LAPLAND ACTIVE ADVENTURE 6 DAYS,KIRUNA TO KIRUNA

DAY 1 KIRUNA Arrive in Kiruna at any time. Your tour starts from your hotel in Kiruna, and if you arrive early there will be time to freshen up, before a brief welcome meeting. There’s no time to waste as you head out into the cold for your first activity, a close up encounter with some of the local inhabitants, the moose.

Head out from Kiruna to the moose park in Vittangi, and get up close and personal with some of these noble creatures. Learn about these animals in their natural habitiat before returning to Kiruna for the evening and some dinner.

DAY 2 DOG SLEDDING & ICE FISHING After breakfast, its time to meet your team of dogs, your personal transport for the next few days. You are kitted out with cold weather clothing and given a full safety briefing before you get started. We recommend that you familiarise yourself as much as you can with your dogs before you get started. You don’t want them running away from you! Once you are acquainted with your team of dogs, and they recognise your voice, its time to get going. There’s nothing these dogs like more than running over the snow. Once the leader of the pack gets going, then it’s a race for the rest of them to see if they can catch them up. You stop for lunch on the trail before arriving at your lodge accommodation for the night. 

Your first priority once you’ve stopped is to care for your dogs. They’ve put in a lot of hard work, so it’s only fair that you feed them and make sure they are warm. After this, time to try a local skill, ice fishing. Tonight, you drill the ice holes, feed them and mark them before insulating them. You’ll return to these in the morning to inspect your catch. The rest of the evening is free for dinner and the option for a sauna.

DAY 3 FULL DAY DOG SLEDDING An early start this morning, as you go to inspect your ice fishing holes to see what you have caught. Now that you are awake yourself, its time to rouse your dogs before your day’s sledding. You have a lot of ground to cover today, as you cover up to 40km out on the trails. At times, all you will hear is the panting of the dogs and the whoosh of your sled as you fly over the snow. It’s a great way to see the scenery as it unfolds around you. This unique landscape is cloaked in darkness for much of the winter, and it can be that the sun does not rise for months in this snowy wilderness. 
This evening there is a twist to your accommodation, when we stay in a tepee out in the snow. Stop here for dinner, and then bed down for the night.

DAY 4 SNOWSHOEING & NORTHERN LIGHTS Waking up refreshed, we head out for a short trip with the dogs this morning. The wind on our faces is a good way to shake off any lethargy. Returning to the lodge, we have time to try snowshoeing this afternoon. Developed as the easiest way to get across the snow thousands of years ago, snowshoeing has developed in these Arctic regions. It’s said that if you can walk, then you should have no trouble snowshoeing, so we can put that theory to the test this afternoon. The excitement continues after dinner, when we harness our dogs again, and go off in search of the famous Aurora Borealis, more commonly known as the Northern Lights.

The Aurora is caused by charged electrons from the solar wind meeting the elements in the earth’s atmosphere. The science behind it is simple to explain, but its just as likely that you would want to just sit back and enjoy this incredible natural phenomenon lighting up the sky.

DAY 5 SAMI CULTURE & ICEHOTEL This morning, we sadly say goodbye to our new canine friends. Having been with us for the last few days, they now have a much-deserved rest as we head off in a different direction. We stop at the Sami village to learn more about the indigenous people who live in this region, their culture and their history. There’s also time to meet yet more furry friends, as we can take a short reindeer safari through the snow. We arrive at the majestic Icehotel early in the afternoon, when the rest of the day is free to choose what to do. One option could be to head out on a snowmobiling tour, where there might be another chance to see the Northern Lights, or you could happily wander around the spectacular ice structure.

DAY 6 KIRUNA Transfer to Kiruna airport in the morning, where the trip ends.

TRAVEL VISAS:

Contact your local embassy or consulate for the most up-to-date visa requirements, or see your travel agent. It is your responsibility to have the correct travel documentation. While we provide the following information in good faith, it is vital that you check yourself and understand that you are fully responsible for your own visa requirements.

All visitors to the EU (European Union) and EEC (European Economic Community) countries require a valid passport (with a minimum 6 months validity). USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand passport holders do not need a visa to visit the Schengen area (see below), however they may not stay longer than three months in any 6-month period.

For other nationalities, travelling in Europe has been simplified with the introduction of the Schengen visa. As a visitor to the Schengen area (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Finland, Italy, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland) you will enjoy the many advantages of this unified visa system. Generally speaking with a Schengen visa, you may enter one Schengen country and travel freely throughout the Schengen region during the validity of your visa. There are limited border controls at Schengen borders, if any at all.

Please note that the UK and Ireland are NOT part of the Schengen agreement.
A Schengen visa is applied for at the Embassy or Consulate of the Schengen country in which you will be spending the most nights on your trip to the Schengen space. If you are only visiting one country on your trip then you apply for your visa at the Consulate of this Schengen country.