Rebecca Douglas has been to Iceland 29 times. And she has already booked her 30th trip.
The goal of every expedition is the same: to photograph the aurora borealis, or aurora borealis.
Douglas has been photographing this spectacular phenomenon since 2010. Its colors – which can paint the sky in a dazzling array of greens, purples, yellows and blues – are the result of solar particles reacting with gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere. With the flow solar cycle reaching the peak of its 11-year run, the lights are expected to be even more visible next four years.
Douglas, A professional photographer lives in Kent, UK. He also travels to Finland, Norway and Iceland every year to photograph the night sky. But she said she also managed to photograph the northern lights in the English countryside last year.
The rise of “notourism”
Douglas was unwittingly an early adopter of “notourism” – a trend focusing on night travel.
Booking.com called it a the most important travel trend for 2025describing it as a desire to “abandon the daylight crowds for the magic of the north.” The company's global survey of more than 27,000 travelers found that nearly two in three travelers said they considered “destinations with darker skies” for activities such as stargazing (72%), once-in-a-lifetime space events ( 59%) and constellation tracking (57%).
The Northern Lights seen above Rebecca Douglas's vacation home in the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago in Norway.
Source: Rebecca Douglas photography
Most activities take place in the night sky, but others take place on the ground, from city tours and nightly truffle hunting in Italy to full moon picnics by the sea.
Luxury travel agency Wayfairer Travel says overnight travel has increased by 25% in the past year, with requests to see the Northern Lights in Norway and Iceland, but also night dives in Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea in Egypt. Night wildlife safaris in Zambia and Kenya and stargazing in the Atacama Desert in Chile are also popular, according to the company.
“Noctotourism will transform travel in 2025 as night owl 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 from Getty Images | Getty Images
According to luxury travel planner Scott Dunn, eclipse chasing could become a new bucket list experience.
“Travellers are venturing to remote corners of the world to witness these celestial spectacles, and Greenland's High Arctic… will be another must-see destination due to its remote, pollution-free shores,” said spokesman Scott Dunn.
But travel doesn't have to be that far away, as hotels from Hawaii to Austria now offer stargazing activities. The next total lunar eclipse will be on March 14 and will be visible across most of the worldincluding the Americas, Western Europe and West Africa, according to NASA.
In search of darkness
Douglas avoids hotel packages, preferring to plan his own trips because he schedules many activities at night. She also said she prefers to stay away from large groups, which often consist of people new to night hiking and unknowingly cause light pollution through smartphones and camera flashes.
The Northern Lights 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 accommodations far from cities or even neighbors, because just one street or lighting in the house can worsen the quality of the photos, she added.
“I spend a lot of time looking for accommodations on Google Maps,” she said. “If there is any lighting visible in the photos, I will ask the host if it is possible to turn off the outside lighting… Even some of the least active shows can be really beautiful if you are in a really dark place.”
She added that she also takes into account the phases of the moon.
A polar storm seen from Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, UK.
Source: Rebecca Douglas photography
“During the two weeks around the new moon, we have the darkest possible skies. And besides, not only is Aurora the most beautiful, but the stars are simply breathtaking,” she said. “You see the Milky Way and it's just a rainbow of dust and glitter in the sky.”
Douglas created online course to help people photograph the aurora borealis.
At night, he also photographs night clouds – shiny ice crystals high in the atmosphere – and polar, stratospheric rainbow clouds, she added. She sometimes shoots from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and has been outside in temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
“They say you have to work hard for your art,” Douglas said.
But for her, traveling and taking night photos is a “privilege,” she said.