Family snowmobile safari in Kilpisjärvi: where each child sits
Illustration photo: a marked winter trail, not a Kilpisjärvi snowmobile route.
The short answer
With children aged eight or nine, book the safari company: its sledge behind the guide takes children from eight on the shorter routes. From ten, the guiding company's private tours open up as well. A child needs to be 140 centimetres tall to ride on the safari company's machines and 145 on the guiding company's. Do not expect a child discount: the safari company prices every seat the same.
A child’s seat on a Kilpisjärvi snowmobile tour depends on two numbers, and the two companies set them differently.
The safari company’s rules
Children join from eight on most tours and from ten on the Halti day. Under 140 centimetres they ride in the sledge behind the guide; above it they may sit behind a driver. The company charges children the same as adults, because it prices seats and machines rather than people.1
The guiding company’s rules
Its private cairn tours start at ten, and a child needs to be 145 centimetres tall to sit behind a driver; below that, the guide’s sledge is the place.2 Because the tour is private, the whole party travels at a child’s pace.
What a family pays for these seats is worked out on snowmobile safari price in Kilpisjärvi.
Questions people ask
Should a parent ride in the sledge with the child?
The safari company suggests that one adult accompanies children in the sledge, and says under-age participants must always have a guardian on the tour. For a family of four that often means one parent driving, one parent in the sledge with the children, which also decides how many seats of each kind to book.
Is it too cold for children on a winter tour?
Neither company prints a temperature limit for children in the pages this site read. Both lend a full outfit of overalls, boots, mittens, balaclava and helmet, so the question is how long a child sits still in the cold. The two-hour beginners' loop is the shortest safari tour; the three-hour cairn tours include a stop with a hot drink.
Which is the gentlest route for a first family outing?
The two-hour beginners' loop and the cairn tour are both rated easiest by the safari company, and the cairn tour has a landmark to aim for: a yellow cairn where, in the company's words, a few steps take you through Finland, Norway and Sweden. The tundra tour and the Halti day are rated harder, and Halti raises the sledge age to ten.