Snowy Adventures: Exploring Swedish Lapland on a Reasonable Budget
Discovering the Magic of Sweden's Arctic Gem Without Draining Your Wallet
Raise your hand if you’ve ever thought: “Lapland? Yes please!” Of course. We all have. And those were Mike's words exactly when Hannah suggested visiting Kiruna (Swedish Lapland) at the start of 2023. Hannah had actually already gone there during her year abroad in Sweden in 2022. And since she’d had such an amazing experience with friends from her Masters, she wanted to share the beautiful sceneries and unforgettable experiences of Swedish Lapland with Mike (and benefit from another cheeky visit to the snow-covered Nordics).
Kiruna
Where are we going?
In January 2023 we set out to explore Kiruna, which is the northernmost city in Sweden and is located 150 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. The average daily temperature in January is a chilling -16.8 degrees and the mean monthly sunshine hours in January is only a shocking 8 hours per month. Needless to say, don’t go there for a tan.
Since Kiruna has an airport, it’s nice and easy to get to without needing to switch transportation modes. The only caveat is that there is only a total of two flights per day, one incoming and one outgoing. And both use Stockholm as their hub. This resulted in the following flight route for us.
On our way there, we flew from Amsterdam (AMS) to Copenhagen (CPH), to Stockholm (ARN), and finally to Kiruna (KRN). Yes, three flights were a bit much (not to mention the impact on emissions), but this was the only option that didn’t cost 400-500 euros per person unfortunately. And as mentioned, we tried to minimize the budget as much as possible. Luckily, the actual travel time wasn’t too long. We left Amsterdam Schiphol at 7:00AM and arrived in Kiruna at 13:20. Not too shabby for traveling 2101 kilometers to one of the most northern parts of Sweden.
Touch Down
Once you get off the plane in Kiruna, you are greeted by a very small airport that has exactly one terminal. Since they only operate one return flight per day, the airport and immigration are only open for that particular flight. They open 2 hours before the SAS Airbus A320 arrives, and close 1 hour after it leaves again. Is this the closest we’ve gotten to VIP travel? Yes. Yes, it is.
After feeling the fresh Arctic air on our faces for the first time, we walked into the airport, customs, and baggage claim area (aka a small hall with a singular baggage belt). After collecting our shared suit case, we took our cold-appropriate belongings to the bus outside. We took the bus straight to the city center of Kiruna and got off at the first stop - the ICA supermarket - after a 15-20 minute drive. We had to make sure we got groceries for our whole stay, since there was no easy way of getting to the supermarket from our accommodation. And since there wouldn’t be any restaurants or cafes nearby, we would be cooking our own food at the accommodation. From the supermarket we were picked up by the driver from the camp, who actually remembered Hannah from the year before. Together we drove for about 10-minutes towards our spot for the Arctic adventure! We chose to stay for 5 nights to make sure we could do all the activities we wanted to and increase our chances of seeing one of the most impressive spectacles on our planet, the Northern Lights
Firewood Sauna on a Frozen Lake
We stayed at the same place as Hannah did the year before: Camp Alta. There were a few very important reasons for this: Camp Alta is outside the city and therefore far from light pollution (which is perfect for Aurora watching), it’s right next to a lake that freezes over during the winter months, and there’s a log burner sauna that floats on that frozen lake (!). Whereas the lake allows for refreshing swims in summer, it lends itself perfectly for snow mobile tours and cross country skiing in the winter.
Camp Alta has several types of cabins - most of them are small cabins without their own kitchen or bathroom, which is what we opted for. Besides one or two chilly walks to the bathroom in the middle of the night, walking a few meters to the shared facilities was no problem at all. Because January 2023 was the busy winter season, we could not get a cabin for 5 nights straight and had to switch cabins after 3 nights: first staying in a (slightly too) cozy 2 person cabin and later leveling up to a cabin for 3 people, which was a bit more spacious (and that space was much needed!). But both were very cute and the heaters worked miracles during the -20C temperatures at night. We learned our lesson to keep the heaters on at night since we woke up - quite literally - freezing on the first morning. Luckily the scenery and beautiful sunrise made it up for it instantly.
Booking your stay at Camp Alta can be done directly through their website, or through the familiar hotel booking websites, such as Booking.com
A highlight of staying at Camp Alta is the floating sauna. If you are the first person in the sauna that day, it is your responsibility to get the sauna up to temperature. We challenged ourselves and started the sauna fire on two separate days. The sauna just feels warmer and cozier if you light the fire yourself and then you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Camp Alta also has another private sauna that you can reserve for free, which fits up to 6 people. But we loved the big one so much, that we didn’t even try the other one. And the floating sauna has a very important feature: a trapdoor inside the sauna directly into the ice lake. Cooling off and then instantly heating back up without leaving the sauna is quite special. It’s kind of a challenge amongst visitors to see who can last the longest in the icy water, how long could you stay in do you think?
Experiences above the Arctic Circle
Northern Lights (aka what you’ve been waiting for)
The Northern Lights are one of the main reasons people travel to (Swedish) Lapland. We are lucky enough to inform you that we were blessed with the impressive display on several nights. Below you can see our happy faces on our first night of Aurora gazing.
Spoiler alert, the beauty of the Northern Lights deserves its own post, so more pictures and a full recap will appear in your inbox soon!
Snowmobile Tour to the Ice Hotel
When we booked our accommodation, we also booked a snow-mobile tour of 32km to the Ice-hotel in Jukkasjärvi. This not only provided complimentary transportation to and from the camp but also guaranteed an unforgettable Lapland adventure. The snowmobile tour is organized by Camp Alta staff and starts next to the reception. The route takes you over frozen lakes and through snow-covered forests to the Ice Hotel. You sit in pairs on the snow-mobile, so we decided that one person would drive the first part, and the other one on the way back. After getting used to handling the snow-mobile, and doing a lap around the frozen lake in front of the camp, we set off to the Ice-hotel.
Upon arrival, we were granted 3 hours to explore the area and have lunch, so we set off to begin exploring the hotel's interior. Throughout the day, each hotel room is open for viewing from 11 AM to 6 PM. After 6 PM, hotel guests can check in, hang out, and (attempt to) sleep in their rooms for the night. Additionally, there is an ice bar within the hotel that is open to both guests and visitors. The year before Hannah was told that every room is redesigned and recreated by new artists, but she actually recognized most of the rooms. Nonetheless, the art and sculptures are truly impressive and the photos don’t do it any justice. Each room also has a distinct theme, creating a fresh adventure with every entry!
The Ice-hotel also offers ‘warm’ rooms in several buildings next to it. This might be a good option if you want to stay in the area longer, but you don’t want to spend every night in a frozen room.
After exploring for some time, we treated ourselves to a ‘Northern Lights’ cocktail (of course) in the Ice Bar. For lunch we quickly got some bread and dips from a supermarket 5-min away and headed back to the meeting place to start our ride back to the camp. On the way home, we were taken along a special route with the snowmobiles: through the frozen forest. A highlight for sure. We really enjoyed the day speeding over frozen lakes, exploring the impressive Ice Hotel, and finally cruising through the enchanting frozen forest. We definitely recommend the experience if you “happen” to be in the area!
Dog Sledding
Another activity we didn’t want to miss out on was the dog sledding tour, which we booked through the reception of Camp Alta. It included a pick-up and drop-off by the dog sledding company and a lunch halfway the tour. We chose the 2-person sled over the 1-person option, since this meant we could alternate between steering (which is fun but also tiring) and enjoying the views.
Apparently, that particular day was a ‘warmer’ day in Kiruna (still around -5C degrees during the day), but that is considered warm in the Swedish winters. This meant that the huskies struggled to cool down more and weren’t able to pull as hard. This was particularly noticeable in parts where the ice made way for snow, which meant that the huskies had more resistance pulling the sled forwards and thus tired more easily. The guide told us to sometimes help the huskies a bit by pushing the sled forwards when they needed to start from standing still or go up a steeper hill.
You’re in a group with multiple sleds, which means that you might have to wait for the slower sleds if that is the case. For us, there were two single-person sleds that were lagging behind significantly each time, which meant a bit more time waiting on each other after each turn or crossing.
We also elected to have the lunch option half-way through the the sledding adventure. Lunch was ready when we arrived, and constisted of some refreshments, a soup and bread with cheese or spreads. The lunch itself was fine, but you could save some money by skipping it and have some refreshments at the end of the dog sledding tour. That would also be fine in our opinion.
The cost of the tour was 170 euros per person, including transfers and lunch, thus coming in at a pretty steep price. It was a unique experience, and good to have done it once. However, if would we revisit this area, we would probably not do this again because of the high price.
Looking at similar guides offered at GetYourGuide, the prices seem to be around 140-160 euros per person. So booking through your accommodation could be a bit more expensive, but it might save some hassle with transfers.
Cross country skiing
On our final full day, we decided to take it easy with the excursions and rent cross country skis for the day. This was possible at the accommodation and costs 24 euros per person, per day.
After getting the right shoes and skis, we set off to explore the beautiful frozen lake in front of the camp. We have estimated on Google Maps that the lake has a circumference of about 2km, sounds easy right?
At first, we wanted to explore the side of frozen lake, which leads into the forest with white trees. However, to get over the bank of the frozen river into the small forest proved to be quite the challenge. After landing in knee-deep snow, and not making any progress with our cross-country skis, we decided to abort this mission and simply make a trip around the edges of the lake. All in all, this probably took us 1.5-2 hours, and we were (positively) beaten by the cold, the exercise and the wind blowing in our faces. We say: money well spent. We got some exercise in, enjoyed the beautiful scenery around the frozen lake, and had a nice and affordable activity to compliment the pricier items on the list.
Costs
In general, people think that holidays in (Swedish) Lapland are very expensive, but we think that we did pretty well financially speaking. To sum up the total costs for this trip:
Airplane tickets (2 stops getting there, 1 stop back; 1 piece of luggage per person; SAS): 320 euros per person
Accommodation (5 nights, including bedding & towels): 570 euros for 2 persons.
Food: 150 euros for 2 persons, for the whole stay.
Activities: Snowmobile Tour (included in accommodation price) + Dog Sled Tour (170 euro per person) + Cross country skiing (24 euro per person) + Northern Lights (free, but priceless 😉)
With a combined total of 1930 euros for a full week accommodating two people, or 965 euros per person, this might not be the absolute lowest-priced vacation you'll find for a week. Nonetheless, we believe it stands as a reasonable cost considering the rich and unique experiences it offers.
One of the reasons we were able to keep the costs a bit lower, is that we did not have any expensive meals during the trip. Since there are no restaurants in the nearby area, we made all the meals ourselves, saving some of our valuable money.
Final Thoughts
This trip to Kiruna has been one of our favorite ones so far. We did quite some activities but were also able to relax and make use of the saunas every night. Most importantly, we saw the Northern Lights for multiple nights, which is an unforgettable experience in itself. A trip to (Swedish) Lapland is destined to be a trip to never forget, so we hope we were able to inspire you to explore the snowy parts of Scandinavia yourselves.
Did you think it would be more expensive? Or are you still surprised how much this all cost? Are you now considering adding (Swedish) Lapland to your TBT (To-Be-Traveled) list? Or would you like to know more about our trip to Swedish Lapland? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll see you next Friday again!
Great post! Also very impressed by the level of detail you remembered!