21 Enchanting Things to Do in Rovaniemi in Winter (2026 Update)
Home to Santa Claus Village, the Arctic Circle, and more winter activities than you’ve probably ever heard of, Rovaniemi has earned its bucket list status for winter-loving travelers many times over.
It’s the largest city in Finnish Lapland and an iconic winter destination in Finland for a reason! And let me tell you, while visiting Helsinki in winter is a delight, experiencing Rovaniemi in winter is even more magical.
| ⌛ Planning your trip to Rovaniemi in a hurry? Here are my quick picks: ❄️ Best Rovaniemi Winter Tours & Experiences Northern Lights Chase with Guarantee (top aurora tour, local-run, Sámi co-owned) Self-Driven Dog Sledding Tour (my #1 daytime adventure!) Snowmobile Safari Through Lapland’s Forests (for adrenaline and fun!) 🛏️ Best Rovaniemi Hotels Arctic TreeHouse Hotel (boutique cabins with potential Northern Lights views!) Apukka Resort (glass igloos for aurora lovers; lots of activities on-site) Santa Claus Holiday Village (family-friendly cabins with personal saunas) Hostel Café Koti (budget-friendly dorms, central location in city) |
But Rovaniemi is so much more than just the ‘home’ of Santa Claus. From chasing the Northern lights to meeting reindeer to dog sledding to Nordic fine dining to snowmobiling through birch forests, Rovaniemi in winter offers something for everyone.
I spent three weeks in Rovaniemi in 2024, visiting in both January and March. I recently visited in the autumn of 2025 and already have plans to go back in 2026, that’s how in love with this Finnish city I am!
Here’s my compiled list of all the best things to do in Rovaniemi in winter, from someone who knows it well and has traveled through the Arctic extensively (including Abisko, Alta, Tromsø, and Svalbard!)
21 Best Things to Do in Rovaniemi in Winter
Go on a husky safari with a team of enthusiastic dogs
One of the best things to do in Rovaniemi in winter is go dog sledding — I’ve written in depth about my experience husky sledding in Rovaniemi here if you want to read more.
Dog sledding is one of my favorite activities and I’ve gone in a handful of destinations around the world (including in Tromso, Alta, and Abisko too)… it’s something I do every time I’m in the Arctic in winter, and I’ve gone dog-sledding four times in total so far!
The self-drive dog-sled tour I recommend will bring you to a husky farm near Rovaniemi at Apukka Resort, where you can first meet all the lovely huskies who live here year-round. Your experienced guides will give you a demo of husky sledding and how to self-drive a husky sled safely, for both you and the huskies!
It is really a team sport: you will be running and pushing the sled up hills and generally actively helping your huskies pull the sled, so don’t expect to just sit back and enjoy a husky ride!
If you’re traveling with kids, there are also family-friendly options that do not involve self-driving your husky sled. These tours instead have you and your family sitting on a sleigh, led by an experienced dog musher, and gives you time for a husky meet-and-greet.
Go chasing the Northern lights!
Due to Rovaniemi’s position with the Arctic Circle literally crossing through the city itself, is it much of a surprise that Rovaniemi is one of the top places to see the Northern lights in the Nordics?
While you can see the Northern lights in Rovaniemi proper if they are strong enough, taking a dedicated Northern lights hunting tour that brings you outside the city center will give you far better results.
I strongly recommend doing a minibus tour as opposed to an aurora camp tour. This is the exact tour I took. It lasts about 4 hours and the route is customizable based on where they think you’ll have the best chance of seeing the Northern lights.
Anecdotally, on our tour we traveled more than 100 kilometers west (and back!) in order to have the best shot of seeing the lights, and we shifted our plan several times on the route in accordance with the changing conditions. To me, this is the mark of a great aurora tour: awareness of the fact that it is an unpredictable natural phenomenon and being flexible to match that.
There’s another aurora chasing tour that I have my eye on for the next time I visit in the winter. This tour wasn’t offered on my last winter visit to Rovaniemi, but it looks like a solid option as they offer a guarantee.
I was skeptical about what they could possibly “guarantee” because the Northern lights are a natural and unpredictable phenomenon. But their explanation makes sense. Here is their guarantee, in their words:
“And here’s our promise: on most nights, if we don’t see the Northern Lights, either with the naked eye or on camera, we’ll refund you in full. On rare occasions when the weather is so poor that we cannot guarantee a sighting, we will inform you in advance and explain the evening’s conditions. You can then choose to receive a full refund immediately or join the adventure anyway — and if you do, we will still do everything possible to find the Aurora for you.”
Book your ‘guarantee’ and unlimited mileage lights tour here!
The most budget option is the basic Northern lights tour with BBQ, which lasts about 3 hours. This tour includes three photo stops, but you will spend most of the evening at the main picnic spot, where you have a BBQ dinner of fire-roasted sausages and glögi or other warm beverages.
The price is great, but there’s very little flexibility in it: the locations are pre-selected and are not altered at all based on the weather, so if there’s poor cloud conditions in the spot they’ve chosen for the BBQ, the tour will proceed anyway.
There are all sorts of other ways to experience the Northern lights in a more unique way, including a private sauna and Northern lights experience and a snowmobile and Northern lights tour. No matter which tour you pick, you have a fairly good chance of seeing the lights — but of course, being a natural phenomenon, you can never know.
Visit Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village is one of Rovaniemi’s biggest draws. To be honest, as an adult who isn’t particularly fond of Christmas, I found it a bit cheesy and Disneyesque (which is not a compliment coming from me).
However, other people who really like Christmas (aka, not Grinches like me) and especially families with kids are sure to love it!
There are guided tours of Santa Claus Village but it’s really easy to visit independently so I think this is a place where you can safely save some funds for other activities. You can either drive if you’ve rented a car, hire a taxi (it’ll cost approximately 25-30 Euro each way; I recommend the taxi app Menevä which I’ve always used and found reliable), or take the Apukka shuttle from downtown Rovaniemi.
There is no entrance fee to visit Santa Claus Village, although you will definitely want to budget for food and Lapland souvenirs on your visit! There’s plenty to do in Santa Claus Village, including waiting for a meet-and-greet with Santa Claus, taking a brief reindeer sled ride through the forest, eating at its various restaurants, going shopping, sending a postcard at Santa Claus’s post office, etc.
Visit the Arctic SnowHotel
One of the most unique winter activities in Rovaniemi is visiting the Arctic SnowHotel and its incredible ice sculpture garden! It is one of just a few ice hotels in the world. In the Nordics, there are 4: one near Kiruna in Sweden, as well as two in Norway, in Alta and Kirkenes in Norway. Note: the one in Tromso is now only a snow park, and not a place you can stay overnight anymore.
While staying in a snow hotel is really expensive, it’s rather affordable to visit this stunning Lapland hotel for a tour! In particular, this tour offers excellent value because it not only includes a tour of the snow hotel property (which also includes glass igloos, but you don’t get to tour those), but also transfers, which is great because the taxi here would be really expensive if you did it on your own since it takes 30+ min.
There is also a more expensive option that includes a 3-course dinner, but my friend who lives in Rovaniemi says the food here is not so good, so I’m not sure I’d want to splurge on it. But if you really want to eat in an ice restaurant, it is a unique experience, so you can check it out here to see if it appeals to you.
Note: This snow hotel is created from scratch each year. For the 2025-2026 winter season, it opens on December 15th, 2025. and closes on March 31st, 2026.
Chase frozen waterfalls in Korouoma National Park
One of the benefits of Finland getting so cold in winter is the opportunity to see some truly otherworldly landscapes… like frozen waterfalls! One of my favorite things I did on my trip to Rovaniemi in January was take a day trip to visit Korouoma Canyon and its frozen waterfalls.
If you have a rental car, you can drive there independently; however, I only recommend driving in Rovaniemi if you are a highly experienced winter driver as the road conditions are extremely dangerous and accidents are common. If not, you may want to take a guided tour like this one (this is the company I went with and recommend a lot for winter activities!).
Go on a day trip to Riisitunturi National Park for its ‘popcorn trees’
If you’re in Rovaniemi in late December or early January, you ought to prioritize a trip to Riisitunturi National Park. The reason? Its magical “popcorn trees,” a sight straight out of a Dr. Seussian winter storybook!
This unique phenomenon occurs when a combination of conditions align, which is most likely in late December and early January (sometimes extending into February, though climate change has been shortening this window). Frigid temperatures and heavy snowfall create layers of snow that cling to the pine trees, giving them a whimsical, popcorn-like appearance.
However, these enchanting trees are fragile, with warmer temperatures or strong winds stripping away their snowy coats and leaving them looking like ordinary trees once again.
Sadly, last January had unseasonably warm weather and gusty winds, which cut the “popcorn tree” season short, so I haven’t had the chance to see them in person… yet. But my friends who live in Rovaniemi love it here and visit every year and I’m definitely going to make it a point to visit Lapland earlier in the winter in the future so I can see them properly.
If you’ve rented a car, Riisitunturi is easy enough to reach on your own—just make sure you’re confident driving in icy winter conditions. If not, I’d highly recommend joining a guided tour, like this one, which lets you enjoy the scenery stress-free while someone else handles the tricky roads. This is the same company I went with to Korouoma Canyon, so I feel confident recommending them for this tour as well.
Go downhill skiing at Ounasvaara
Generally, Rovaniemi isn’t the place to go for downhill skiing in Finland — that would be Levi, about 100 miles away, or Ruka, the snowiest place in Finland (and an extremely charming place to visit!).
However, there is also the Ounasvaara Ski Resort not far from Rovaniemi if you want to do some downhill skiing. This small hill is great if you want to do downhill skiing, as opposed to cross-country skiing — which there are ample chances to do in the more flat parts of the Rovaniemi area!
For the 2025-2026 winter season, lift tickets are €49 per adult for a day pass or €34.50 for a 3-hour pass, but there are other options: you can check more pricing details here. Note that equipment is not included in the price; renting a ski or snowboard for the day costs an additional €49.
Getting to Ounasvaara from Rovaniemi is really easy, with public transportation options available from the city center on the bus (line 5). You can also take a taxi or drive your own car, if you’ve rented one.
Enjoy a snowmobile safari through the forests
One of the most fun ways to experience the Finnish wilderness is on a snowmobile ride!
Don’t worry if you’ve never ridden a snowmobile before — it’s quite easy to get the hang of, and you can take a snowmobile tour (I recommend going with my favorite company) so you’ll be guided through the landscapes without worrying about getting lost or stuck in the snow.
I’ve taken several snowmobile tours in Svalbard and loved them, but I haven’t taken one in Rovaniemi (yet) — there’s simply so much to do in Rovaniemi that I never have time to do everything I want, which is why I keep going back.
Check out the Arktikum Museum.
One of the coolest places to visit in Rovaniemi is the Arktikum Science Center and Museum — I loved it so much I wrote a whole blog post about this museum!
It’s a really interesting place to visit for adults and kids alike, with interactive features as well as informative exhibits, plus the building itself is gorgeous.
There are four permanent exhibits which focus on the drastic seasonal shifts in the Arctic (land of both the polar night and midnight sun), life in the North, the changing Arctic climate, and the Arctic Ocean’s history.
They also have a rotating temporary exhibits that change typically once per season. The upcoming year will feature an exhibit on Antarctica.
As of 2025, tickets cost €20 for adults, but you can also buy a pass that bundles it with Pilke and Korundi (two museums that I have listed below) for €30 for all three, which is an excellent deal.
Enjoy art and music at the Korundi House of Culture
Another place in Rovaniemi that is worth visiting is the Korundi House of Culture, home to the incredible Rovaniemi Art Museum and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra.
Tickets to the Rovaniemi Art Museum cost €11 for adults (or is included on the Culture Pass bundle) and €6 for children, making it one of the more affordable things to do. Bonus, it’s even free on Thursdays if you enter between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM!
As for the orchestra, there aren’t always shows, but when they are available, it looks like ticket prices are around €29 which is an excellent price for a concert!
Go for a winter hike in the Arctic Circle Hiking Area
One of my favorite places I visited in Rovaniemi was the Arctic Circle Hiking Center, located 16 kilometers down the road from Santa Claus Village or 7 kilometers from Apukka Resort, making it an easy next stop if you’re already visiting Apukka for some activities.
There are places where you can start a fire (free firewood is provided!) and have your own BBQ, as well as a beautiful bridge over the rushing river and three different hiking trails to explore.
Take a traditional Finnish sauna
One of the most typical ways to experience a touch of Finnish life is to have a sauna experience!
Whether that’s taking a sauna at your hotel (most hotels have an on-site sauna) or booking a special sauna experience like a lakeside sauna with a chance of Northern light spotting, there’s nothing more quintessentially Finnish than enjoying sauna culture!
If your accommodation option doesn’t have a sauna and you want to try it affordably, I recommend the WNTR Sauna, which also has a winter swimming hole and outdoor fireplace. Note that this is a mixed-gender sauna so you are expected to wear a swimsuit.
Prices fluctuate depending on the season (and demand) but typically cost around €30 in winter, but dropping as low as €19 during off-peak times and rising to about €45 during the busy Christmas week. Time slots are usually between 1 and 1.5 hours which, for me, is usually enough sauna time.
Stay in a glass igloo
Finland is known for its incredible glass igloos from which you can watch the Northern lights in bed! While many are located further north, there are a handful of options near Rovaniemi.
One of the most popular glass igloo option near Rovaniemi is Apukka Resort, 15 minutes away from Rovaniemi; I didn’t stay in the igloo here, but I did visit the premises and explore around and it was magical and I plan to stay here someday in the future!
Because it’s located a bit outside of the town of Rovaniemi, you’ll be able to enjoy beautifully clear night skies without the light pollution of the city — better chances of the Northern lights, while still getting to enjoy all the fun winter Lapland activities!
This magical place is truly unforgettable: beyond just glass igloos, they also have an ice sauna and even portable private saunas that they transport around the resort on a snowmobile and skis!
Check reviews, room types, and availability here at Apukka Resort here!
Try ice floating under the Northern lights.
Ice floating? Wait, hear me out! This unique winter activity in Rovaniemi is perhaps one of the most surprising ways to see the Northern lights!
On this tour, you can fit in an icy lake where a hole has been dug out so people can float in the icy water. And if you’re worried about getting cold: you wear an insulated, buoyant survival suit that keeps you warm no matter how cold the water is!
People who reviewed the tour had great things to say about it, and reported staying warm and dry as they floated in the icy lake. I haven’t gotten to do this yet but it’s on my bucket list for a future winter trip to Finland!
Go on a reindeer safari at a Sami farm
For millennia, the Indigenous Sámi people have been reindeer herders. It’s a difficult job that involves herding reindeer across a variety of unforgiving terrains — all without losing track of them.
While traditionally, herding and harvesting reindeer for their meat was one of the main ways that Sámi people made a living, now tourism is also an important part of the economy, especially as it becomes harder for reindeer to survive winters independently due to climate change.
Nowadays, some Sámi herders bring their reindeer to a dedicated farm for the winter season and invite tourists to come learn about the history of reindeer herding and offer activities like reindeer sleigh rides, which helps offset the cost of provisioning food for reindeer
Go snowshoeing outside the city center.
If you like to get active on your travels, going snowshoeing is one of the best things to do in Rovaniemi in winter! Going on a snowshoeing and ice fishing tour is an excellent way to get acquainted with the Finnish nature.
This tour includes a guide and a pick-up/drop-off transfer to a forested area, a chance to go ice fishing, and learn cool survival skills like how to make a fire without matches, even in Arctic winter conditions!
Try cross-country skiing
If you’ve never tried cross-country skiing, Rovaniemi is a great place to give it a try. There are plenty of well-groomed cross-country ski trails for you to give this beloved Finnish winter pastime a try!
This guided tour is a good way to get acquainted with the sport if you’ve never cross-country skied before — they will teach you all the skills you need to do in order to glide smoothly across the ski trails (and not mess them up for locals, who love the trails!).
Tours include pickup and drop-off, a guide, winter clothing and ski suit rental, all ski equipment you’ll need, and a campfire treat at the end to replenish your energy after your trek!
Walk along the Kemijoki River… and maybe go for an ice dip!
Rovaniemi is located at the convergence of the Ounasjoki River and the Kemijoki River. These rivers both tend to freeze over (in full or partially) during the winter, making both of them even more beautiful.
I suggest you take a stroll along the waterfront street, Koskenranta, and admire the scenery. Take a look carefully and see if you can spot the hole dug on the other side of the frozen river — this is an ice hole that local Finns like to swim in, even in the winter!
… And you can too if you’re feeling up to it — you can book access to a small changing room and the swimming hole for a small fee of about €10 (see website for details here).
Visit the Luosto Amethyst Mines
One of the more unique things to do in Rovaniemi in winter is take a day trip to the Lampivaara Amethyst Mine in Luosto. This tour includes a guide who will tell you all about the history and geology of the area, as well as stories about the amethysts that have been excavated here, in this special part of Pyhä-Luosto National Park (the only place where amethysts can be extracted).
Located about 60 miles from Rovaniemi, visiting these mines in winter is even more interesting because the roads are shut down between Lampivaara and the mine, so you’ll have to take the mine’s dedicated snow train, in a heated wagon, called the Pendolino.
Check out the Pilke Science Centre
Another fun place to visit in winter in Rovaniemi is the Pilke Science Centre in downtown Rovaniemi. The Pilke House focuses on an ecosystem very near and dear to Finnish hearts: the forest!
It looks at the forest not only through a scientific lens but also a cultural one, exploring the relationship of Finns (and humans in general!) to their forest environments.
Adult tickets cost €7, tickets for children aged 7-15 cost €5, and children under 7 are free. It’s also included in the Rovaniemi Culture Pass I listed above, where you can visit this museum, Arktikum, and the art museum at Korundi for €30.
Go on a horseback ride through the snow
Horseback riding in the Arctic? Why not! This horseback riding experience in Santa Claus Village is a great option for horse lovers who want the chance to ride wherever they travel.
Enjoy riding atop a Finnhorse for about 40 minutes through a forested, snowy winter wonderland all while never leaving Rovaniemi, which is full of forest, trees, and beauty everywhere you look.
Enjoy delicious Nordic cuisine in Rovaniemi’s best restaurants.
Nordic cuisine is a fascinating mix of ingenuity and local ingredients, and you simply must try some Finnish cuisine while you visit Rovaniemi.
In such an extreme environment, limited ingredients are available, and seasonality — as well as preserving the ingredients that are available during the few times of abundance — plays a huge role in Finnish cuisine.
My favorite place to eat in Rovaniemi is Gustav Kitchen & Bar. For dinner, they have small dishes ranging from €20-25, all utilizing local Finnish ingredients.
But the even better deal is their lunch menu which costs about about €15 for your choice of a freshly-prepared lunch plate (usually two options — one non-vegetarian and one vegetarian) and unlimited salads, bread, butter, and cookies. On my last visit I ordered Arctic char with a fennel salad as my main.
If you have a special occasion, you can reserve one of their two heated igloos. There is no additional charge for reserving one of the igloos, but they require a minimum 200€ spend, and can fit a party of up to six.
Other delicious restaurants in Rovaniemi include Ravintola Aurora (upscale Nordic fine dining options) and one of my favorites, Santa’s Kebab (don’t knock reindeer kebab until you try it!).
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016, visiting 75+ countries in total. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. As a former educator, she merges her writing and educational experience to encourage ethical, sustainable travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and TBEX. Her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. When she’s not on the road, she lives in Bangkok, Thailand.
