Don’t want the fun to end when the sun goes down?
Whether you’re a night owl or you just haven’t filled your quota for adventure during daylight hours, here’s a list of activities to try around the world after nightfall.
1. Northern Lights – Reykjavik, Iceland
The Northern Lights shining over Iceland’s Lake Jokulsarlon. © anieto2k
To witness the illusive Northern Lights dance across the Arctic sky is undeniably one of the most incredible shows that night time has to offer.
In Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, you might be so lucky as to spot the Aurora Borealis by simply looking out of your window. That being said, the darker it is the better your chances – so escaping the city is recommended.
Many hotels and tours in the region are set up to help visitors track down the “Dawn of the North” and, if you can brave the depths of winter, you’ll have 20 hours a day to hunt for them!
Whilst you’re waiting, don’t forget there’s an endless star-studded sky to gaze at in wonder – Hotel Rangá, only an hour out of the city, even has its own in-house astronomical observatory.
Find out where to sleep under the Northern Lights.
2. Bioluminescence Kayak Tour – Florida, USA
The bioluminescent effect.
If you don’t mind getting a little wet, head to Central Florida’s Meritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for a truly unique experience that only nightfall can offer.
Under cover of darkness, a seemingly magical phenomenon occurs in the summer months on Florida’s Indian River Lagoon System – tiny organisms called dinoflagellates light up like fireflies when excited by movement, creating luminescent neon trails in the pitch-black waters.
The best way to see this incredible spectacle is to take a kayak tour. If you launch at dusk, you’ll have the added bonus of watching the sun set from the water and, as the sky darkens, you’ll see your paddles create fairy-dust-like swirls while brightly glowing schools of fish dart around you!
3. Friday Night Skate – London, UK
Speeding through London. © WoofSnap
If you find yourself without plans in London on a Friday night, head to Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner at 8 pm and you’ll find over 5000 people donning wheeled footgear, getting ready to whizz through the city streets.
Though skaters and cyclists are also welcome, the name of the game is inline and quad skating (rollerblades and roller skates) and all that is required is that you are comfortable enough stopping, turning and controlling your speed on hills to join in.
The event is run entirely by volunteers, marshalled for the participants’ safety and the route for each upcoming “Night Skate” is published mid-week on the organisation’s website.
And it’s completely free – all you have to do is show up!
4. Bath Parties – Budapest, Hungary
A quiet evening at Budapest’s Széchenyi Baths.
It is not by chance that Budapest is known as the “City of Baths”. The Hungarian capital´s many thermal baths were introduced during Ottoman rule and have been a vital aspect of the city’s social life ever since – locals of all ages go there to relax, to socialise, even to do business.
Come summer, show up after 10 p.m. at the famous Széchenyi Bath – one of the largest medical spa baths in Europe, housed in a stunning pastel yellow Neo-Baroque palace – and chances are you’ll stumble into one of the rowdiest raves you’ve ever seen.
“Sparties” (spa parties) are an icon of Budapest’s nightlife scene, so much so that many revellers travel from neighbouring countries to join the bikini-clad throngs dancing in the Széchenyi Bath’s 3 massive heated outdoor pools.
If this is all sounding a little too steamy, many of the baths around the city are open late into the evening and you can enjoy a warm and serene outdoor swim under the soft glow of street lamps – minus the pounding techno and strobe lights.
5. Monastery candlelight tour – Arequipa, Peru
Dusk falls on the Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa, Peru. © scropy
Not one or two but three volcanoes form the backdrop of Peru’s second largest city, Arequipa; the birthplace of Nobel laureate novelist Mario Vargas Llosa and home to the gleaming 20,000 sq metre Santa Catalina Monastery.
Commissioned during the country’s colonial period and a prime example of the contemporary Andean-Baroque architectural style, it was built as a convent to harbour the daughters of affluent Spanish families.
Though the pastel hues of the citadel-like complex make for a charming day visit, two nights a week the former nunnery opens its doors at night for a candlelit tour of its labyrinthine grounds.
Walk through cobblestoned passageways onto eerily quiet courtyards lined with orange trees, past dimly lit galleries and cloisters with shadows and echoes dancing around you – just as 200 secluded nuns did centuries before.
6. Ghost tour – Edinburgh, Scotland
Haunted Edinburgh. © Rhys A.
When theatrical – and some might say sensational – storytelling comes together with historical accuracy, a spooky soirée in the form of a ghost tour is a fun and cultural way to spend an evening.
Edinburgh, the city that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s infamous Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, with its gloomy past of plague, torture and murder, has quite the reputation spectral sightings.
Several tours operate in the Old Town – the city’s hotspot for hauntings – guiding you through such sights as the city’s underground vaults, the Edinburgh Dungeon, the local graveyard and even a torture museum – all the while spinning stories of awe and terror.
7. Overnight Jungle Trek – Chiang Mai, Thailand
Making dinner in the Chiang Mai Jungle. © xophe_g
Maybe it’s not your first time hiking through winding forest tracks, past cascading waterfalls and tropical wildlife, but have you ever spent the night in the jungle?
In Northern Thailand, after a long day of trekking, you can seek out the remote hilltop villages of the Chiang Mai province and spend an evening with the Lahu mountain tribes – the most unchanged traditional communities in the country.
Explore the village, help prepare a home-cooked meal – without modern amenities – or attempt a fireside chat with one of your hosts (you might need your guide to help translating!), before falling asleep, lulled by humming and rustling sounds, in bamboo huts built on stilts.
Now that you know what adventures are lurking in the shadows, it’s time to call it a night!
