Lapland in March

Deep snow and a long day at the same time

March is the other month we recommend, and the easier of the two to enjoy. By 15 March the sun is above the horizon for about 11 hours 39 minutes in Rovaniemi and about 11 hours 36 minutes in Inari. Three minutes separate the south of Lapland from the far north, and the gap all but closes as the days lengthen. The snow is at or near its deepest of the season; the Finnish Meteorological Institute says snow cover across eastern and northern Finland is typically deepest around mid-March, at 60 to 90 cm. The Institute also lists March, with February, among the best months of the year to see the aurora.

March earns its place with a combination: nearly as much daylight as an early autumn day, full winter snow on the ground, and nights still dark enough for watching the sky. It does not last. April opens the days wider and ends the aurora season as it goes, while January has the darkness with little light to use, which leaves March and February.

Between the two, March is lighter, milder and cheaper, and February is darker. Choose by what you came for: time outside in the daytime, or late nights under the sky.

March, station by station

The table uses two stations, one at each end of Lapland: Rovaniemi airport in the south, and Ivalo airport in Inari for the north. Sun times are calculated for March 2026 in Finnish time, using the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s definition of sunrise. Temperatures are the Institute’s means for 1991 to 2020, and snow depths its medians for the same years.

Between the 15th and the end of the month the median snow depth hardly changes, and at both stations it slips a little. By March, new snowfall and the first melt are close to cancelling each other out.

The Northern Lights, with less night to watch in

No month can promise you an aurora. It needs a dark sky, a clear sky and enough geomagnetic activity at the same moment, and the calendar only affects the first two. March does well on both. The Finnish Meteorological Institute names March and February, along with September and October, as the best months of the year for viewing, and says auroras occur slightly more often around spring and autumn than in midwinter. The heavy cloud of late autumn and early winter has usually cleared by March.

What you lose is night. Rovaniemi gains about an hour and three quarters of sun between 1 and 15 March, all of it taken from the dark. The Institute gives about 21:00 to 01:00 local time as the likeliest hours, and in March that stretch is still fully dark, so aim for it. Plan on several nights, since cloud comes and goes on no schedule you can book around. On the day, set the Institute’s aurora and space weather service beside the cloud forecast. Our Northern Lights guide explains how displays form and how many nights make a fair attempt.

Milder air over the deepest snow

An average March day at Rovaniemi airport runs from -9.1 °C to -1.9 °C. That is milder than January or February, though hardly mild, and the low drops below -10 °C on 13 nights, against 18 to 20 in midwinter. Inari is colder at -12.3 °C to -2.2 °C, with 16 nights below -10 °C. Hard frosts still come: Rovaniemi airport has recorded -23.3 °C in March (2001), and Ivalo airport -37.0 °C (1998).

On 15 March the median snow depth is 77 cm at Rovaniemi airport and 61 cm at Ivalo airport, the deepest of an ordinary winter, which fits the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s statement that snow cover in eastern and northern Finland is typically deepest around mid-March, at 60 to 90 cm. These are medians for 1991 to 2020, and a given March can sit well above or below them.

Busy, but off February’s peak

March is quieter than February and still expensive by Finnish standards. Statistics Finland’s revised table 11ix puts the average Lapland hotel room at 231 EUR in March 2026, against a national average of 133 EUR, with a national occupancy rate of 53 per cent. Lapland recorded 0.44 million overnight stays, one per cent more than a year earlier and the second-highest monthly total of any region after Uusimaa.

By March the resorts are in full spring-skiing mode, and Levi’s season, which opens on 2 October 2026, runs through the month and beyond. The longer days help. You can take an afternoon on skis, or a husky or snowmobile trip, later in the day than midwinter allows, and many visitors come for the activities as much as for the sky.

What to sort out, in what order

We found no official source that gives a number of months to book ahead, so here is an order instead.

1. Accommodation. Book it sooner if your dates fall in the first half of the month, which still catches school holiday weeks in parts of Europe and some of February’s rush.
2. Flights. Direct UK winter routes to Kittilä and Rovaniemi run on fixed days of the week, listed in flights to Lapland.
3. Activities, once your base is settled. With March daylight you can move a husky, reindeer or snowmobile trip into the afternoon. The resorts are covered in skiing in Lapland.

For the whole budget, room included, see what Lapland really costs.

On price alone, the step down from February is small, because the two months run close together. For a clearly lower band you would have to move to April, where the aurora season closes as the nights get lighter.