Hey there,
Here's everything you need to know before planning your trip to Finland to view the Aurora Borealis. This is basis our visit to Finland in Feb 2024.
7 Day itinerary
Day 1: Flight to Helsinki; Overnight Train to Rovaniemi
The best connectivity to Finland from India is to the capital city Helsinki, We flew FinAir and booked premium economy as its a long 9hr flight. The return flight costed us around 1,28,000 per person. Take an overnight train to Rovaniemi. You can book it on Railninja and the ticket costed us 15000 per person in VR Train. They have cabins and chair cars.
Day 2: 2 nights in Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi is popular destination and has many stay options, we stayed in Rovaniemi for 2 nights in Kotimaailma Apartment which costed us around 11000 per night. Spend the day at leisure and explore the vibrant city. Check the My Aurora application for the northern lights forecast and book a chasing tour accordingly. We also followed Lorenzo a very meticulous norther lights chaser for constant updates and tours that he conducted. His slots usually get sold earlier so keep an eye on his story to book one with him.
Day 3: Visit Santa Claus Village
Head to Santa Claus Village, try reindeer safari (INR 2000 for 400 mtr ride), snowmobiling (INR 9000 for 1 hr snowmobiling). You can skip husky tour because the huskies are not very well kept here. Spend the day here, check out the snow hotel.
Day 4: Korouma national park for a hike to view the Frozen Waterfalls
An hour drive from Rovaniemi is a well preserved national park, covered in snow! One of the most underrated activity in Finland hiking amidst the now. We booked a day tour via GetYourGuide which costed us around 15000 per person.
Day 5: Check out and head to Lapland
The Lapland region is famous for providing the best northern lights viewing experience form the comfort of your room or glass igloo. The region is filled with plenty of options to book from but two of the popular regions to view it from are Saariselka and Levi. We stayed in the Kakslautten Arctic Resort, west glass igloo for INR 55000 per night but did not like the experience so much as it was too small, but you can checkout Northern Lights Village or Levi Inglut they have bigger options. These can be extremely expensive and thus planning the stay as per the forecast is very critical but spotting the light is purely luck. We checkout out all the forecasts and still couldn't see it due to cloudy weather :(
Try Ice Swimming and Smoke Sauna
Ice Swimming and Saunas are a traditional finnish activity and is certainly to not be missed when in Finland. While there are Saunas in every house and hotel the real experience is taking a dip in the frozen lake. Some of the best places to do it in are Moutka Wilderness Resort or Kilopaa in the morning and checkout the skiing resort nearby. Finding a cab in this region is ridiculously expensive and thus you can also stay in Moutka and try the experience there to save the cost of travelling. The Moutka experience was for 10000 for a private sauna for an hour. There are cheaper public sauna options available as well.
Go for husky ride (5000 for 2.5 km ride) here in the night if the sky is clear they have chasing tours on huskies, it’s relatively more expensive but better than Santa Claus village
Day 6: Day trip to Inari or Ivalo
Inari or Ivalo are nearby towns and villages with beautiful nature, wildlife and lakes. Take a day tour from Saariselka or Levi to explore these regions provided by GetYourGuide or Viator starting at 15000 per person.
Day 7: Head to Helsinki for return.
The total trip cost would range around 2.5 to 3.5 L including food, travel and excursions. To know more about the trip check out my Instagram page and follow me for more such detailed itineraries.
