Two things are worth knowing before booking a husky day at Ruka, and neither
appears on a booking page.
It is not in Lapland
Ruka is in Kuusamo, in North Ostrobothnia, south-east of the Lapland border.
That is an administrative fact with a practical consequence. Vuokatti, in
Kainuu, is further south again, and
its husky trade is one company.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute’s regional aurora figures put central
Finland – and it names Oulu and Kuusamo – at roughly 25 per cent of dark,
cloudless nights, against roughly 50 per cent for central Lapland and its ski
resorts, and 75 at
Kilpisjärvi.3
So if a package has sold you Ruka as Lapland and the aurora is the point of the
trip, the odds are about half what you were picturing. Our comparison of
where else in Finland to see the northern lights
puts Ruka on the list anyway, for good reasons – short transfer from Kuusamo,
Oulanka next door – but it is honest about this one.
The husky market is shaped like a ski resort’s
Nine companies sell husky trips at Ruka: Kuusamo Safaris, Lammintupa Winter
Village, Railakka Huskies, Ruka Husky, Ruka Safaris, Ruka Adventures, Northern
Lights Expedition, Northernlight Safaris and Rukapalvelu | Tailored Adventures. Prices start from €35, the season
runs November to April according to snow, and the resort is clear that the
excursions range from short trips to safaris covering many kilometres over
several days. You can try steering, and you can help harness the
dogs.1
What the volume trade looks like is visible in the individual listings. One
kennel’s five-kilometre ride runs an hour and a half, Monday to Saturday at
twelve, one and two o’clock, from €120 for an adult and €95 for a child under
fifteen, with the ride followed by time at the kennel and snacks in a
hut.2
Fixed departure times, three a day, five kilometres. That is a ski resort’s
shape: people with an afternoon between lifts, not people with a whole day.
Compare it with
Saariselkä, where ten kilometres over three hours is the standard,
and the contrast is the market rather than the dogs.
What to do about it
Decide which end you want before you look at prices. The gap between €35
and €120 at the same resort is entirely trail length, and
what a husky safari price includes
is the four questions that make two quotes comparable.
If you want a long safari, book it early. The long trips exist here and
are the specialist end, which means fewer departures rather than none.
Do not treat the short rides as a disappointment. A five-kilometre ride
with kennel time and a hut afterwards is a good afternoon and a reasonable
introduction, particularly with children – it is simply not the half-day
expedition the photographs imply. The
husky safari guide explains why the number
to ask for is kilometres rather than hours, and Ruka is the clearest example on
this site of why that matters. Erä-Susi Huskies’ five-kilometre ride is one, with child prices.
Go for the forest. Ruka’s snow-laden spruce is genuinely different from
the open fell further north, and a sled trail through it is the strongest thing
about the place. If the landscape rather than the latitude is what you came
for, that is the argument, and
what changes on a husky tour outside Rovaniemi
sets out the season and the light that come with it.
The rides themselves, from the winter village’s self-driven laps to the
private kennel teams, are compared side by side with their prices and rules in
husky tours in Ruka.
