Christmas or New Year 2026 in Lapland

Planet

Tankavaara is located next to the UKK National Park, which extends far east all the way to the Russian border. There are strict rules, how to behave in the national parks. No rubbish is to be thrown away. Snowmobiling is only allowed for authorised local guides and therefore visitors sit in sleighs on snowmobile tours.

We have included the following activities in this product: snowshoeing and, snowmobiling safari by sleigh starting from the hotel and tobogganing in Saariselkä, where our guests will drive by a public bus. The only activity requiring transfer is the husky safari taking place in Ivalo. We'll try to combine transportations so that as many people as possible would share airport transfers for example. There are direct flights from London to Ival twice a week but it is also possible to arriva in Rovaniemi and take a bus from the airport.

The hotel restaurant offers original Lappish dishes using a lot of local ingredients like mushrooms, berries and reindeer meat. Recycling and sorting of waste is a national standard in Finland.

People

Tankavaara is an authentic gate of the gold-mining district of Lapland. Here you can learn about gold panning and prospecting in Lapland. A visit of Gold Museum is included in the itinerary.

This is a small, family-run business, which has brought this nostalgic location to life again step by step. First, they updated their menus with an expert, now they have built new hotel buildings, which suit well to the environment there.

We want to do our best in bringing guests there and supporting their business. All the service providers are local, small companies serving small groups. Tourism brings work in these remote areas of Lapland.

At Christmas and New Year we plan to bring up local traditions from rice porridge to Santa Claus and New Year's magic. As an additional activity, we also offer a Sámi workshop in Sámi cultural gallery provided by a local artist and an indigenous Sámi woman Tuula-Maija Magga-Hetta.