ROVANIEMI · FINNISH LAPLAND
Under the lights, on the Arctic Circle.
Northern lights hunts, husky and reindeer sleds, snowmobile safaris and ice-floating nights. Santa Claus Village, the Korouoma frozen waterfalls and the long Lapland winter, reviewed and ready to book.
Only here
Three things you can only do up here.
Sled dogs and snowmobiles run in plenty of cold places. Straddling the Arctic Circle, floating in a frozen lake and walking a canyon of frozen waterfalls belong to this stretch of Lapland.
Cross the line
Santa Claus Village
Eight kilometres north of town, the Arctic Circle runs as a painted line straight through the village, and you can stand with one boot in the south and one in the north. The post office answers letters from all over the world, Santa is in year-round, and the whole place glows after dark.
- 1 Rovaniemi: Reindeer, Huskies & Santa Claus Village
- 2 Rovaniemi: Snowman World Entrance Ticket
- 3 Rovaniemi: Santa Claus Village and Arctic Circle
Float on a frozen lake
Ice Floating
Zipped into a thick thermal drysuit, you slip into a cut in the ice of a frozen forest lake and simply float. The suit keeps you warm and weightless, the lake holds you up, and on a clear night the only thing above you is a sky full of stars and, if the lights are out, the aurora.
- 1 Rovaniemi: Ice Floating in Forest Lake with Aurora Borealis
- 2 Daytime Ice Floating Rovaniemi, Frozen Lake Experience
- 3 Aurora Arctic Ice Floating in Rovaniemi, Small-group
Walk a frozen river
Korouoma’s Frozen Waterfalls
A couple of hours south, the Korouoma gorge cuts deep into the forest, and through the depths of winter its waterfalls freeze solid into pale pillars of ice up to fifty metres tall. You hike the canyon floor between them while ice climbers work the bigger walls overhead.
- 1 From Rovaniemi: Korouoma Canyon and Frozen Waterfalls Tour
- 2 Rovaniemi: Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls Tour with BBQ
- 3 Rovaniemi: Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls Tour with BBQ
Start with the lights
The night most Rovaniemi trips are built around.
If you do one thing in Lapland, make it this: a guided hunt for the aurora, driven out to wherever the sky is clearest.
The classics
Rovaniemi's Most Popular Tours
Aurora hunts, husky teams, snowmobiles and reindeer sleighs. The Arctic days and nights most people come to Lapland for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Rovaniemi trip is built around.
The northern lights, the husky and reindeer sleds, the snowmobile safaris, Santa Claus Village and the Korouoma ice. The handful of Arctic days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big question
How to see the northern lights.
The aurora is never guaranteed, so the how is the whole game: get away from the city light, get under an open sky, and be ready to wait. Three ways to do it from Rovaniemi, depending on the night you want.
Forty dogs, one trail
The dogs that do the pulling.
A husky safari begins with the whole kennel screaming to run, and falls dead silent the moment they do. Take the runners behind your own team or ride low in the sled, gliding through snow-loaded spruce on trails the dogs know by heart, then pull in to meet them and thaw out by the fire.
Read the guide: the best husky safaris in Rovaniemi →On the Arctic Circle
The official home of Santa.
Eight kilometres north of the centre, Santa Claus Village straddles the Arctic Circle. Cross the painted line, send a letter postmarked from the Circle itself, meet Santa any day of the year, and watch the reindeer come and go. After dark the whole place turns to snow and lights.
See Santa Claus Village tours →The main event
The lights that brought you north.
Rovaniemi sits beneath the auroral oval, the ring of sky where the northern lights appear most nights, and the season runs from late August to early April. They need darkness, a clear sky and a little solar luck, which is why the hunt is half the story. When the green starts to move, nobody looks away.
Chase the northern lights →Korouoma Canyon
A whole canyon of frozen waterfalls.
Two hours south of Rovaniemi, the Korouoma gorge drops into old-growth forest, and by deep winter its waterfalls have frozen into pale columns of ice up to fifty metres tall. The day is a real hike along the canyon floor between them, with ice climbers working the bigger walls above and a campfire lunch out in the snow.
- 1 From Rovaniemi: Korouoma Canyon and Frozen Waterfalls Tour
- 2 Rovaniemi: Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls Tour with BBQ
- 3 Rovaniemi: Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls Tour with BBQ
By pace
Pick your day, by pace.
Lapland answers every speed. Sleigh-slow when you want the quiet magic, hands-on when you want to drive the team yourself, full throttle when you want the engine and the open ice.
Gentle & magical
Sleigh bells and slow snow.Reindeer sleigh rides at walking pace, farm visits with the herders, and the quiet, storybook end of a Lapland day.
Hands on the sled
Drive your own team.Take the runners behind a team of huskies through the snow forest, learn to brake and steer, and stop to meet the dogs.
Full throttle
Open it up on the ice.Long wilderness snowmobile safaris across frozen lakes, with ice fishing and a campfire lunch out in the white silence.
Across the lakes
Full throttle across a frozen lake.
From Rovaniemi the snowmobile is how you cover real ground: out of the forest and onto wind-packed frozen lakes, where the trail opens up and you can finally let it run. Most safaris stop to drill the ice and drop a fishing line, or pull up at a wilderness hut for sausages over an open fire.
See all 99 snowmobile safaris →Out into Lapland
Six places worth the drive.
Santa Claus Village on the Circle. Korouoma for the frozen falls. Ranua for the polar bears. Riisitunturi for the snow-ghost forest. The national parks for the deep wild. Arktikum for the story of the north.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Aurora if you came for the sky. Huskies if you want to drive. Snowmobiles for the range, reindeer for the slow magic. Ice fishing, ice floating, snowshoes, or a sauna and a hole in the ice.
When to come
The Arctic year, season by season.
Rovaniemi runs on light as much as weather. The aurora wants dark nights, the sleds want deep snow, and for a few summer weeks the sun never sets at all. Here is what each part of the year is for.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Lapland? Here is a three-day run that catches the lights, the sleds and the snow without a wasted hour.
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