This year, Simon and I went back to Finnish Lapland for the 3rd time, for 15 days of road-tripping in a camper van. As you can tell, it's a country and a region we love! Here we share our itinerary and our favourites to inspire you, along with our advice on flights, activities, renting a camper van in winter, and gear.
And if you'd like more detailed info to prepare your own trip, we really recommend checking out our E-Book on the region. It's super detailed, packed with tips and good deals (with 4 ready-made itineraries and even discounts), and it'll save you a huge amount of time on the planning.
La Laponie est une région d’environ 400 000 km², qui s’étend sur 4 pays (Norvège, Suède, Finlande et Russie), par delà le cercle polaire arctique.
La partie qui se trouve en Finlande représente 1/4 de la superficie totale, soit environ 100 300 km².
En hiver, cette région est tout simplement magnifique ! Tu te retrouves au milieu de paysages enneigés, tu enchaînes plein d'activités, et surtout, tu peux vivre le must absolu du grand Nord : voir des aurores boréales danser dans le ciel. 💚
En 2 semaines, on a pu faire une grande boucle de la région.
Voici notre itinéraire de 15 jours dans les grandes lignes et nos coups de coeur :
Lapland is a region of around 400,000 km², spread across 4 countries — Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia — beyond the Arctic Circle. The Finnish part represents a quarter of the total area, roughly 100,300 km².
In winter, this region is simply magnificent! You find yourself surrounded by snowy landscapes, you can line up loads of activities, and above all you get to experience the absolute must of the Far North: watching the northern lights dance across the sky. 💚
In 2 weeks, we managed a big loop around the region. Here's our 15-day itinerary in broad strokes, with our favourites:
This itinerary covers the classics while still taking the time to dig deeper and explore lesser-known, less touristy places. Depending on how much time you have, you can adapt the trip and pick the region(s) you want to visit.
Just so you know: we've written an E-Book on Finnish Lapland, and beyond all the tips and good deals we share in it, we also give you 4 ready-made itineraries, detailed day by day, depending on how long you're staying (from 7 to 10 days, but easily adaptable from 5 to 15 days).
We even give you access to our Finnish Lapland map with more than 150 points across the region (restaurants, hotels, points of interest, sights, free car parks, activities, etc.) so you can adapt — or even build — your own itinerary as you like.
To reach Finnish Lapland from France, the simplest option is to fly. Count around 5 hours of flight time from Paris, and a bit more with a layover.
On our side, we flew with Finnair, the official airline of Santa Claus 🎅. (Isn't that pretty cool? 🤭)
Flights go via a layover in Helsinki, or direct from Paris but only from 4 December to 10 January.
A few tips for booking:
On our side, we paid around €700 return for two, with one checked bag each and lounge access.
The flight went really smoothly, and honestly the Finnair lounge access is such a treat: food and drinks at will before departure and during our layover in Helsinki. We can only recommend it.
During the trip, we really treated ourselves! We tried a whole bunch of activities (so we could recommend them to you). We even point out our favorites:
That's a nice overview of the activities you can do in Lapland.
⚠️ One important point, and one that really matters to us: choose carefully where you do your activities, especially where animals are involved. Favour family-run farms that take good care of their animals, rather than the big operations where animal welfare doesn't always come first. It's essential.
We share our good addresses in our E-Book, with discount codes on some activities to bring down the cost of this trip — which, as we know, can quickly add up! 😉
Honestly, it works really well! And above all, it lets you make some nice savings on accommodation and meals, which is far from negligible. So it's definitely a good idea.
As for driving: in Finland, the roads are impeccable — wide and well cleared of snow. So there's no particular difficulty behind the wheel, especially with their winter tyres (studded tyres), which grip snowy roads really well.
As for comfort, with the heating in the camper van there's no problem at all, even at night. The only thing to watch: with temperatures reaching -20 °C, the heating uses quite a lot of gas, so you need to remember to change the gas bottle roughly every 2 days to avoid ending up empty and cold.
🏷️ Here too, we have a discount code for the van rental in our E-Book.
And we want to be clear: our guide isn't only for travellers who go 100 % by van or camper van. We also tested some superb accommodation (glass igloos to fall asleep under the northern lights, cabins on a frozen lake…) that we recommend inside. The 4 itineraries cover all styles and all budgets, from a van road trip to cosier stays. We even have a whole section dedicated to driving in the country, so you set off with the right info and road rules.
In Lapland in winter, it's cold — no point pretending otherwise, and we won't lie to you. It's often around -20°C, sometimes even -30°C. But the good news is that it's a dry cold, so much more bearable than back home — even more so when you're well equipped. And this is a big cold-hater talking! I promise you, once you've got the right gear, the cold is no longer an issue.
The key is the 3-layer system (or more — I'll admit I often had 4 or 5 😂):
We detail our full gear list, and we've even put a checklist in the E-Book so you're sure not to forget anything — but remember one thing: better too warm than not warm enough.
There are a few tasty specialties worth trying during your trip:
Otherwise, to save as much as possible, we recommend doing your shopping at the supermarket (the Prisma stores are the cheapest). And on hikes, think about bringing sausages and marshmallows to grill: in most cases you'll find a grillikota (a shelter with a fire pit) with a fire already lit — or, failing that, everything you need to light one. A real little treat in the cold!
Finnish Lapland in winter is a magical interlude that we recommend a 1000%. The northern lights, the snowy landscapes, the snow monsters (those trees covered in frosted snow), the huskies, the sauna after a day out in the cold… and that great freedom of the camper van.
Even after 3 trips up there, we're still just as blown away, and we come back with our heads full of memories.
So, does Lapland tempt you? Let us know in the comments, and ask us your questions — we're always happy to answer! 🦊
And if you feel a bit overwhelmed by the planning (which is normal, with all the possible activities, the search for providers, the bookings…), we've created a guide to walk you through it from A to Z, based on our experiences and discoveries, packed with practical advice and recommendations.
🎁 A little gift if you've made it this far: use the code FOXLAPONIE10 for 10% off your purchase.
1️⃣ Protect your batteries from the cold. At -20 °C, a phone or camera battery drains in a matter of minutes. Keep them warm against you (inside pocket) and bring a power bank — especially for aurora outings, where you really don't want to run out at the wrong moment.
2️⃣ Book your activities and accommodation well in advance. In winter it's high season: husky and snowmobile slots and the best places to stay go fast, sometimes months ahead.
How about we chat?