Should you pay for an aurora tour in Rovaniemi?
One of the most common questions people have when coming to Rovaniemi hoping to see the northern lights is “are northern lights tours worth it?”
If I had to answer in one word, the answer is a hard and definitive “depends”. It’s not a simple question and there’s many factors that come into play, with the most important factor being the weather conditions on the nights that you are in Rovaniemi.
One thing to note is not all northern lights tours are equal.
There are countless northern lights tour providers in Rovaniemi and it can be hard to understand which one to pick if you don’t understand the basics of aurora hunting. There’s bus tours that will take you to a private location no matter what the weather looks like, there’s small group tours that will drive you around for 4 hours trying to find clear skies and there’s even tours that will drive all the way up to Norway hoping to find a tiny break in the clouds.
At Rather Chilly, we offer northern lights hunts with professional photography where the only priority is getting where we have to be to see the northern lights. Whether it’s a 30 minute drive outside of town or 4 hours deep into Swedish Lapland, I want to see the lights as much as you do so I’ll make sure we get there!
Let’s break down the factors on why northern lights tours are worth it and also why they might not make sense on some nights.
@rather.chilly @aleksimonaghan
Why you should book an aurora tour
Weather
The weather is the ultimate gatekeeper of the northern lights. The golden rule you’ll hear all the time while you’re in Rovaniemi is “if you can’t see stars, you can’t see aurora.” There might be the biggest northern lights show of the year happening, but if there’s clouds in the way, you aren’t seeing anything.
It is quite common that Rovaniemi will be cloudy but there’s obvious places to drive to where clear skies can be hunted. In cases like these, it makes sense to book a northern lights hunt guided by a professional who knows how to chase clear skies.
Aurora guides are professional cloud dodgers. They know how to read weather models and have all the resources needed to identify areas where they’re likely to find clear skies to see the northern lights at their best.
Experience and knowledge
It’s not a shock that aurora hunters usually know quite a lot about aurora. They know how to chase clear skies to see aurora, they know how to read aurora indicators, they know the best spots to take great pictures of the aurora, they know when to wait for aurora and they know when it makes sense to give up.
Driving
Driving in Finnish Lapland is no joke, there’s a lot that can go wrong. Reindeers can jump out in front of the car without warning, you can slide into a ditch if you take a corner too fast on the snow or you can take the wrong turn and get stuck on a road where the snow hasn’t been cleared.
I absolutely do not recommend doing your own self guided tours if you don’t have experience driving in snowy and icy conditions. Sure, you might save some money by renting a car instead of paying for an aurora tour but you risk paying a lot more in damages when you slide the car into a ditch.
Professional northern lights hunters are experienced in navigating Arctic roads. They know how to drive safely in terrible conditions and they also have the local knowledge of which streets to avoid during long northern lights hunts.
Most aurora hunters have an almost nocturnal sleep schedule as well. They spend their nights chasing aurora and then wake up at 3pm. During winter in Lapland, there’s not much daylight anyway so it almost doesn’t make a difference what time you wake up! You can rest easily in the passenger seat while an experienced aurora hunter handles the reindeer dodging duties in the driver's seat.
Photography
If you’re coming all the way up to Finnish Lapland hoping to see the northern lights once in your life, don’t leave with some blurry iPhone photos. One of the best reasons to hire a northern lights tour is that most of them include professional photography.
Seeing the northern lights is a memory that you’ll hold onto forever, make sure you have that moment documented in the highest quality.
@rather.chilly @aleksimonaghan
Why you shouldn’t book an aurora tour
The northern lights are free
On perfectly clear nights, it might not make sense for you to book an aurora tour in Rovaniemi because you can just walk down to Arktikum Park, the darkest spot within Rovaniemi, and see the northern lights there for free (along with a couple of hundred other people during busy season).
If you are comfortable with winter driving and you understand aurora indicators, then of course it makes sense to plan your own DIY tour. You’ll have all the time in the world to aurora hunt at your own pace.
You won’t see the aurora on the tour
In Rovaniemi, there’s aurora tours that operate every night no matter what the weather conditions are. It could be cloudy all over the Arctic, every weather model shows there’s no chance and every webcam around the Arctic seems to verify this. Even so, a lot of tours will still operate as normal.
On nights like these, it doesn’t make sense to book any aurora tour but a lot of operators will still gladly take your money to give you a BBQ under the clouds while saying “maybe we’ll get lucky.”
When the weather conditions are looking a bit more difficult, it’s best to avoid bus tours, tours that have very strict kilometre or time limits and tours that only go to predetermined locations. Even if clear skies and a great aurora show are just 20km away, there are tours that will just turn around and head back to Rovaniemi because they don’t want to go over their allocated time.
On those nights where there is some cloud coverage, you should only book tours that have flexibility: they have longer kilometre and time limits and they chase clear skies.
Final recommendations
It’s no secret that Rovaniemi can be quite an expensive travel destination, and aurora tours can be an extra hit to your wallet. If you’ve spent a lot of money coming up to Rovaniemi with the one intention of seeing the northern lights though, it will make sense to spend a little bit more to pay for an aurora tour to maximise your chances.
If you have amazing luck and you have clear skies during your time in Rovaniemi, then you can just see the lights for free down at Arktikum.
