About 500 dogs are kept at the farms and kennels near Levi, and the tours run from roughly two kilometres up to full days of thirty to forty, with two-day sled-driving trips in the long spring light. The kennels are scattered rather than clustered: one the resort lists sits 25 kilometres north of Levi and includes the transfer in its price. The thing that genuinely distinguishes Levi from Rovaniemi is the dogs. Alongside the usual Alaskan packs there is a registered pure-bred Siberian Husky kennel, established in 2022, which is rare anywhere in Lapland.
Levi has more husky capacity than its size suggests. The resort’s own tourism
board puts the figure at about 500 dogs across the farms and kennels near the
village, with tours from roughly two kilometres up to full-day safaris of
thirty to forty, and two-day sled-driving trips in the long days of
spring.1
That range is wider at both ends than Rovaniemi’s, and it is the first
practical difference. The second is more interesting.
The dogs are not all Alaskan huskies
Everywhere else in Lapland this question has one answer. A safari team is
almost certainly Alaskan huskies, which
are not a recognised breed at all but a
working type bred for pulling, and they look nothing like the dog on the
brochure.
Around Levi that generalisation breaks. Among the operators the resort lists is
Wild Kemijoki Huskies, which established a registered pure-bred Siberian Husky
kennel in 2022, set up its own small husky farm in 2024, and runs experiences
for groups of up to
eight.2
Alongside it are conventional Alaskan packs – Maglelin, for instance, keeps
Alaskan huskies and runs 10 km, 20 km and 35 to 40 km
programmes.3
So Levi is one of the few places in Finland where a visitor who specifically
wants to meet the thick-coated, masked, sometimes blue-eyed dog of the
photographs can book one on purpose rather than hoping. That is a small thing
and a genuinely rare one.
The kennels are scattered, not clustered
The other difference from Rovaniemi is geography. Rovaniemi’s kennels ring one
town at varying distances; Levi’s are spread across the Kittilä area, and some
are a long way out.
Maglelin sits 25 kilometres north of Levi, near Pallas-Yllästunturi National
Park, and includes the transfer from Levi to the kennel and back in the safari
price.3One kennel sells husky tours from Pallas itself, directly.
Including the transfer is the honest way to sell a distant kennel, and it is
worth noticing which operators do. The number that actually matters is the
drive time rather than the price of it: the
husky safari guide explains why kennel
distance eats a half-day booking from both ends, and the arithmetic is the same
in Levi.
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.
What does not make Levi different
The tour itself. A self-driven ten-kilometre run out of Levi is the same
product as a self-driven ten-kilometre run out of Rovaniemi, at a modestly
higher price –
what a husky safari costs resort by resort
has the published figures and the rules about who may drive, which are
stricter in the fell resorts than most people expect.
The shape of the morning does not change either.
A safari minute by minute applies
here without amendment: a transfer, twenty minutes of boots, ten minutes of
noise, forty of silence, and a fire.
What does change is the season and the light, and
what that means outside Rovaniemi
is the page for that – Levi’s trails work earlier in autumn and later into
spring than Rovaniemi’s do.
Booking it well
Ask for the drive time, not the distance. Twenty-five kilometres on a
Lapland road in January is not twenty-five kilometres anywhere else.
Ask the breed if you care. Most places the answer is a shrug. Here it is
a real answer, and an operator that keeps Siberians will tell you so.
Decide whether you want a ride or a kennel. The two-kilometre products
are visits with a sample attached, and
farm visit or safari is the page that
separates those two purchases properly.
This page is an independent guide, written from published sources. We have no
connection to any operator in the Levi area.
What each run costs per kilometre of trail, and what four people pay, is worked out in husky safari prices in Levi.
Only at the margins, and not in the way the photographs imply. Siberians are heavier-coated and slower than a racing Alaskan line, so a team of them is a steadier run rather than a faster one, and they look more like the dog people pictured. What decides whether the safari is good is still trail distance, group size and whether you drive. Book on the breed if seeing that particular dog matters to you – it is a perfectly good reason – but do not expect it to change the hour on the sled.
Is a two-kilometre tour worth booking at all?
As a ride, barely: two kilometres is a few minutes and the team hardly settles into a rhythm. As an introduction attached to a kennel visit, which is how the short ones are usually sold in Levi, it works well, particularly with small children or anyone unsure whether they want to be on a sled at all. Treat it as a kennel visit with a sample rather than as a short safari, and it is fairly priced. Treat it as a safari and it will disappoint.
How far out of Levi will we actually be driven?
It varies more than in Rovaniemi, because the kennels are genuinely scattered across the Kittilä area rather than ringed around one town. One the resort lists is 25 kilometres north and builds the transfer into the price; others are much closer. The figure to ask for is the drive time, not the pickup radius, and an operator that gives it precisely is telling you something useful. On a half-day booking, fifty minutes each way is most of your morning.
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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