A Week of Chasing the Northern Lights in Finland

After your mid-morning flight from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, head immediately to Santa's Salmon Place, a tiny restaurant in a hut within Santa’s Village. Don’t let the small size of this restaurant and the simple three-item menu deceive you. It fills up quickly due to its outstanding reputation. Guests are typically asked to wait outside, if the restaurant is already full when they arrive. It’s ideal to arrive right when it opens to avoid a wait. It is, without a doubt, the best salmon I have ever tasted in my life. After eating your giant piece of salmon, indulge in the traditional Finnish cheese, served with cloudberry jam - a berry indigenous to Lapland. For your drink, consider the hot blueberry juice or the glogi, a Finnish version of mulled wine full of spices.

After lunch, explore Santa Claus Village. You can visit Santa and his elves for a picture. Take a picture at the official line of the Arctic Circle. Visit the post office to mail postcards or letters to / from Santa, from the North Pole to the little ones in your life. Visit the various shops, or go on an ice kart ride around a track. Next, head to Snowman World for a bit of snow fun! You can go down an ice slide, weave through an ice maze, go tubing down a hill, admire the ice sculptures or hang out in the ice bar.

In the early evening, get picked up for an unforgettable adventure. After a short ride to a private secret venue, receive a safety tutorial and get suited up into your survival suit. This high-quality rescue suit covers your whole body and keeps you dry and safe. You will wear your own clothing under the suit to keep you warm, even in the below-freezing water. The suit traps air to help you float. After the guide gives a demonstration, you will enter the frozen river through a cutout and enjoy peacefully floating among the ice. If the weather is clear, you will get the extra bonus of looking up at the beautiful stars and possibly even the northern lights. Don’t skip this activity if you are nervous. It ended up being my favorite experience of the entire trip! After you have had your fill of floating, you will reconvene in a hut with a roaring fire, warm drinks, and a sweet treat.

After the sun sets, check the northern lights forecast on your app. If the conditions are clear, be on the lookout for the aurora borealis! If there is a good forecast, consider booking a northern lights expedition tour for that evening, which will take you to some of the darkest areas for the best possible areas to view the Lights.

Take a day trip from Rovaniemi to experience a boat trip aboard a real icebreaker boat. Your driver will pick you up in Rovaniemi. After a scenic drive across the border to Sweden, you will board your ship, which will cruise through the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia. At various points of the cruise, you will make stops to try floating in survival suits again in the middle of the ice. You can also try walking on the frozen sea safely.

While on the ship, you can visit the movie theater to watch a short film to learn about icebreaker ships around the world and take an audio tour of the seven ship decks to learn about how it operates. There is also a café onboard for you to enjoy hot drinks and snacks. After disembarking, head to Kukkolaforsen, a Swedish fishermen’s village, for lunch with a view of the Torne River that separates Sweden from Finland. You can also pop into the Medieval Village open-air museum before enjoying your scenic drive back to Rovaniemi.

When you return to your hotel, visit the sauna to warm your body up after a day on the ice. After you are sufficiently warm, head to dinner at the Glass Restaurant. This restaurant offers a unique dining experience with views of the night sky. The menu here has been carefully curated to honor Lapland’s authentic food culture through local traditional ingredients used in new ways to create delicious dishes. Ingredients here are locally sourced from Arctic nature. The fish comes from local mountain lakes, the meat comes from nearby farms and the berries and mushrooms are hand-picked from nearby forests.

Get geared up and ready for your visit to the husky farm! You will hear the eager barks of the dogs as soon as you arrive. After a demonstration of how to safely drive the dog sleds, you will meet your pack of dogs for the day. They will be overly excited to run as you get them and yourself ready to go.

Once you depart, you will be surprised at how fast those dogs can run! Apply the brake and you will laugh as the dogs look back at you to question why you would ever want to go slower. At the halfway point, you will stop to give the dogs a break and for the driver and passenger to switch places. As you race through the forest, you will have time to admire the gorgeous scenery as a passenger. After you arrive back at the farm, you can give your pack of dogs some well-deserved love. Return to the kennel to meet the puppies in training. Afterwards, you will enjoy a hot drink and sweet treat while chatting with the guides to learn about the lives of the huskies.

After your excursion, have your driver drop you off in downtown Rovaniemi. Visit Arktikum, an underground science museum that will teach you about the history of the region. Check out the Culture House Korundi, a former post office turned modern art museum. Hungry? Pop into Cafe & Bar 21, a gorgeous café with various waffles, salad bowls, dumplings and baked potatoes. Looking for great views on your way back to your hotel? Stop at Syväsenvaara Fell, an observation tower with great views of the surrounding. It’s about a twenty-minute walk from the road and can be a bit hard to find with very minimal signage, so ask for directions before you leave.

Enjoy dinner at Nova Skyland Restaurant. Enjoy some modern dishes, such as lobster, cold smoked salmon, reindeer tartar and more. Don’t miss out on their fun and local-inspired cocktails such as a sparkling cloudberry or a tipsy santa.

Head out on a day trip to Riisitunturi National Park, a winter wonderland and photographer’s paradise. Riisitunturi National Park is renowned as one of the most beautiful places in Lapland. It is most famous for its many trees that get covered with the winter snow, which causes the branches to bend to the side due to the weight of the snow, creating a landscape fit for a Dr. Seuss novel.

After your drive to the National Park, you will strap on snowshoes (condition dependent) to begin your hike through the beautiful snow-covered forest. After taking many photography breaks of the gorgeous scenery, you will take a break halfway through for lunch. Your guide will start a fire and you will enjoy a traditional Finnish barbecue with salmon soup, reindeer sandwiches, pork sausages, marshmallows and hot blueberry juice.

When you return to your hotel, visit the sauna to help your muscles recover after your day spent hiking through a winter wonderland. Then, visit Lapland Restaurant Kotahovi for a traditional dinner in a cozy hut with a fireplace in the center. Enjoy local-inspired dishes including mushroom soup, salmon soup, juniper-flavored salmon, sauteed reindeer and more.

After an early breakfast, take a bus ride or hire a private driver to your next accommodation. After you arrive, check into your igloo! Glass igloos are beautifully designed for optimal northern light and star viewing from the warm temperatures inside your igloo. There is very little light pollution in the area and there are very few trees that would obscure your view of the sky. The glass igloo walls have a heating system that keeps snow or ice from blocking your view throughout the night.

In the early afternoon, it’s time for your reindeer safari. After transferring to the farm, you will don your thermal outfits and enjoy some photo opportunities with the reindeer. Next, you will jump into your sleighs and get comfortable under the warm blankets. You will head out into the wilderness at a slow pace so you can relax, breathe in the fresh air and observe the beautiful snow-covered forest. After the ride, you can visit a traditional reindeer herder’s home to enjoy warm drinks prepared on an open fire and a Finnish treat, while learning about the culture of this region. Reindeer husbandry is one of the most important parts of the Sámi culture and allows the indigenous people of Lapland to remain economically, ecologically and culturally sustainable.

When you return, enjoy a snow or smoke sauna experience, depending on where you choose to stay. After dinner, get cozy inside your igloo to keep an eye out for the northern lights to make an appearance.

After a filling breakfast, get geared up in your warmest winter clothes for your snowmobile adventure. You can choose to have a snowmobile all to yourself or you can share a snowmobile with a travel partner to spend half the time driving and half the time riding as a passenger. After a safety tutorial, you will head out into the wilderness for an adrenaline-filled ride. You will ride through forests and over frozen lakes or rivers, while keeping your eyes peeled for wildlife tracks. At the halfway point, you will take a break for a warm soup lunch.

After you return and warm up, why not try your hand at ice fishing? After finding a perfect spot on a frozen lake or river with your guide, you will learn how to drill a hole in the ice and fish for some arctic char, salmon or other local fish.

After you return to the hotel, enjoy some delicious local Finnish cuisine in front of the fire. Afterwards, get comfortable in your igloo again in case the Aurora Borealis appears across the sky.

After a delicious Scandinavian breakfast (don’t skip the amazing smoked salmon), head on to your next destination or head to the airport to start your journey back home.

Have more time to explore in Lapland? The options are endless. Consider adding on days of cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing & snowboarding, sports car driving, horseback riding, sleigh rides and more.