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Private reindeer tour in Inari: what can and cannot be arranged

A small herd of reindeer walking in a line across a wide, wind-scoured snowy fellside in low sun

Illustration photo: reindeer on an open fell, not in Inari.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

Email the village safari company before you book and ask whether a departure can be kept for your party alone: it has not published a private option, but it has not ruled one out either. Do not plan on the hotel in the village, which says its reindeer activities cannot be made private. If a tour built around you matters more than staying in Inari, the nearest herding family that says it makes custom tours is in Nuorgam, beyond Utsjoki at Finland's northern tip.

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.

Wilderness Hotel InariVisit InariGalddoaivi SafarisArctic Siida, Nuorgam
Sold as private No No No Custom tours on request
What the seller says Not possible with reindeer Not stated Not stated Plans tours to order
Private price Not offered Not stated Not stated Not stated
Where Inari village Inari village Beside Inari village Nuorgam, past Utsjoki

Nothing is marked, because none of the four sells a private reindeer outing at a price. Utsjoki village is a 93-minute drive from Inari, and Nuorgam lies further north.

Where these figures come from
  • Wilderness Hotel Inari: The hotel in the village sells a reindeer meeting and a sleigh ride at a farm, and says reindeer outings are the ones it cannot make private.
  • Visit Inari: The village safari company, with four reindeer outings on fixed days. It prints no private option, but invites questions about holiday plans by email.
  • Galddoaivi Safaris: A local company feeding reindeer at a ranch beside the village centre, booked through its own form. Group size and a private option are not printed.
  • Arctic Siida, Nuorgam: A Sámi reindeer herding family in Nuorgam, Finland's northernmost village, that says it offers individual custom tours for small groups, planned by email or WhatsApp.

No reindeer outing in Inari is sold as private. The difference between the sellers is whether they have said no, or simply have not said.

The door that is closed

The hotel group that runs the hotel in the village is clear about it: most of its activities can be arranged privately on request, but not those with reindeer or huskies.1 Its reindeer meeting and its sleigh ride are group outings, whatever you ask.

The doors worth knocking on

The village safari company prints no private option for any of its four reindeer outings, and it prints no refusal either. Its general notes seat two people to each reindeer sleigh and collect guests from hotels in the village at an agreed time.2 An email asking whether a departure can be kept for your party costs nothing, and the answer and any price will come from them, not from a page. The company with the ranch beside the village takes bookings on its own form and prints neither a group size nor a private option, so the same question applies there.

If a tour to order matters most

The nearest herding family that says it builds tours around its guests is in Nuorgam, Finland’s northernmost village, beyond Utsjoki; it offers individual custom tours for small groups, planned by email or WhatsApp.3 It publishes no prices. What Utsjoki’s other herders offer is on a private reindeer tour in Utsjoki.

Tours you can book

Questions people ask

Can the hotel make the rest of our holiday private if not the reindeer?

Mostly, yes. The hotel group behind the hotel in the village says most of its activities can be organised privately on request, with conditions and rates asked for by email in advance. Reindeer and husky outings are the two it names as exceptions, so a family could have a private snowmobile or aurora evening and still share the reindeer visit.

What does two to a sledge mean for a couple?

On the safari company's sleigh ride each wooden sleigh carries two people behind one reindeer, so a couple has a sleigh to itself even when other guests are on the same departure. The company's general notes say the same for all its reindeer and husky safaris. What a couple shares is the guide, the fire and the transfer.

Is the Lake Muddus afternoon a small group?

The company does not print a group size for it. It is a visit to one family's reindeer and then into their house, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons only, which is a different setting from a departure with several sleighs. If you want to know how many others will be there, ask when you email, since the answer decides whether you need to ask for more.

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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