Lapland Holidays

Lapland holidays are the kind you never stop talking about: snow deep enough to swallow your boots, Northern Lights that do not look real, and Santa living down the road in Finnish Lapland. Only three and a half hours from home, but nothing at all like home.

Good to Know for your holidays to Lapland

• 🌡 Weather - December and January afternoons sit around -5°C to -7°C, dropping to about -11°C overnight, with cold snaps of -25°C to -30°C most winters. Summer is a different country: 20°C in July and daylight that never switches off.

• 💶 Money - A coffee is €5 to €6, a sit-down lunch €15 to €20, a pint of beer €7 to €8. Excursions (husky safaris, Northern Lights hunts) typically run €80 to €150 per person.

• 🐾 Fun Fact - Reindeer outnumber people across Finnish Lapland, they roam completely free, and they have right of way. Hit one and you are legally obliged to report it, which is why every hire car comes with the number.

Holiday Highlights Lapland 2026/2027

• Northern Lights on roughly 200 nights a year - The aurora season runs late August to early April, and northern Finland sees displays on around 200 nights annually against ten or twenty in the south. Saariselka sits inside the Aurora Zone with minimal light pollution.

• Santa Claus Village - Rovaniemi is Santa's official hometown, right on the Arctic Circle. Open year-round, with the Post Office, elf workshops, and the chance to cross the Arctic Circle line. Peak magic in December.

• The biggest ski country in Finland - Yllas is the largest ski area in the country, with 63 slopes and its longest run at 3km. Levi is the busiest and best known, with 44 slopes and a stop on the Alpine World Cup circuit. And Ruka, up at Kuusamo, has the longest season of the lot, running from early October into May.

• Glass Igloos - Fall asleep watching the sky shift colours from a heated glass-roofed cabin. Northern Lights Village in Saariselka has 80 Aurora Cabins with built-in aurora alerts.

• Husky and Reindeer Safaris - Pick your preferred furry transport. Huskies for the full-speed forest dash, reindeer for the slower storybook moment. Most excursions include hot drinks and thermal suits.

• Midnight Sun - In midsummer (June to July), the sun doesn't set at all. 24 hours of daylight, crystal-clear lakes, hiking trails, and a completely different side to Lapland.

Lapland is perfect for you if...

• You have a kid who still believes in Santa, and you want to make the most of it whilst it lasts

• You want a holiday your family will still be talking about in twenty years

• You would rather come home with a story about driving a husky team than a tan

• You want the Northern Lights without the nineteen-hour trek to see them in the arctic circle, because this is a three and a half hour flight and the view is almost as good

• You like the idea of a sauna and a frozen lake, and the wombo-combo of going from one to the other

🗣️ Local Lingo — Talk Like a Local (Lapland Edition)

Up in Lapland, language shifts with the landscape. You’ll hear Finnish across the region, alongside Sámi languages in the north, each carrying deep cultural roots tied to nature and tradition. Don’t worry about perfection, locals genuinely appreciate even the smallest effort to speak their language.

• Moi, MOY, Hi (the casual one)

• Hei, HAY, Hello (works anywhere)

• Kiitos, KEE-toss, Thank you

• Kippis, KIP-piss, Cheers

• Anteeksi, AN-teck-see, Excuse me, or sorry

• Poro, POH-roh, Reindeer

• Revontulet, REH-von-too-let, The Northern Lights, literally "fox fires", from the folk tale of a fox sweeping sparks into the sky with its tail

🏨 What are the hop hotels in Lapland?

Lapland holidays come with some of the most distinctive hotels in Europe, from glass-roofed cabins designed for aurora-watching to log chalets with private saunas and frozen-lake views. See all hotels in Lapland.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 What are the best family hotels in Lapland?

• Holiday Club Saariselka has an indoor pool with a water slide, three kinds of sauna and a spa, sitting next to the slopes and a short walk from the village.

• Lapland Hotels Ounasvaara Chalets are private cabins on the hill above Rovaniemi, each with its own sauna and kitchen, ten metres from the ski slopes and ten minutes from Santa Claus Village.

• Holiday Club Kuusamon Tropiikki runs an indoor tropical waterpark in the Arctic, which is a strange and excellent thing to have on hand. Ruka is 20km away.

💑 What are the best hotels in Lapland for couples?

• Northern Lights Village Saariselka is 80 glass-roofed Aurora Cabins built for watching the sky from bed, with an alert service you can set to wake you when the lights appear.

• Lapland Hotels Sky Ounasvaara sits on the hilltop with floor-to-ceiling windows, ski-to-door access and a restaurant that ranks among Finland's best.

• Lapland Hotels Akashotelli is two metres from the slopes at Ylläs, with indoor and outdoor pools and a sauna to come back to.

🎉 What are the best hotels in Lapland for groups?

• Lapland Hotels Sirkantahti puts you in the middle of Levi village, eight minutes from the lifts, with a private sauna in every room and apartment.

• Lapland Hotel Riekonlinna is in Saariselkä village with trails and cross-country tracks straight from the door and a safari rental shop on site.

• Lapland Hotels Saaga has gondola access to the Ylläs slopes, a pool with a jacuzzi and steam sauna, and views out over the tree line.

👉 All hotels in Lapland

Where to Stay on Your Lapland Holidays

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Where should families stay in Lapland?

• Rovaniemi is the obvious family pick. Santa Claus Village is 10 minutes from the centre, there are reindeer farms and husky parks on every road out of town, and Arktikum Museum keeps rainy days covered.

• Saariselka for families who want wilderness with good facilities. Holiday Club has a pool and water slides for the kids, Urho Kekkonen National Park is on the doorstep, and Ranua Wildlife Park (polar bears, Arctic foxes) is a day trip from Rovaniemi.

• Kuusamo for something different. Holiday Club Kuusamon Tropiikki has an indoor tropical waterpark, and Ruka ski resort is 20 minutes away.

💑 Where should couples stay in Lapland?

• Saariselka is the romantic pick. Glass igloos, Northern Lights from your bed, and the kind of silence that makes you forget cities exist. Deep inside the Arctic Circle with minimal light pollution.

• Levi for couples who want a bit more buzz. Finland's biggest ski resort, plus a proper village with restaurants, bars, and apres-ski. The ski lifts and the cocktail bars are both within walking distance.

🎉 Where should groups stay in Lapland?

• Levi has the best group scene in Lapland. 43 ski slopes, snowmobile safaris, and the liveliest nightlife north of the Arctic Circle. Bar Ihku does karaoke until 4am.

• Rovaniemi for groups who want the full Arctic experience without the ski focus. Husky safaris, ice karting, Arktikum Museum, and a decent restaurant and bar scene in the city centre.

Winter 2026/2027 in Lapland

• More flights than ever from home - The 2026/2027 season adds a new Newcastle route, and easyJet has moved Luton to Kittilä. Between Ryanair and easyJet there are now direct services from ten UK & Ireland airports, including Dublin, Shannon and Belfast.

• New cabins for the season - A fresh batch of glass-roofed cabins and Arctic pod-suites opens for 2026/2027, and SnowVillage rebuilds itself from scratch every year with a new theme, announced each autumn.

• Santa's village keeps growing - More interactive elf experiences and gingerbread making for the new season, and the Christmas season opening now lands in late October rather than November, so the festive run is longer than it used to be.

Northern Lights

Let's talk about the northern lights quickly. The solar cycle 25 peaked in October 2024, so you will read plenty of pieces saying you have missed it but don't worry, this is actually a GREAT time to see the northen lights in Lapland.

• The years after a solar maximum are the good ones - As sunspot numbers fall, coronal holes on the sun become more frequent, and those send out high-speed streams of solar wind that come back round roughly every 27 days. Solar physicists have been saying for years that peak auroral activity tends to arrive a few years after peak sunspot activity, and that the declining phase produces more geomagnetic storms, not fewer.

• Two windows worth knowing about - Around the equinoxes, in late September and again in March, the earth's magnetic field lines up with the sun's in a way that lets more energy through. It has a name, the Russell-McPherron effect, and it means those months punch above their weight for aurora.

Lapland Holidays 2026/2027 - Travel Guide

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 What are the best things to do on a Lapland family holiday?

• Meet Santa at Santa Claus Village - Rovaniemi, on the Arctic Circle, open every single day of the year. Write letters at the Arctic Circle Post Office, meet the elves, cross the line. Meeting Santa is free, the photo is ticketed, and December books up months out.

• Husky sledding - Most operators take children from about four, and every trip ends with hot berry juice and biscuits round a fire. Thermal suits and boots are provided, so you do not need to buy anything.

• Reindeer farm visits - Feeding, petting and a sleigh ride with the herd. Kopara Reindeer Park near Rovaniemi is a reliable pick.

• Ranua Wildlife Park - Finland's northernmost zoo and the only place in the country with polar bears, plus Arctic foxes, wolverines and lynx in forest enclosures. 80km south of Rovaniemi, about an hour, open every day of the year.

• Arktikum - The rainy-day insurance, and better than it needs to be. Arctic life, Sámi culture and the science of the Northern Lights, with plenty for younger children. Closed Mondays.

💑 What are the best things to do for couples on a Lapland holiday?

• Northern Lights hunts - Out by snowmobile or minibus to a clearing with no light pollution, then wait. Hot drinks and a campfire on most trips, and a guide who can read the forecast better than any app.

• A night in a glass igloo - Northern Lights Village in Saariselkä, watching the sky from bed, with an alert service that wakes you if something starts happening at two in the morning.

• A private reindeer sleigh at dusk - Silent, slow, and genuinely atmospheric when the light goes blue.

• Sauna then outdoor hot tub, under the stars - Almost every Lapland hotel has a sauna, and a fair few rooms have their own. The lakeside smoke saunas are the version worth going out of your way for.

• Cross-country skiing in Urho Kekkonen National Park - Straight out of Saariselkä into Finland's second-largest national park, 2,550 km² of it, with hundreds of kilometres of marked trail.

🎉 What are the top things to do for groups on a Lapland holiday?

• Snowmobile safaris - Across frozen lakes and through forest, with a campfire lunch on the full-day trips. Drivers need a licence.

• Skiing at Levi or Ylläs - Levi for the busiest scene, floodlit evening skiing and bars afterwards. Ylläs for the biggest ski area in Finland and Finland's longest run.

• Ice fishing - Drill a hole, drop a line, sit on a box, drink something hot. Far better than it sounds.

• Ice floating - Zip into a thermal dry suit, lie back in a hole cut in a frozen lake and drift about looking at the sky. The photos do a lot of work when you get home.

• SnowVillage - Rebuilt from scratch every winter in Lainio, between Ylläs and Levi, with ice sculptures, an ice bar serving drinks in frozen glasses and rooms you can stay the night in. Opens 25 December, so it is a New Year trip rather than a pre-Christmas one.

Cheap holidays to Lapland

Lapland has a reputation for being expensive, but it doesn't have to be. Flights are short-haul and priced like it. Hotels are reasonable (by Nordic standards). The biggest part of your spend is excursions and eating out, and that is the part you control.

A Northern Lights minibus tour runs around €75 to €100 and a husky safari €110 to €190 per person, so a family of four doing three activities is into serious money. But if you wanna do them as cheaply as possible, we suggest booking your activities through your hotel rather than a third-party site, where rates are usually better and transfers are usually included (those little extras add up). We'd also say, pick two headline activities and let the rest of the week be free: cross-country trails, snowshoeing in the national parks, tobogganing, and aurora watching from outside your own hotel are all free and brilliant..

Self-catering makes a real difference here in a way it does not everywhere. Several of the cabins and apartments come with a full kitchen and, this being Finland, a private sauna. A weekday lunch is €11 to €15 and a pint is €6 to €7, so cooking two or three nights in changes your weekly budget substantially. Finland is also close to cashless and prices always include tax, so the number on the menu is the number you pay, and tipping is genuinely not expected anywhere.

On timing: December is the full Christmas experience and prices reflect demand for it. November has early snow and the aurora season already running. January and February are the coldest and darkest, which is exactly what you want for the lights. March gives you snow and real daylight together. There is a version of this holiday at every price point in that range, and the cheapest flights are generally the ones booked furthest out, because this is a destination people plan a long way ahead to visit.

More Destinations for 2026/2027

• Finland - The whole country, from the capital's design scene and island-hopping ferries to the northern wilderness. Lapland is the headline act but Finland has depth way beyond the Arctic Circle.

• Helsinki - Finland's capital is one of Europe's most underrated city breaks. Harbourside dining, the Design District, island-hopping by ferry, and a food scene that punches well above its weight. A completely different Finland to Lapland, and brilliant for it.

• Rovaniemi - Santa's official hometown and the gateway to the Arctic Circle. The family pick in Lapland, with Santa Claus Village, Arktikum Museum, husky and reindeer parks, and the best restaurant scene in the region.

• Saariselka - Deep inside the Arctic Circle with minimal light pollution. The Northern Lights destination in Lapland, with glass igloos, Urho Kekkonen National Park on the doorstep, and proper wilderness quiet.

• Levi - Finland's biggest ski resort, with 43 slopes, the best apres-ski in Lapland, and a proper village with restaurants, bars, and adventure activities year-round.

• Kuusamo - Off the beaten track with Ruka ski resort, an indoor tropical waterpark, and some of the best cross-country skiing and hiking in Finnish Lapland.