Family husky safari in Muonio: which ride takes children
Illustration photo: a husky puppy in the snow, not at the kennels named here.
The short answer
With small children, pick the family ride inside a Harriniva holiday: five or six kilometres, a professional musher drives, and one family has the team to itself. For an afternoon out, Wildmaker's private rides seat children in your sled and collect you from your lodging, but only those fifteen and over drive. Nivunki Village steers from eighteen and says nothing about children, so ask before booking.
Muonio’s three husky sellers each draw the line for children in a different place.
The ride built for small children
Harriniva’s family holidays include a husky ride of five or six kilometres on which a professional musher drives and one family has the team to itself.1 Nobody in the family has to steer, which is what makes it the ride for the youngest children and nervous first-timers. The holidays also bring the family from Kittilä Airport or Kolari station and back.
The private rides
Wildmaker’s rides seat a child as a passenger in your own sled, ask that small children be with an adult, and let anyone from fifteen drive if they are fit enough to handle the team.2 The operator collects the family from its lodging in Muonio, so no car is needed.
The half day at the village
Nivunki Village sets eighteen as the minimum age to steer a team.3 It says nothing about children as passengers, their price or their seat, so a family should ask before booking a three-hour ride.
For Levi’s family rides, 46 minutes away, see family husky safari in Levi.
Questions people ask
Can a family with older children do a longer ride?
Yes, at the resort. Its ten to twelve kilometre ride, in which two people share a sled and swap driver and passenger halfway, is described as for adults and families with older children, and the holiday it belongs to takes children over seven. Wildmaker's thirteen kilometres work the same way, with children as passengers, and need no holiday.
What if the youngest does not want to go?
A kennel visit is the soft option. The resort sells forty-five minutes at its kennel without any ride, at twenty euros a person or fifty for a family ticket of two adults and one or two children, and a child who has met the dogs on the ground may be happier to ride another day. It is described on this site's Muonio husky farm page.
What should the children wear?
It depends on who lends what. Harriniva's holidays include warm winter clothing for the whole stay, Nivunki Village lends thermal gear, boots, gloves and hats and asks for your own thermal underwear and a fleece, and Wildmaker's husky page does not mention clothing at all. None of the three gives children's sizes, so ask for them if your child is small.