Guide · Reindeer evening

Reindeer and northern lights in Lapland, Finland: a sleigh night

Reindeer and northern lights in Lapland, Finland make a calm pairing: a sleigh at walking pace, a campfire and the sky overhead. Here is how the Saariselkä evening works and what to expect.

Check availabilityfrom $160 · free cancellation possible

Editorial team, saariselkanorthernlights.comUpdated October 19, 2026Reading time about 8 minutes12 sources

The tour behind this guide Saariselkä: Northern Lights & Reindeer Sledding Tour 4.6 (153 reviews) 2.5 hours from$218per person Check availabilityCancel at no charge until 24 hrs before pickup

At a glance

01The evening: 2.5 hours with a reindeer sleigh ride at a farm, from $218.
02Included: Thermal clothing, an English guide, a campfire drink and reindeer feeding.
03Meeting point: The Lapponia Tours safari house at Honkapolku 1 in Saariselkä.
04Who can join: Not for children under 7 or for pregnant women.
05Rating: 4.60 from 153 reviews, and it costs nothing to cancel with 24 hours of notice.

A slow way to wait for the sky

An aurora hunt is about covering ground. A reindeer evening is the opposite: you stay in one place, sit low in a sleigh behind an animal that sets its own steady pace, and let the night come to you. The draw is the stillness. There is no engine noise, no headlights on the snow, and plenty of time to look up between the trees while your guide tells you about the animals and the people who herd them.

The evening sold here is run by Lapponia Tours and lasts 2.5 hours, starting from $218. It includes thermal clothing, guiding in English, a reindeer sleigh ride, a hot drink by a campfire and the opportunity to feed the reindeer. Live guiding is offered in English and Finnish, and the listing holds 4.60 from 153 reviews. It is a gentle, social evening rather than a chase.

Be clear about what the evening is. The aurora is a chance, not part of the package: the listing itself states plainly that the northern lights are not guaranteed. A reindeer sleigh under the northern lights is the dream, and on a clear night with activity overhead it happens. On a cloudy one, you still have the animals, the fire and the snow-heavy forest around you. Either way, it is a night you will remember.

The evening

From the safari house to the farm and back

Start

Honkapolku 1

Meet at the Lapponia Tours safari house, the gray building with a tower roof.
15 minutes

Transfer to the farm

A short transfer takes the group to Joikun Kotakahvio.
At the farm

Sleigh and snacks

A farm visit, local snacks and the reindeer sledding itself.
By the fire

Warm up and feed

A hot drink by a campfire and a chance to feed the reindeer.
15 minutes

Back to Saariselkä

The return transfer brings you back to the safari house.

How the evening runs, from meeting point to farm

You meet at the Lapponia Tours safari house at Honkapolku 1 in Saariselkä, a gray building with a tower roof. From there a transfer of about 15 minutes takes the group to Joikun Kotakahvio, the reindeer farm where the evening happens. Arrive a little early, already dressed in your base layers, and leave room in your pockets for gloves and a hat. The guide meets the group there.

At the farm, the listing names a visit, local snacks and the sledding itself, together lasting about 2.5 hours, with a hot drink by the campfire and a chance to feed the reindeer. The return transfer is again about 15 minutes. The rhythm is unhurried by design, and the campfire is where the group gathers to warm up and keep an eye on the northern horizon. Nobody is rushed from one thing to the next.

Transfers from Kiilopää, Kakslauttanen, Muotka, Inari and Ivalo are not included, and the listing asks guests from those places to arrange their own way to Saariselkä. If you are staying outside the village, sort out that ride before you book. Dropping the sleigh evening costs nothing until 24 hours beforehand, and the bill is not due at booking. A taxi from the outlying resorts is the simple fix.

Time out

How long each reindeer evening lasts

hours

Listed durations; the lake tours add dinner and a snowmobile sleigh ride.

Side by side

Reindeer evenings near Saariselkä

Evening	From	Hours	Children from
Farm sleigh, Saariselkä	from $218	2.5	7
Reindeer and aurora, Ivalo	from $150	2	4
Lake Inari from Ivalo	from $190	4	not stated
Lake Inari from Saariselkä	from $213	5	7

Starting prices per person as listed, not exact quotes; age limits as each listing states them.

Three choices

Three reindeer evenings compared

On this page

Farm sleigh

Joikun Kotakahvio farm

Duration: 2.5 hours
Guides: English, Finnish
Price: from $218

Check the dates

Small group

Reindeer and aurora

From the Ivalo area

Duration: 2 hours
Group: Up to 8
Price: from $150

Check the dates

Ivalo: Lake Inari Northern Lights Tour w/ Reindeer & Dinner

Longer night

Lake Inari dinner

Reindeer, sleigh and dinner

Duration: 4 hours
Group: Up to 12
Price: from $190

Check the dates

Decision helper

Which reindeer night suits you

Choose by what you want from the evening

The farm sleigh

A reindeer sleigh ride at Joikun Kotakahvio, with a campfire drink.

The Ivalo reindeer outing

Transport from the Ivalo area is included on this 2-hour evening.

A Lake Inari tour

A home-made dinner of local fish or reindeer is part of both lake evenings.

The Ivalo reindeer outing

It is not for children under 4, against 7 on the farm sleigh.

Add a van hunt

The booked hunt lists transport and knowledge of the best locations.

The Reindeer husbandry area is demarcated for reindeer herding (Reindeer Husbandry Act 848/1990 ). The area covers 122,936 sq. kilometres, 36 % of Finland’s total area.

Reindeer Herders’ Association (Paliskuntain yhdistys)Source 1

House rules that protect the animals

A reindeer farm at night has rules, and this one spells them out. Flash photography, flashlights, smoking, alcohol and drugs are not allowed during the tour. Bright light in the dark is the main thing to avoid, and the ban on flash covers your phone as well as your camera. Turn the flash off before you arrive, not in the moment when a reindeer is standing in front of you. Ask your group to check their settings too.

The no-flashlight rule changes how you move around. Let your eyes adjust instead: the Finnish Meteorological Institute advises staying in the dark for about half an hour so the eye can adapt.² After that, snow, starlight and the campfire give you more light than you would expect, and the sky looks deeper and busier. Keep your phone screen dim and face it away from the group. It is a small discipline that pays off.

Children under 7 and pregnant women cannot join this tour. The listing does carry a wheelchair-accessible label, but a sleigh seat and snowy ground are a different matter from a paved path, and anyone with limited mobility should ask the seller about the sleigh itself before booking. The listing also says a cancelled tour is refunded in full. Keep the confirmation handy.

Checklist

Ready for a night at the reindeer farm

Included

Thermal clothing
Guiding in English
A reindeer sleigh ride
A hot drink by the campfire

Leave behind

Flash and flashlights
Cigarettes and alcohol
Any plan to be picked up outside Saariselkä

Bring

Comfortable shoes
Warm layers under the thermal suit
A camera with the flash switched off

Cost calculator

Price a reindeer evening for your group

Starting totals for your group, before any extras.

Farm sleighSaariselkäfrom $218 Reindeer and auroraIvalo areafrom $150 Lake Inari dinnerFrom Ivalofrom $190 Lake Inari dinnerFrom Saariselkäfrom $213

People 2

Total from$436

each from $218

Check availabilityfree cancellation

Totals start from each listing's lowest per-person price on GetYourGuide, turned into your currency at the ECB rate; the booking screen shows the exact sum.

Video

Reindeer Rides & Northern Lights - Lapland is PURE MAGIC! 🇫🇮

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Reindeer, herders and the Sámi homeland

Reindeer in Finland are herded animals, not wild ones, and herding has its own legally defined territory. The Reindeer Herders' Association gives the reindeer husbandry area as 122,936 square kilometres, 36 % of Finland's total area.¹ Herding shapes the landscape you travel through after dark, at the farm and well beyond it. The animals belong to herders, and every one of them has an owner.

That nearness has a cost. The association says that in northern Finland thousands of reindeer are injured by train and car traffic every year, mainly in October, November and December.³ Those months fall inside the aurora season, and anyone driving a rental car between Ivalo and Saariselkä should slow down when a herd appears at the roadside. A driver who expects them is a driver who stops in time.

Reindeer herding is also part of Sámi culture. In the words of the Sámi Parliament in Finland, the Sámi are the sole Indigenous people of the European Union, with that status set in the Constitution of Finland.⁴ Inari, Utsjoki, Enontekiö and northern Sodankylä form the Sámi Homeland, and in Inari municipality three Sámi languages are in official use.⁵ ⁶ Treat the farm visit as a window into that world, and ask questions.

Dressing for a cold seat

A sleigh is a cold place to sit. You are not walking or steering, and the night air settles on you. January in Saariselkä runs from an average high of -8.3 °C down to a low of -15.6 °C, and December from -6.3 °C to -13 °C.⁷ Thermal clothing is included on this evening, but what you wear underneath decides how comfortable you stay. Plan for the sitting, not the walking.

Wear a wool base layer, a warm mid-layer and a double layer of socks, and bring a hat that covers your ears. Shoes that grip on packed snow help around the farm, where paths can be icy. Mittens keep fingers warmer than gloves on a sleigh, and a thin pair underneath lets you work a camera at the campfire without exposing bare skin to the cold. Heat packs for hands and feet weigh almost nothing.

Visit Finland gives the average winter temperature in Finnish Lapland as -14 °C, with occasional dips to -30 °C.⁸ On the coldest nights, a hot drink by the fire is more than a nice touch. Eat before you go, use the bathroom at the safari house before the transfer, and keep a spare battery for your phone in an inside pocket, close to your body. Warm hands make for steadier photos.

Other reindeer nights nearby

Ivalo Experiences runs a 2-hour northern lights and reindeer outing from the Ivalo area for small groups of up to 8, starting from $150. It includes transport from the Ivalo area, hot berry juice or hot chocolate, sausages and aurora hunting, but not a thermal suit. Its weather limit is -25 degrees, and it is not for children under 4. It suits travelers based in Ivalo.

Ivalo Safaris combines reindeer with Lake Inari. Its 4-hour tour from Ivalo includes meeting and feeding reindeer, a snowmobile sleigh ride, thermal clothing and a home-made dinner of local fish or reindeer, from $190 with 4.37 from 86 reviews. A 5-hour version leaves from Saariselkä, from $213. Both add a long drive across snow to the evening, and a seat at a table.

Those lake evenings trade the quiet farm sleigh for a longer night with a meal and a snowmobile-drawn sleigh, and both list small groups of up to 12. The Saariselkä version is not for children under 7. If reindeer are your main reason to go out, the farm sleigh keeps them at the center of the evening; the lake tours make them one part of it. Both make for a good night out, in different ways.

When to book the sleigh

Timing still matters on a slow evening. Visit Finland gives 9pm to 2am as the usual best viewing window, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute puts typical displays at midnight and a couple of hours either side.⁹ ¹⁰ Ask what time your evening starts, and if you can choose, take a later slot that overlaps those hours. Late slots are worth the wait. Bring patience for the late hours.

The season is long. Visit Finland gives Finland's aurora season as late August to early April, with autumn and spring the most active periods.¹¹ A sleigh needs snow, and the deep-winter months bring the classic picture of reindeer, frozen trees and a green sky, along with the cold that comes with it. Ask the seller from which date the sleigh runs if you are coming early in autumn.

Clouds are the wild card. Visit Finland calls them the most common reason people miss the Northern Lights entirely.¹² A reindeer evening early in your stay gives you the farm and the animals whatever the sky does, and leaves later nights free for a van hunt if a clear forecast appears. Book the sleigh first and keep the hunt as your flexible card. Flexibility is worth more than any gadget.

Plan your night