Arctic Circle Husky Park is a kennel of more than 130 Siberian huskies at Santa Claus Village that sells entry, time with the dogs and short guide-driven rides rather than safaris. Walking in costs €15 for an adult and €10 for a child, twenty minutes petting dogs in a fenced pen is €35, and rides run from about two minutes for €50 to a quarter of an hour for €110. Nobody drives a team here, so anyone who came to Lapland to hold a handlebar needs a safari instead.
Arctic Circle Husky Park sits inside Santa Claus Village, and plenty of people
meet it by accident on a day that was meant to be about Santa. If the word
“park” is what brought you here,
what a husky park actually is explains the
category and names the other one in Finland; this page is the specific venue. It is a working kennel that
sells the parts of a husky experience separately: walking in, petting the dogs,
and short rides where a guide drives.
That separation is the whole point of the place, and it is why comparing its
prices with a safari’s is comparing two different things –
which of the two you actually want is the
question to settle before any of the figures below mean anything.
What the parts cost
What you buy
Adult
Child 4–12
What you get
Park entry
€15
€10
The kennel, photographs, husky talks every half hour, no time limit
Meet and greet
€35
€30
Entry plus 20 minutes in a fenced pen with the dogs
500 m ride
€50
€35
Entry plus a ride of about two minutes
1 km ride
€60
€40
Entry plus five to six minutes, on wheels
2 km ride
€65
€45
Entry plus about eight minutes
5 km ride
€110
€85
Entry plus about fifteen minutes
The park says it keeps more than 130 Siberian huskies, and the entry ticket is
the lowest published price we have found for standing among that many working dogs.
Everything above entry is time: twenty minutes in the pen, or two to fifteen
minutes behind a team.
Nobody drives here
Every ride is guide-driven, and each sled takes three to five people, with the
guide deciding how groups are split. Book alone and you may share with strangers;
book as two or more and you usually get a sled to yourselves.
This is the single fact that decides whether Husky Park replaces a safari for
you. If what you pictured was standing on the runners and working the brake, no
amount of money spent here buys it, and the
what kind of dog is actually in the team
is worth knowing before you meet one, and the
husky safari guide is the page you want
instead. If what you pictured was your children close to the dogs, the pen and
the short ride do it for a fraction of the price.
Tripadvisor ratings, 18 Rovaniemi operators
Highest first
Snowtrail Safaris 5.0
Nordic Odyssey 5.0
Nordic Adventures 4.9
Arctic GM 4.9
Book Lapland 4.9
Bearhill Husky 4.9
Arctic Attitude 4.9
StayLapland 4.8
Wild About Lapland 4.7
Wild Nordic 4.7
Lapland Winter Park 4.6
Safartica 4.5
Nordic Unique Travels 4.5
Apukka Resort 4.4
Lapland Welcome 4.3
Arctic Circle Snowmobile Park 4.3
Arctic Circle Husky Park 4.2
Raitola 3.4
<44.04.55.0
Ratings read from Tripadvisor. The shaded compartment left of the divider holds any score below 4.0. We record the score only; review counts and review text are not part of our comparison.
Where the park beats a safari
Snowtrail sells a four-hour husky safari at €199 with pickup, winter
clothing, a kota break and reindeer. Against that, Husky Park wins on four
things, and they are real.
Price for meeting dogs. Fifteen euros against a hundred and ninety-nine for
an adult, if the dogs rather than the driving are the point.
No minimum age. The park publishes none. Snowtrail’s safari starts at three.
No transfer. The park is inside the village you were probably visiting
anyway, and no pickup has to be arranged around it.
Time. A visit can be twenty minutes long. The shortest safari in Rovaniemi
takes half a day.
What the safari has instead is the run – forty-five to sixty minutes behind the
dogs rather than two to fifteen – the thermal suit, the fire and the reindeer,
and a route through forest rather than a loop inside a fence.
What to check before you go
Opening hours change through the year: nine to four from December to February,
shorter in spring and autumn, and closed for all of May. The 5 km ride’s page
still shows a high season dated for last winter, so ask what the price is on
your date rather than trusting the second figure.
Clothing is yours to bring. Rides sell out in the Christmas weeks, and the
booking cut-off is twelve hours before the slot, though passes and short rides
are sold on the spot daily when places remain.
The two products people miss
Outside the snow season the park sells a five-kilometre forest hike with a husky,
one dog to every two people, at €120 a person, lasting about two and three
quarter hours with the park visit. It is not recommended for children under
twelve, which makes it the park’s one product aimed at adults and teenagers
rather than families.
Year-round, it also sells a private visit outside opening hours: an hour with a
guide and a few loose huskies at €120 an adult and €60 a child. For a family who
wants the dogs without the crowd, that is the closest thing here to a private
kennel experience.
Questions people ask
Can we turn up without booking?
Sometimes. The park's bookable activities close twelve hours before the slot, but it says that when they are sold out it still sells meet and greet passes and short rides on the spot every day. So a walk-in works often enough to be worth trying, and fails often enough that a family who has travelled from the other side of Rovaniemi for a particular ride should book it. Cancellations are refunded in full up to 48 hours before and not at all after that.
How long does a visit take?
As long as you want at the low end and about a quarter of an hour at the top. Park entry has no time limit within opening hours, and free husky talks run every half hour, so a family can stay as long as the children are interested. The rides themselves are short: about two minutes for the 500-metre ride, five or six for the kilometre, eight for two kilometres and fifteen for five. Most visitors are done inside an hour.
Do we need winter clothing?
Your own, yes. The park tells visitors to wear clothes according to the weather and does not lend overalls or boots, which is the main practical difference from a safari, where the thermal suit is part of the price. Standing in a kennel in January without proper boots is the fastest way to cut a visit short, so if you are travelling light, price a clothing rental or book an activity that includes gear.
Can children ride, and who drives?
Children ride and a guide drives, on every ride here. Each sled takes three to five people and the guide decides how a group is split, so a couple booking alone may share with strangers while a group of two or more usually gets its own sled. Children from four to twelve have their own fare on every ride, and the park does not publish a minimum age, so a smaller child is welcome on the published terms.
Lapland Handbook is written by its editorial staff in Rovaniemi. Every price, age limit and group size in a comparison is read from the operator's own page and marked "Not stated" when the operator does not publish it. Each guide names who should not book, and names the operator that suits each kind of group, whichever it is.
Rovaniemi's winter tours do sell out – December and the week around New Year first, and the small-group ones before the rest. Booking here goes straight to the operator at their own published price, and the code LH10 takes 10% off it.
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