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Northern lights tour prices in Inari, for one or for a family

Green and blue aurora curtains in a starry sky behind the dark silhouettes of tall spruces

Illustration photo: the aurora behind spruces, not taken in Inari.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

For a family, the cheapest guided evening with a fair chance of the aurora is a sleigh ride to a camp, at a little under 500 euros for two adults and two children from either village company. A hunt by car costs a family 70 to 90 euros more. With a child of twelve to fourteen, book the hotel, whose child fare still applies. And book only on terms you accept: neither company refunds a cloudy night, and Visit Inari keeps the full price inside two weeks.

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.

Visit Inari: hunt by carWilderness Hotel: hunt by carVisit Inari: kota campWilderness Hotel: aurora camp
Adult €169 €165 €143 – the lowest adult price €145
Child €118.30 (4–11) €115.50 (3–14) €100.10 (4–11) €101.50 (3–14)
Two adults, two children €574.60 €561.00 €486.20 – the lowest total for two adults and two children aged 4 to 11 €493.00
Per adult hour €56.33 €55.00 €47.67 €58.00
Cancelling €50 fee from 15 days out; full price after Free until 90 days before (online terms) €50 fee from 15 days out; full price after Free until 90 days before (online terms)
Refund if no aurora No Not stated No Not stated

Highlighted figures are the best in that row: the lowest adult price and the lowest total for two adults and two children aged 4 to 11. Child fares are thirty per cent off the adult price, as both companies print the discount; the totals and hourly figures are our arithmetic. Visit Inari's cancellation terms are those for December to March.

Where these figures come from
  • Visit Inari: hunt by car: Three hours by car towards the clearest sky, every night of the winter. Thermal clothing included; one adult is enough to book.
  • Wilderness Hotel: hunt by car: Three hours by car with snacks and warm drinks, driving further when the sky is closed. Its booking system asks for two people or more.
  • Visit Inari: kota camp: Three hours at a kota away from the village lights, with sausages and pancakes by the fire. Price by sleigh; driving costs more.
  • Wilderness Hotel: aurora camp: Two and a half hours at a camp reached by a sleigh behind the guide's snowmobile, with snacks and warm drinks.

Every guided aurora evening in Inari village is priced per person, and the two companies that sell most of them take the same thirty per cent off for children. What differs is the age where the child fare stops, and what happens to your money.

Where the child fare stops

Visit Inari’s child fare covers ages four to eleven;1 Wilderness Hotel Inari’s covers three to fourteen.2 For a family with a twelve-year-old, that is the difference between a child fare and an adult one: about fifty euros on a hunt by car.

What driving adds

Taking the handlebars adds most to the bill. Visit Inari’s kota camp costs 40 euros more with a shared snowmobile and 80 more driving alone, and its snowmobile evening 40 more for a machine of your own, with a driver liable for up to 900 euros of damage. At the hotel, a driver’s liability is 1,000 euros unless they pay 25 euros for a waiver that brings it down to 150.

When the sky stays shut, or plans change

Visit Inari says plainly that a night without the aurora is not refunded. For activities from December to March it charges a 50-euro office fee for cancelling fifteen days or more ahead, and the full price after that.3 Wilderness Hotel Inari’s terms give free cancellation up to 90 days before arrival for winter bookings made online, but its activity booking system calls its own policy non-refundable, so ask which applies before you pay.

Which evening suits which kind of night is set out on the best northern lights tour in Inari.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

Can one person book a hunt by car?

At Visit Inari, yes, from December to March: its listing sets the minimum at one adult in those months and two at other times. Wilderness Hotel Inari's booking system asks for a party of at least two on its hunt by car, and neither its page nor its terms say whether a single guest can pay a supplement instead, so ask the reception.

Is winter clothing extra?

Not on the winter evenings. Visit Inari's prices include thermal equipment, and Wilderness Hotel Inari says its winter activity prices include a clothing package of thermal overalls, boots and gloves for the time of the activity. Both ask you to bring your own warm base layers, a hat and wool socks, and to avoid cotton, which gets wet and cold.

Does staying at the hotel mean booking activities?

Yes, for guests of Wilderness Hotel Inari: its terms ask for at least two activities to be booked with a two-night stay, three with three nights and four with a stay of four to seven nights. Visit Inari's terms set a minimum stay for its rooms in winter but say nothing about booking activities with them.

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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