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Best northern lights tour in Enontekiö: which evening for whom

Green and violet curtains of aurora above a snowy field and a dark line of forest with a few distant lights

Illustration photo: the aurora over a snowy field in Finland, not in Hetta.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

If seeing the aurora is the whole point and your dates are flexible, register for the guaranteed night: the company chooses the evening from the forecast and refunds you if nothing shows to the naked eye, but it takes no one under fifteen. For a family or a slower evening, book the horse sleigh with local tastings. To drive your own machine cheaply, take the evening snowmobile ride. For the dogs, the kennel's night sled is still the one.

How the operators compare

Prices are the operators' own published starting prices as of the date this guide was updated, and they change through the season.

Vilu: guaranteed nightVilu: horse sleighNäkkälä: evening snowmobile
Adult price €135 €145 €100 in the sledge, €130 sharing, €165 alone – the lowest adult price
Duration 2–5 h 2–3 h About 2 h
Refund if no aurora Yes – the price is refunded if no aurora is seen Not stated Not stated
Youngest 15 Child fare up to 14 Not stated
Date Chosen by the company You book it You book it

Highlighted figures are the best in that row: the lowest adult price and the price is refunded if no aurora is seen. All price per person. The kennel's three aurora evenings are compared on the Enontekiö northern lights page and are not repeated here.

Where these figures come from
  • Vilu: guaranteed night: A night chosen from the forecast, with a pick-up in Hetta and a refund if no aurora is visible to the naked eye.
  • Vilu: horse sleigh: An evening behind a Finnhorse through the forest, with small tastings of local food and a warm drink by a fire.
  • Näkkälä: evening snowmobile: About two hours by snowmobile from eight in the evening, sharing a machine, driving alone or sitting in a sledge, with hot drinks.

Three more aurora evenings are sold around Hetta than the kennel’s three, by two small companies on their own sites.

If the aurora is the whole point

Register for the guaranteed night. The company chooses the evening from the forecast and refunds you if nothing appears to the naked eye.1 The price of that promise is flexibility: you cannot pick the date, and no one under fifteen goes.

If the evening matters as much as the sky

Take the horse sleigh: a Finnhorse through the forest, a fire and small tastings of local food, with a child fare for the under-fifteens that the guaranteed night turns away.2

If you want to drive

The evening snowmobile ride from Hetta costs the least of the three if someone sits in the sledge, and sharing a machine still costs less than either of the other company’s two evenings.3 For the dogs rather than an engine, the kennel’s night sled remains the pick, and it is compared with its other two evenings on northern lights in Enontekiö.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

How does the guaranteed night actually work?

You register when you are in the area, which is not yet a booking. The company picks a night from the weather and aurora forecasts, emails you, and the booking becomes binding once you confirm in time. If no aurora is visible to the naked eye during the tour, you get the price back, and a faint aurora you can see still counts. It may not run on any of your nights at all.

Can we see the aurora from the horse sleigh?

Possibly: it is an evening ride through the forest and a stop by a fire, and the company says the lights may appear if conditions allow. It is also clear that they cannot be guaranteed on this one. Book it for the horse, the fire and the food, and treat an aurora as a bonus rather than the reason.

Do any of these collect us from our hotel?

The two evenings from the neighbouring village company both include a pick-up from your accommodation in Hetta, and their times include the drive, which the company puts at about half an hour in total. The evening snowmobile ride leaves at eight and its page does not mention a pick-up, so ask where it starts; the company's address is in Hetta.

Written by

Lapland Handbook Staff

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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