Book now

Best northern lights tour in Ranua, by the night you want

A bright green aurora band across a starry sky above the black silhouettes of thin pines on snowy ground

Illustration photo: the aurora over a pine forest, not taken on one of the tours compared here.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

If seeing the aurora matters more than anything else, book the long hunt that drives towards clear sky, and book it on the operator's own shop, where it costs less and children have a fare. If you want a shorter night without hours in a car, take the evening at the viewing fire and ask the company to choose your date by the forecast. If the ride itself should be the memory, choose the horse-drawn or the reindeer sleigh, which still leave you with something under a clouded sky.

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.

Lupland: 6–8 h hunt by carLupland: 3–4 h at the fireFinnhorse sleigh (resort)Reindeer sleigh after dark
Price per adult €249 €159 €123 – the lowest adult price €139
Child fare €149 (0–14) €119 (0–14) €110 (3–14), under 3 free Not stated
Starts 19:00 20:00 21:00 19:00
Length 6–8 h 3–4 h 2 h 2 h
Goes looking for clear sky Yes, by car No, one viewing spot No No

Highlighted figures are the best in that row: the lowest adult price. Prices are per person as each seller prints them. Only the adult price is marked: a longer evening is not a better one for everyone.

Where these figures come from
  • Lupland: 6–8 h hunt by car: Guide and guests read weather and aurora maps and drive towards the likeliest clear sky; photographs included. At most eight people.
  • Lupland: 3–4 h at the fire: A fixed viewing spot with a forest horizon, a campfire, sausages and hot drinks. The company offers to pick the best evening of your stay.
  • Finnhorse sleigh (resort): A family farm's horse-drawn sleigh into the forest with a stop at a campfire, booked at the resort reception. Runs by carriage when there is no snow.
  • Reindeer sleigh after dark: A snowmobile sleigh to a camp, a kilometre behind reindeer, then snacks and hot drinks in a Lappish hut. Sold on the local company's shop and at the resort.

Most of Ranua’s aurora evenings are sold on the local company’s own shop or at the resort reception, not on the booking platforms, and they are built for different nights.

If the aurora is the whole point

The long hunt is the only evening here that moves to find clear sky: guide and guests read weather and aurora maps and drive towards the likeliest opening, with no more than eight people in the party.1 The platform’s six-hour listing adds a campfire meal but costs 20 euros more and prints no child fare, so unless the meal matters, book the company’s shop, where a campfire snack can be added on request.

If you want a shorter night

The evening at the fire keeps to one viewing spot with an open northern horizon, and gets you back to bed hours earlier. What sets it apart is an offer most tours do not make: tell the company when you are in Ranua, and it will pick the evening of your stay with the best forecast and aurora activity.2

If the ride should be the memory

Two evenings are worth booking even under cloud. The resort’s Finnhorse sleigh takes all ages into the forest behind a family farm’s horses, with a stop at a campfire.3 The reindeer evening starts earlier and ends in a Lappish hut after a kilometre behind the reindeer.

How the hunt by car compares with the evening at the activity park is set out on northern lights in Ranua. Which evenings take the youngest children is on family northern lights in Ranua, and what to do if you want an evening to yourselves is on private northern lights tours in Ranua.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

What if we have booked and the forecast turns cloudy?

The local company's terms say it is not liable for a lack of northern lights visibility, and cancelling costs a fifth of the price from fourteen days out, half from seven to thirteen days and everything inside a week. The resort reception lets you cancel free until fourteen days before and not at all after. The platform listing of the long hunt is the flexible one, free until a day before.

Is the resort's frozen-pond evening the same as the local company's park?

Yes. The resort names the local company as the provider of its evening by a frozen pond, with the same reindeer, skating, sledging and campfire. It starts at a quarter past seven and costs 149 euros for an adult and 119 for a child of three to fourteen, against 159 and 119 on the company's own shop and 149 with no child fare on the booking platform.

Which evening suits someone who wants photographs?

The long hunt includes photographs taken with a professional camera, and in autumn, before the snow, the company runs a three-to-five-hour photography evening by boat or car with a campfire dinner at 149 euros. The shorter evenings do not mention photographs. If you bring your own camera, the long hunt is also the one that stops where the sky is clearest.

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.

More about Lapland Handbook →