals first. A hiking and driving tour around Longyearbyen looking for Svalbard reindeer, Arctic foxes and rock ptarmigan, run by a local Norwegian company; the listing notes rich birdlife from June to August. 55 reviews at 4.5.

$259 — three and a half hours in the valley. A guided trek in Bjørndalen with hot drinks and a snack, wildlife along the way and High Arctic life as the running commentary. 35 reviews at 4.5, pickup available.

$259 — three and a half hours to the summit. The longer, moderate route up what the listing calls the locals’ favourite summit, with panoramic views over Adventfjorden and the town. 13 reviews at 4.2.

$302 — five hours on snowshoes. A guided hike up to a glacier without an engine, with hot drinks and snacks out in the field. 13 reviews at 4.8, and the highest-rated way to reach the ice on your own feet.

$318 — two and a half hours, private. The lowest fare into a cave here. You ride as a passenger on the snowmobile, then go into the glacier to see the frozen waterfalls, the ice shapes and the blue-tinted chambers. 3 reviews at 4.3.

$344 — three and a half hours. Our top pick. Snowmobile out through the winter landscape to a cave cut deep into the glacier, small group, transport included. 6 reviews at 5.0, the best rating among the cave listings.

$402 — five hours. A snowmobile run out to Elveneset for a frozen waterfall and a cave, with a warm lunch on the glacier and the Arctic explained by the guide along the way. A new listing, so there is no rating behind it yet.

$508 — nine hours by boat. The summer day: out along the fjord to the Soviet ghost town of Pyramiden and the face of the Nordenskiöld Glacier, small group, meal included, pickup available. 54 reviews at 4.6.

$926 — seven hours on a snowmobile. The long version: you learn to operate the machine, cross a good deal of the winter wilderness and take in the cave as part of a full day rather than an errand. 4 reviews at 4.7.

$1,209 — eight hours, private. The highest priced listing on this site: the abandoned mining town to yourself for a photography day, with the transfer included and the history of the place told while you shoot it. 14 reviews at 4.3.