Bill Bryson had an essay in one of his books about going to a small northern Norway town in January, and spending two weeks there until the Northern lights finally showed up.

olive_oil,

The aurora is incredible, and it is a worthy goal to seek it out. The point of all these posts is simply that it's not guaranteed at any time and place. Your chances overall will be better if you wait a few years. The aurora is correlated with sunpot activity, which follows an 11-year cycle. The next peak should be 2010 or 2011, but even by 2008 the chances will be better than now.
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml