Lapland on a Budget: How to Visit Finland’s Arctic Without Overspending

Lapland always felt out of reach. Magical – yes, with all the Northern Lights, reindeer, and glass cabins in the snow… but also the kind of trip where money disappears fast. For years, I thought it wasn’t possible to visit Lapland on a budget.

Turns out I was wrong. On one of our recent trips there, we spent 7 days / 6 nights for about €1,700 ($1,800 based on the current exchange rate) for 2 people. This included everything — transportation (ferry and then train from Tallinn), a rental car, gas, apartment, a couple of splurge nights in unique cabins, food, activities, and even souvenirs, including a photo with Santa.

NOTE: €1,700 for a week in Lapland isn’t backpacker-cheap, but for this part of Finland, it really is budget travel. Most people spend double or triple that, and we managed it without missing out on the Northern Lights, cabins, or reindeer.

Did we skip some things? Yes. But we still saw the unique side of Lapland with the Northern Lights, visited a reindeer farm, spent time in saunas, and explored snowy landscapes. Honestly, we didn’t feel like we missed out on anything.

This post is the exact breakdown of how we managed to keep costs down – when to go, where to stay, how to get around, what to eat, and which tours are worth the money. Basically, everything you need to plan an affordable Lapland trip without cutting out the fun.

👉 If you are also planning a 7-day Lapland route, I put together a separate day-by-day itinerary for one week in winter that you can check out here.

Quick Tips for Visiting Lapland on a Budget

1. If your main goal is to see the Northern Lights, then the cheapest time for Lapland holidays is September, October, and the end of March (this is also the best time in terms of seeing the aurora). Fall is great in the sense that there is also foliage, still long days, and not very cold.

If you want a mix of northern lights, snowy landscapes, and winter activities, then November to early December or February to March are the best times, but to save money, you need to book ahead of time.

If you want to visit during the warmer months, then it is quite an affordable season overall, even with the last-minute bookings.

2. Mix cheap stays with a short splurge. Stay in apartments or hostels most nights, then book 1–2 nights in a cabin or glass igloo for the experience. (Btw, maybe my list of affordable places to stay in Rovaniemi in winter will suit your needs.)

When staying a couple of nights in a hotel/cabin, you’ll treat yourself to a special stay with access to places and activities that don’t require high payments (like free access to viewing northern lights, snowshoeing or hiking in the forest for a discounted price, sauna visit, and more).

3. Rent a car. It often works out cheaper than paying for transfers or tours with pickup. Compare airport vs. train station prices. Not sure if hiring a car is for you? I’ve put together a full guide on renting a car in Rovaniemi, which will help you decide.

4. Buy cooked food in supermarkets. Also, cook at your Airbnb, grab €12–15 lunch specials around the city, and avoid expensive tourist restaurants. More about where exactly to eat in the article.

5. Bring winter gear if you can. Clothing rental is only worth it for very short trips since it is quite expensive. There are a couple of shops in Rovaniemi and Levi offering warm clothes for hire, so you can take a look and see if you need to pre-book your sizes in advance.

6. DIY Northern Lights hunting. If you have a car, you don’t need a tour. I’ll share where to go later. If you don’t rent a car, then book a northern lights tour with a guarantee (with photos like this one, because many providers charge extra for that).

7. Visit a reindeer farm instead of booking sleigh tours. You’ll still get rides included, but for less (because they are shorter).

8. Focus on free or low-cost activities. Saunas, hikes, Northern Lights, frozen lakes — no tour needed. More about them in the end.

Cheap Way to Reach Lapland

There are three main ways to get to Finnish Lapland without overspending:

1. Fly to Rovaniemi. This is the main airport, and it has plenty of low-cost connections in winter with many European cities. Use Google Flight Explore to find which departure cities are cheapest, then compare on Skyscanner or your favorite aggregator. I love booking through Expedia for the extra 5–10% subscriber discounts.
2. Fly to Kittilä. From January to March, Air Baltic runs seasonal budget flights from many European cities (Germany, UK, France, Spain, Eastern Europe). These can be cheaper than Rovaniemi if your dates match.
3. Take the Santa Claus Night Train from Helsinki. A fun alternative if you’d like to see more of Finland and spend one day in Helsinki. Book directly on the VR railway site for the best price. Sleeper cabins (with private bathroom/shower) start at €60–70 per person if booked early.

👉 My tip: check all three options. Sometimes the train + cheap Helsinki flight works out less than a direct Lapland ticket.

Best Time to Visit Lapland on a Budget

Most people will tell you that November, late February, and March are the cheapest months to visit Lapland. That was also my starting point when I began planning.

But when we actually went in late November and stayed throughout December, prices turned out lower than what we paid in February and March on another trip (within the same winter). Even booking almost last minute, we managed to get surprisingly affordable accommodation and car rental.

Here’s the pattern I noticed:

• November–early December: Good deals on accommodation and car rentals, fewer people, amount of snow hit or miss (last year almost all of November was wet and grey without snow until the end of the month).
• Late December–early January (Christmas & New Year): Sky-high prices. Avoid if you are on a budget.
• February–March: Prices go up again, especially for flights and rentals, since it’s peak Northern Lights + skiing season.

👉 My takeaway: don’t rely only on “cheapest month” advice. Check real-time rates before you book. It’s often possible to find apartments for €60–70 per night even in December or January if you grab them quickly.

Where to Stay in Lapland for a Budget-Friendly Holiday

Save

Finding budget accommodation in Lapland comes down to choosing the right towns and mixing types of stays.

Rovaniemi is the obvious base and the easiest place to find apartments on Booking or Airbnb for €70–80 a night, even in peak months. Although, of course, this price is less common, since most apartments cost more. So if you see a flat or hotel room that you like within this price range, book it right away because it will be gone faster than you think.

We booked in neighborhoods just outside the center like Rantavitikka and Sahanperä, and paid the same as we would have in smaller towns.

Outside Rovaniemi, there are also good options. Inari turned out to be one of my favorites, with affordable cabins that included kitchenettes — perfect for saving on meals. Around Ivalo Airport, you’ll also find simple guesthouses that are cheaper than what most people expect. Kemijärvi is another overlooked spot, with hostels that cover all the basics and keep costs down.

Save

Getting Around Lapland Without Overspending

Before our trip we debated a lot whether we should rent a car or try to manage with buses and pickups. In the end, renting was not just easier, it was actually cheaper.

The thing is, Rovaniemi itself is small, but the main sights are spread out. Even Santa Claus Village isn’t in town, and the bus there costs €7 per person for a return ticket (or €4 one way). Two people already pay about the same as a one-day car rental.

The same goes for reindeer and husky farms — without a car you end up booking tours with pickup included, which adds €25–50 on top of the activity price.

Save

With a car, we were free to drive ourselves to farms, Northern Lights spots, and other villages, which instantly made tours cheaper. In Lapland, a rental car is less of a luxury and more of a necessity if you want to keep costs under control.

The only case I wouldn’t recommend it is if you don’t have experience driving in snow. Then of course, it’s better to book a trip where everything is bundled.

Eating in Lapland on a Budget

Food in Lapland costs the same as the rest of Finland, but the difference is fewer options and higher prices for imported goods. We mostly shopped in Lidl and K-Market, cooked breakfasts and dinners in our Airbnb, and carried snacks during the day.

Pre-cooked Finnish products like pancakes, tortillas, or hash browns saved time and money, and salads with soups and local staples like rye bread with salmon or various spreads were surprisingly affordable (cheaper than in Tallinn, which we didn’t expect).

Cooking at home meant we could splurge a little on lunches. In Rovaniemi, we liked the €15 buffet at the Arktikum Museum cafe, where you eat well and stay full for hours.

Asian restaurants also had good lunch specials. My favorite were Thaibaan in the shopping mall (which had a €12 deal with salad and tea) and Da Zhong Hua. On my other visits to Rovaniemi, I also ate at Korundi Kitchen & Cafe together with Saigon Noodle Bar which turned out to be delicious as well.

My only advice is to plan your food stops in advance, because the moment you walk into a “Santa” restaurant hungry, you’ll definitely want to eat and end up paying double for the same plate.

One thing that really helped us was bringing this thermos from home. Every day we filled it with tea, which kept us warm and stopped us from constantly buying drinks. It’s a small thing, but in Lapland those small things add up quickly.

Saving on Tours & Activities

Tours in Lapland are expensive (no way around it), but from my experience, some are more overpriced than others. Reindeer sleigh rides are the classic example: you can pay a fortune for a tour, or you can visit a reindeer farm, meet the animals, and get a short ride included for much less.

We visited Sieriporo Reindeer Farm because we had a car, so we didn’t need to pay extra for pickup. It felt more personal than the commercial tours and cost a fraction of the price because the whole experience included interaction with reindeer, not merely the ride.

We also considered this reindeer farm visit because in addition to the sme experience, it also included a professional photographer.

(By the way, if you are traveling to Lapland in the summer, consider also this authentic reindeer tour with canoeing, which is great for the warm weather and is on the cheaper side).

The same applies to Northern Lights. Chasing them with a guide can be fun, but if you rent a car, you don’t need it. We kept a low-cost Aurora photography tour as a backup in case we couldn’t find the lights ourselves, but in the end, we managed on our own.

For me, that’s the biggest budget tip in Lapland: use tours only when you absolutely need them. Forests, lakes, saunas, and even the Northern Lights are there for free if you plan right.

If you are short on time, then book a guaranteed tour of Northern Lights because it gives you the best chance to see them without spending nights driving around and guessing.

---

So, these are my budget tips for Finnish Lapland now. It really can be done without overspending, we proved it ourselves. If you want to see exactly what a week in Lapland cost us, I’ve broken it all down in my Lapland trip cost post.

And if you’re curious how other Arctic trips compare, check out my Norway on a budget tips or how much a trip to Tromsø costs, another place people often think is too expensive.

More Posts About Finland

• Rovaniemi in December & for Christmas – guide to the magic and mayhem
• Helsinki to Jyväskylä by Car – a lesser-known road trip from Helsinki to take this year