Family-Friendly: Northern Lights Adventure from Rovaniemi
Your journey begins with a pick-up from your hotel or a meeting at our office. We ensure you’re dressed in warm winter gear, as temperatures can drop to -30°C. Then, we head out of Rovaniemi to chase the Northern Lights . We bring you to a private location, an ideal spot offering the best chance to witness the Northern Lights . Throughout the tour, you explore the breathtaking Lapland wilderness and snowy forests. And if we’re lucky, we might see the Northern Lights dancing in the sky ! Perfect family adventure in the middle of Arctic nature Halfway through, we pause to warm up by a campfire inside our cozy tipi. Here, you can enjoy delicious grilled sausages, hot drinks, and sweets while your guide watches the sky. It’s the perfect time to ask questions about Lapland and the Northern Lights. Bring your camera along, and if you need a tripod, we can help you! This tour is all about family fun, making it perfect for everyone, young and old. Join us for this family-friendly Northern Lights adventure , and let’s explore the enchanting Lapland together! On all our excursions, our groups are limited to 8 people maximum . It is very important for us to provide you with the best experience possible, and avoid mass tourism . This way, your guide will know you better and will be able to address all your needs and answer your questions. Furthermore, when it comes to the Northern Lights, chances to observe them properly are increased when groups (and light pollution emitted by torches, phones, cameras, etc.) are reduced. As we usually say – the smaller the group, the bigger the experience! Are you looking for an extra guarantee to see the Northern Lights? If you choose the option with a 100% guarantee of seeing the Northern Lights and the conditions are not favourable, we will reschedule the tour or cancel the tour and issue a full refund for you. Northern Lights are a natural phenomenon, so unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we may not always be able to observe them. In such cases, you will receive a 100% refund. The tour is considered successful when we are able to capture the Northern Lights on camera during the experience . Please note that the Northern Lights may sometimes appear more vivid in photos than they do to the naked eye.
Highlights
- Join our Family-Friendly 3-hour Northern Lights Adventure from Rovaniemi and enjoy the magic of Aurora Borealis with your loved ones!
What's included
- Hotel pick-up/drop-off for accommodations outside the city centre. Extra surcharge if staying 10 kilometres or further from the centre,
- Professional winter clothing and boots,
- Professional Aurora guide,
- Campfire snacks and hot drinks,
- Small-group tour only (maximum of 8 people),
- All taxes, fees and handling charges.
Meeting point
Wild About Lapland Office, Rovakatu 24, Rovaniemi
Book this experience
Will I see the northern lights?
The straight answer: probably, if you give yourself a few nights — but nobody can promise it. Here is what the odds actually look like, what decides them, and exactly what we do about it.
What actually decides whether you see them
Three things, and only one of them is about the aurora itself. This is why two people in the same town on the same night have completely different trips.
The aurora is above the clouds. On most disappointing nights the lights were there and the sky was simply covered. Cloud is the single biggest factor, and it is local — 40 km can be the difference between overcast and clear.
Street lighting washes out weak displays. From a lit hotel car park you need a strong show to notice anything; from a dark lake or fell 20–30 minutes out of town, a faint arc is already visible to the eye.
One night is a coin toss no matter where you stay. Three nights is when the odds move firmly in your favour, because you only need one of them to break clear.
A faint aurora often reads as a pale grey-green band to the naked eye and only turns vivid green in a long-exposure photo. That is normal physics, not a weak display — and it is why our guides shoot for you.
What we do to maximise your chances
We cannot change the sky, but almost everything else on this list is a decision someone makes on the night.
- Guides check aurora and cloud forecasts through the evening and pick the departure point on the night, not in advance.
- Tours are mobile — if the sky closes in at the first spot, we drive to the nearest gap instead of waiting it out.
- We head away from town light to dark lakes, fells and forest clearings.
- Thermal overalls, boots, gloves and a hot drink so you can stay outside long enough to actually catch a display.
- Small groups, so the vehicle can move quickly when conditions change.
- Late-evening timing that covers the 21:00–01:00 window when activity most often peaks.
- Guides photograph the display for you, so a faint aurora still comes home as a real picture.
Use an aurora alert app while you are here
A good alert app tells you when it is worth stepping outside — useful on the nights you are not on a guided tour.
How aurora alert apps work
Satellites at the L1 point (NASA/NOAA's DSCOVR and ACE) measure the solar wind — its speed, density and the direction of the magnetic field it carries — about 30–60 minutes before it reaches Earth. That data feeds the app.
Finland has a dense network of ground magnetometers. When the aurora energises the sky above, the local magnetic field starts to swing. Apps built for Finland trigger on that local disturbance, which is far more reliable here than a global Kp number alone.
You set a sensitivity level and the app notifies you when activity crosses it, typically minutes before or as a display begins. You can usually set quiet hours so it only wakes you when it is genuinely worth it.
Activity is only half the story. Check the alert against a cloud forecast — if the sky above you is overcast, drive to a gap or wait. The apps show forecast and current conditions to help with exactly that call.
An alert means the aurora is likely active, not that it is visible from where you stand. Clouds, city lights and a bright moon can still hide it — and a quiet reading does not rule out a sudden substorm.
If the aurora doesn't appear
The northern lights are a natural phenomenon. We track the forecasts and take you where conditions look best, but nobody can control solar activity or the weather — and no honest operator can guarantee a sighting. We would rather tell you that up front than sell you a promise nobody can keep.
- There is no sighting guarantee on our aurora tours, and we will never claim one.
- The tour runs as described whether or not the lights appear — the drive, the guiding, the location and the equipment are what you are booking.
- Departures are cancelled for safety reasons, not for a quiet aurora forecast. If we cancel, you are refunded in full.
- Plan two or three aurora nights rather than one. It is the single most effective thing you can do.
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