After three DIY trips to Finnish Lapland, I think I’m in a pretty good position to answer whether Lapland is actually worth it.
We’ve visited Levi as a family, Rovaniemi on an adults-only trip, and then returned to Rovaniemi for a very quick birthday weekend with our teenage daughter. We’ve experienced temperatures ranging from fairly manageable to around -28°C, stayed in everything from a self-catering apartment to an Arctic SnowHotel, and tried most of the popular Lapland activities along the way.
Lapland can be an expensive trip, especially once you start adding husky rides, reindeer rides and snowmobile tours, but I also think it’s one of those destinations where you can spend far less than you might expect if you put the trip together yourself.
In this guide, I'll go through what we've loved about Lapland, what we've paid for our trips and whether I think a trip to Lapland is worth the cost.
From DIY itineraries and Northern Lights tips to budgeting advice, destination guides and honest reviews of the places we've visited, you'll find everything together in our Lapland Travel Guide Hub.
Just a quick note before we begin. Some of the links in this guide are affiliate links. This means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through them, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products, services and experiences we've used ourselves or genuinely believe will help you plan your trip. Thanks for supporting Build a Break.
Lapland has a reputation for being an expensive holiday, and I think how much you spend can have a big impact on whether you come home feeling like it was worth it.
We've always visited Lapland DIY and spent a fraction of what some Lapland holidays can cost. Our first family trip to Levi cost us around £500pp for five days, including our flights, accommodation, airport transfers, activities, food, insurance and winter clothing.
We've also been able to cherry pick everything we've done. Rather than having activities included as part of a package, we've chosen each one ourselves based on reviews, price and what we actually wanted to experience. We've spent more on some activities and skipped others completely.
I do sometimes wonder whether we'd feel differently about Lapland if we'd spent £10,000 on one trip. At that price, I think we'd have gone with much higher expectations and perhaps felt more pressure for every part of the holiday to be perfect.
For us, the cost has absolutely been worth it. We've now had three brilliant trips to Lapland and made memories that will last a lifetime, without spending anywhere close to those sorts of amounts.
If you're planning your own trip, our Is Lapland Expensive? guide breaks down what we've actually paid and where we've found it easiest to save.
We've also found that Lapland works just as well without young children. I've visited with a friend on an adults-only trip and returned with our teenage daughter, and neither trip felt like we'd gone somewhere that was mainly aimed at small children.
That's probably one of the biggest reasons we've returned. Each of our three trips has been different, and there are still things I'd happily go back and do again.
The activities are probably one of the biggest reasons people want to visit Lapland, but they're also where the cost of the trip can really start to climb.
We've also found that more expensive or longer doesn't always mean better. Both of our husky rides were only around 2km, for example, and we felt that was plenty to get the experience. Our reindeer rides were around 1km and again, that was enough for us.
Snowmobiling was different. We paid £119pp for a 15km tour near Rovaniemi and spent just over two hours actually snowmobiling. That was one activity where I felt paying for the longer experience was worth it.
This is another reason I like booking Lapland DIY. You can look at each activity separately and decide what's actually worth spending money on for your family, rather than feeling like you need to do everything.
We've now tried around 20 different Lapland activities, so I've put all of them together in our 20 Lapland Activities We've Tried guide, including what we paid, what we thought and which ones we'd book again.
As much as we love Lapland, there are a few things I'd consider before booking because it won't be the perfect trip for everyone.
The cold is probably the biggest one. We've experienced Lapland at around -8°C right down to around -28°C, and it can completely change how an activity feels. At -25°C, even our short husky ride felt long enough, whereas at -8°C we could happily have stayed out for longer. Having the right clothing makes a huge difference, but you still need to be prepared for just how cold it can get.
Activities can also be expensive. If you try to book huskies, reindeer, snowmobiling, ice karting and everything else into one trip, you can easily spend more on activities than you do on your flights and accommodation. We've always picked the things we really wanted to do rather than trying to tick everything off.
The limited daylight is another thing to consider, particularly in the middle of winter. It doesn't mean you're walking around in complete darkness all day, but you won't get the long daylight hours you might be used to on other holidays.
I'd also be prepared for plans to change. Temperatures, snowfall and other weather conditions can affect activities, and seeing the Northern Lights is never guaranteed. We've booked a Northern Lights snowmobile tour and didn't see them at all, but luckily we'd chosen it because we wanted to go snowmobiling anyway.
None of these things would stop us going back, but they're definitely worth knowing about before you book.
Yes, without a doubt. We've already been three times and I still don't feel like we're finished with Lapland.
Each trip has been completely different. We've done a family trip to Levi, an adults-only trip to Rovaniemi and then a very quick birthday trip back to Rovaniemi with our teenage daughter. Even when we've returned to the same place, we've found completely different things to do.
There are activities we've done once and probably wouldn't pay to repeat, but there are others I'd happily do again. I'd also love to experience more of Finnish Lapland outside Levi and Rovaniemi at some point.
I think the fact we've chosen to return probably says more than anything else I could write about whether we think Lapland is worth it. There are so many places we want to visit and we don't have unlimited time or money for travel, so going back somewhere we've already been is quite a big deal for us.
Lapland is one of the few places I can genuinely see us returning to again and again.
For us, absolutely. After three trips, Lapland is still one of our favourite places we've visited as a family and somewhere I'd happily return to again.
I think a big part of that comes down to how we've chosen to do it. We've always booked our trips ourselves, travelled when we've found good prices and picked the activities we genuinely wanted to try. We've never felt like we needed to cram everything into one trip or spend thousands of pounds to make it special.
Our trips haven't been perfect because everything went exactly to plan. We've missed the Northern Lights, experienced temperatures down to around -28°C and discovered that some activities are worth paying more for while others are perfectly good as a shorter, cheaper experience. None of that has taken away from how much we've enjoyed being there.
For children, I think Lapland is one of those trips every family should experience at least once if they're able to. And I definitely wouldn't worry that you've missed your chance if your children are getting older. We've loved Lapland with our children at different ages, and there's so much more to it than meeting Father Christmas.
Would I spend £10,000 on a Lapland holiday? Probably not. But would I spend what we've spent on our three DIY trips all over again? Without hesitation.
• 5 Days in Levi for Under £500pp: Our Lapland Itinerary – our first family trip to Lapland, including everything we did and what the whole trip cost.
• 3 Days in Lapland: Our DIY Rovaniemi Itinerary + Costs – our adults-only trip to Rovaniemi, including our overnight stay at the Arctic SnowHotel, snow sauna and snowmobile tour.
• 2 Day Rovaniemi Itinerary: Our Winter Weekend in Lapland – our very quick birthday trip with our teenage daughter, including ice karting, huskies, the Ice Restaurant and Sauna World.
Whenever I spot great-value DIY Lapland flights and accommodation from UK airports, I share them with members of the Build a Break Travel Club. If you'd like to experience Lapland without paying package holiday prices, it's a great place to start.
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