Arctic Scandinavia: Northern Lights in Finland, Sweden and Norway

1. Day 1: Arrive in Rovaniemi

   Rovaniemi Airport (RVN) to your hotel in Rovaniemi

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Rovaniemi
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland, usually on a connection from Helsinki: plan to land by about 3 pm. A driver meets you at arrivals for the 15-minute transfer into town. Rovaniemi sits where the Ounasjoki river meets the Kemijoki, a few kilometres south of the Arctic Circle; it was almost entirely burned at the end of the Second World War and rebuilt to plans by the architect Alvar Aalto, which is why the centre looks modern. At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group, fits everyone with the winter outfit you keep for the whole trip (thermal overall, boots, mittens, socks and a balaclava) and runs through the route, the cold and the aurora forecast. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Free until the 5 pm briefing

   

2. Day 2: Huskies, Arktikum and the Arctic Circle

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rovaniemi
   Day 2 details

   The husky ride goes first, in the brightest hours of the short winter day. We drive about 25 minutes out of town to a husky farm in the forest, where the dogs start howling as soon as the harnesses come out. After a safety talk from the mushers you ride two to a sled, one standing on the runners and one sitting, on a trail of about 5 to 10 km through snowy pine and over frozen bog, then warm up with a hot drink by the fire. 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). The early evening is free; after dark your guide takes the group to a dark spot outside town to watch the sky.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

   • 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

   Easier option: Ride as the passenger for the whole trail, wrapped in a reindeer skin, and skip the evening aurora watch if you would rather rest.

   More active option: Drive the sled for the whole trail, if your sled partner agrees and the musher is happy with your braking.

   Free time: Early evening free in Rovaniemi

   Activity: Huskies pull hard. Standing on the runners means holding on and using the brake on the downhill parts; the mushers teach you first.

3. Day 3: North through the forest to Muonio

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

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Muonio
   Day 3 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Muonio for a sauna or a walk

   Activity: The longest stretch without a stop is about two hours.

4. Day 4: A reindeer farm and a campfire night

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

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Muonio
   Day 4 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

   • 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

   Easier option: Watch the feeding from the fire and skip the sleigh ride, and go back to the hotel early from the campfire.

   More active option: A morning snowshoe or ski on the tracks near the village with your guide before the farm visit.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Muonio; dinner on your own

   Activity: Reindeer sleighs are slow and steady; you sit low under a blanket.

5. Day 5: Into Sweden: Kiruna, then the train to Abisko

   Muonio to Karesuando and Kiruna, then the train to Abisko

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Abisko
   Day 5 details

   We cross into Sweden at Karesuando, a bridge over the Muonio river with normally no passport check, and the clocks go back an hour, which gives the day some slack. The road runs south-west through forest and frozen bog to Kiruna, about 260 km and three and three-quarter hours in all with a coffee stop on the way. Kiruna is Sweden's northernmost town, built around the iron-ore mine in the Kiirunavaara mountain, and it is moving: the mine has spread under the old centre, so homes, shops and the big wooden church are being rebuilt or carried a few kilometres east. 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. We settle into the hotel, have dinner together, then walk down to the lake shore to watch for the lights.

   Included

   • 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

   Activity: If the train is cancelled by weather, we drive to Abisko on the E10, about 95 km and 1.25 hours.

   

6. Day 6: Abisko National Park and the Aurora Sky Station

   Abisko, the national park and Mount Nuolja

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Abisko
   Day 6 details

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

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • 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)

   Easier option: Take the short canyon loop of about 1 km, and skip the chairlift if the cold or the height do not suit you: watch from the lake shore near the hotel instead.

   More active option: A longer snowshoe of about 6 km towards the Lapporten viewpoint trail with your guide, conditions allowing.

   Free time: Morning free in Abisko; dinner on your own

   Activity: The chairlift is open to the air and the ride up takes about 20 minutes in the dark; with the full outfit and a blanket it is cold but fine.

   

7. Day 7: The Ofoten railway to Narvik, on to Tromso

   Abisko to Narvik by train, then Narvik to Tromso

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tromso
   Day 7 details

   This is the one long travel day, and it is long because the train is worth it. 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. 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. 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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • The Narvik War Museum, if time allows after lunch

   Free time: Evening free in Tromso; dinner on your own

   Activity: If the railway is closed by weather, we drive from Abisko to Narvik on the E10 (about 75 km, about an hour) and keep the rest of the day the same.

8. Day 8: Tromso, Fjellheisen and a fjord aurora chase

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Tromso
   Day 8 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Stay in town for the evening and watch from the harbour if the chase is not for you.

   More active option: Walk up the Sherpa steps beside the cable car instead of riding up, when they are open and free of ice.

   Free time: Morning free in Tromso

   Activity: The chase can mean three or four hours in the minibus and long waits outside in the cold; it is the evening most likely to finish late.

   

9. Day 9: Tromso Airport and home

   Tromso to Tromso Airport (TOS)

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   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.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Tromso Airport (TOS)

   Activity: Book a flight from Tromso leaving after about 11 am.

Wildlife and weather: For a few weeks around the December solstice the sun does not rise in Abisko or Tromso and barely clears the horizon in Rovaniemi; the days are a few hours of blue twilight, so outdoor activities sit in the middle of the day. January and February are the coldest months inland. March has 10 to 12 hours of daylight, deep snow and milder days. The Northern Lights are possible on any dark, clear night through the season; cloud is what most often hides them, and the coast at Tromso is cloudier than inland Lapland. Reindeer graze along the roads in Finland, so the driving is unhurried.

• Rovaniemi2 nights
• Muonio2 nights
• Abisko2 nights
• Tromso2 nights