Eight hours of blue light, and one clear night.
Which aurora tour actually drives far enough to escape the cloud. What a husky team costs before Christmas. Whether Korouoma is worth the two-hour bus each way. Reviews of every tour you can book in Rovaniemi and the Lapland around it.
A clear night, a sled team, a canyon full of frozen waterfalls.
The four bookings a first week here is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who went say.
01The one clear nightNorthern Lights Tour with Guaranteed SightingsSmall vans that keep driving until the cloud breaks, with a sighting promise attached. Book it early in the trip so you have a second try.
02The animals in a dayReindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus VillageReindeer, huskies and the Arctic Circle crossing in one run. The day that keeps children upright until dinner.
03The canyon dayKorouoma Canyon and Frozen Waterfalls TourTwo hours south to Korouoma, then a hike between fifty-metre walls of frozen waterfall. Sausages over a fire at the bottom.
04The two-hour blast2-Hour Snowmobiling ExperienceYour own snowmobile on a forest track, back in time for a sauna. The cheapest way to feel the cold properly.
Rovaniemi gives you three ways to spend a clear night.
Cloud, not latitude, is what beats you here. Chase it by van, work it with a photographer, or sit still under glass and let it come to you. What each kind of night costs, and where it sits.
The forest north of Rovaniemi opens up at thirty kilometres an hour.
Snowmobile tracks run from the edge of town straight into the wilderness, and most of them end at a fire, a hole in the lake ice or a reindeer fence. Two hours is a taste. Half a day gets you somewhere nobody walks to.
Huskies pull, reindeer plod, and both farms sit twenty minutes from Rovaniemi.
A husky team runs and you steer. A reindeer sleigh moves at walking pace and a herder talks while you go. Most farms sit twenty minutes out of Rovaniemi, and the good ones keep the groups small enough that you get a turn.
- 1Reindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus Villagefrom $213
- 2Apukka Husky Adventurefrom $237
- 3Apukka Reindeer Journeyfrom $206
The Rovaniemi days that fill up first.
Every tour we have reviewed in Lapland →What the most travellers take, and the reason each one keeps earning the slot.
1
Northern Lights Tour with Guaranteed Sightings
You’ll spend up to 8 hours hunting the Aurora with a certified guide such as Matteo, Aneeq, or Alexis. Expect a heated 2025 Ford Tourneo 4x4, a maximum of eight people, thermal clothing, hot drinks, and DSLR photos, with the option to drive into Sweden or Norway for clearer skies.
From · $164
Read our review →
2
Northern Lights Rovaniemi: Guaranteed Viewing & Unlimited Mileage
from $228
3
Lapland Northern Lights Tour with BBQ
from $81
4
Reindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus Village
from $213
5
Small-Group Northern Lights Wilderness Tour
from $136
6
Korouoma Canyon and Frozen Waterfalls Tour
from $136
7
Apukka Husky Adventure
from $237
8
2-Hour Snowmobiling Experience
from $148
Six ways out of Rovaniemi, and the best day in each.
Santa Claus Village sits eight kilometres north on the Arctic Circle line. The canyon is south, the wildlife park is south-east, and the national parks are an hour and a half up the road. Pick the direction first.
What a day out of Rovaniemi actually costs.
Arctic activities are not cheap and the gear is the reason: thermal suits, boots, guides and a machine each. Every tour on the site, grouped by price.
Museum entry, ice fishing, a two-hour snowmobile blast, snowshoes and a fire.
- 1Lapland Northern Lights Tour with BBQfrom $81
- 2Reindeer Experience with Sleigh Ridefrom $99
- 3Snowman World Entrance Ticketfrom $49
The standards: aurora hunts by van, reindeer sleighs, the Korouoma canyon day.
Husky teams you drive yourself, glass-igloo dinners and private aurora vans.
Four Rovaniemi bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of Lapland can be sorted the night before over a beer. These four cannot. Christmas week empties the town of huskies, the canyon ice has a season, and the good aurora guides take twelve people, not fifty.
- 01Korouoma Canyon and Frozen Waterfalls TourThe waterfalls need weeks of hard frost and are gone by spring. The window is roughly January to March, and the buses on it are small.
- 02PRIVATE Party dinner in a Glass Igloo Under Northern LightsThere are only so many domes, each seats one party, and December is spoken for by the previous winter.
- 03Drive Your Own Husky Team (6–10 km) & BBQDriving your own team means one sled per two people. From mid-December every kennel in the region is running at capacity.
- 04Snow Hotel Tour and Ice Restaurant DinnerThe snow hotel is rebuilt each winter and opens when the snow allows, usually December. Dinner seatings are fixed and few.
In December the sun clears the Rovaniemi treeline for about two hours.
From late November the light is a long blue dusk rather than a day, and it is beautiful rather than depressing. Plan the outdoor thing for late morning, then move indoors and warm: a smoke sauna, a hole in the lake ice, a fire and a long dinner. The dark is what makes the sky worth watching afterwards.
Three things Lapland has and the rest of Europe does not.
Snow and reindeer turn up all over the north. A canyon of frozen waterfalls, a line painted on the ground at 66°33′, and a summer where the sun refuses to set do not.
The Korouoma Waterfalls
Korouoma is a fault canyon ninety minutes south of Rovaniemi, and its side streams freeze mid-fall into columns fifty metres tall. Ice climbers work the biggest ones from January; walkers take the valley floor between them, in snowshoes when the drifts are deep. Guides carry sausages and light a fire at the turnaround, because the return leg is uphill and everyone has stopped talking by then.
- 1Korouoma Canyon and Frozen Waterfalls Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,489 reviews
- 2Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls Tour with BBQ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 654 reviews
- 3Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls Tour with BBQ★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 261 reviews
The Arctic Circle Line
The line runs through Santa Claus Village, eight kilometres north of the city, and it is marked, lit and photographed several thousand times a day. It also moves: the circle drifts about fifteen metres a year as the earth wobbles, so the painted stripe is a decent approximation rather than a fact. Crossing it on a snowmobile is quieter than crossing it on foot with a coach party.
- 1Snowmobile Safari into the Arctic Circle Forest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 433 reviews
- 2Santa Claus Village and Arctic Circle★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 355 reviews
- 3Snowmobile Safari into the Arctic Circle Forest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 129 reviews
The Sun That Does Not Set
For about a month either side of midsummer the sun never goes below the horizon here, and the forest at two in the morning is lit like late afternoon. Husky teams switch to wheeled rigs, the lakes are warm enough to swim, and by September the birch turns and the whole region goes copper for a fortnight. Almost nobody books Lapland for this, which is most of its appeal.
- 1Drive Your Own Husky Team (Autumn) & BBQ★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 66 reviews
- 2Autumn Husky Safari Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 27 reviews
- 3Autumn Husky Ride on Wheels★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 18 reviews
Half the Lapland year has no snow in it at all.
The Kemijoki runs open from May, the forest fills with berries by August, and the rapids at Vikaköngäs are loud rather than frozen. Fewer tours run, they cost less, and you will often be the only booking.
Summer and autumn days →
Out of Rovaniemi, by direction
By what you actually do up here
How most people spend a first week in Rovaniemi.
Snowmobile safariThe newest Rovaniemi tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Private Sauna and Ice Swimming Tour with Snacks
Read our review →
Northern Lights Family-Friendly Snowmobile Safari
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Full day: Reindeer Farm, Santa Claus Village & Husky Park
Read our review →
