Rebecca Douglas has been to Iceland 29 times. And she has already booked her 30th trip.
The goal of each trip is the same: to photograph the aurora borealis or the aurora borealis.
Douglas has been photographing this spectacular phenomenon since 2010. Its colors — which can paint the sky a dazzling array of greens, purples, yellows and blues — are the result of solar particles reacting with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. With electricity solar cycle having reached the peak of its 11-year run, the lights are expected to be even more prominent during the next one four years.
Douglas, a professional photographer based in Kent, UK, also travels to Finland, Norway and Iceland every year to capture the night sky. But she said she had also managed to photograph the aurora borealis from the English countryside in the past year.
The rise of ‘noctourism’
Douglas was an unwitting early adopter of “noctourism” — a trend that focuses on nighttime travel.
Booking.com called it a top travel trend for 2025describing it as a desire to “dismiss the hustle and bustle of the day for the magic of midnight”. The company’s global survey of more than 27,000 travelers found that nearly two in three travelers said they had considered “darker sky destinations” for activities such as stargazing (72%), once-in-a-lifetime cosmic events ( 59%) and tracking constellations (57%).
The aurora borealis, seen above Rebecca Douglas’ holiday accommodation in Lofoten, an archipelago in Norway.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Most activities involve the night sky, but others take place on the ground, from city tours and truffle hunting in Italy at night to picnics by the sea under a full moon.
Luxury travel company Wayfairer Travel said overnight tourism experiences have grown by 25% in the past year, with requests for viewing the northern lights in Norway and Iceland, as well as night diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Red Sea in Egypt. Night wildlife safaris in Zambia and Kenya and stargazing in Chile’s Atacama Desert are also popular, according to the company.
“Noctotourism will transform travel in 2025 as nocturnal travelers increasingly seek unique experiences after dark,” said company CEO Jay Stevens.
Travelers can sign up for a night truffle hunt with professional hunters and their dogs.
Stefano Guidi | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Chasing the eclipse could become a new bucket list experience, according to luxury travel operator Scott Dunn.
“Travellers are venturing to the far reaches of the world to witness these celestial spectacles, and Greenland’s high Arctic … will be the next must-visit destination thanks to its remote shores free of light pollution,” said spokesperson Scott Dunn.
But trips don’t have to be so far, as hotels from Hawaii to Austria now offer stargazing activities. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on March 14 and will be visible in most of the worldincluding the Americas, Western Europe and West Africa, according to NASA.
In search of darkness
Douglas avoids hotel arrangements, preferring to plan her own trips, as she plans so many activities at night. She also said she prefers to stay away from large groups, which often consist of people new to night tourism who unknowingly create light pollution with their smartphones and camera flashes.
Aurora Borealis, seen from Iceland.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Douglas plans most of her trips around the best time to see the aurora borealis — usually between August and April, she said. She also chooses remote accommodations away from cities and even neighbors, because just one street or house light can compromise photos, she said.
“I spend a lot of time looking for accommodation on Google Maps,” she said. “If there’s any lighting in the pictures, I’ll ask the host if he can turn off the outside lighting… Even some of the least active shows can be really beautiful if you’re in a really dark space.”
She also takes into account the changes of the moon, she said.
An aurora borealis seen from Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, United Kingdom.
Source: Rebecca Douglas Photography
“In those two weeks around the new moon, you have the darkest sky possible. And then it’s not just the Aurora that’s the best, but the stars are just breathtaking,” she said. “You can see the Milky Way, and it’s just this rainbow of dust and glitter across the sky.”
Douglas created online course help people photograph the aurora borealis.
At night, it also photographs noctilucent clouds — shimmering clouds of ice crystals high in the atmosphere — and polar stratospheric rainbow clouds, she said. Sometimes she shoots from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., and she was outside in temperatures below 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
“They say you have to work hard for your art,” Douglas said.
But for her, spending the trip taking photos at night is a “privilege,” she said.
