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What meeting Santa from Inari costs a family

A steaming Christmas mug with a stocking pattern beside a white star-cut lantern and a small candle, set in fresh snow

Illustration photo: a Christmas mug and lantern in the snow, not in Inari.

Lapland Handbook Staff How we research this

The short answer

For a family, the hotel in Inari village is the cheapest way to meet Santa: one price covers two adults and two children, and each extra person adds a little. The Saariselkä programme costs a family of four about 200 euros more and adds an hour's drive each way, though for that it fills an afternoon. If you book the hotel's meeting for a date between the fifteenth of December and the third of January, count the money as spent: cancelling now costs the full price.

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.

Hotel in Inari: Santa visitSaariselkä: afternoon programmeHotel in Inari: Santa package
Priced One sum for the family Per adult and per child Per person, from a starting price
Two adults, two children €275 – the lowest total for two adults and two children aged four to fourteen €477 Not stated
Two adults, four children €375 – the lowest total for two adults and four children aged four to fourteen €636 Not stated
A baby as well Ask: babies are barred from the group's activities Free Babies join no activities

Highlighted figures are the best in that row: the lowest total for two adults and two children aged four to fourteen and the lowest total for two adults and four children aged four to fourteen. The package prints a price per person but none for children, so no family total is given for it. Driving to Saariselkä is not included in its figure.

Where these figures come from
  • Hotel in Inari: Santa visit: The hotel's private meeting with Santa, a short walk from the hotel in the village, with a small present for everyone in the family.
  • Saariselkä: afternoon programme: An afternoon with an elf, reindeer, a short sleigh ride, baking and about ten minutes with Santa, shared with other families.
  • Hotel in Inari: Santa package: Three nights with full board, airport transfers, winter clothing and five activities including the meeting with Santa. A four-night version is also sold.

Three of the ways to meet Santa from Inari have a price, and each is set on a different basis. Worked out for a real family, they line up clearly.

One sum against a price per head

The hotel in the village charges one sum for two adults and two children and a flat 50 euros for anyone beyond that.1 Saariselkä charges each adult and each child over three separately,2 so the gap grows with the family: about 200 euros for a family of four, and over 250 for a family of six. For the difference, Saariselkä gives an afternoon rather than half an hour, and asks you to drive there.

The package

The hotel’s three-night Christmas package starts at 1,251 euros a person, and the four-night one at 1,413.3 The page prints no children’s price, so what a family pays is a question for the hotel. It is priced as a holiday built around the meeting, and cannot be compared with the meeting alone.

The money if plans change

For a meeting booked by email between the fifteenth of December and the third of January, the hotel group charges the full price for any cancellation made after the fifteenth of September. Earlier in the winter it keeps 50 euros until six weeks before, half until thirty days before, and everything after that. A package booked online is paid in two deposits, and neither comes back.4 Saariselkä’s programme page shows no cancellation terms, so ask before paying.

For the free walk-in meeting in Rovaniemi, and why it is a long way from Inari, see meeting Santa Claus in Rovaniemi.

Tours you can book

Priced per person

Priced for the whole party

  • A private meeting with Santa, a short walk from the hotel in Inari

    Run by Wilderness Hotel Inari

    From €275per group of up to 4

    Length0.3–0.7 h

    Listed on the operator’s own site · Price read Sep 23, 2026

    See it on the operator’s site(opens in a new tab)

Questions people ask

Does a family of three pay less than the family price?

The hotel does not say. Its page gives one price for a family of four, two adults and two children, and a charge for each person beyond that, but nothing for a smaller family. A single parent with one child, or a couple with one child, should ask in the booking email whether the full family price applies, before comparing it with Saariselkä's price per head.

How is the hotel paid, and when?

By card only: the hotel group runs its hotels without cash. For a booking by email over Christmas and New Year it takes a 30 per cent deposit when you book and the rest by the fifteenth of September, and a booking worth under a thousand euros is charged in one go, straight away if you book after that date. Outside the holidays the balance falls due six weeks before you arrive.

Is the meeting with Santa extra if we take the Christmas package?

No. The package lists the meeting with Santa among the activities its price includes, together with the husky ride, the reindeer visit, the snowmobile trip and the aurora evening. The hotel group says drinks are not included in its meal rates, and the package page mentions no extra charge for the meeting itself, for photographs or anything else.

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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