How Much Does It Cost to Stay in a Glass Igloo? This Will Shock You

How much does it cost to stay in a glass igloo in Lapland? One kidney? Or maybe two? Can you live without both kidneys? *Asks ChatGPT*

Here’s the thing.

We did a magical holiday in Lapland and we still have all our kidneys.

In this post, we’ll tell you how we managed this.

Oh, and we’ll also answer the question: how much does it cost to stay in a glass igloo? 

Because our awesome holiday included a stay in a northern lights resort too—yes, one of those glass-roofed places where you can watch the aurora straight from your bed!

So we can share our real life experience here, with you. (And tell you how you can have a winter wonderland holiday like that too!)

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!

Tips for Lapland trip planning

If you are wondering how much does it cost to stay in a glass igloo, it might mean you are planning a Lapland holiday.

Are you?

If yes, we have some things that will help:

• We did Lapland on a budget—saving a lot of money without sacrificing comfort. You can read all about how we did that here.
• If you want to see all our Lapland posts (such as why you shouldn’t do a husky ride. Or what you should wear for aurora watching), head here. 
• Feeling overwhelmed? We get it, planning a trip to Lapland is a big deal. Good news is, we can help! Book a call with us and we can talk through your plans together—saving your time and your sanity!

Now, let’s talk about where we stayed in Lapland.

Where we stayed in Lapland

We talk a lot about our crazy, secret wedding and the rest of our Lapland trip in other posts, so we won’t repeat ourselves. You can find all of those Lapland articles full of useful tips here.

We’ll just tell you a bit about where we stayed, because that’s what you are here for, right?

You wanna know: how much does it cost to stay in a glass igloo?

We’ll get there soon!

Accommodation tip

We saved a lot of money on this Lapland holiday and part of it was because we did 2 things:

1. We did a lot of research and picked accommodation well.
2. We shared a room as 3 adults (the two of us and Mirka’s sister). We still paid the full cost ourselves—it’s the least we could have done for Mirka’s sister who was our unsuspecting wedding guest, witness, photographer, make up and hair artist and much more! But we did save on paying for a separate room for her during the 2-week holiday, and that made a big difference (plus it meant we had a lot more fun, always hanging out together!).

We are not telling you this to brag, but to help.

We put all the work in—the hours searching through accommodation options—so you don’t have to do the same. You can just check out the places we stayed at and see if they suit you too.

Here is what you should know:

• We have high standards when it comes to accommodation, after too many horror situations from our full-time travels. Meaning cleanliness and location (car-free travellers here!) are super important.
• We are still budget travellers though, so we also try to always find a great deal when we travel.
• Since this was our wedding trip, we splashed out a bit—you can absolutely find cheaper accommodation than where we stayed, but we wanted a good balance of comfort and price (and, thankfully, we found it!).
• During this trip, we stayed in: Vienna, Copenhagen (for our wild wedding), Helsinki (x2 accommodation) and Lapland.

Great value-for-money hotel recommendations

Don’t worry, we will actually tell you exactly where we stayed.

Here is all the awesome accommodation we had on this trip:

• Vienna  – 4* hotel in the centre (just minutes from the stunning Belvedere Palace!)
• Copenhagen – super cool 4* boutique hotel with a free wine hour (yep, you read that right!)
• Helsinki 1 – our first accommodation in Helsinki was a 4* hotel, a 5-minute walk from the train station (perfect if you are catching the Santa Claus Express night train, like we were!)
• Helsinki 2 – our second accommodation was an apartment with board games, books, sauna and even a terrace with sea views!
• Lapland – northern lights resort with yummy food, fun activities, but mainly, glass-roof cabins for watching aurora!

Since this post is about how much it costs to stay in a glass igloo, let us tell you a bit more about the northern lights resort we stayed at.

The best northern lights resort in Lapland

We won’t go into detail here about the northern lights hotel we stayed at because we have a full post on it! Of course we do! It was awesome and we want you to know exactly what to expect + give you all the extra tips if you decide to go!

So here are just some basics you need to know:

• The resort is called Northern Lights Village Saariselkä 
• It’s located in Lapland, Finland
• The company has 3 other locations in Finland, but we think Saariselkä is the best (we explain why here)
• We stayed in a beautiful Aurora Cabin, which has a glass roof
• Yes, we did indeed see the Northern Lights straight from our bed. On 2 out of 4 nights we stayed there (this is the 50% rule you should know about when booking, btw)

Okay okay, will we finally answer the big question?

How much does it cost to stay in a glass igloo?

We sure will!

Here it goes.

How much does it cost to stay in a glass igloo?

In the title, we promised a shocking number to you.

That’s not a clickbait.

It really was a shocking amount that we paid, to stay in the Aurora Cabin.

Are you ready for it?

Please do a drumroll like in the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. (Which, btw, is Mirka’s favourite Christmas movie! What is yours? Let us know on our Instagram or in the comments below!)

The grand total for our stay at the northern lights hotel in Lapland was:

€1,542.

Shocked? 

We told you so!

Now, if you are not sure whether this is a great deal, let us break it down a bit.

Why is this a shocking price?

Wanna do a bit of math?

No? 

Not surprised.

Don’t worry, we’ll do it for you.

Let’s take the total amount of €1,542.

We stayed at the resort for 4 nights, so let’s divide that.

€1,542/4 nights = €385.5 per night.

Things are getting interesting now, right?

Let’s take it a step further.

We travelled as 3 adults—the two of us and Mirka’s sister.

So if you continue the math: €385.5/3 = €128.5 per night per person.

Um, what?

€129 a night per person?

That’s hard to believe, right?

If you still don’t see why this is absolutely mind-blowing, we’ll tell you.

What to consider when booking a glass igloo hotel

We are not saying you should stay at the same northern lights resort we stayed at.

Even though it was awesome. And it’s clearly well-priced.

If it doesn’t suit you for some reason, though, you might wanna do your own research.

When you do that, consider these things when comparing the price per person, per night, in the accommodation you find.

Let’s use our cost of €129 as an example.

That’s €129 a night, per person:

• In Finland, one of the most expensive countries in Europe
• Not just in Finland, in Lapland, a destination known to be pricey
• For a stay in a beautiful Aurora Cabin—a glass-roof cabin where you can see the Northern Lights straight from your bed
• With yummy breakfast AND dinner included in that price too
• And it wasn’t a low season stay—we went at the start of April, which is one of the best times to visit for great snow coverage and aurora watching

What we are trying to say is, don’t compare just the numbers. Compare the numbers in context. That’s the only way to figure out whether you are getting a good deal, or not.

The truth about paying a low price for a glass igloo

We’ll be honest with you here.

Sure, the price was extremely low.

But of course, that came with a few trade-offs.

You should consider whether these would be a deal-breaker for you:

This is not a glass igloo resort

The Aurora Cabin isn’t a glass igloo. It has a glass roof. Actually, not even the full roof, just the part above the main double bed. Meaning Mirka’s sister, who slept on the pull out couch (sharing to save money!), couldn’t see the Northern Lights straight from her bed—she had to come to our bed for that.

But it’s all about the balance. If you want to save money, you’ve got to sacrifice a bit of a view. Just remember, with the glass igloos, unlike glass-roof cabins, you’ve got to confirm other things too, such as: privacy (it’s all glass, after all), how to get there (they are usually more isolated and so harder to reach, if you are doing a car-free trip), and heating (is the glass insulated well enough?).

Northern Lights Village is a 3* hotel

For us, it was more than comfortable and nice, but we are crazy travellers, who are used to all sorts of things, including spending nights at airports, so anything better than a hard plastic chair and the A/C blasting arctic cold at us is a fancy experience. 😂

We booked early

Booking the Northern Lights Village hotel? It was a super quick decision: Mirka found it, checked prices, checked reviews, confirmed we can get there car-free and we booked. That was August 2024 and we were booking for the last day of March 2025.

Why did we hurry so much?

Because already at that point, 8 months in advance, it was the only date available with enough consecutive nights (remember the 50% chance rule) and good aurora-viewing conditions!

So if you can’t commit in advance, or you prefer to plan your trips more last minute, trying to snap up a deal like this might not work for you.

This price is from 2025—when we did our Lapland trip 

As we all know, prices only keep going up, so chances are, it will never be this cheap again. Fingers crossed, your salary is also going up along the prices. And remember, we talk about travelling on a budget a lot on this website, sharing saving tips and hacks, so stick around to always keep learning what you can do to save more. 

You can follow us on our Instagram, if you want to keep us in mind, or subscribe to our newsletter, so we give you a nudge every time we post a new article with travel tips!

What should you do next?

If you are still recovering from that wild calculation, we get it.

It’s totally insane numbers!

Here is what you should do next:

1. Make yourself a calming tea (or a hot chocolate perhaps?). Because we suspect your heart might be racing at the possibility of being able to stay in a glass igloo, without having to sell a body part!
2. Check out the prices of Northern Lights Village Saariselka. Or one of their other locations. Actually, it’s smart to check them all, because you never know which one might have a deal on. We are just biased, because we believe that the Saariselka resort is the best (we share why here).
3. Remember to compare the cost of the Northern Lights Village hotels with other glass igloo resorts. We’re recommending NLV because it’s where we stayed—we only suggest places we’ve personally tried and feel good about to you here! No misleading for a commission.
4. If you find a great deal, don’t hesitate! Book it! As we said, we booked Northern Lights Village 8 months in advance, and it was already almost sold out, so don’t risk missing out when you find something awesome.
5. Make sure to check out our Lapland on a Budget post, to discover more tips on how to save money on your winter wonderland trip!
6. If you wish you could chat to someone about all of this, you’re in luck! You can book a call with us and we can talk through your plans (and worries) together!
7. One more thing: even in a plush glass-igloo resort, where you feel cosy and looked after, life still happens. Luggage goes missing, flights get cancelled, ankles get twisted on snowy paths… you get the idea. Travel insurance is still 100% worth having. Make sure to pick well—choose someone who will cover you for all the winter activities you are dreaming of doing, and whose claim process will blow you away—for all the right reasons.

What do you think then? Was it surprising for you, how much it really costs to stay in a glass igloo? Let us know in the comments below. 

Or DM us on our Instagram—we share all our travel (and life) mishaps there, to keep the fun going. Because trust us, nobody has as much bad luck as we do. 😅 Makes us be grateful for things like this budget Lapland holiday even more!