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Northern lights tour prices in Ranua

Green and violet curtains of aurora filling the sky behind the black silhouettes of spruces and a few bare birches

Illustration photo: the aurora above a forest, not from one of the evenings priced here.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

If you want an evening that works whatever the sky does, book the activity park after dark: the aurora is a bonus on top of skating, sledging, reindeer and a sauna, and the same park by day is only a little cheaper. If the lights themselves are the point, book the hunt by car, the only evening here that goes looking for them. Adults pay least for the park on the booking platform and least for the hunt on the company's own shop; children pay less only on the shop.

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.

Activity park by dayActivity park after darkAurora hunt by car
Price €119 – the lowest price per person €149 €269
Duration 3 h 3 h 6 h
More than the day park Baseline €30 €150
Price per hour €39.67 – the lowest price per hour €49.67 €44.83
If the sky stays shut Nothing is lost Nothing is lost The drive is the tour
Getting there Make your own way Make your own way Hotel pickup in Ranua
Adult on the company's shop €119 – the lowest adult price on the company's own shop €159 €249 (6–8 h)
Child on the company's shop €99 – the lowest child fare, ages 0 to 14 €119 €149

Highlighted figures are the best in that row: the lowest price per person, the lowest price per hour, the lowest adult price on the company's own shop and the lowest child fare, ages 0 to 14. The upper rows are the platform listings, per person with no child fare; the last two are the company's own shop. The per-hour row divides the platform price by the listed duration.

Where these figures come from
  • Activity park by day: The same park in daylight, with the reindeer walk as its headline. No aurora is promised or possible, and it is the cheapest way into the programme.
  • Activity park after dark: Identical inclusions, run after sunset so the sky is in play. The evening that survives a cloudy night intact, for 30 euros more than the day.
  • Aurora hunt by car: Six hours of driving to the clearest sky, with a campfire meal and a guide photographing you. The only listing here whose success depends on the aurora.

Lupland Adventures sells its activity park twice over, once in daylight and once after sunset, and on the booking platform the second costs 30 euros more. That is the clearest price anyone in Lapland puts on darkness.

What the thirty euros buys

The two park listings name the same equipment and the same programme: outerwear, skates, a kicksled, sledging, snowshoes, the reindeer to feed and lead, e-bikes, a snowmobile-pulled sleigh to move you about, campfire treats, and a sauna with an ice bath to follow. The evening listing adds one line, that everything happens after sunset, and 30 euros to the price. Nothing else changes, so the step from 119 to 149 is entirely the chance of a sky worth looking up at.

The hunt is a different purchase

At 269 euros the six-hour tour by car is 150 above the day park and 120 above the evening one, and it spends that money on searching: a pickup from your hotel in Ranua, a drive to wherever the guide judges the sky clearest, a campfire meal with soup, and photographs taken for you with a professional camera. Divided by its hours it is 44.83 euros against the evening park’s 49.67, so the long tour is not the dearest hour here, only the dearest ticket.

On the company’s own shop

Lupland also sells all three evenings on its own shop, at different prices and with a fare for children under fifteen, which the platform listings do not have.1 There the park after dark costs 10 euros more than on the platform, so darkness costs an adult 40 euros over the day park, and a child 20. The shop’s hunt runs six to eight hours with snacks, a campfire snack only if asked for in advance, where the platform’s listing includes a campfire meal, and it costs 20 euros less.2

What each is worth on a bad night

The park evenings lose nothing to cloud: the skating, the reindeer and the sauna are the substance, and the aurora is added if it comes. The hunt has more to lose, because driving to the best available sky is the whole of its shape, although the meal and the photographs still happen. Both park listings need at least two participants, which matters to solo travellers more than the price does.

Which evening suits which traveller is set out on northern lights in Ranua, and the daytime half of the same park is described on reindeer in Ranua.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

Is the after-dark park really the same park?

The two listings name the same things: winter outerwear, skates, a kicksled, downhill sledging, snowshoes, feeding and leading reindeer, e-mountain bikes, transport in a snowmobile-pulled sleigh, a guide, campfire treats, and a sauna with an ice bath. The evening one adds only that all activities take place after sunset, which is where the aurora comes in, and it costs 30 euros more.

What happens if the sky stays cloudy?

On the two park evenings the programme does not depend on it: skating, sledging, the reindeer and the sauna happen anyway, and nothing in either listing is contingent on the lights. The six-hour hunt is the one with something to lose, since its whole shape is driving to the best sky the guide can find, though the campfire meal and the photographs happen either way.

Are we collected from our accommodation?

The hunt by car says it picks you up from your hotel in Ranua, naming the Arctic Igloos reception and the Safari Lodge if you tell them in advance. The park listings give a starting point instead, at Lupland Adventures beside the Arctic Guesthouse and Igloos, so you make your own way there. Both park evenings also need a minimum of two participants to run.

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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