There are destinations that impress, and then there are destinations that transform. Finnish Lapland belongs firmly in the second category. Spread across the northernmost tip of Europe, above the Arctic Circle, this vast and sparsely populated region covers roughly a third of Finland’s total landmass yet holds a concentration of natural wonder that is nearly impossible to match anywhere else on earth. Ancient forests blanketed in snow, frozen lakes stretching to the horizon, skies that erupt in ribbons of green and violet light, and summer days where the sun simply refuses to set. Lapland is all of this and considerably more.
Whether you are planning a winter escape in search of the Aurora Borealis, a summer adventure under the midnight sun, or something in between, Finnish Lapland delivers experiences that stay with travelers for a lifetime. The region’s capital, Rovaniemi, serves as the primary gateway, but the magic spreads far beyond that single city into remote national parks, Sami cultural heartlands, wilderness fell country, and lakeside villages that few outsiders ever reach.
This guide covers the 18 best things to do in Lapland Finland, drawing on the full range of seasonal experiences, cultural encounters, and outdoor adventures the region has to offer.
1. Witness the Northern Lights
No list of the best things to do in Lapland Finland is complete without beginning here. The Aurora Borealis is perhaps the single most powerful draw for visitors to the region, and Finnish Lapland is consistently ranked among the world’s top destinations for seeing it. The auroras are caused by charged solar particles colliding with gases in the earth’s atmosphere, producing those famous waves of color across the night sky.
When and Where to See Them
The aurora season in Lapland runs from late August through early April, with the peak months being September, October, February, and March. Clear, dark skies away from light pollution give the best viewing conditions. Areas around Saariselka, Inari, and Levi are particularly well suited for aurora hunting. Many visitors book guided aurora tours that take small groups by vehicle deep into the wilderness, away from any artificial light, increasing the chances of a clear sighting dramatically.
The key point to understand is that the Northern Lights cannot be guaranteed. They are a natural phenomenon entirely dependent on solar activity and weather. Spending at least five to seven nights in Lapland during the aurora season gives travelers the best statistical chance of witnessing a strong display.
2. Go on a Husky Safari
A husky safari is one of the most iconic and exhilarating experiences Finnish Lapland offers. Teams of Siberian and Alaskan huskies pull sleds through snow-covered forests at remarkable speed, and most operators allow guests to take the driver’s position themselves, steering the sled through the trees with nothing but the sound of paws on snow and cold Arctic air rushing past.
What to Expect on a Husky Safari
Safaris range from short one-hour introductory rides to full-day wilderness expeditions covering 20 kilometers or more. The longer tours often include a stop at a traditional Lappish kota hut for a warm meal and open fire. Rovaniemi hosts numerous reputable husky farms, and visiting the farm before or after the ride to meet the dogs and puppies personally is an experience in itself. The bond between the mushers and their animals is evident, and guides typically share detailed knowledge about the history and training of the dogs.
3. Take a Reindeer Sleigh Ride
If husky safaris represent speed and adrenaline, reindeer sleigh rides offer the opposite. Slow, peaceful, and deeply rooted in Lapland’s cultural history, a reindeer safari moves at the animal’s natural walking pace through silent winter forests. It is one of the most authentic ways to connect with the region’s traditions.
Most tours pause at a traditional hut midway through the ride, where a guide shares stories about reindeer herding culture, serves hot drinks, and answers questions about the animals. An interesting detail that surprises many visitors: there are no wild reindeer in Finnish Lapland. Every reindeer belongs to a herder, and the Sami and local Finnish herding families have maintained this practice for centuries. There are approximately 200,000 reindeer roaming freely across Finnish Lapland, making roadside encounters extremely common.
4. Visit Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi sits precisely on the Arctic Circle and markets itself, with considerable success, as the official hometown of Santa Claus. Santa Claus Village is a year-round theme park and resort complex directly on the Arctic Circle line, offering the chance to meet Santa himself, cross the official Arctic Circle line on foot, go on sleigh rides, and stay in a range of accommodation from standard hotel rooms to private aurora cabins.
Santa Claus Village for Families
For families traveling with children, this attraction is genuinely special. The experience is thoughtfully produced and avoids the heavy commercialism that might be expected. Meeting Santa feels personal rather than staged. The surrounding area also offers snowmobile rentals, reindeer experiences, and access to the broader range of winter activities available around Rovaniemi.
5. Try Ice Fishing on a Frozen Lake
Ice fishing is a centuries-old Finnish tradition, and experiencing it in Lapland adds an Arctic dimension to what is already a deeply meditative activity. A hole is drilled through ice that can be half a meter thick or more, and the angler waits patiently below an open sky for arctic char, perch, pike, or whitefish to bite.
Most guided ice fishing tours provide all necessary equipment, warm clothing, and instruction. Many also conclude with the guide cooking the catch over an open fire right there on the ice, which makes for an exceptionally satisfying meal in one of the most unusual dining settings imaginable. The silence on a frozen Lapland lake in midwinter is something that is very difficult to describe but nearly impossible to forget.
6. Experience a Traditional Finnish Sauna
The sauna is not a luxury in Finland. It is a cultural institution, a place of physical and mental restoration that Finns have used for centuries. Experiencing an authentic smoke sauna or lakeside sauna in Lapland is one of the most culturally honest things a visitor can do.
Sauna and Ice Swimming
The traditional Finnish sauna ritual pairs the extreme heat of the sauna with a plunge into cold water. In winter, this means cutting a hole in a frozen lake and lowering yourself into near-freezing water. The shock is severe but brief, and the sensation afterward, a full-body warmth and extraordinary sense of calm, is unlike anything produced by any other activity. The Arctic Sauna World in Muonio, situated along the shores of Jerisjärvi near the Pallas-Yllas National Park, is one of the most beautifully located sauna experiences in all of Lapland.
7. Stay in a Glass Igloo or Aurora Cabin
Accommodation in Finnish Lapland has become an attraction in its own right. The glass igloo concept, a small private pod with a transparent ceiling, was pioneered at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in northern Lapland, and the idea has since spread across the region in various forms. Lying in a warm bed while watching the aurora dance directly overhead is one of those travel experiences that genuinely lives up to its reputation.
Glass igloos and aurora cabins typically need to be booked months in advance, particularly for the peak winter months of December through March. Beyond Kakslauttanen, options include the Arctic Treehouse Hotel outside Rovaniemi and Levin Iglut near the resort town of Levi, which combines the remote igloo experience with relatively easy access to village amenities.
8. Go Snowmobiling Through the Wilderness
Snowmobiling in Lapland is freedom in its most elemental form. Hundreds of kilometers of marked snowmobile trails thread through the region’s forests, across frozen lakes, and over open fell plateaus. Guided tours cater to all experience levels, from complete beginners on short forest circuits to experienced riders tackling full-day backcountry routes.
For longer expeditions, multi-day snowmobile safaris travel between remote wilderness lodges, covering terrain that would be inaccessible by any other means in winter. These tours provide an unmatched sense of the sheer scale of Lapland’s landscape, which becomes fully apparent only when moving through it at speed across open ground.
9. Hike in Oulanka National Park
Oulanka National Park, located in the southeastern corner of Lapland near the town of Kuusamo, is widely regarded as one of Finland’s most spectacular natural areas. The park’s landscape is defined by deep river gorges, rushing rapids, pine and spruce forests, and suspension bridges that cross wild rivers above dramatic canyons.
The Karhunkierros Bear Trail
The Karhunkierros, or Bear’s Ring, is Finland’s most famous hiking trail and passes through the heart of Oulanka. The full route covers approximately 82 kilometers and typically takes four to six days to complete, with wilderness huts available at regular intervals for overnight stays. A shorter version, the Little Bear’s Ring, covers around 12 kilometers and is manageable in a single day. Both routes showcase the park at its best and attract hikers from across Europe and beyond.
10. Explore Pallas-Yllas National Park
Pallas-Yllas is the third largest national park in Finland and arguably the most accessible for fell hiking and cross-country skiing. The park’s central feature is a chain of rounded, treeless fells rising above the surrounding forest, connected by a long-distance hiking route called the Hetta-Pallas trail.
In winter, the park transforms into a cross-country skiing paradise, with well-maintained tracks winding through birch forests and across open fell terrain. In autumn, the fells turn extraordinary shades of red, orange, and gold in a display known locally as ruska, a color season that rivals the foliage displays of New England or the Scottish Highlands in its visual intensity.
11. Learn About Sami Culture at the Siida Centre
The Sami are the indigenous people of Lapland, the only indigenous group within the European Union, and their culture, language, and traditions represent thousands of years of continuous life in the Arctic. Inari, a small town in northern Lapland on the shores of Lake Inari, is the cultural heart of the Finnish Sami community.
Siida National Museum and Nature Centre
The Siida Centre in Inari is the definitive place to learn about Sami history, traditional knowledge, and contemporary life. The museum’s permanent exhibition covers reindeer herding, seasonal migration patterns, traditional dress, craft traditions, and the complex relationship between the Sami people and the natural environment. The outdoor exhibition area, open in summer, displays traditional dwellings and tools in their natural setting. Visitors should approach Sami cultural sites with respect and curiosity rather than the expectation of a performance.
12. Try Snowshoeing in the Arctic Forest
Snowshoeing requires no prior experience, minimal instruction, and very little physical preparation, making it one of the most accessible winter activities in Finnish Lapland. Strapping on a pair of snowshoes opens the entire forest to exploration in ways that standard winter boots cannot. Trails that would be knee-deep in untracked snow become walkable, and the silence of a Lapland forest in midwinter, broken only by the sound of snow falling from laden branches, is genuinely profound.
Guided snowshoeing tours often focus on wildlife tracking, reading animal prints in the snow and learning to identify the movements of fox, hare, elk, and wolverine. Evening snowshoeing tours timed around aurora activity combine two exceptional experiences into a single outing.
13. Take an Icebreaker Cruise in Kemi
The town of Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia offers one of the most unusual maritime experiences available anywhere in the world: a cruise aboard a genuine working icebreaker. The ship MS Sampo was Finland’s first icebreaker vessel and has been operating tourist cruises since the 1980s.
The highlight of the cruise is the opportunity to put on a survival suit and float in the frozen sea, buoyed by the insulated suit in water surrounded by broken ice floes. The sensation of floating motionless in an Arctic seascape, looking up at a pale winter sky, is arrestingly strange and beautiful. The cruise typically lasts around four hours and includes a meal aboard the ship.
14. Ski and Snowboard at Levi or Yllas
Finnish Lapland is home to several well-developed ski resorts that offer reliable snow conditions from November through May. Levi is the largest and most popular ski resort in Finland, with 43 slopes, modern lift infrastructure, and a lively village at its base offering restaurants, shops, and accommodation of all types.
Yllas, located further south in the park landscape of the Pallas-Yllas area, is quieter and more suited to intermediate skiers and those looking for a resort experience embedded in genuine wilderness. Both resorts offer ski school programs for beginners and terrain parks for more advanced riders. The benefit of Lapland skiing over Alpine alternatives is the consistent snow quality, the absence of crowds by European standards, and the extraordinary landscapes visible from the upper slopes.
15. Watch the Midnight Sun
Between mid-May and mid-August, the sun does not set above the Arctic Circle. This natural phenomenon, one of the most disorienting and genuinely magical experiences available to any traveler, bathes the landscape in a continuous warm golden light that makes the entire region feel suspended outside of normal time.
Activities that take on an entirely different character under the midnight sun include hiking, canoeing, fishing, and simply sitting by a lake at two in the morning watching light play across the water. The psychological effect of extended daylight is significant and positive for most visitors. Sleep is elusive but rarely missed. The world feels opened up in a way that is difficult to explain until experienced.
16. Go Berry and Mushroom Picking in Autumn
Late summer and early autumn transform Lapland’s forests and fell slopes into a forager’s landscape. Wild blueberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, and crowberries grow in extraordinary abundance, and Finnish law grants everyone the right to pick them freely, regardless of who owns the land.
Cloudberries, known locally as lakka, are the most prized. They ripen in July and August in the boggy fell terrain and carry a unique tartly sweet flavor that is difficult to compare to anything else. They are used in local desserts, jams, and liqueurs and represent one of the most distinctive flavors of Finnish Lapland. Guided foraging tours operate throughout the region during the season and are an excellent way to learn which species are safe to pick and where to find them.
17. Paddle a Canoe or Kayak on Lapland’s Rivers
The waterways of Finnish Lapland are as compelling in summer as the snow-covered forests are in winter. Rivers including the Ounasjoki, Ivalojoki, and Tornionjoki offer paddling routes ranging from calm, lake-like stretches to more technically challenging white water sections.
Multi-day canoe expeditions that camp on riverbanks under the midnight sun are among the most immersive ways to experience the region’s wilderness. The water is exceptionally clear, wildlife is abundant along the river corridors, and the sound of moving water in a silent Arctic landscape provides a quality of peace that is very difficult to find elsewhere. Kayak and canoe rental is widely available throughout the region, and guided expeditions cater to all paddling experience levels.
18. Taste Arctic Lapland Cuisine
Finnish Lapland has a food culture that is as distinctive as its landscape. Meals here are rooted in what the land and water provide: reindeer, freshwater fish, wild game, foraged berries, mushrooms, and herbs. Eating in Lapland is an act of direct connection with the environment, and the quality and freshness of local ingredients consistently surprises visitors.
Key Dishes to Try
Poronkaristys, a slow-cooked reindeer sauté served with mashed potatoes and lingonberries, is the signature dish of Finnish Lapland and appears on menus throughout the region. Gravlax prepared from wild-caught salmon, smoked whitefish from Lake Inari, and lohikeitto, a traditional creamy salmon soup, are among the other dishes that define the local table. For dessert, cloudberry jam served on Finnish pancakes or incorporated into a panna cotta-style dessert is the appropriate conclusion to any serious Lapland meal.
Rovaniemi has developed a restaurant scene that blends traditional flavors with modern Nordic cooking techniques, but the most memorable food experiences in Lapland are often the simplest: fresh fish cooked over a fire on the ice, coffee brewed in a tin pot at a wilderness hut, or warm reindeer stew eaten after a long day in the forest.
Conclusion
Finnish Lapland is a destination that functions at every level simultaneously. It offers world-class adventure activities, rare natural phenomena that exist in only a handful of places on earth, a cultural heritage rooted in indigenous traditions of extraordinary depth, and a quality of natural silence that has become genuinely scarce in the modern world.
The 18 best things to do in Lapland Finland outlined in this guide represent only a starting point. The region rewards extended stays and repeat visits, and most travelers who spend time there find that Lapland does not simply meet expectations. It recalibrates them. There is something about the scale of the landscape, the quality of the light, and the particular stillness of the Arctic wilderness that changes how a person relates to the natural world, and that change tends to be permanent.
Plan carefully, dress appropriately, book key experiences well in advance, and allow enough time in the region to let Lapland work at its own pace. The rewards are considerable.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best time of year to visit Lapland Finland?
For the Northern Lights, visit between September and March. For snow activities and Christmas atmosphere, December through February is ideal. For the midnight sun and summer hiking, visit between mid-May and mid-August. Autumn, from late September to mid-October, offers the spectacular ruska foliage season with fewer crowds.
How many days do you need in Lapland Finland?
A minimum of five to seven days is recommended to do the region justice. This allows time to experience several activities, improves the chances of seeing the Northern Lights if visiting in winter, and gives enough flexibility to adapt to weather conditions. Ten days or more is ideal for travelers who want to combine Rovaniemi with northern destinations like Inari and Saariselka.
Is Lapland Finland suitable for families with young children?
Yes, Finnish Lapland is exceptionally family-friendly. Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is designed with families in mind, and activities including reindeer rides, husky safaris, snowshoeing, and igloo stays are all accessible to children. Most tour operators accommodate children from age four and upward, and family-specific packages are widely available.
What should you pack for a trip to Lapland Finland in winter?
Thermal base layers, mid-layers of fleece or down, a waterproof and windproof outer shell, insulated waterproof boots rated to at least minus 30 degrees Celsius, thick wool socks, thermal gloves or mittens, a balaclava, and a warm hat are all essential. Most activity operators provide additional thermal suits for outdoor excursions, but having proper base layers of your own makes a significant difference to comfort throughout the day.
Do you need a car to get around Finnish Lapland?
A rental car is strongly recommended for travelers who want flexibility, particularly for reaching national parks, remote accommodation, and areas outside of Rovaniemi. The road network is well maintained and winter tires are legally required on rental vehicles during the snow season. Bus services connect the major towns, but schedules are infrequent and routes limited compared to what a car provides.