Go to Arktikum first: it is the one indoor sight in Rovaniemi that explains the place you are in, the Arctic and Lapland, and it works for an afternoon with children. Korundi's art museum is the second choice and the cheaper one, with free entry on Thursday evenings. Check both opening times before you set off, especially in December and January: Arktikum's published hours cover March to November, and Korundi changes its hours over the New Year.
In Rovaniemi a museum afternoon usually happens for one of two reasons: a tour
has been cancelled, or somebody has had enough of being cold. Either way the
question is the same – where to go that is warm, worth it and open – and the
answer is mostly two buildings.
Arktikum: the one that explains the place
Arktikum houses two institutions under one long glass roof: the Arctic Centre
of the University of Lapland, whose exhibitions are about the Arctic and the
Antarctic, and the Regional Museum of Lapland, which collects the history and
nature of the region.2 For a
visitor who has spent days on sleds and in snowsuits, it is the one indoor
sight that says something about where they actually are.
Tickets are €22 for adults, €17 discounted, €10 for children aged seven to
seventeen and €54 for a family of two adults and two
children.1 The published
exhibition hours are Tuesday to Sunday, ten to six, closed on Mondays, for
March to November.1 The page we
read does not give the hours for December to February, which are exactly the
weeks most visitors come, so check them on the day.
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.
Korundi: the art museum
Korundi, the city’s house of culture, holds the Rovaniemi Art Museum. Its
exhibitions are open Tuesday to Sunday, eleven to six, through the autumn and
again from early January, with shorter hours at the weekend over the New Year
and closed on Mondays. Between four and six on Thursdays, entry to the
exhibitions is free, except on public
holidays.3
That free window is the cheapest warm two hours in town, and on a Thursday
when a tour has fallen through it is worth planning around.
Before you walk over
Check the day’s hours on the museum’s own page, not on a listing, and look in
particular at Mondays, which close both, and at the weeks around Christmas and
New Year. If you have children, Arktikum is the safer bet; if you have a
Thursday evening, Korundi is the cheaper one.
Yes, Rovaniemi sells a Culture Pass that Arktikum describes as one ticket to the main cultural attractions in the city, including Korundi. Its current price is not on the pages we read, so compare it with the two separate tickets for your group before buying: for a single visit to each, the pass is only worth it if it costs less than the two tickets added together, and its validity covers more than one day.
Can we eat there?
At Arktikum, yes on weekdays: the café serves a lunch buffet from eleven to two, Monday to Friday, and its published café hours run from September to November and shorten at the weekend. That makes a weekday visit around lunchtime the easiest one with children. Outside those hours, bring something to eat or plan the meal in the town centre, which is a short walk away.
How long do we need?
Neither museum publishes a recommended visit length, so we do not invent one. What helps more is knowing the closing time before you arrive, since both close at six on most days and Korundi earlier at weekends over the New Year. If the plan is to wait out a cancelled tour, check whether the operator has rebooked you before settling in, so the museum fits around the new time rather than the other way round.
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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