sAfter my failed attempt at seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland, I was determined for years to try again. I always assumed I would just plan another trip to Iceland in order to see them. Lapland, in the north of Finland, was never high on my travel bucket list. I knew it was a place to see the Northern Lights and I had, of course, seen photos of the famous glass igloos all over Instagram. But I’ve always been a warm weather kind of traveler so it wasn’t until my boyfriend convinced me that Finland was a must visit that I finally booked a trip.
But let me tell you, seeing the Northern Lights from my bed inside a glass igloo was better than any warm weather trip could ever be!
Where I Stayed
I chose to stay at Northern Lights Village which is still a fairly new resort. It opened in 2016 and has slowly been growing in popularity ever since. It’s a pretty small hotel with around 80 cabins (I think!) but it has everything you need on site. The hotel is 15 minutes from the Ivalo airport and offers tons of activities and excursions so you don’t need to leave the property once you arrive. I originally found it after researching the popular Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort which is wildly pricey. I was searching Instagram for similar options when I discovered Northern Lights Village. This hotel offers cheaper rates as well as customizable packages.
Most of Northern Lights Village’s packages include three meals a day via a buffet so the only thing you have to pay for when you arrive is alcohol and any added excursions. For buffet style food, it wasn’t bad! There was decent variety at each meal including an Asian dish due to the large amount of visitors from Asia. There was also often some sort of reindeer whether it be soup, steak, bacon or stir fry. I tried reindeer once while staying at Northern Lights Village and I hate to admit that it was actually good. But I only ate it once because, you know, Rudolph!
I visited the hotel in late November so there was only about 2.5 hours of sunlight a day. It was so weird waking up to complete darkness at 9:30 a.m. But it also made for insanely beautiful sunrises and sunsets every single day!
The Room
The only accommodation available at Northern Lights Village is a glass igloo, known here as an Aurora Cabin, so there is a lot more availability for these type of rooms than at similar hotels.
The Aurora Cabins are 29 square meters focused around seeing the Northern Lights. The room features two twin or one double bed, a sofa, small coffee table, mini fridge, dresser and private bathroom. There’s complimentary tea and coffee and a small minibar. There is fast WiFi available throughout the hotel including in your cabin. I was in one of the furthest cabins from the reception and restaurant and still had signal!
Over the bed are giant windows up to the sky. This is so you can see the Auroras if they pop out at night. I was very eager to see them so I stayed up almost all night while we were at Northern Lights Village. But you don’t really have to sit and wait. In each cabin there is an iPad that connects to the front desk. The overnight manager goes outside every 10-15 minutes to see if the Auroras are out. If they are, they will send an alarm to an iPad in your room to wake you up to see the Northern Lights! We did see the Lights very faintly from our bed on the last night though we didn’t get an alarm. When we visited the Northern Lights Village, the iPads were only a week old so they may have been working out some kinks!
Another cool feature of the room is that the giant window has heated glass. If you wake up to your window covered in snow, there is a button to heat the glass so you can see outside. And the view is amazing so this is 100% a necessary feature!
My pro tip if you’re staying at Northern Lights Village is to request a cabin in row 1-20. These are the last row of cabins, furthest from the reception and restaurant area. They are the most private and look out over the woods rather than another row of cabins. I absolutely LOVED waking up to snow covered trees every morning.
I had my first experience with a wet bath at the Northern Lights Village. This is where the shower is over the toilet. With the room being only 29 square meters, I shouldn’t have been surprised by this! It wasn’t as messy as I was expecting and surprisingly didn’t get the entire bathroom wet. Because of the small room, there was only a very tiny hot water heater under the sink. Showers had to be kept very short because there was only about 10 minutes of hot water. Though it did fill again pretty quickly!
The Activities
Don’t be fooled by the name of Northern Lights Village. There is so much more to do at this hotel than just chase the Northern Lights. From dog sledding to saunas to ice karting, there is a plethora of activities available at Northern Lights Village.
I chose to plan my entire stay before I arrived at Northern Lights Village. You can purchase individual activities online or you can create your own prepaid package which is what I chose to do. I emailed the hotel the activities I wanted to do and they had a full itinerary with times ready for me within 24 hours. You can also purchase activities when you arrive and even the same day. A board in the lobby shows a schedule of the day’s activities and the number of spots remaining.
We had three nights and two full days at Northern Lights Village. Our first activity was a heated sleigh ride to a tent where we had a Finnish meal by a campfire. We left from the front of the lodge on an enclosed sleigh pulled by a snowmobile.
Our guide took us to a tent in the woods where he taught us about Finnish culture and cooked us an amazing meal of vegetable soup, reindeer with gravy, and cheese with berry sauce for dessert. Every trip included a lunch/dinner or small snack. And all of them included this amazing warm berry juice which was the perfect, sugary pick me up in the below freezing temperatures!
Our first full day at Northern Lights Village started with a four hour snowmobile tour. There are 2 or 4 hour tours available. I thought four hours would be WAY too long but it was actually the perfect amount of time. Our tour included a stop for a delicious soup lunch (and a chance to warm up!) in one of the tents on the property. It was just my boyfriend and I on our snowmobile tour so we had a bit more of a customized tour. For example, we got to do some off road driving since the guide confirmed we were both good snowmobilers!
After snowmobiling, we did the sauna and ice bath experience at the hotel. I chickened out pretty bad and was only able to do the ice bath for about 30 seconds. Other sauna goers tried to convince me that the ice bath was warmer than the air outside but I still wasn’t able to handle it. I enjoyed the sauna instead!
We also had a hot stone massage which was at a hotel in the town of Ivalo. The town is about a 10-15 minute walk from the Northern Lights Village but we got a ride there from one of the hotel’s drivers. The town is very small but there are a few bars and restaurants as well as some shops and a grocery/liquor store.
Our last full day at Northern Lights Village was packed with activities. I was happy we had 2 full days but I would have liked one more full day just to have some time to actually relax.
We started with ice karting which was a newer activity off the property. Imagine a go kart but with a wider base and on ice and you get ice karting. For about 30 Euros each (pricey!) we got a 10 minute ice kart ride. We each got our own ice kart and since it’s still a new activity in town, we were the only two people on the track. The track takes about 2 minutes to get around so you get quite a few laps. That is if you don’t get caught in the snow of course, which we both did. I still beat my boyfriend to the finish line though! You can add more time but we both felt 10 minutes was enough on the track.
After ice karting, we grabbed some lunch at the buffet before heading out for a husky safari, also known as dog sledding! This is a huge activity in Lapland. We chose the two hour excursion which I felt was plenty. We saw much of the same views we saw while snowmobiling. It was fun but I did walk away feeling that I should have researched dog sledding beforehand. I try to avoid activities that affect animals’ lives – you’ll never see me with elephants in Thailand! The dog owners assured me the huskies are working dogs and they want to run but I still walked away feeling a little unsure about it. It felt like the dogs were happy running but I don’t know…If you know anything about dog sledding, please educate me in the comments!
Our last night was dedicated to seeing the Northern Lights. We chose to do the “Northern Lights by the Lake” excursion which took us an hour north to Lake Inari. Two guides drove our small group of 6 to a lookout point at the lake. Fortunately for us, we saw the Northern Lights almost instantly! I definitely recommend this excursion or their “Northern Lights by the Border” because you need to get away from the light pollution of the hotel and Ivalo to really see the Lights.
I loved how helpful everyone working at Northern Lights Village was. They were quick to show me how to use my Canon Rebel T6i camera so I could shoot the Northern Lights myself. It was so cool to see the Lights with my naked eye (I didn’t believe you actually could!) but even cooler to be able to say to my friends and family that I took such an amazing photo of them myself.
Overall, I 100% recommend a stay at the Northern Lights Village. It is the perfect place for couples, families, or even friends. There is a ton of cute stuff in Lapland for kids around Christmastime such as excursions to Santa’s workshop and reindeer rides. I can’t wait to go back some day when I have children of my own.