Last winter I worked as a tour leader in Finnish Lapland. I spent a month there doing all the traditional excursions. Here’s my Finnish Lapland Travel Guide and tips to see the Northern Lights.
General information
best time to visit
The best time to visit Finnish Lapland is during February, when the days are longer. Since Lapland is located above the North Pole Circle, the daylight is very short, even non-existent around the 21st of December. This also means that during winter many days are stuck in golden hour, Kaamos in Finnish. The sky turns insanely beautiful colors all day long. It also makes for great pictures!
Money, Money, Money
Since Finland is a European country, you can pay with the Euro. It is part of Scandinavia, famed for being rather expensive. You will easily pay in the supermarket what you pay in restaurant elsewhere. For example, a 50cl bottle Coca Cola costs at least €2 in the supermarket, which is what it costs in a restaurant elsewhere in Europe.
Trips to Finnish Lapland usualy last 4 to 5 days. This is plenty of time to do all of the excursions, but will already cost a pretty penny (at least 1.800 euros/person all-in). It is a bucket list destination for many people anyway, which I completely understand!
Clothing
How cold does it really get? The winter I worked there (2019-2020), the temperatures were barely under 0°C. The coldest it got was -17°C. It should get colder though, it was an extraordinarily warm winter.
You don’t need to worry much about the cold. Make sure you bring thermal underwear, good woolen socks and a wooly hat and scarf. Your excursion package will include thermal overalls that keep you very warm. Take a good jacket and ski pants with you to wear when you’re not on an excursion. Good water-resistant shoes are a must-have as well.
Where to stay
In Finnish Lapland there are a couple of options. The higher North, the better for the Northern Lights. I spent most of my time in Levi, where I was very lucky to see it with every group. I would recommend staying in Levi or higher North, though people often see it in Ruka too. Rovaniemi is situated on the North Pole Circle, which is too far South in my opinion.
For Levi you fly to Kittila and for Ruka to Kuusamo.
Top 5 excursions
1. Husky sledge
For many tourists this is their favorite excursion! Two people share a sledge, one driver and one passenger. Halfway you can switch positions if you want to. I was surprised at how difficult it was the first time. To be fair, it was downhill and the first run for the dogs. It went SO fast and I had to keep 1 foot on the break at all times. I was exhausted after the full 5 minutes.
Luckily that wasn’t the case when I went back with my groups. The excursion lasts a lot longer than 5 minutes and it’s a nice tempo. You get to enjoy the surroundings and the passenger can take many stunning pictures. The driver must keep 2 hands on the sledge at all times.
The dogs love running and believe it or not… farting! I’m not kidding, you won’t easily forget the dog farts. Every now and then one will take a dump too. It’s quite funny! Most times puppy cuddles are included as well. Take full advantage of it!
2. Snow mobile safaris
The excursions I went on included snow fishing, which is sometimes cold and boring unless you actually catch a fish. I loved driving a snow mobile, especially speeding over lakes. The landscapes are impressive as well.
It’s annoying though when people in the group stay behind to then speed to catch up with the group the entire way. It’s dangerous as well. I only had a couple of accidents within my groups. Be careful when departing not to hit the person in front of you and watch out going downhill. Drive responsibly and listen to the guides, that’s most fun for everyone.
3. Reindeer sledge
Some say this is a boring excursion because they go slow, but I beg to differ! It depends a lot on the farm, some will walk with the reindeer at their side, some will ride them which goes faster.
A real reindeer farm is run by indigenous Sami. This is a former nomadic group of the population, that spreads across Norwegian, Swedish, Russian and Finnish Lapland. They used to follow the reindeer around, but these days they let them loose in the summer and collect them at their farm during the winter to feed them extra.
It is great to get to know more about these people and their traditions. My first time sledging was with a real female Sami herder and I absolutely adored it!
They start off by saying you can pet the reindeer, just to stay away from the head. As I sat down in the sledge, I was pretty much head-to-head with the reindeer behind me, so I thought OKAY? We took off and the herder jumped onto my sledge. We were going pretty fast. The reindeer that was behind me kept trying to pass us by and it was blowing snot in my face. If that isn’t an immersive experience I don’t know what is!
Afterwards you spend some time feeding baby reindeer moss, what a delight!
4. Snowshoe walk
People often underestimate this excursion. They don’t expect much from it. However, it is so much fun! Try having a race with snowshoes on, it’s hilarious!
You set off into the woods and pass by animal tracks that your guide can decode. The landscapes are phenomenal, especially when the sky is colored pink, purple and blue. Don’t forget to have a snowball fight or a snow shower under a tree.
5. Snow Village
This is a hotel completely made from snow. Each year the rooms are decorated in a different theme. I was disappointed that the theme wasn’t Game of Thrones anymore, but it was impressive, nonetheless.
After a tour of the hotel, you can have a delicious 3-course meal full of Lappish ingredients. If you dare, stay a night in a snow room. You get a thermal sleeping bag with liner and wearing thermal underwear in it should be sufficient. I didn’t get to do it, so it’ definitely on my bucket list still.
What else MUST you do?
Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is situated on the North Pole Circle. I was lucky enough to meet the man himself a couple of times, even on Christmas day. Some people even stick to this visit and do a reindeer safari and visit the small snow hotel there, though I would recommend against this. Often people who only want to stay in Lapland for a day do this.
You can send postcards from the one and only Arctic post office. They get sent with a unique Northpole stamp. You can buy all the necesities at the office. Next, you have two options. You either send the cards to arrive as soon as possible, or to arrive before Christmas next year. I decided to go with the latter and it was such a great surprise for my family members and myself, since I had forgotten already.
Spotting the Northern Lights
The reason EVERYONE wants to go to Finnish Lapland, but there is no guarantee you’ll see it. The chance of seeing the Northern Lights depends on a couple of things:
- How far North you are located
- If the sky is clear at night or cloudy
- The longer you spend there, the higher the chance
- How bright is the moon? The darker the night, the easier it is to see the light.
- The Kp-index
What is a Kp-index? Well, it is a scale (0-9) that describes the disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the solar wind. The faster the solar wind blows, the greater the turbulence and the better you can see the Northern Lights. I recommend downloading the My Aurora Forecast App. This way you can check every night if you can possibly see it.
You can see it starting at Kp 3. Chances are you will start seeing it as a blur that is not even green. I recommend setting up a camera (on a tripod, shutter speed 10-15 seconds and low f-stop/aperture, high ISO). Your camera will pick up the green before your eyes do. You will have to stand very still if you want to be in the picture yourself, since it takes the camera 15 seconds to take the picture and picks up on all movement, but also all the light.
How I’ve seen it
You often have to look in Northern direction, but look behind you now and then! I always walk towards a lake, where I see a lot of sky. I had seen it in the North a couple of times, so was looking in that direction. Then I saw something to my left and followed it, only to see that it was going on behind us!
I was lucky enough to see the Northern Lights at Kp 5 and my mind was BLOWN! People were screaming in awe of the natural spectacle above them. I fell on my back in the snow to be able to see all the different colors and movements. In that moment I knew where the saying “I can’t believe my eyes” comes form. It is absolutely surreal.
Ice karting
This excursion was optional and I got the chance to try it out. I LOVED IT! I had never gone regular karting, but this was right up my street. The sky was stuck in golden hour, which made it even better!
It is a lot like drifting, since you are driving on ice. When I got back home, I almost had an accident and slipped. Thanks to this excursion I knew exactly what to do to get my car back under control.
Eat lots of reindeer and salmon
To recover from all these activities, there was plenty of delicious food in a traditional Kota. Examples of the traditional meals are reindeer sausages, reindeer stew, salmon roasted by an open fire and salmon soup.
You will need the energy to conquer the cold. Eat loads at the breakfast buffet, enjoy your traditional lunch. Finnish people drink the most coffee of all nationalities in the world. If you don’t like coffee, you can have a warm berry juice instead.
Heat up in the sauna
Finland is the land of the sauna. Every household has one and your hotel room probably will too! Enjoy some time in the sauna to heat up after your excursions in the snow.
Here’s the Finnish Lapland Travel Guide video I made of my time in Lapland, including all the excursions:
I hope you enjoyed this Finnish Lapland Travel Guide. If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading!