Aurora Highlights Independent

Arrive in Kirkenes and transfer to the snow hotel. Today you will join an Arctic King Crab Safari - a very popular highlight for our travellers north.

The Arctic King Crab is a sought after delicacy and you will learn how to catch, prepare and eat them. Your guide takes you out and you can lend a hand in sawing through the ice before your guide attempts to land you a few of these massive crustaceans. Enjoy the day's catch for lunch seated by a cosy fire in a small local farmhouse by the lake. You will travel to the lake by snowmobile sleigh.

This evening, you can either stay in one of the warm Gamme cabins or sleep in one of the cold snow rooms at the Snowhotel.

Every room in Kirkenes Snowhotel is like a small treasure. The rooms are equipped with everything needed for a comfortable night in the somewhat extreme conditions. The pictures look like you are sleeping on ice, but that would be too cold and too hard for your back. The beds are framed with ice blocks and the beds have comfortable mattresses with thermal insulation on top. You sleep inside a sleeping bag graded for -35 degrees celcius. However, snow is a very good insulator, so even when it's -35 degrees outside, the Snowhotel remains a stable -4 degrees.

Upon entering the gates of the Snowhotel, you will receive a welcome drink at the snowbar, made from berries collected from surrounding hills. It will then be time to make the ‘coolest’ hotel check-in around!

Transfer by shuttle bus door to door from Kirkenes to Ivalo (3.4 - 4 hrs). Check in to your Aurora Glass Cabin where you will be spending the next two nights!

Dinner at the hotel then get ready for your night under the stars - and hopefully the Northern Lights.

Finnish Aurora Glass Cabins provides 'one-of-a kind' opportunities to admire the Northern Lights and millions of stars in the crystal clear sky while enjoying a comfortable room temperature. Built with a massive special thermal glass window facing sky wards, the temperature inside the cabin always stays at a normal level. It also prevents the glass from not getting white frosted, hence keeping the view clear even when the temperature outside drops to under -30°C.

After breakfast, get ready for today's husky safari - an unforgettable journey through breathtaking winter scenery.

On arrival to the husky farm we will provide you with a warm outer thermal suit, gloves and hat and then we will present your very own husky team. You will be given a lesson on how to drive the sledge and how to observe important hand signals given by your leader.

Each team consists of about six dogs, you, the driver, and your passenger, who is comfortably seated in the wooden sledge. The driver and the passenger can change places during the safari.

In the evening, join a Northern Lights search. After some research on the weather forecast, your guides will take a car and drive it to places where the sky is most clear and the probability of seeing the Northern Lights is highest. Your experienced guide, a professional Aurora Hunter has some interesting stories to tell as you drink hot drinks and snacks along the way.

Rise and shine - get ready for adventures after breakfast. Driving through the arctic winter forests across the frozen river while admiring the beauty of the Lappish nature your guide leads your way on an exciting snowmobile safari. Keep your camera with you! There are a couple of stops for taking amazing photos and chatting with your guide about life in Lapland.

This afternoon, you will get up close to the reindeer. You get a bag of lichen to feed the reindeer living at Aurora Village. Reindeer love lichen! They come close and with a little patience, they will eat from your hand. This is a good time to take close-up photos with reindeer too.

Meet your guide at the Aurora Village reception who will take you on a short walk to the Reindeer park. Your reindeer sleigh is awaiting and will take you on a peaceful winter adventure in a traditional ‘raito’ form where the reindeer walk one after another each pulling a sleigh.Sit back and enjoy the sleigh ride through the snowy forest.

Breakfast at hotel. Transfer to Ivalo airport.