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Best reindeer tour in Ranua, by what you want from the reindeer

Three reindeer at a gallop pulling a low sled across a snow-covered frozen lake, a spruce forest behind them

Illustration photo: reindeer pulling a sled on a frozen lake, not in Ranua.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

For the longest time behind reindeer, book the farm's half-hour forest safari. To see how a herding family works and feed the animals, book the farm visit, which ends with only a short ride. For a short ride without driving anywhere, take the ride by the frozen lake that starts in the village. If the reindeer are one thing among many, the activity park is the better day, and for an evening, the farm's dusk ride with a reindeer dinner.

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.

Vaara: forest safariVaara: farm visitKaktsa: ride by a frozen lakeVaara: dusk ride and dinner
Price per adult €75 €55 – the lowest price per adult €59 €160
In the sleigh 30–35 min About 5 min About 400 m About 30 min
Time with the herd Campfire at the farm Feeding tour Photographs Dinner at the farm
Group size 2 to 8 2 to 25 From 2 2 to 8
Getting there Drive to the farm Drive to the farm Starts in the village Drive, or transfer at extra cost

Highlighted figures are the best in that row: the lowest price per adult. Prices are per adult as each seller prints them. Only price is marked: the cheapest outing has the shortest ride.

Where these figures come from
  • Vaara: forest safari: Thirty to thirty-five minutes in a reindeer sleigh through the forest from a working family farm, then juice and biscuits by the campfire.
  • Vaara: farm visit: A feeding tour with the herders and the story of the reindeer year, a ride of about five minutes, and a warm drink by the fire.
  • Kaktsa: ride by a frozen lake: About 400 metres behind a local company's reindeer round a frozen lake, starting from the village, with time for photographs.
  • Vaara: dusk ride and dinner: Half an hour in the sleigh as the light goes, then sauteed reindeer, lingonberry mousse and coffee in the farm's hut. Wednesdays in midwinter.

Ranua’s reindeer are sold in more ways than the booking platforms suggest. A family farm sells sleigh rides on its own shop, and a local reindeer company runs a short ride by a frozen lake through the activity company in the village.

The longest ride

The farm’s forest safari is the one to book if the sleigh is the point: half an hour behind the reindeer through the trees, then a campfire, for parties of two to eight.1 Nothing else sold in Ranua keeps you in the sleigh as long.

The farm itself

The farm visit is the opposite trade. The ride is only a few minutes, but you walk the feeding round with a family that has handed the work down through generations, feed the reindeer yourself and hear how a calf’s year runs from its birth through the summer to the next winter.2 For children who want to be close to the animals, it gives more than the longer ride.

A short ride from the village

The ride by the frozen lake needs no car: it starts at the activity company’s base in the village,3 or, booked at the resort reception, with a five-minute snowmobile sleigh from the resort’s safari house. It suits a day already full of other things, and an evening version with a longer ride is sold as an aurora outing.

For reindeer as one part of an afternoon of skating, sledging and a sauna, the activity park is described on reindeer in Ranua. What each ride costs through each seller, and for a family, is on reindeer safari prices in Ranua.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

Is there a way to combine a snowmobile ride with a reindeer farm?

Yes. The resort reception sells a three-to-four-hour snowmobile safari to a family farm of more than three hundred reindeer, where you feed them and ride a short way behind them, at 175 euros for an adult and 90 for a child of three to fourteen. Two adults share a machine; riding alone costs 49 euros more. It runs from December to April.

What happens to the ride when it is very cold or there is no snow?

The farm's forest safari has a frost limit of minus 25 degrees, and its pages do not say what is offered on a colder day. Without snow, the activity company's listing of the farm visit says the ride may be replaced by lasso-throwing instruction, and the resort sells its version only from December to April. Early and late in the season, ask what will actually happen on your date before paying.

Can we see the wildlife park's reindeer instead?

The wildlife park keeps reindeer among its fifty northern species, and a ticket lets you walk past their enclosure. Seeing them any closer means the park's behind-the-scenes hour with a keeper, sold at 490 euros for up to three people aged eight and over, where you help prepare a treat and step into the enclosure to offer it.

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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