A kennel in Hetta, in Enontekiö, for people who want to drive dogs for longer than a resort ride allows. Its day tours step up in clear rungs, and the middle ones give the most sled time for the money, while its expeditions run over several days with nights in wilderness cabins. It suits adults and older children who want to mush. It suits a family with toddlers, or anyone who needs a flexible booking, much less.
Hetta Huskies is a kennel in Hetta, in the municipality of Enontekiö, and it
sells the whole staircase, from a two-kilometre taster to a five-day
expedition.1 It describes itself
as an award-winning sled-dog
business,5 and it publishes the
distance, the time and the price of each step, which makes it easy to see what
a longer trip actually buys.
The day tours, side by side
Tour
Distance
Duration
Adult, sharing a sleigh
Child 3–12
Solo or guide-driven sleigh
Taster ride
2 km
1 h
€60
€40
€100
Silent Landscapes
6 km
about 1.5 h
€95
€70
€170
Frozen Lakes
12 km
2.5–3 h
€160
€100
€260
Magic of Winter
20 km
about 3.5 h
€205
€135
€350
The two shorter tours are on one page and the two longer ones on
another.23
The taster’s child fare is published without an age range.
What the extra kilometres buy
The kennel also says how much of each tour is spent on the sled, and that is
where the list gets interesting. The taster loop takes about ten minutes. The
six-kilometre tour gives 30 to 45 minutes on the
sleigh.2 The twelve-kilometre tour
gives about two hours of mushing, and the twenty-kilometre one about two and a
half.3
So going from six kilometres to twelve roughly triples the time on the runners,
for 160 euros instead of 95. Nowhere else on the list does a step up buy as
much sled time for the money. The same logic, applied to Rovaniemi’s tours, is
in what a husky safari costs in Rovaniemi.
The other price to read is the right-hand column. The adult fares assume two
people sharing a sleigh and taking turns; a sleigh to yourself, or one a guide
drives for you, costs a good deal more. A couple sharing one sleigh on the
twelve-kilometre tour pays 320 euros between them; each driving their own pays
520.
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.
The expeditions
Expedition
Distance
Ground-only
Package
Northern Lights Night
about 45 km
€600
–
2-day Polar Night
about 70 km
€700
€890
2-day Wilderness
about 70 km
€830
€990
3-day Taiga
about 90 km
€1,250
€1,430
3-day Palojoki Taiga
about 90 km
€1,350
€1,530
5-day Arctic Mushing
about 200 km
€1,875
€2,060–2,160
The package adds room and board either side of the tour. The page does not say
whether these prices are per person, so ask before comparing them with anything
else. All six are graded intermediate, the five-day trip runs from late March
into April, and April is the month the kennel recommends for children of nine and
over.4
Who it suits
Adults and older children who want to drive dogs rather than ride behind them,
and who are coming this far north for it. The middle of the day-tour ladder is
the best value on the list, and the expeditions are the reason to choose a
kennel like this over a resort ride at all.
Early in the season it suits people less. Before the main trail network opens,
normally around the start of December, the kennel runs five-kilometre tracks
only, sometimes from October and generally from
November.2 For an autumn trip, that
is the product on offer.
Not easily on the short tours. The kennel's own FAQ says short tour bookings are generally non-refundable. That matters most for a family travelling with small children, where a fever on the morning is a real risk, and for anyone whose flights into the far north might slip. Book the day tour once the trip is certain, and read the terms for the longer safaris separately.
Do we need to bring our own winter clothing?
For the day tours, often yes. The FAQ says that unless you are on one of the longer safaris you will usually be fine in your own winter clothing, while the multi-day trips all include clothing and boots. So pack properly for a day tour, with warm boots and mittens that let you hold a handlebar, rather than counting on an overall at the kennel as you would on many resort safaris.
How many dogs pull a sled, and can a toddler come?
The kennel says its teams are usually four to six dogs for a solo sleigh and five to ten for a sleigh carrying two or more people. A child under three always rides in the sleigh with one of the parents, so a toddler can come along rather than being left behind, although on the longer tours the kennel points families towards April and towards children of nine and over, so check the age advice for the specific trip before booking it.
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.
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