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Husky safari in Kilpisjärvi: where the nearest sleds leave from

A musher on a sled behind a team of huskies crossing a snowy valley floor below steep, snow-streaked mountains

Illustration photo: a dog team in a mountain valley, not in Skibotn or Kilpisjärvi.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

Take the bus to Skibotn. It is the only husky ride that starts in Kilpisjärvi: a morning pick-up at the village hotels, an hour and a half on the sled in pairs, a hot meal and back by four in the afternoon, Finnish time. If you are driving south anyway, the kennel in Hetta publishes the clearest prices in the region, with child fares, and Muonio's private safaris suit a party that wants the dogs to itself.

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.

Skibotn day (Norway)Hetta Huskies: Silent LandscapesHetta Huskies: Frozen LakesWildmaker Lapland: 8 km
Price NOK 2,695 €95 €160 €160
Child price Not stated €70 €100 (3 to 12) Not stated
On the sled 1.5 h About 45 min About 2 h Not stated
Getting there Bus from the village, 45 min each way 132 min by road 132 min by road 145 min by road
Private Not stated Not stated Not stated Yes

All four print a price per person. The Norwegian day is priced in kroner and the others in euros, so the price row is not ranked: converting it would put a figure on the page that no operator published.

Where these figures come from
  • Skibotn day (Norway): A bus from the village hotels, an hour and a half on the sled in pairs in the Skibotn valley, a hot meal and an insulated suit.
  • Hetta Huskies: Silent Landscapes: Six kilometres in Hetta with about 45 minutes of actual driving, and a child fare printed beside the adult one.
  • Hetta Huskies: Frozen Lakes: Twelve kilometres across Lake Ounasjärvi with about two hours of mushing, children aged three to twelve on their own fare.
  • Wildmaker Lapland: 8 km: A private safari in Muonio for your own group, sharing a team and swapping drivers halfway, collected from your Muonio accommodation.

Kilpisjärvi sells a great deal in winter, and a husky ride is not part of it.

What the village sells instead

The village’s snowmobile company lists snowmobile, snowshoe, reindeer, aurora and ice-fishing outings, and no dogs.1 The village’s private-guiding company shows no husky product in its shop either. A visitor who has come for the dogs has to leave Kilpisjärvi to find them.

Across the border

The shortest way out is north-west. A Norwegian company runs a dogsledding day in the Skibotn valley and sends a bus to the village hotels in the morning: three quarters of an hour each way, an hour and a half on the sled, a hot meal in between.2 It is the only husky ride that begins where you are staying.

Down the road in Finland

Hetta, in the same municipality, is 132 minutes away and has a kennel that publishes how long you spend driving the dogs on each safari. Muonio is 145 minutes away and has a company that runs its husky rides only for private groups. The Hetta kennel’s full range is compared on husky safari in Enontekiö, and the snowmobile tours that Kilpisjärvi does sell are on snowmobile safaris in Kilpisjärvi.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

Do we need a passport for the Skibotn day?

The day crosses from Finland into Norway on the bus, and neither the listing nor this site can promise what a border check will ask for on the day. Finland and Norway are both in the Schengen area, so there is normally no passport control on the road, but carry a passport or national identity card: the Norwegian company is taking you out of the country and back.

What time does the Norwegian day really start?

The listing gives the bus from outside the Santa Hotels Rakka or the Cahkal Hotel at ten in the morning, Finnish time, and the return to Kilpisjärvi at about four in the afternoon, Finnish time. Norway is an hour behind Finland, so the clocks on the Skibotn side read an hour earlier. Plan by the Finnish times, because those are the ones the bus keeps in the village.

Can we drive to Hetta and back in a day?

It is about two hours and twelve minutes each way by road, so the shortest safari there, an hour and a half, turns into a day of close to six hours. The longer Hetta safaris add to that. It makes most sense if you are moving south anyway, or staying a night in Hetta, rather than as a return trip from a Kilpisjärvi bed.

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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