Want to travel to Lapland on a budget?
You’ve come to the right place!
We not only did our trip to Lapland on a small budget, but we also managed to keep it super comfy, staying in a glass-roof cabin to see the Northern Lights, doing fun experiences like meeting Santa and we even threw a wedding into the mix too, just to show you – you really can do it all without breaking the bank.
Wanna find out more?
Just keep reading then, we’ll share all our secrets with you!
Oh, and yes, this post will be as unconventional as all our posts – don’t expect the same copy-paste advice and tips as on all the other blogs out there!
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please read our Disclaimer.
Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.
After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆
During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅
And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!
Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!
Warning
Man, we haven’t even started and there’s already a warning?
Yep, that’s how we roll – because we like to keep you SAFE!
Okay so the warning here is really just to tell you that this post is long.
Like long long.
Why?
Because it’s full of useful money-saving tips – you do wanna know how to experience Lapland on a budget, right?
So, here’s what you should do:
- Make a nice cup of tea (or a hot chocolate? We are talking about snowy Lapland after all)
- Bookmark this post so you don’t lose it
- Open up any of the other articles we are referencing in this post – you will find more travel tips and tricks there
- Take it easy. You don’t have to read all of it today. That is unless you are leaving to Lapland tomorrow. But in that case, may we suggest it’s probably a bit too late to be thinking about how to do Lapland on a budget? 😬
- Remember to DM us on our Instagram (or drop a comment below) if you have any burning questions as you read through the articles
❄️ Psst! Want to binge all our Lapland posts? You can! This guide links to each of them as we go, but if you’d rather scroll through the full list, click here.
What do you need to know about our trip to Lapland on a budget?
First, a little bit of a background about our trip, so it’s all making sense to you.
We travelled in March-April 2025, for 13 days, though not all of those were spent in Lapland.
Our Lapland trip was actually so much more than seeing the aurora – it was our wedding!
But not just any wedding – a secret one that absolutely nobody knew about!
We only took one guest with us – Mirka’s sister – and she had no idea we were getting married! She thought we were just taking her Northern Lights hunting!
So when reading this, keep in mind that we did this trip as 3 adults. And yet, we managed to find ways how to do Lapland on a budget.
📷 @za_ostrene
The timeline of our trip
As you might have guessed by now, our trip was pretty wild. We’ll share the timeline with you here, so that you can see what we’ve managed to cover – on a budget!
Day 1 – A sleepover in Vienna before our early morning flight (4* super cheap, central hotel too).
Day 2 – Copenhagen – telling Mirka’s sister we are actually getting married tomorrow and she is our witness. 😆
Day 3 – WEDDING! Yep, we got married on day 3 of our trip, in secret, in Copenhagen. It was totally crazy, totally unconventional and totally us.
Day 4 – Sightseeing Copenhagen. Btw, we stayed in a gorgeous, 4* boutique hotel there, on a budget, of course!
Day 5 – Flying to Helsinki! Exploring the city and, you guessed it, another budget 4* hotel stay!
Day 6 – More fun in Helsinki, but most importantly – catching the Santa Claus Express night train to Santa’s village!!
Day 7 – Making our childhood dreams come true – meeting Santa in the Santa Claus village! Continuing further north, to our northern lights resort.
Days 8-10 – Staying in a glass-roof cabin in Lapland on a budget. Riding with reindeer and huskies. Experiencing a Finnish sauna and an ice pool. Seeing the Northern Lights. ON A BUDGET!!
Days 11-13 – Back to Helsinki to stay in another cool accommodation (admittedly, me and my sister were awfully ill at this point, so we saved money by not going out much. We did spend on medication though, so it kinda balanced out!)
Got any questions about the timeline of our crazy trip (and a wedding!!)? Drop them in the comments below or shoot us a DM on Instagram.
A note on sharing
Remember how we mentioned there were 3 of us on this trip – us and Mirka’s sister?
This is actually how we managed to keep the cost down and do the trip to Lapland on a budget.
A money-saving tip
Even though we were paying for 3 adults, we managed to save A LOT by sharing a room with Mirka’s sister.
Was it easy?
Not always, as hotel rooms are often small, so we ended up not having a lot of space to unpack or move around.
Did we have privacy?
Not at all! We’ll have to do a proper honeymoon, just the two of us, another time. 😅
Did Mirka’s sister have the comfiest beds ever?
No, she (bless her) slept on sofa beds for most of the trip.
But it helped us do Lapland on a budget, while paying for food, activities and transport for 3 people.
So if you have a close friend or a relative you don’t mind sharing a room with, we can confirm it’s doable to do a trip like this while staying in the same room. And it will save you a lot, especially if you divide the cost by 3 and they pay for their share.
Tips for doing Lapland on a budget
Let’s start with some general tips on doing Lapland on a budget and without having to sell your partner’s kidney (what did you think we’d suggest you sell your own kidney? Nah, save that for another holiday, maybe the Maldives! 😆).
- Plan well in advance. We booked our northern lights resort 8 months in advance and it was almost sold out at that point. You can save money by booking early – you have more options to choose from, early bird deals, flights are also cheaper (more on this below) and you can also prepare better – see the next point.
- Starting your planning early means you have time to shop around. For your winter gear. For activities. For transport. For travel insurance. That means you are not pressured into buying the first thing you come across, meaning you’ll be able to uncover some really good deals that will help you do this Lapland trip on a budget.
- We talk about saving money on a lot – we didn’t travel full-time for nearly 2 years by wasting money. For example, here is a post about the 7 simple changes you can make to save more money for your travels.
- If you feel like this is all too much, we can help. You can book a live chat with us where we can talk about your travel plans and how to make them better. Let’s make sure you have an epic holiday AND save money!
📷 @za_ostrene
How to book flights to Lapland on a budget?
When it comes to flights, keep in mind that trying to time them is like trying to time the stock market.
You can use past info, but, at the end of the day, no one knows what’s going to happen.
What we’ll do then is give you advice based on what happened to us.
Don’t overthink it.
We were able to do Lapland on a budget because we saved a lot on our accommodation. But we could have saved even more money, if we didn’t overthink the flights.
The mistake we made
What we did is, we checked the prices of the flights we were thinking of taking when we booked the accommodation – 8 months before our trip.
Did we book the flights right away, when we booked the accommodation?
No!
We decided to set up flight alerts instead of booking them, to track their price.
Admittedly, this was partially because of our wedding (we couldn’t actually commit to flights that early on), but that aside, can you guess what happened?
We waited and waited, wasting time checking the flight prices and worrying about them going up, rather than down.
So what happened at the end?
Well, we held off for as long as possible, hoping the flights will drop last minute.
But since this was a very important trip (a wedding, hello!), we couldn’t afford to wait much longer.
So, just over 3 weeks before our trip, with stress levels reaching sky-high levels, we decided that we had to finally book.
Can you guess how the prices changed, in comparison with August, 8 months prior, when we checked the flights for the first time?
*dramatic music*
Yep. They all went up.
If we had booked the flights in August, we would have saved money, time and our sanity.
Something worth considering
It used to be the case that flights would go on sale or drop down in price closer to the departure date.
Recently, every time we’ve tried this strategy of tracking the prices and waiting, it backfired on us.
We overpaid on the flight every single time we waited.
And as travellers who’d rather spend a night at an airport than spend more money, this is quite painful for us.
We spoke with other travellers and they confirmed the same thing happened to them. They waited and the prices of flights always went up closer to the departure date.
So, it’s not a rule or a 100% guarantee.
But if you are not totally flexible with your flights, meaning you can’t travel whenever it’s cheap, just book them as early as you can.
You’ll save yourself time.
Stress.
And, hopefully, money too.
Tips for booking flights to Lapland on a budget
Aside from booking early, consider doing this when booking flights:
- Comparing dates, airlines and airports on Skyscanner or Google Flights
- If you are not ready to book just yet, set up up price alerts to notify you about price movements
- Always compare the cost of a premium ticket which already includes luggage and a basic ticket + buying luggage separately. Sometimes it works out cheaper to go for the premium deal. But often times, buying the cheapest airline ticket and then just adding your luggage as an extra will actually save you more money
- Remember to collect airline miles if you are not flying with a budget airline. If you don’t know how to collect air miles, we’ve got a simple guide that will help you get started today – even without having a credit card!
Pro tip
This might be crazy, but hear us out. If you are struggling to figure out how much luggage to add when booking your flight, because you are doing Lapland on a budget, do a mock packing session first.
One weekend, we put together what we could (meaning what we have already bought and what wasn’t too faffy to pack and then unpack) and checked how much it weighed.
We did this by shoving it all into bin bags and weighing them with a luggage scale, but you can do it in a fancier way and actually pack into the suitcases/backpacks you are thinking of taking.
Did it take us some time?
Yes, but it was so worth it.
Why is this a good idea?
- We discovered our stuff was a lot lighter than we estimated, meaning we could save money by buying less luggage for our flights (this is super helpful especially if you are taking quite a few flights during the trip, like we were)
- It gave us an opportunity to put stuff together and see what we were still missing
- When it came to the actual packing, before our trip? It was not stressful at all, because we’ve already done it once! So if you tend to struggle with packing, screaming at your wardrobe in despair like the little marmot, this might save your sanity
- And, of course, it majorly sped up the process of packing for real, before our big trip, because we already knew exactly what we were taking
PS: packing light is the key – read our 10 tips for how to pack light here.
How to get around Lapland on a budget?
If you know us, maybe from our Instagram where we share all the unhinged things that happen to us on our travels, you know that we travel car-free.
Can you do Lapland without a car?
You sure can, at least the kind of a trip we did!
And not just without a car, you can do Lapland on a budget, thanks to public transport.
Here is how we travelled around without a car:
- Helsinki to Rovaniemi aka Santa’s home – we took the overnight Santa Claus Express – you can read all about that here (COMING SOON)
- Rovaniemi train station to Santa Claus Village (because his home is not right in the centre, of course not) – public bus including a disco rave at 7am (for all unhinged stories like this, follow us on our Instagram)
- Santa Claus Village to Northern Lights Village Saariselkä, the beautiful glass-roofed cabin resort we stayed at – a bus (we had reindeer jumping out of the forest right in front of the bus!!)
- Northern Lights Village Saariselkä to Ivalo Airport – would be doable on a public bus, if you are really doing Lapland on a budget and come with backpacks, or when there’s no snow
- Ivalo to Helsinki flight – book this as early as possible, to keep your budget low. There are only a few flights a day and so the prices only keep going up (for more info on booking flights, read this section)
- Helsinki airport to our cool accommodation in the centre – airport train and a tram
As you can see, you can absolutely do Lapland on a budget and on public transport. If you are interested in finding out more tips and tricks for using public transport around Lapland, head this way.
Also remember that if all of this is feeling overwhelming and like you just wanna scream at your laptop, because why can’t travel planning be easy? Why can’t you just go see the Northern Lights without all this work?? Well, remember, you can. Just book a call with us and we can help you with the nasty trip planning. Let’s make it stress-free together!
Why use public transport in Lapland?
It’s worth considering using public transport, if you want to do Lapland on a budget.
Aside from saving money, there are other benefits to not hiring a car for your adventures:
- You don’t have to worry about car rental.
- You don’t have to worry about extra insurance for driving a car.
- You don’t have to worry about safety (keep in mind snow, ice, short daylight and reindeer jumping right in front of your vehicle).
- You don’t have to worry about the cost of petrol.
- You don’t have to worry about parking.
Oh, and you also help protect the environment. (And maybe earn some good karma points for that, which you can then redeem for higher chances of seeing the Northern Lights. You never know!)
Basically, to do Lapland on a budget, consider doing Lapland without a car.
When to visit Lapland on a budget?
We get that you might want to do Lapland during Christmas time.
Or you might even think that that’s the best time to go.
Actually, it’s probably the worst time. Here is why.
Why you shouldn’t visit Lapland during Christmas
Aside from the Christmas atmosphere, going in November/December comes with just disadvantages:
- You’ve got to book mega early, because things sell out fast
- It’s soo busy (other humans everywhere, ew!)
- If you’re not that keen on other people’s children, this will be a proper nightmare for you
- Everything is even more expensive than usually – forget doing Lapland on a budget in December and start advertising a kidney for sale instead
- Daylight is short. This is great for chasing the Northern Lights, because nights are longer, but it’s not that great for any other day activities you want to do
- Speaking of the Northern Lights, make sure to read about the weather conditions in Lapland before booking. Many people don’t realise that November/December are often very cloudy and clouds are one of the worst things for aurora viewing because clouds = seeing bugger all in the sky
- Snow cover is also not reliable during this time of the year – we see people often reporting no or very little snow even at the start of December. So many times travellers are shocked and heartbroken when they are imagining beautiful white pre-Christmas holidays in Lapland and instead get miserable, cloudy and rainy doom and gloom, without even seeing the Northern Lights
- It’s also a lot colder during these months than later on, for example, when we went, so if you are not a fan of freezing in -20°C temperatures, maybe avoid this time of the year
📷 @za_ostrene
When did we visit Lapland?
We reached Lapland on the very last day of March – the 31st.
Funnily enough, we picked our dates because of the gorgeous northern lights resort we stayed at.
When Mirka discovered it, 8 months prior, they only had those dates available (good places sell out early on, remember!).
This is why she quickly started doing research and checked:
- The price – so cheap!! More on this later
- The weather conditions – as we mentioned, snow becomes more reliable later on in winter, and the weather is also better for seeing Aurora Borealis
- The phase of the moon – this is often overlooked but absolutely crucial for aurora viewing
- The reviews, of course – make sure you research places well, not just relying on pretty pics that might be misleadingly taken
It was all looking good, so we booked the northern lights resort.
And then we planned the rest of the holiday around it, including our wedding!
Yep, we know, we are crazy.
But it all worked out.
We did Lapland on a budget, because we could get shoulder season deals. And it was great:
- We had (mostly) great weather throughout the trip.
- It still felt Christmassy (we think it’s up to you, how magical and Christmassy you make your holiday).
- And it was sooo much less busy – we were the first (and for a long time the only) people to cross the Arctic Circle in Santa’s village in the morning, for example!
So do consider when is the best to go for you, especially when planning to do Lapland on a budget.
Another thing that going during shoulder season helped us with? Saving money on accommodation.
Where to stay in Lapland on a budget?
The balance between saving and spending
We mentioned quite a few places we stayed at during this whole trip we did.
Remember our money saving-tip, sharing a room with Mirka’s sister?
That would be an example of things we did sacrifice to be able to travel to Lapland on a budget (sacrificing more space and privacy).
What we decided not to sacrifice was comfort – it was our wedding trip after all!
This is why we stayed in 4* hotels. And a beautiful northern lights resort. We could have saved even more money, staying in less fancy places, the way we usually travel.
But we figured, we’d save money by sharing a room, so we can at least splash out on the hotel itself.
The good thing?
Because we travelled during shoulder season (March-April), we got all the accommodation super cheap!
This post is about Lapland though, so you are probably most interested in our northern lights resort.
We wrote a full review here – you’ll find out everything you need to know there, from how to get to the resort to why it’s so cool and how much it cost us.
And if you are unsure whether glass dome style resorts are a waste of money, we also have a post about that – because we did wonder this too!
The problem with trying to do Lapland on a budget? The money you’ll need for activities. Let’s talk more about that.
How to do activities in Lapland on a budget?
Here’s the thing.
Activities in Lapland are expensive.
If you are doing something as an organised activity (so with a tour provider, not DIY), it will cost you a lot of money.
It’s just a fact and you need to be ready for it.
Annoyingly, there isn’t a lot you can do to spend less on activities in Lapland, but don’t worry, we’ve got a few tricks:
- If your budget is limited, start by making a list of activities you would like to do, in an ideal world (where finances are not an issue). Put that list in order of importance (for you and your travel party).
- Find out prices for the activities you want to do. Always shop around. But when comparing different providers, do remember to not just compare the price. Quality matters big time – read reviews, ask on social media (Reddit and Facebook groups are great for this), check blog posts (for example, google: “Reindeer ride Santa Claus Village travel blog”).
- Consider going the DIY route. With many sports, that’s totally possible. For example, you could hire snowshoes or cross-country skis and, armed with a few YouTube tutorials, figure out how to use them yourself.
- Gift experiences. This is our favourite way of financing activities on our travels and it might help you do Lapland on a budget.
A note: we are talking here about asking for experiences as your present, for example at Christmas and/or gifting experiences to your partner or kids instead of material presents. - Cut down on expenses elsewhere and use that money on experiences. Let us explain this one.
For example, say there are two flights you can choose from: a 6am one and an 11am one. The 6am one is cheaper, but, obviously, means you’ll have to get up in the middle of the night to get to the airport. If you choose that flight though, you sacrifice some comfort, but the money you save? The difference between this cheaper flight vs what you would pay on the later, more expensive one? You can use that for an activity instead!
Save on one thing, so you can spend on another, it’s all about priorities.
We did quite a few activities in Lapland, though we didn’t manage to do everything – again, make a list of what you want to do and put it in order of importance – kinda like a bucket list. Chances are, you won’t have the time and the money to do it all, especially if you are doing Lapland on a budget.
Here are the activities we did in Lapland.
Meeting Santa in Lapland on a budget
One of the best activities you can do in Lapland on a budget is meeting Santa, and if you disagree, we’ll fight you (snowball fight, of course!).
Here’s what you need to know about meeting Father Christmas:
- It’s free to meet Santa Claus, but if you want to get a pic and/or video, you’ll have to pay quite a lot (just a warning)
- Santa lives in the Santa Claus Village so you can turn the experience of meeting him into a full day trip
- Make sure to use this free travel hack when planning your visit to see Santa
- You can get to Santa’s village using public transport. Wait, that sounds so underwhelming. You can get to Santa’s village by taking the sleeper Santa Claus Express train!! Isn’t that awesome??
- One more important thing? Make sure you visit the real Santa and don’t get scammed!
Taking the Santa Claus Express, crossing the Arctic Circle and meeting the big man himself are all amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experiences you can do on a budget in Lapland.
Whether you have kids or not, do consider stopping by at the Santa Claus Village on your way up north (maybe finally a chance to ask Santa for an unlimited travel voucher??).
Magical reindeer rides
Remember our money-saving tip of shopping around?
We did this with the reindeer ride, because we had two options:
- You can ride reindeer right in Santa’s village
- Our northern lights resort also offered reindeer rides
How do you pick??
Riding reindeer around Santa’s Village – surely that’s THE most Christmassy experience you can have?
But then again, the reindeer rides offered at our resort were longer, and we would be going through the untouched arctic forest. It would also be a lot less touristy than Santa’s Village.
How do you choose?
Well, in this case, we actually decided to compare not just the cost, but the quality of the experience too.
The reindeer rides in Santa’s village?
They did not seem just touristy.
They also seemed rushed. Short. And, to be honest, once we were actually there, also quite depressing.
We had bad luck with weather, and it was actually raining, which meant the snow was dirty and melting.
And the poor reindeer looked not very well taken care of.
So we were more than happy to skip this experience and spend more on a reindeer ride at our northern lights resort. Yes, we paid more, but we had a better experience.
We keep mentioning it here, but for us it was a balancing act. You could do Lapland on a very strict budget. But if you want to have a great experience, that still feels magical, you can save money on one thing (e.g. public transport), so you can afford to splash out on another (e.g a better reindeer ride).
Riding with howling huskies
Similarly to reindeer, you can do a husky ride in the Santa Claus village, at the Arctic Circle Husky Park.
Again, we compared reviews, prices and the experience itself, and decided to instead go with the husky ride offered by the Northern Lights Village Saariselkä – the resort we stayed at.
We’ll be honest with you though.
Mirka and her sister ended up hating the experience – here is why. You might wanna read that, so you possibly avoid wasting a lot money.
Wasting money, because it was sooo expensive. This was one of our money fails on this trip, and definitely not a way to do Lapland on a budget. So do check out the article first, before you fork out hundreds on an experience you’ll hate.
Testing our willpower in a Finnish sauna and an ice pool
One thing that you should try in Finland, if you can? A Finnish sauna! And since you are in Lapland, you might as well throw in an ice pool too. It’s all good for your health! (Even if in the moment it feels like you are being stabbed with million needles and you swear you’ll never do such a stupid thing again.) (That’s a short review by Mirka, who hates cold water. 🥶)
We want to share 3 things with you that will help you do a Finnish sauna experience in Lapland on a budget.
1. Consider public saunas
If you don’t care where you’ll have the sauna experience and you are passing through Helsinki on your way to Lapland? Check out the saunas available in the city – the modern Loyly sauna, which lets you dip yourself straight in the sea afterwards (!!) or the popular (and even cheaper) Allas Pool, which is an urban spa offering saunas, outdoor pools and city views! (It’s also just a few minutes’ walk from our second, awesome, Helsinki accommodation.)
These shared saunas are cheaper than renting a private sauna in Lapland. Aside from saving money, maybe seeing other people taking a dip in the sea (or the sea pool at Allas Pool) will encourage you and help you overcome your own fear as well?
2. Book accommodation with a sauna
If sauna is your thing or you just want to try it as much as possible during your winter holiday, you might want to consider booking an accommodation with sauna.
The northern lights resort we stayed at? We picked the Saariselkä location, but they do have other ones too, including a resort in Pyhä. This was actually the second option we were considering, because the Pyhä location has Taiga Forest Cabins – not only are they super comfy cabins that offer a lot more space than our Aurora Cabin did, especially for 3 adults. But they come with a private sauna too, meaning you can chill out after long days in the cold without paying extra for it! Now that’s a great way to save money when doing Lapland on a budget.
If you want to go even cheaper, you can consider booking a resort with a free shared sauna – like the studios we stayed at in Helsinki. We had not only an access to a sauna, but also a cool rooftop terrace, board games, pool (the billiards kind), table football and more. Such a fun place to end our trip in!
When making plans for your trip, just do the math – is the accommodation with sauna more expensive? Will you get enough use out of the sauna? If so, is it still cheaper than booking sauna as a separate activity?
3. Put things into perspective
We are going to be honest with you here.
When we were planning our Lapland trip, we totally agreed with the reviews criticising the Northern Lights Village resort for charging extra for their sauna and ice pool.
And not just charging extra, but charging €100 per hour for the private hire of their sauna!
We did book in the end, deciding that a private experience was going to be better for us, than sharing a sauna and having to dip ourselves into the cold water in front of everyone at Loyly or Allas Pools.
And we didn’t regret it – it was one of our favourite things we did during our Lapland trip (unlike the suffering that was the husky ride 😬).
A shocking discovery
A few months after our Lapland trip, something else put the €100 price into perspective.
We were spending Mirka’s birthday in the High Tatras – the beautiful mountain range in Slovakia.
Btw, we got the 5-night stay, including in a 4* hotel, for the cost of just 1 night.
How? Using a great little travel hack called collecting air miles. You can learn all about that here, so you can also stay in cool places for free.
But back to the point. The 4* hotel we stayed at (for free!!) has a cool outdoor jacuzzi called VIP Sky Lounge, because it looks right onto the stunning mountains.
The catch?
An hour-long private hire costs €100.
Sure, you do get a welcome drink.
But it’s just a jacuzzi in Slovakia. Where prices are still a lot cheaper than in Lapland. A LOT cheaper.
This is not to discount the experience, but just to put it into perspective. It’s €100 for the jacuzzi vs €100 for a sauna, ice pool AND a jacuzzi in freaking Lapland.
Suddenly the price we spent on the experience in Lapland felt like a great deal.
So when deciding on your sauna experience, remember to put the prices into perspective.
Hiking aka the free activity
One of the reasons we picked the Saariselkä location was because of the variety of activities available. You can go snowshoeing, skiing, sledging or even ice karting!
As we said, we didn’t have time and budget to do it all, so we are only talking here about the experiences we did do. If you have any questions though, remember you can always shoot us a message on our Instagram or book a call with us to get more personalised advice for your trip.
The great thing about the Northern Lights Village Saariselkä resort? It’s a walking distance to the Saariselkä village, which sits on the edge of the Urho Kekkonen National Park. This means you are right at the gateway to the second-largest national park in Finland, full of well-marked, maintained trails (for hiking, skiing, snowshoeing etc).
We only managed the shortest hike, called the Aurora Trail or Aurorapolku, but if you want to do Lapland on a budget, basing yourself near a national park and accessible trails is one of the best hacks.
📷 @za_ostrene
How to see the Northern Lights in Lapland on a budget?
Is seeing the Northern Lights on your bucket list? Because it was on the top of ours – THE experience we were dying to have!
If you want to see Aurora Borealis on a budget, do this:
- Make sure you know when is the best time to try and see the lights. We already mentioned a few things in this post, like avoiding cloudy weather and checking moon phases.
- That being said, remember that the Northern Lights are a natural phenomenon and no one can guarantee you’ll see them. The best thing to do? Don’t base your whole trip on just seeing the lights. You might end up feeling very disappointed and like you’ve wasted your money. That’s why we’ve included all the other fun things we did on our Lapland trip in this post, to give you some ideas for what you can do on your holiday, aside from attempting to see the aurora.
- Compare the different ways of seeing the Northern Lights. You can hire a car and go chasing the lights. You can book yourself on an aurora hunting tour. Or you can stay in a northern lights resort where you can see the lights straight from your bed (if you get lucky). Pick what works best for you and your budget.
Spoiler alert though, it’s not just about money. We wrote about the perks of staying in a northern lights resort here. And if you want to find out more about seeing Aurora Borealis without a car you can check out this post.
How to save money on buying clothes for Lapland?
Speaking of hiking and chasing the Northern Lights. Make sure you are prepared when it comes to winter gear.
Because, boy, does Lapland get cold, especially at night!
Not wanting to spend money on winter clothes was one of the main reasons we postponed the trip to Lapland for a long time. Silly us! We were missing out on seeing the Northern Lights because we didn’t know there were ways to save money when getting clothes for Lapland.
To make sure you don’t make such a dumb mistake, we wrote all about the different solutions here, so make sure to check it out.
And if you want to know what exactly you should wear when aurora hunting, read this.
How to eat in Lapland on a budget?
Eating out in Lapland (Nordic countries in general, actually) is eeeexpensive.
So what can you do to save money?
You’ve got 2 options:
1. Cook your own meals
You can rent an apartment with a kitchen and cook your meals.
It will save you a lot of money.
But it will waste you a lot of time, because cooking and cleaning.
The thing is, cooking on a holiday makes us feel very non-holiday.
It’s one of the things we look forward to having a rest from, so we get if you don’t wanna do it either.
When we travel long-term though, it is one of the ways we save money.
Our secret hack? Making our own breakfast. That way, we save money and often time as well, because we can eat faster in the accommodation while getting ready in the morning. We can also brush our teeth before heading out for the day – we do try our best to stay healthy, even if life keeps throwing challenges at us!
Tips for cooking your own meals in Lapland:
- Make a plan for meals that are quick, easy and cheap to make
- Remember that supermarkets are also not the cheapest in Lapland – if you want more info on prices, ask in Facebook groups or on Reddit
- Consider taking some food with you from home, if you have the space. We were worried about being hungry in Lapland and other travellers said things in the supermarket are suuper expensive, so they recommended we bring our own instant noodles. The truth? We didn’t need them and even if, they weren’t that expensive in the supermarket, so only really bring them if you have extra space in your luggage and want to do Lapland on a very small budget.
- Even if you don’t bring actual meals with you, consider bringing snacks. Pack smart – think snacks like protein bars or nuts – ones that will fill you up more than a biscuit, but will take up the same amount of space in your luggage. Alternatively, buy these in a big city, like Helsinki, before you venture up north, to Lapland, where shops are often small and, therefore, pricier.
- We’ve said it before, but it’s all about balance. Can you make breakfast at your accommodation and eat out for lunch and dinner to save at least a bit of money? Can you find accommodation with free breakfast that will fill you up so you can skip lunch? (Also one of our favourite money-saving hacks). Can you eat out during lunch, when cheaper lunch deals are on, and then make a smaller dinner in your accommodation? There are always ways to save money without sacrificing all the comfort (and all the delicious foreign food you want to try!).
2. Book accommodation with meals
We’ve already mentioned booking a place that offers free breakfast, so you can possibly skip lunch, but do you know what’s even better?
Finding a budget accommodation that comes with not only breakfast. But also dinner.
That’s what our amazing northern lights resort did – we got the stunning Aurora Cabin for viewing the Northern Lights and we didn’t have to worry about sourcing food and spending more money on it, because breakfast AND dinner was included in the price!
And since both were buffet style and delicious, we could skip lunches – we were not hungry at all. This was one of our biggest hacks for how we managed to do Lapland on a budget. Not worrying about the cost of meals on top of everything else.
Check whether accommodation with meals included is an option for you, especially if venturing out to more remote areas. Those places are great for chasing the Northern Lights, but sucky for saving money – if there are only 2 restaurants to choose from in the area, you can bet they will keep their prices high, knowing you have no other choice but to eat there. Not the best way to keep your Lapland trip on a budget!
Best insurance for Lapland
First, we wanna say something.
You don’t have to pick the travel insurance we are recommending.
But just pick someone (ideally someone awesome).
Don’t do Lapland without travel insurance, because you want to save money.
Your health (and life) is not something to cheap out on.
There is a whole list of things that can go wrong on a trip to extreme parts of the world, but instead of scaring you here, we’ll tell you a bit more about awesome travel insurance providers.
What do you need to know about buying travel insurance for Lapland?
When planning your Lapland on a budget trip, consider:
- Buying travel insurance to save yourself thousands in case you slip on a patch of ice and need to have an emergency surgery (cheery thought, we know!)
- Comparing different providers to see who offers the best value for money
- Making sure that your chosen travel insurance covers all the activities you are planning on doing (winter activities often need to be added as a premium)
Who to buy travel insurance for Lapland from?
Wanna know how crazy we are?
Actually, you probably already know that, since we told you we had a secret wedding in Copenhagen with pretty much no guests. 😅
Okay, so wanna know MORE about how crazy we are?
When we were going full-time travelling, aka living the dream, we researched 23 different travel insurance providers.
It was not fun, we can tell you that.
But we did find 2 companies that are really good and we were happy to use them – and that’s saying something in this industry, where most people think all travel insurance companies are bad.
Who did we pick?
True Traveller and SafetyWing.
We used both, for different trips.
True Traveller is great, if you reside in Europe (including the UK) and are travelling for a specific number of days/weeks. And their customer service is INSANE.
SafetyWing, on the other hand, insures people from almost any country (check eligibility criteria), but it’s like a travel insurance subscription – you pay for 4 weeks at a time, so it’s more worth it for long-term travellers.
Do check out these guys – they really stand out in the sea of horror that is the travel insurance business.
And remember that even if you are doing Lapland on a budget, travel insurance is not worth skipping (just pick someone who offers a great value for money instead).
We hope this post showed you that visiting Lapland on a budget is possible. If you do need more help planning your dream trip, make sure to book a call with us and we can tackle it together!
Lapland on a Budget in a few quick Qs
Yes. The rumours are true. But it’s only ruin-your-bank-account expensive if you let it be. If you plan in advance, shop smart, and use our money-saving tips, it’s actually manageable.
Book flights early with budget airlines or fly more premium and collect airline miles to use for future trips. Aim for midweek departures; they often cost less. Pack light to skip baggage fees, and compare flights on sites like Skyscanner or Google Flights. Alternatively, consider taking the cool Santa Claus Express night train to Lapland instead of flying – it’s an awesome experience and kinder to the planet too!
Totally! You just need darkness, clear skies, and a bit of luck. The first two you can research and plan, the luck you can ask for when you meet Santa in the Santa Claus Village. Oh and remember to download free apps for aurora forecast!
Yep. But remember budget place in Lapland will still cost a very different amount than a budget place in, for example, Slovakia.
Book early so there are plenty of options to choose from. Check for special deals – we got a total budget stay at a beautiful northern lights resort like that.
A word of warning: we’ve heard too many horror stories of Airbnbs cancelling on travellers too close to the departure date, leaving them with no option, but to book an expensive replacement accommodation. Always read reviews and stay at reputable places.
We saved a lot of money by going late March to early April. Snow sticks around, it’s still great aurora viewing time, prices drop and crowds thin out—we met Santa mid-morning with almost zero lines.
Yes! Sleep on the Santa Claus Express train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, where Santa lives, and then catch a bus to northern villages and resorts. We did Lapland completely car-free.
Rank your must-dos and shop around; we picked a longer reindeer ride at our resort over the short Santa Village one for better value. Switch from material gifts to experiences as presents in the runup to your Lapland holiday.
Rent snowsuits and boots at your resort or village; we grabbed ours on-site and avoided spending more money on winter clothes and paying expensive luggage fees on planes. If you need help figuring out what to wear to see the Northern Lights, read this.
Hi!
We’re Mirka & Daniel — full-time travellers, professional overthinkers & bad luck magnets. We research EVERYTHING and then share all the weird travel tips with you here. Follow along to make your adventures easier! 🌴
