Need tips on how to spend 3 winter days in Rovaniemi Finland? You are in the right place! My husband and I spent 3 full days in this Lapland capital wonderland in winter 2023.

Having once again been inspired to put Lapland on my bucket list from Instagram posts I had seen about it, I was so excited to finally see this Arctic Circle destination with my own eyes.

In fact, I had a trip to Finland planned for December 2020 (and we all know how that played out ;\).

Nonetheless, we finally made it to the country the last week of February/first week of March in 2023 to celebrate my husband’s 54th birthday ;)!

While we are pretty good at finding a balance between exploring cities as well as nature, we seem to lean more to the ‘escape the crowds in quiet natural places’ vibe for our ideal vacations.

Since we were flying all the way from Southern California, I knew staying in Helsinki for at least a few nights to adjust to the time (and temperature) change would be in our best interest.

You can read my Helsinki travel guide here.

Rovaniemi is the official capital of Lapland, Finland and was the perfect place to start our exploring of this extremely northern part of the world once we were acclimated ;).

In a rush?

The Little Travel Details

How to Get to Rovaniemi, Lapland

As mentioned above, our first stop in Finland was Helsinki via British Airways flights San Diego to London and then London to Helsinki where we stayed for 5 nights.

After those 5 nights in Helsinki, we flew Finnair from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.

I kid you not when I say the Helsinki airport may very well be the nicest airport I have ever been in.

It was peaceful, spacious and relaxing.

Because we were traveling in winter, and Lapland is a very popular winter sports destination in Finland, the small Rovaniemi airport was quite crowded and getting our luggage took a fair amount of time.

So just be prepared for that little change in airport energy ;).

How to Get Around Rovaniemi

We arranged an airport pickup with our hotel in advance and were met by our driver immediately after collecting our luggage. I HIGHLY recommend doing this in Lapland!

We did not rent a car for our 3 days in Rovaniemi however that is a possibility.

Our daily activities were easy enough to arrange taxi transportation to and from with our hotel front desk and the prices were quite reasonable so we did not see any need for a car rental.

We occasionally used our Uber app as well ;).

There is also a very convenient public bus system in Rovaniemi if you are staying in the city centre that can easily take you to Santa’s Village or just need a ride between those two places.

How Many Days You Need in Rovaniemi, Lapland

Not including the travel day for flying from Helsinki to Rovaniemi or the day we left, we spent 3 full days in this part of Lapland and felt that was plenty to not feel rushed and still enjoy what Rovaniemi has to offer.

However, we had an additional two days further north on our Lapland itinerary to do more Finnish outdoor activities (see itinerary at the bottom of this post).

So if you are not planning any additional stops in Lapland, I would recommend adding a day or two to Rovaniemi (HOWEVER – I would 100% recommend going further north instead of this option if you can!).

Currency Details for Lapland

While Finland’s currency is the Euro, not once did we need cash in our two weeks in the country.

We have a Chase credit card with no foreign transaction fees that was our main mode of paying and worked easily.

Apple Pay was also accepted everywhere we went and was especially easy to use with all our taxis!

Best Places to Stay in Rovaniemi

I would not advise anyone to stay in the city centre proper (unless you are needing a hostel stay) – as there is very little to do in the city and honestly the whole point of being in Lapland is to enjoy being outside and all that has to offer!

Arctic Treehouse Hotel

All that to say – holy cow – I cannot emphasize enough how lovely our stay was at this property for our 4 nights in Rovaniemi ;).

If you have a decent hotel budget for your Finland adventures, I would 100% tell you to stay here.

From seeing the snowfall then the Northern Lights from your bed to the delicious food in their Rakas Restaurant (breakfast is included in your rate), you will not regret spending a little bit extra to stay here.

Apukka Resort

You can’t go to Lapland, Finland without planning a stay in a glass igloo!

Because our itinerary had a glass igloo property further north in Lapland after our 4 nights in Rovaniemi, I opted to stay at the Arctic Treehouse mentioned above instead of an igloo.

However, if Rovaniemi is your only stop in Lapland – your two best options for an igloo stay in Rovaniemi are Apukka Resort or Santa Claus Village Resort below…

photo courtesy of Apukka Resort Instagram

While we didn’t tour the Apukka property ourselves, what we could see from their website and Instagram seems very similar to where we stayed in Saariselka further north and would be a very fun property to stay at in Rovaniemi with multiple activity options.

Santa Claus Village

While this property was a little too commercial for a romantic stay for my husband and I, it seemed like a fun place to stay if traveling with kids.

The vibe is pretty similar to a small amusement park so just be prepared for a decent amount of “tourist traps” here.

Nonetheless, as Santa Claus Village is a top thing to do in Rovaniemi, staying here would most certainly be quite convenient ;).

photo courtesy of Santa Claus Village Instagram

Best Places to Eat in Rovaniemi

Rakas Restaurant

The food at Rakas was very likely the best food we had during our entire two weeks in Finland ;).

We tried the Finnish staple of reindeer meat in a couple different places on this trip, and Rakas was honestly the only place we thought it was acceptably satisfying.

For future reference, I do not think I will order reindeer ever again in my lifetime – we just thought we should taste the food of their culture ;).

21 Cafe & Bar

After spending the morning at Santa Claus Village, we decided to head into the city centre for lunch instead of eating at the cafeteria in the village (again – while I LOVED meeting Santa – Santa’s Village felt very touristy for us – more below…).

This breakfast & lunch cafe was recommended to us by multiple people and was truly a delight to discover (especially when the majority of restaurants were closed until 5pm and since we had skipped lunch we were starving around 2:30pm).

We ordered salad bowls as well as sweet waffles for dessert and our tummies were happily full!

Frans & Cherie Bistro

While we didn’t actually eat at this restaurant, it also came highly recommended so I figured I would pass the word along to you ;)!

photo courtesy of Frans and Cherie Instagram

Top Things to Do in Rovaniemi, Lapland

Santa Claus Village

As mentioned above, Santa Claus Village has a rather touristy vibe.

But nonetheless – it is absolutely a must see attraction in Rovaniemi as well as literally being ON the Arctic Circle line – which is cool in and of itself!!

We did a morning one hour reindeer ride here (see below) and then wandered around to the various attractions for about 2-3 hours (including a 30 minute wait to see Santa).

If you are lucky enough to be visiting Lapland in December – even with the lines and crowds, Santa’s Village would be magical ;).

Santa and Mrs. Claus are available to visit year round (and of course we did so even without our kids!) with no line to see Mrs. Claus in her separate house and a 30 minute line to see Santa during our February 27th visit ;).

Mrs. Claus visit:

Santa Claus visit:

As an FYI – that line to see Santa above was about 30 people long and took about 30 minutes for us to make it to the front of the line…

Be sure to go to Santa’s post office as well to read some of the sweetest letters to our favorite jolly fellow ;).

Reindeer Ride at Santa Claus Village

I booked our one hour reindeer ride at Santa’s Village about 3 months before our trip and had my pick of time slots (I chose 10am ;)).

It took me forever to decide which town to do the reindeer ride and husky safari being that we were visiting Rovaniemi as well as Saariselka further north.

But now that I am writing this – I realize it makes perfect sense to go on a reindeer sleigh ride at Santa’s Village and do the husky safari further into the Lapland wilderness ;).

So if you are struggling with the same decision I was – do the reindeer ride here!!

As an FYI – husky rides are also available on the Santa’s Village property via Bearhill Huskies if you decide to do that instead of a reindeer ride.

That same company does offer longer husky adventures in the Rovaniemi area if you want more than what is offered at the Village – go to their website here to see what they offer ;).

Wander the City Centre

After spending the first half of our first full day in Lapland at Santa’s Village, we then decided to check out the city centre.

I was somewhat surprised at how little there is to do in the actual city being as how I had read on multiple sites that Rovaniemi is the biggest city in Lapland ;0.

After about 30 minutes of “exploring” we decided we got the vibe and looked for someplace to eat and ended up at 21 Cafe & Bar listed above ;).

However, we also decided to check in at Santa’s house located in the city and enjoyed our conversation and additional Santa photos with him 🎅🏻.

Icebreaker Sampo Cruise

While this experience is not at all cheap – it is 100% worth it!

The cruise only runs in winter – December through the first week of April so if you are visiting outside of those times, sadly you won’t be able to experience this popular Finnish tourism attraction.

Be sure to buy your tickets well in advance (use this link) – preferably as soon as you book your flights to Lapland because this is a very popular activity in Lapland and will sell out…

And if you know me – you know I am not a fan of going into any body of water, HOWEVER, I knew my husband would eat up the experience of swimming in icy Arctic Circle waters ;).

Our tickets included transportation to and from the Arctic Treehouse hotel in Rovaniemi to Kemi as well as lunch before the bucket list adventure (we were on the afternoon cruise from 1pm-4:30pm).

The tickets were also supposed to include a tour of the famous SnowCastle Hotel in Kemi. Sadly, the weather in Lapland did not get cold enough to give the town time to build this annual seasonal hotel…

But there was a small warehouse with ice sculptures for us to explore before we got on the bus that would take us to the boat…

Once on the boat, we were given a tour and time to marvel at the icebreaking before getting the opportunity to disembark to walk on the frozen sea ice and icefloat in the sea!

Get Outside for a Snow Activity

No matter where you stay in Rovaniemi, there are plenty of outdoor outfitters to help you get outside for at least one day or part of it ;). Find all your options and companies to help you decide what is a perfect fit for you here.

From snowmobiling and cross country skiing to snow hiking looking for ice waterfalls or sledding and snowshoeing – the options are bountiful!

If you stay at the Arctic Treehouse Hotel, you have access to their toboggans, kicksleds, snowshoes, and fatbikes.

On our last day in Rovaniemi, we wanted to have a leisurely day of sleeping in and enjoying the peace and quiet our accommodations offered.

So we opted to use their free snowshoes for a couple of hours in the afternoon around their property.

It was incredibly peaceful and relaxing with beautiful scenery all around.

View the Northern Lights

This is what visiting Lapland in winter is world famous for!!

Well Northern Lights viewing and Santa that is…

We prepared for the trip with the knowledge that the odds of us seeing these magical lights in the sky in Lapland are strictly based on whether or not we would get clear skies at night.

But lucky for us – in the 6 nights we were in Lapland (including the 2 nights further north in Saariselka {read that post here}) – we saw them 3 nights.

And each time while laying in bed!!

Which personally seemed waaaayyy better than bundling up for an aurora borealis OUTDOOR organized tour 🥶.

Now mind you – our photos for our first time seeing them from bed are pretty bad – I know.

But you know what? It made us be in the moment more than ever and just watch the lights dance across the sky for almost an hour each time ;).

I did later Google how to use your iPhone to photograph the Northern Lights and tried my best on subsequent viewings but really should have had a tripod with us for this experience if we wanted to get some decent photos ;0.

Truth be told – I didn’t really expect to see them at all!!

I knew we were visiting in the heart of winter and figured it would be snowing most of the time while we were there!

Now I know – and you do too!

If you decide to not stay at a property with a glass roof or walls – you can still wander right outside your hotel room all bundled up to enjoy the lights dancing beauty (as long as you don’t have much light pollution where you are staying!).

Download the app Aurora Alert Realtime on your phone to get notified on your phone of their occurence. My husband used that for our first sighting and you can imagine how excited we were to watch them come alive while in our pajamas ;).

There are also plenty of Northern Lights safaris available in Lapland – here is a list of the most popular guides in the area.

What to Wear in Rovaniemi Lapland in Winter

This probably goes without saying – but dress warmly!!

Even though we are Southern California residents, we own warm parkas which work perfectly for trips like this!!

As I mentioned in my Helsinki and Tallinn blog posts – the majority of our photos on this trip were taken outside so I made sure my winter accessories were plentiful and cute ;).

Our Full Itinerary in a Nutshell

Including travel days – this trip was a total of 15 days.

While clearly only one week was spent in the Lapland region of Finland, coming from as far away as California, I would not have wanted to have rushed straight to Lapland and deal with any jet lag while doing any of the above activities.

If you are coming from a long distance as well, I would highly suggest starting in Helsinki to adjust to the time change before venturing up north so that you are well rested and adjusted and ready to go!

THE ITINERARY:

Day 1 Fly San Diego to Helsinki via London on British Airways

Day 2 Arrive Helsinki 9pm local time

Day 3 Helsinki

Day 4 Helsinki

Day 5 Helsinki

Day 6 Day trip to Tallinn, Estonia

Day 7 Fly Helsinki to Rovaniemi on Finnair

Day 8 Rovaniemi

Day 9 Rovaniemi

Day 10 Rovaniemi

Day 11 Bus to Saariselkä (4 hours)

Day 12 Saariselkä

Day 13 Fly Ivalo to London via Helsinki on British Airways

Day 14 London

Day 15 Fly London to San Diego on British Airways

I hope you found this post helpful in planning your 3 winter days in Rovaniemi Finland.

It was such a magical place to discover. And truthfully, my husband and I continuously talk about how crazy it is that we actually went to the Arctic Circle, saw the Northern Lights, slept in a glass igloo, tasted REINDEER… I mean really – the list of OMG moments could go on and on.

But instead of doing that – I just hope you are able to go for yourself and that this post is just the start of helping you make your own amazing OMG memories ;)!

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Life is short, the world is wide.

I want to make some memories.

~Mamma Mia

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Have a wonderful day my friend! I hope something makes you smile today ;).