12 Unforgettable Things to Do in Finnish Lapland (Beyond Chasing the Aurora)
12 Unforgettable Things to Do in Finnish Lapland (Beyond Chasing the Aurora)
Everyone comes to Lapland for the Northern Lights. Fair enough. But the aurora is a gamble the sky decides on — and if you plan your whole trip around a green ribbon that may or may not show, you're missing the point. Lapland is a full-contact winter you can actually book. You can sleep under glass, drive your own dog team, drop into a hole in a frozen lake, and shake hands with the official Santa Claus, all before the sky even wakes up.
Here are 12 experiences worth building the trip around. The lights, if they come, are the encore.
1. Drive Your Own Husky Team Through the Forest
Sitting in a sled is fine. Standing on the runners and driving the team yourself is the real thing — the kind of mushing that also draws people to the Canadian Rockies, only here you're doing it under the Arctic Circle. Most farms around Rovaniemi and Saariselkä hand you a six-dog team, a two-minute crash course on the brake, and then let you loose across the trails. The dogs pull harder than you expect and go quiet the second they start running — just paws on snow and your own breath.
A proper self-drive safari (2-3 hours, roughly 20-30 km) runs €160-220 (about $175-240) and usually ends with hot berry juice by a fire. Book the longer safari, not the 30-minute joyride — the short version barely gets the dogs warmed up and you'll wish you'd gone further. Bering Husky and Arctic Circle Husky Park near Rovaniemi are reliable operators.
2. Take a Reindeer Sleigh Ride the Slow Way
After huskies, a reindeer ride feels almost meditative. Reindeer don't sprint — they plod, harness bells jingling, through pine forest that's absolutely silent otherwise. It's the ride the Sámi have used for centuries, and the farms are family-run, so you get the actual stories behind the herds.
A short forest ride starts around €50 (about $55); a longer safari with a visit to the reindeer farm and coffee in a kota (a traditional teepee-style hut) runs €100-130 ($110-140). Do it here rather than in the busiest tourist pens — the smaller farms outside town let you feed the reindeer lichen from your hand.
3. Sleep in a Glass Igloo at Kakslauttanen
This is the postcard everyone has seen. A domed, heated glass roof over a proper bed, out in the frozen wilderness near Saariselkä, so you can lie back and watch the sky without leaving your duvet. If the aurora fires, you'll see it from your pillow. If it doesn't, you still get a sky stuffed with stars.
Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort is the original and the famous one — glass igloos run roughly €400-650 a night ($440-710) depending on season, and December sells out months ahead. Book early or look at alternatives like the glass rooms at Levi's Northern Lights Ranch or Nellim by Lake Inari, which are quieter and often cheaper.
4. Meet the Official Santa Claus at Santa Claus Village
Skip the cynicism — Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is genuinely well done. Entry is free, it's open year-round, and the man himself keeps office hours daily. The meeting is free; the professional photo is the upsell (around €40 / $44), and you can't use your own camera in his grotto, so budget for it if you want the shot.
While you're there, mail a postcard from Santa's official post office with the Arctic Circle postmark — you can even have it held and delivered at Christmas. Get there right at opening (usually 10am) to beat the tour-bus crowds that roll in mid-morning.
5. Stand on the Arctic Circle Line
It runs straight through Santa Claus Village, painted on the ground and lit up at night: latitude 66°33′ north, the actual Arctic Circle. Stepping across it is a small, silly, satisfying thing to do — and yes, they'll sell you a certificate to prove you did it (around €5 / $5.50).
It costs nothing to stand on the line and take the photo. Do that part for free, and decide for yourself whether the certificate is worth it.
6. Do the Sauna-Then-Ice-Swim Ritual
This is the most Finnish thing you can possibly do, and it will rearrange your nervous system — though the sauna-and-cold-plunge devotion runs right across the Nordics, from Helsinki to Bergen. You sweat in a wood-fired sauna until you can't stand it, then walk out and lower yourself into a hole cut in a frozen lake — avanto is the word for it. The cold hits like a slap, then, weirdly, euphoria. Then back to the sauna. Repeat.
Many wilderness lodges and lakeside cabins offer this, often included with an evening package (€30-60 / $33-66). Don't overthink it and don't stay in the water more than 30 seconds — the locals aren't showing off, they're just used to it. Wear the little wool hat they give you; it helps more than you'd think.
7. Spend a Night in a Room Carved From Snow
The Arctic SnowHotel in Sinettä, about 30 minutes from Rovaniemi, is rebuilt every winter from snow and ice — walls, beds, even a glowing ice bar. You sleep on an ice platform in an expedition-grade sleeping bag rated for the -5°C rooms. It's a one-night bragging right, not a week-long stay.
A snow room runs around €250-350 ($275-385) for two, breakfast and sauna access included (you'll want that sauna). Not up for sleeping in it? Day visits to tour the hotel and ice bar cost about €18 ($20). Rovaniemi's SnowHotel and the ice restaurants nearby offer similar walk-through options.
8. Snowmobile Across a Frozen Lake
Nothing covers Arctic distance like a snowmobile, and open lake ice is where you get to actually open the throttle. Guided safaris take you across frozen lakes and through forest trails you'd never reach on foot, often out to a spot for grilled sausages and coffee over a fire.
Expect €140-180 ($155-200) for a half-day, two riders sharing a machine (solo costs extra). You need a valid driver's licence to drive, and guides enforce a strict no-alcohol-before-riding rule. Splurge on the solo machine if it's in budget — sharing means swapping halfway and one of you spends the ride as a passenger.
9. Snowshoe Into Urho Kekkonen National Park
When you want silence — real, ringing silence — head into Urho Kekkonen National Park near Saariselkä. Strap on snowshoes and walk out across untracked snow into fell landscape that goes on forever. The park has open wilderness huts along the trails where you can boil water and warm up.
Guided snowshoe treks run €60-90 ($66-100) for a few hours; if you're experienced, the trails from the Saariselkä end are marked and free to walk. Pack more layers than you think, tell someone your route, and check daylight hours — in December the sun barely clears the horizon.
10. See Arctic Animals at Ranua Wildlife Park
About an hour south of Rovaniemi, Ranua is the world's northernmost zoo and one of the few places you'll reliably see a polar bear, plus wolverines, lynx, brown bears, and Arctic foxes in enormous forested enclosures. The boardwalk loop is 2.5 km and takes a couple of hours in the snow.
Entry is around €19 ($21) for adults, less in shoulder season. It's a genuinely good half-day, especially if you're travelling with kids, and the animals are far more active in the cold than they'd be in summer.
11. Ride a Chairlift Up Levi or Pyhä for the Fells
Lapland isn't flat everywhere. The ski resorts at Levi and Pyhä-Luosto give you actual fells to ride up, whether or not you ski. Take the gondola or chairlift to the top for a view across white forest that stretches to the horizon, then warm up in a summit café.
Levi is the biggest resort in Finland, with proper runs and a lively après scene — modest next to Alpine heavyweights like Chamonix, but with a fraction of the lift queues; Pyhä is smaller, quieter, and sits right against Pyhä-Luosto National Park. Day lift passes run €45-55 ($50-60); a single sightseeing gondola ride is cheaper if you're just up for the view.
12. Hunt the Aurora — With Realistic Odds
Here's the honest version. Rovaniemi sits under the auroral zone and gets active skies dozens of nights each winter, but you need three things to line up: solar activity, clear skies, and darkness. Give yourself at least three or four nights to improve your chances, and get away from town lights.
Download the My Aurora Forecast app to track the KP index, drive 20-30 minutes out of the city, and look north. A guided aurora tour (€90-150 / $100-165) is worth it your first night — the guides chase the clear patches and know the dark spots. After that, you'll know how to hunt on your own.
Pro Tip: Layer Like a Local, Not a Tourist
The single thing that saves or ruins a Lapland trip is warmth. Wool base layer against the skin (never cotton — it holds sweat and freezes you), a fleece mid-layer, and a windproof shell. Add proper insulated boots rated to at least -20°C and mittens over gloves.
And here's the move most people miss: nearly every safari operator lends you a full thermal oversuit, boots, and mittens for the activity, included in the price. So don't blow your budget buying an expedition wardrobe back home — pack smart base layers, borrow the heavy gear on-site, and put the savings toward that glass igloo instead.
