8-Day Helsinki to Lapland & Tromsø: Northern Lights in Two Countries

Welcome to Finland. Your driver meets you at Helsinki Airport and a private transfer takes you to your centrally located hotel. Rooms are ready from 15:00; if you arrive earlier, leave your luggage at reception and take your first walk through the city. In winter the Esplanadi is lit for Christmas, the market square sits right on the sea, and a warm café is never more than a street away.

After breakfast and check-out, leave your luggage at the hotel and give Helsinki a proper look. A panoramic bus tour takes you along the waterfront and through the heart of the capital: the neoclassical Senate Square crowned by the white cathedral, the Presidential Palace and Parliament, Finlandia Hall and the Opera House, and the Church in the Rock, carved straight into the granite (subject to opening). The rest of the day is yours: the Design District, a harbour café, or a last stroll under the Christmas lights.

In the evening a private transfer brings you to the railway station, where the Santa Claus Express is waiting. Settle into your private cabin and let the train carry you 875 km north through the night, past frozen lakes and snow-laden forests, towards the Arctic Circle.

The train pulls into Rovaniemi in the morning. Your driver meets you at the station and a private transfer takes you to your centrally located hotel, where you can leave your luggage until check-in.

Then comes the moment many guests wait for: a husky safari. A short drive from town, a ranch full of eager huskies greets you with a chorus of barks. Dressed in the warm winter outfit we provide, you get a briefing from the musher and then take the sled yourself, two to a team, gliding through the snow-covered forest with nothing but the hiss of the runners and the panting of the dogs for company.

In the evening the Northern Lights search begins. Your guide takes you away from the town lights into the silent wilderness, where the sky opens wide above the frozen landscape. Sausages are grilled over an open fire, you hear the old Lapland stories of the aurora, and you wait — and if the sky is clear and the solar wind is blowing, the first green curtain unfolds overhead.

After breakfast, a half-day tour that packs in the best of Lapland. It starts at a reindeer farm, where a local herder introduces you to the animals and to the culture built around them for centuries. Then you climb into a sleigh for a reindeer ride through the snowy forest, as quiet and unhurried as travel gets.

Next comes the Arctic Circle crossing ceremony: one foot in the Arctic, one foot out, and a diploma to prove it. The rest of the tour is spent at Santa Claus Village, where you post cards from the Arctic Circle post office, browse the shops and step into Santa’s office to meet the man himself. A delicious lunch is included. The evening is free in Rovaniemi.