Reindeer in Utsjoki with children: what each outing allows
Illustration photo: a child's sledge in a winter forest, not in Utsjoki.
The short answer
With young children, pick an outing that lends winter clothing and collects you, and keep it short. The herding family's day ride does both and halves the price for under-elevens. The holiday village's sleigh ride also lends clothing, at a fixed child fare. The hour at the home herd is the shortest, but clothing costs extra. Save the three-hour highland morning for older children; the company itself steers small ones to a shorter tailored tour.
No reindeer company in Utsjoki sets a minimum age. What differs is how each one prices a child, and what it expects a family to bring.
Three rules for a child’s price
The herding family halves every programme’s price for children under eleven.1 The local tour company’s terms take 30 per cent off for children under twelve, and ask parents to check whether a programme suits a child under six.2 The holiday village prints a fixed child fare on each programme without saying up to what age it applies.3 The booking platform’s listing for the hour at the home herd has one price per person and no child fare.
Getting there with children
Every outing here collects you, so nobody has to drive a car of cold children to a farm. The reach differs: ten kilometres from the farm for the herding family, five from the village for the hour at the home herd, and no radius given for the holiday village.
The outing to leave for later
The highland morning is three hours outdoors on the fells in March or April, and the company that runs it asks families with young children to request a shorter, tailored family tour instead.4 That is the honest answer for a toddler. The outings themselves are compared on best reindeer tour in Utsjoki.
Tours you can book
Priced per person
A one-hour visit to a reindeer farm near Utsjoki
Run by Travel Utsjoki
From €50per person
Length1 h
Book now on GetYourGuide(opens in a new tab)A short reindeer sleigh ride in the forest, three days a week
Run by Holiday Village Valle
From €135per person
Length2 h
See it on the operator’s site(opens in a new tab)
Price not stated
A forty-minute reindeer sleigh ride and the herder's farm by day
Run by Aurora Reindeer
From €141pricing basis not stated
Length2 h
See it on the operator’s site(opens in a new tab)
Questions people ask
Can we use a pushchair or a wheelchair at a farm?
The hour at the home herd is the only reindeer outing in Utsjoki whose listing says the site is wheelchair-accessible. None of the herders' own pages says anything about access, and a farm yard in deep snow is not a pavement, so ask the company about the ground between the car and the reindeer before you bring wheels.
What time of day suits small children?
The home herd is normally visited at the morning feeding, half past nine, and an afternoon or evening slot can be requested if a morning start is hard with small children. The herders' own programmes and the holiday village's rides do not print fixed start times, although the holiday village's sleigh ride runs only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, so agree a time when you book.
Do the children need their own snow gear?
For the herding family's rides and the holiday village's sleigh ride, no: warm clothing is part of the price. For the holiday village's farm visit by car it is not listed, and for the hour at the home herd it is extra, hired on request. None of the pages lists children's sizes, so ask whether the lent outfits come small enough for your youngest.