Best reindeer tour from Posio: which drive for which party
Illustration photo: a reindeer at a camp, not near Posio.
The short answer
For a first sleigh ride with a herder's stories, drive to Kemijärvi. For the chance to drive a reindeer yourself, go to Salla. With children who need more than one thing to do, choose the Ranua activity park, where feeding and walking a reindeer sits beside sledging and a sauna. If you want a whole day out and a snowmobile ride to a farm in the forest, book the long safari in Salla.
Nothing is sold in Posio itself, so the choice is really a choice of drive, and each drive leads to a different kind of afternoon.
For a sleigh ride and a herder’s stories
The Kemijärvi outing puts you in a sleigh behind a reindeer, adds a go at throwing a lasso and ends by a fire in a kota while a herder talks about the year.1 It is the most traditional of the four, and the shortest.
For driving a reindeer yourself
In Salla, after a lesson, you get a reindeer of your own and drive it behind the guide, with a stop to feed the herd and a picnic in a hut.2 Nobody else within reach of Posio hands over the reins.
For children who need variety
The Ranua park is the closest, at about an hour, and treats the reindeer as one activity among many: you feed one and walk it on a lead, then skate, sledge and finish in the sauna.3
For a whole day in the wilderness
The long Salla safari goes by snowmobile to a working farm in the forest, covers around seventy kilometres and takes five to six hours, most of a day.4
What each of these costs, and what the price covers, is set out on reindeer safari price from Posio.
Questions people ask
Do we need our own car to get there?
Yes, to reach the town where each outing starts. The Kemijärvi sleigh ride includes transport from Jauri Resort and picks up at four places in Kemijärvi, and the Ranua park starts at its own guesthouse, but none of them collects from Posio. The two Salla listings in this site's records say nothing about a pick-up, so ask when you book.
Can we do two of these in one day from Posio?
Only the two that are closest to each other make any sense. Kemijärvi and Salla are fifty minutes apart by road, but from Posio each is already an hour and a half away, so a day with both means close to four hours in the car on top of two outings. Pick one, and put the second on another day if the first goes well.
Is there anything better waiting in Rovaniemi?
Rovaniemi has several reindeer farms, which this site compares side by side on its own page, but it is a hundred minutes from Posio. It becomes the better choice only if you are going there anyway, for example to meet Santa, and can fold a farm visit into the same day.