Arctic Scandinavia: Northern Lights in Finland, Sweden and Norway

Arrive in Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi Airport (RVN) to your hotel in Rovaniemi

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Rovaniemi
• Environ 15 min de route

Soir

Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Lappish food, perhaps salmon soup or sauteed reindeer. If the sky is clear and the forecast strong, your guide takes anyone who wants to go to a dark riverbank outside town afterwards.

Compris

• Pick-up at Rovaniemi Airport (RVN)
• Winter outfit fitting and welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner
• An aurora outing outside town if the sky is clear and the forecast strong

Huskies, Arktikum and the Arctic Circle

Rovaniemi to a husky farm, then the Arctic Circle at Santa Claus Village, back to Rovaniemi

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Rovaniemi
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a hot, sit-down meal. In the afternoon, when the morning coach groups have moved on, we stop at Santa Claus Village to step over the painted line of the Arctic Circle and post a card from the Santa Claus Main Post Office. Back in town we visit Arktikum, the museum and science centre on the riverbank, for the Arctic peoples, the Sami and the science of the aurora (closed on Mondays from March; we then swap it to another day).

Soir

The early evening is free; after dark your guide takes the group to a dark spot outside town to watch the sky.

Compris

• Husky ride of about 5 to 10 km at a farm outside Rovaniemi, two to a sled
• Sit-down lunch
• The Arctic Circle line and the post office at Santa Claus Village
• Arktikum museum and science centre
• Guided aurora watch at a dark spot outside town

Activités en option

• Snowmobile safari on the frozen river (a valid car driving licence is needed to drive)
• A meeting with Santa Claus in his office at Santa Claus Village

North through the forest to Muonio

Rovaniemi to Kittila and Levi, then on to Muonio on the Swedish border

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Muonio
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

After breakfast we drive north-west into the forest and fell country of western Lapland, about 230 km and about three and a quarter hours in all, with a coffee stop and a long lunch break so nobody sits for more than about two hours at a time. Reindeer often stand on the road here, so the driving is unhurried. We stop for a sit-down lunch in Levi, Finland's biggest ski resort, at the foot of its fell, then carry on for about an hour to Muonio, a small village on the Muonio river, which forms the border with Sweden. The village has only a few streets of lights, and the river and the lakes around it are dark.

Soir

We settle into the hotel, our base for two nights, with time for a sauna before dinner together. After dinner your guide walks the group down to the frozen river, a few minutes away, to watch for the Northern Lights over the Swedish bank.

Compris

• Drive through western Lapland via Kittila
• Sit-down lunch in Levi
• Dinner in Muonio
• Aurora watch by the frozen Muonio river if the sky is clear

A reindeer farm and a campfire night

Muonio to a reindeer farm nearby and back, then a dark spot by a lake

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Muonio
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

A slow morning, then in the late-morning light we drive a short way to a reindeer farm, where a herding family tells us how reindeer are herded in Lapland, how the animals are marked and moved between winter and summer grazing, and what the herd means to a family that has worked with it for generations. You help feed the reindeer, then take a sleigh ride of a couple of kilometres behind one through the forest.

Après-midi

Lunch is cooked over an open fire in a kota, the traditional wooden hut: perhaps salmon or a reindeer stew, with coffee boiled on the fire.

Soir

The afternoon is free, for a sauna and a roll in the snow, a ski on the prepared tracks or a nap before a late night. After an early dinner on your own, we drive a few minutes out of the village to a dark lakeshore, light a campfire, hand round hot berry juice and wait for the sky.

Compris

• Reindeer farm visit with a herding family near Muonio
• Reindeer sleigh ride of a couple of kilometres
• Lunch cooked over the fire in a kota hut
• Campfire aurora evening at a dark lakeshore

Activités en option

• Snowmobile safari (a valid car driving licence is needed to drive)
• Cross-country ski hire
• A night in a glass-roofed cabin, quoted when you book

Into Sweden: Kiruna, then the train to Abisko

Muonio to Karesuando and Kiruna, then the train to Abisko

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Abisko
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

After a sit-down lunch in the new centre we board the train for Abisko, about an hour and a quarter along the shore of the frozen lake Tornetrask, while the minibus carries the luggage by road.

Soir

We settle into the hotel, have dinner together, then walk down to the lake shore to watch for the lights.

Compris

• Drive into Sweden via Karesuando
• Sit-down lunch in Kiruna's new centre
• Train from Kiruna to Abisko (luggage by road)
• Dinner in Abisko
• Aurora watch on the Tornetrask shore if the sky is clear

Abisko National Park and the Aurora Sky Station

Abisko, the national park and Mount Nuolja

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Abisko
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

A free morning, for sleeping in, a cross-country ski on the prepared tracks or a coffee looking over the lake.

Après-midi

Around midday your guide leads a snowshoe walk of about 3 km into Abisko National Park, set up in 1909 and one of the first national parks in Europe, through mountain birch bent low by the snow and down into the canyon, where the river freezes into blue ice falls. On a clear day the U-shaped gap of Lapporten, the mountain gate to the south-west, stands out across the valley.

Soir

Abisko sits in the rain-shadow of the mountains on the Norwegian border, so its sky is often clear when the coast is cloudy, which is why we save this evening for it. After a rest and dinner on your own, we take the open chairlift, with evening departures at about 9 pm, up Mount Nuolja to the Aurora Sky Station, about 900 m up, with warm drinks, a small exhibition and a terrace over a valley with no lights in it.

Compris

• Guided snowshoe walk in Abisko National Park and the frozen canyon
• Aurora Sky Station on Mount Nuolja, with the chairlift up and down

Activités en option

• The Aurora Sky Station's set dinner at the top (book ahead)
• Cross-country ski hire
• A day trip back to Kiruna for the Icehotel at Jukkasjarvi (ask when you book)

The Ofoten railway to Narvik, on to Tromso

Abisko to Narvik by train, then Narvik to Tromso

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Tromso
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

In the late morning we board the train at Abisko and ride over the watershed at Riksgransen into Norway, then down the Ofoten line, cut into the mountainside high above the Rombaksfjord, to the ice-free port of Narvik, about an hour and three-quarters. The line was built around 1900 to carry Kiruna's iron ore to the sea.

Après-midi

In Narvik we have a sit-down lunch near the harbour and stretch our legs, then our Norwegian minibus, which has brought the luggage over by road, drives us north on the E6 to Tromso: about 250 km and three and three-quarter hours past fjords and frozen lakes, with a coffee stop halfway so no stretch is longer than about two hours.

Soir

We reach Tromso in the evening. The evening is free; if the sky clears, your guide points you to the harbour, a short walk away.

Compris

• Train on the Ofoten line from Abisko to Narvik
• Sit-down lunch in Narvik
• Drive from Narvik to Tromso with a coffee stop

Activités en option

• The Narvik War Museum, if time allows after lunch

Tromso, Fjellheisen and a fjord aurora chase

Tromso, the Fjellheisen cable car, then an aurora chase inland or along the fjords

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tromso
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

A free morning in Tromso, for the Polar Museum on the harbour, a coffee in the old wooden houses of the centre, or just a slow breakfast.

Après-midi

Early in the afternoon your guide leads a short walk through the centre and over the Tromso Bridge to the Arctic Cathedral, finished in 1965, its white triangular roof facing the island. Then we take the Fjellheisen cable car up to Storsteinen, about 420 m above the city, timed for the last light, when Tromso's lights come on below and the mountains and fjords turn blue.

Soir

We come down for an early farewell dinner together. At about 7 pm we head out on the aurora chase: your guide and driver study the cloud forecast and drive to wherever the sky is clearest, along the fjords, inland, or as far as the Finnish border if that is where the gap is, with hot drinks and a fire at the stop. Back in Tromso around midnight or later.

Compris

• Guided walk across the Tromso Bridge to the Arctic Cathedral
• Fjellheisen cable car to Storsteinen
• Farewell dinner
• Aurora chase by minibus from Tromso, with hot drinks and a fire

Activités en option

• Polar Museum entry
• Whale watching by boat, in the weeks the whales are in the fjords (ask when you book)

Tromso Airport and home

Tromso to Tromso Airport (TOS)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

A late breakfast after the aurora chase, and time to hand back your winter outfit at the hotel. Tromso Airport is on the same island, about 5 km and 15 minutes from the centre, and our driver takes you there in time for your flight; your guide says goodbye at the hotel or the terminal. Most flights from Tromso connect through Oslo, so book a flight leaving after about 11 am, and if you are flying home the same day, leave a generous connection in Oslo. If you would like more time in the north, Tromso is an easy place to stay on: we can suggest hotels and day trips, from the Lyngen Alps to whale watching in season. If you want a slower week in one place, our Tromso winter trip spends six days around the fjords and the Lyngen Alps, our Swedish Lapland trip gives Abisko three nights and the Icehotel, and our Finnish Lapland trip goes deeper into Rovaniemi and Yllas.

Compris

• Drop-off at Tromso Airport (TOS)