Reindeer ride in Rovaniemi, what it costs

A team at walking pace

At Santa Claus Village, reindeer stand hitched to sleds in a line and you take a short turn. The shortest ride covers 400 metres in about 6 minutes, and a longer version covers 800 metres in about 10. Neither needs booking ahead. Both are fixed routes, so the pace stays slow, and Santa Claus Reindeer does not say how the team is led along them. Ask on the day if that matters to you.

Away from the village, a “reindeer safari” is usually a longer programme: meeting the herd first, then a sleigh ride of an hour or more through forest or open fell, often with a stop for a hot drink. Lapland Safaris runs both a daytime and an evening version of its Rovaniemi safari, each 2 hours 30 minutes and covering about 3 km by reindeer sled.

Two products, one name

At Santa Claus Village the short rides are an add-on you can do on the spot, priced from 30 EUR with no pre-booking. A “priority” version at 100 EUR fast-tracks you past the queue for the 800-metre ride. Everywhere else, a booked “reindeer safari” is built around meeting the herd before the sled ride itself, which is why it costs more and takes longer.

Who it is not for

No operator we checked publishes a minimum age for a reindeer ride, though kennels and snowmobile operators set age rules for theirs. Some rides still suit small children better than others. A reindeer team walks, so the short rides at Santa Claus Village are gentle, but a longer safari means an hour or more outdoors in a sled with no engine to keep you warm. Cold is the thing to plan around here, and our guide to what to wear covers dressing for sitting still.

What it costs

The product names in the table are ours. Several operators word their listings in the language of farming, and we do not, because reindeer are kept by herders. To match a row to an operator’s own site, search for the operator’s name and the duration.

What a herder should be able to tell you

Reindeer herding in Finland is organised into herding districts under the Reindeer Herders’ Association. It is a livelihood, not a show put on for visitors, and in the Sámi homeland it is largely a Sámi one. There are no welfare badges on this site. Ask the herder, and weigh the answer by how specific it is, as with the animal rides sold at Santa Claus Village.

• How many rides does each reindeer do in a day, and how long does it rest between them?
• Where does the herd spend the summer, when there is no snow for a sled?
• Who is the herder, and is herding their living or a job that lasts one winter?

Santa Claus Reindeer’s own site says “the reindeer are at the centre of our work, and their wellbeing comes first, always.” That names no number and no practice, so ask the next question. A useful answer is closer to a kennel telling you the exact temperature at which it cancels a tour.

Where the rides run

Reindeer rides run at Santa Claus Village, and as a booked safari from Rovaniemi, Levi and Saariselkä. Most trips have room for only one animal experience. Our guide to what Lapland costs sets a reindeer ride’s price against a husky safari’s, which is sold at the same bases.