Finnish Lapland: Chasing the Northern Lights from a Glass Igloo
Lying in a glass-roofed igloo in Finnish Lapland, watching the aurora borealis ripple across the sky in curtains of green and violet, is one of those experiences that permanently recalibrates your sense of wonder.
Finnish Lapland occupies the northernmost third of Finland, above the Arctic Circle, and in winter it is a landscape of extraordinary austerity and beauty — snow-covered forests of pine and birch, frozen lakes, and a sky that ranges from the deep blue of the polar day to the absolute black of the polar night. The sun disappears below the horizon in late November and does not return until mid-January, and in this darkness the aurora borealis — the northern lights — becomes the dominant feature of the sky, appearing on clear nights as curtains and spirals of green, violet, and occasionally red light that move across the sky with a fluid, organic grace.
The glass igloos of the Arctic resorts — most famously at Saariselkä, Rovaniemi, and Kakslauttanen — were designed specifically for aurora watching, with thermally insulated glass roofs that allow guests to lie in a heated room and watch the sky without venturing into temperatures that can drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius. The igloos have become one of the most sought-after accommodation experiences in the world, and booking well in advance — often a year or more — is essential for the peak aurora season from September to March.
The aurora borealis is caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere, producing light at altitudes between 100 and 300 kilometres. The green colour — the most common — comes from oxygen at lower altitudes; the rarer red comes from oxygen at higher altitudes; and the violet and blue come from nitrogen. The intensity of the aurora depends on solar activity, and the best displays occur during periods of high solar wind — which can be predicted a day or two in advance using aurora forecast apps that have become essential tools for aurora chasers.
Beyond the aurora, Finnish Lapland offers a range of winter activities that are unique to the Arctic environment. Husky safaris — riding a sled pulled by a team of Siberian huskies through the forest — are one of the most exhilarating experiences in Lapland, combining speed, cold, and the extraordinary sound of the dogs' paws on the snow. Reindeer safaris, snowmobile tours, and ice fishing on the frozen lakes are other options, and the Sámi people — the indigenous inhabitants of Lapland — offer cultural experiences that provide a window into a way of life adapted to the Arctic over thousands of years.
Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland and the official hometown of Santa Claus, sits on the Arctic Circle and is the main gateway to the region. The Santa Claus Village, on the Arctic Circle just outside the city, is a major tourist attraction that draws families from around the world, particularly in December. The city itself was almost entirely destroyed by the retreating German army in 1944 and was rebuilt to a plan by the architect Alvar Aalto, whose Rovaniemi City Library and Lappia House are among the finest examples of Finnish modernist architecture.
The summer in Finnish Lapland is as extraordinary as the winter, though in a completely different way. The midnight sun — the sun that does not set for weeks around the summer solstice — transforms the landscape into a place of perpetual golden light, where the forests glow and the lakes shimmer at midnight as if it were late afternoon. Hiking, canoeing, and fishing are the main activities, and the national parks of Urho Kekkonen and Pallas-Yllästunturi offer some of the finest wilderness walking in Europe.
Finnish sauna culture reaches its purest expression in Lapland, where the traditional smoke sauna — heated by burning wood for several hours before the fire is extinguished and the bathers enter the smoke-filled room — produces a heat and humidity that is quite different from the modern electric sauna. Rolling in the snow or plunging through a hole cut in the ice of a frozen lake after the sauna is a practice that Finns regard as essential rather than eccentric, and the combination of extreme heat and extreme cold produces a physical sensation of extraordinary intensity and wellbeing.
