Saariselkä is one of the northernmost and wildest destinations in tourist Finland: a small mountain resort set at the entrance to the vast Urho Kekkonen National Park, deep in Lapland and far above the Arctic Circle. Here, among bare fells and forests of stunted pines, you experience Arctic nature in an almost pure state. The village works as a base for skiing, hiking, husky and reindeer safaris and, above all, hunting for the northern lights, which are especially frequent at this extreme latitude.
Very close by, at Kakslauttanen, are some of the most famous glass igloos in the world: domes with transparent roofs designed for watching the northern lights and the starry sky from your bed, without going out into the cold. Saariselkä thus combines the most pristine nature, with trails leading into one of Europe's largest wilderness areas, with the dreamlike Arctic experiences that draw travellers from all over the planet.
This guide takes a practical look at Saariselkä: how to reach this far-northern outpost, what to do in each season, what activities and accommodation cost, how to get around and how to make the most of Urho Kekkonen National Park. One key point right away: the northern lights are NOT guaranteed, although the chances here are among the best in the country, so it's worth allowing several nights. Another: in high season you need to book everything well in advance.
The Saariselkä region, in the municipality of Inari, is part of the historic territory of the Sámi, the Indigenous people of northern Scandinavia, who for millennia have herded reindeer, hunted and fished in the Arctic. The area also holds memories of the Lapland gold rush: in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gold prospectors came to the rivers around Lemmenjoki and Tankavaara, near here. The tourist village of Saariselkä developed in the second half of the 20th century, when Finland began tapping the potential of its northern fells for skiing and nature tourism. The great Urho Kekkonen National Park, one of the largest in the country, was created in 1983 and is named after the famous Finnish president. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The great north of reindeer, northern lights and midnight sun: the land of the Sami people, the Lapland razed in 1944 and reborn, and the cities of the Baltic coast.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The history of Saariselkä begins, like that of the whole far north, with the Sámi, the Indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. The region is part of the municipality of Inari, one of the heartlands of Sámi culture in Finland. Its territory of bare fjelds, boreal forests, rivers and peat bogs stretches towards the Russian border. The Sámi lived on this land and travelled across it for thousands of years, long before there were borders, roads or tourist villages.
The Sámi of this area developed a culture deeply adapted to the Arctic. Life revolved around breeding and herding reindeer, which they followed across vast distances between winter and summer pastures. They also fished in the countless lakes and rivers, and they hunted. Their bond with nature, their languages (several Sámi languages are spoken side by side in the Inari region), their beliefs and their traditions are part of one of the oldest Indigenous cultures in Europe, with an especially close connection to the land and its animals.
In that vast and extremely harsh landscape, survival depended on knowledge built up over generations. People had to read the weather, find the pastures and cross the rivers. They had to endure the darkness and cold of endless winters and make the most of the never-ending summer light. For centuries, the fjelds that now surround Saariselkä, and that make up Urho Kekkonen National Park, were Sámi grazing land and home. Understanding this heritage is essential to approaching the region with respect. Beneath the tourist village and the visitor activities lies a living culture, far older, that is still present in the municipality of Inari.
One of the most unusual chapters in this region's history is the Finnish Lapland gold rush. It is little known outside Finland but still very much alive in the memory of the north. From the second half of the 19th century, and especially after gold was found in the local rivers, prospectors arrived at the edge of the Arctic hoping to get rich by panning the gold-bearing sands. It was a small-scale Nordic version of the great gold rushes of California and the Klondike.
The first major hotspot was the Ivalojoki river. In 1868 a real rush broke out there, drawing hundreds of adventurers to a remote spot with no roads, brutal winters and mosquito-plagued summers. They lived in very harsh conditions in makeshift cabins, washing river gravel with pans and sluices in search of tiny flakes and, with luck, the odd nugget. Over time the search spread to other river basins, such as the Lemmenjoki. It became one of the most important gold areas, and small-scale gold prospecting still goes on there today.
The memory of that saga lives on near Saariselkä, in Tankavaara. This is home to the Gold Museum (Kultamuseo), Finland's national gold museum. It tells the story of the prospectors, their techniques and their life in the Arctic, and visitors can try gold panning for themselves. The gold rush never made anyone a millionaire on a grand scale, but it left a romantic, adventurous mark on Lapland's identity. It is the story of the men who came to seek their fortune at the end of the world, and of the handful of enthusiasts who still pan the northern rivers today, chasing that golden glint.
Like all of Lapland, the area around today's Saariselkä was marked by the end of the Second World War. After Finland's armistice with the Soviet Union in September 1944, the country had to expel the German troops stationed in the north, who until then had been its allies. In the Lapland War (1944-1945), the German army retreated towards Norway and followed a scorched-earth policy. It devastated villages, farms and infrastructure across the north and left the ground strewn with mines. The civilian population, including the Sámi, had been evacuated en masse, and many came back to a flattened landscape.
Post-war reconstruction was an immense task, and it brought a profound transformation to Finland's far north. Over the following decades, the state invested in roads, infrastructure and development to bring Lapland into modern Finland. A key step was building and upgrading the great Arctic highway, today's E75. It crosses the region from south to north and passes close to Saariselkä on its way to Ivalo and the Norwegian border. The road opened these remote lands up to the rest of the country and to the world.
That opening laid the foundations for what came next. For centuries the territory had lived almost entirely from reindeer herding, fishing, hunting and, for a while, gold prospecting. Now it was becoming accessible to travellers and mountaineers, and in time to tourism. With their wild nature and reliable snow, the fjelds of Saariselkä began to attract the first hikers and skiers looking for the beauty and challenge of the Arctic. The seed of the future resort had been planted.
Saariselkä's growth as a tourist destination is closely tied to protecting the nature around it. In 1983 Urho Kekkonen National Park (Urho Kekkosen kansallispuisto) was created, one of the largest in Finland. It protects thousands of square kilometres of fjelds, forests and rivers in the vast wilderness that stretches east to the Russian border. The park is named after Urho Kekkonen (1900-1986), the most influential Finnish politician of the 20th century. He was the country's president for a quarter of a century (from 1956 to 1982) and a keen lover of nature and outdoor sport.
Creating the park protected the natural heart of the region and, at the same time, made it a magnet for nature tourism. Saariselkä, right at the park's doorstep, grew into its base village. Hotels and cabins went up, along with a ski resort on the slopes of the fjelds and everything needed to welcome hikers in summer and skiers in winter. Saariselkä has a unique advantage: the trails of the great wilderness park start right in the village, so the most pristine nature is within easy reach.
Over time, as in the rest of tourist Lapland, the range of activities grew well beyond skiing and hiking. Husky and reindeer safaris arrived, along with snowmobiles, Northern Lights hunting and, above all, glass igloos. A few kilometres away, in Kakslauttanen, these glass domes became popular because they let you watch the aurora from your bed, and they made Saariselkä famous around the world. The village established itself as one of Finland's great Arctic tourism destinations, combining protected wilderness with the dreamlike experiences of the north.
Today's Saariselkä is one of the northernmost and most complete destinations in Finnish Arctic tourism. It is a small resort that combines Finland's wildest nature with the great experiences of the far north. At the gateway to the vast Urho Kekkonen National Park, it offers first-class hiking in summer and autumn, and downhill and cross-country skiing in winter. It also has everything from the Lapland of your dreams: Northern Lights that appear especially often thanks to its extreme latitude, husky and reindeer safaris, snowmobiles, saunas and the famous nights in a glass igloo.
Its great strength is the balance between wild and accessible. On one hand, Saariselkä sits in a remote corner with dark skies, pristine nature and a very low population density, which makes it ideal for the aurora and for Arctic silence. On the other, it has the infrastructure of a modern resort, and Ivalo airport is fairly close, so it is easy to visit. That combination of extreme nature and comfort is what draws people here.
Behind the tourist postcard, the region keeps its deeper layers. It is Sámi land, in the municipality of Inari, the heart of the north's Indigenous culture. It keeps the memory of the gold rush, which you can relive at Tankavaara. And it still bears the mark of the Lapland War and of the post-war opening of the far north. Saariselkä invites you to experience the Arctic at its purest: walking the fjelds, sleeping under the aurora, feeling the cold and the vastness. But this landscape, sold today as a dream experience, has been home to the Sámi and their reindeer for thousands of years, and it still is. Today's challenge is to enjoy and protect this remote place at the same time, respecting both its nature and its culture.
