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Private husky tour in Saariselkä: how to keep the sled to yourselves

A musher in a helmet riding behind a team of four sled dogs past a snowbank in a forest

Illustration photo: a sled dog race, not in Saariselkä.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

Book the places on your sled together, so no stranger is paired with you, and if one of you wants to drive alone, choose the resort kennel that sells a sled for one adult. If nobody in the party wants to drive, its guide-driven sleigh keeps the family together on one sled. For a whole team to yourselves, e-mail the kennels and ask: none sells it online.

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.

Resort kennelHotel's own kennelBooked by e-mail
A sled for one adult Sold, 18+ Not sold online Not stated
Guide drives Separate ride, 2–4 per sled Not stated Not stated
Price From €80 per person From €230 per person €139 per adult
How to book Online Online E-mail or phone

Nothing is marked: none of these is a private tour, and the resort does not show what its sled for one adult costs, so the prices do not compare a like-for-like private option.

Where these figures come from
  • Resort kennel: A two-hour ride from a resort south of the village, with a fare for one adult on a sled of their own.
  • Hotel's own kennel: About an hour on the sled, two to a sled, with places sold singly to be shared.
  • Booked by e-mail: A five-kilometre ride on a shared team, booked only by e-mail or phone.

No kennel in Saariselkä sells a husky safari for one party alone. What it can sell is the sled.

A sled of your own

Kakslauttanen, the resort south of the village, prices its two-hour ride per person with two to a sled, and sells a place on a shared sled to a guest on their own. It also has a fare for one adult who wants the sled alone, at an extra cost its page does not show, and a separate ride on which the guide drives a sled for two to four.1

Places sold one at a time

Wilderness Hotel Saariselkä sells its places singly, marked as happy to be shared, so a couple or a parent with a child keeps a sled by booking its places together.2 Lapponia Tours does not take husky bookings online at all: the ride is booked by e-mail or phone, which is also where to ask for a team to yourselves.3

The shared rides themselves are compared on the best husky tour in Saariselkä.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

Can a solo traveller have a sled alone?

At the resort kennel, yes: one of its fares is a sled for a single adult of eighteen or over, at a price the resort's page does not show. Elsewhere a solo booking buys one place on a two-person sled, which the operator fills with another guest. Driving alone also means driving the whole way, with no passenger turn to rest in.

Can the guide drive the sled for us?

The resort sells a guided sleigh ride in which the guide drives a sled for two to four people, from the age of three. On an evening ride a separate operator arranges a driver for a supplement of 100 euros a person. On the other rides you drive yourselves, taking turns with the passenger halfway.

How do we ask for a whole team to ourselves?

E-mail the kennel with the date, the number of adults and children, their ages and where you are staying, and ask whether a private departure is possible and what it costs. One Saariselkä operator takes its husky bookings only by e-mail or phone in any case, so a request of this kind is ordinary there.

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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