Arctic Snow Hotel Tour with Dinner and Transfers Rovaniemi

The Arctic Snow Hotel

About 45 minutes by bus from Rovaniemi, in the forest beside a lake near the village of Sinettä, stands the Arctic Snow Hotel, one of the best-known snow hotels in Finnish Lapland. Every winter it is built again from scratch out of snow and ice: snow is sprayed over huge moulds, then carved, and blocks of clear ice are cut from frozen water to make sculptures, lamps and furniture. In spring it simply melts away, so every season looks a little different.

Your guided visit of about 45 minutes leads through vaulted snow corridors, rooms with ice beds and glittering sculptures lit in blue and white. The guide explains how the team builds it, how guests sleep at temperatures a few degrees below zero and how it is kept running all winter. This snow hotel tour near Rovaniemi is one of the most photogenic things to do in Lapland.

Dinner in the Ice Restaurant

After the tour you take your seat in the Ice Restaurant, the only restaurant of its kind in the Rovaniemi area, where the tables and chairs are made of ice and covered with warm reindeer skins. Dinner is a 3-course Lappish menu of about an hour. It starts with a creamy parsnip soup with goat cheese cream and roasted sesame, followed by your choice of main course: roast elk with carrot purée and black pepper sauce, braised Arctic Ocean salmon with cauliflower purée, pepper-seasoned chicken breast, or a vegan falafel patty with chickpea purée.

Dessert is a strawberry-chocolate bavarois with vanilla cream. Children can choose pasta dishes instead of the main course. The room stays below freezing, so keep your outdoor clothes on; the hot food is the perfect contrast. Drinks are not included. Eating in an ice restaurant in Lapland is a once-in-a-lifetime memory for many guests.

Dinner by the fire in the kota

If you prefer a warm room, choose the option with dinner by the fire. The meal is then served in a kota restaurant, inspired by the traditional Lappish hut with an open fire burning in the centre, where the scent of wood smoke fills the air. The tour of the snow hotel is exactly the same; only the dinner moves indoors to the warmth.

The kota menu begins with a celery-apple soup with spruce-bud oil and roasted onion. For the main course you choose salmon glow-fried by the open fire with roasted Lappish potatoes, traditional sautéed reindeer with potato mash, pickled cucumber and lingonberry jam, or vegan cabbage rolls with white bean purée. Dessert is an apple-caramel pie with cinnamon oats. Children can choose crispy chicken with fries or pasta. This is the best choice for young children or anyone who feels the cold.

The frozen lake, kick sleds and pickups in Rovaniemi

The snow hotel lies on the shore of a frozen lake, and after dinner there is free time to explore the whole site. Try a Finnish kick sled, a light chair on long runners that you push along the ice, or race down the tobogganing hill. On clear, dark nights the open sky over the lake is also a good place to look up, as the northern lights can appear in this part of Lapland.

Transfers are included from two points: Santa Claus Village, on the Arctic Circle north of Rovaniemi, next to the gingerbread-style day cabins at the northern end of the village, and Rovaniemi city centre at Korkalonkatu 26. Early and late pickup times are available. Choose the pickup point when booking and be on time, because the bus cannot wait. It is an easy way to enjoy the Arctic Snow Hotel without a car.