Editorial policy

Where facts come from

We take facts from the people who run the thing: operators, transport companies, park agencies, meteorological services and Sámi institutions. Where a fact matters to your plans, we look for a second source that agrees. When two sources disagree, the page tells you, and does not quietly pick one.

Dates on anything that changes

Prices, opening hours, timetables and daylight figures change, so any page that gives one also gives the date we last checked it. If there is no current figure to be found, the page says so and leaves the old one out.

What we will not write

• A guarantee that you will see the Northern Lights. We explain what they need, and what raises your chances.
• That an activity carries no risk, or that an operator treats its animals well. You get the questions to ask.
• An unconfirmed fact dressed up as a confirmed one. The page marks what is unconfirmed.

Places we name

A place, operator or stay is named only when independent sources agree it is open and operating, and the page shows the rule it passed. Being named, or described more kindly, is never paid for.

Anything paid

Recommendations are not for sale. If a placement is ever paid for, it is labelled sponsored where you see it, and its links are marked as sponsored. How we are paid sets it out.

Photographs

Every photograph is used under a licence that allows it, credited on the page that shows it, and recorded with how we checked that it shows the place and month it claims. Most have their colour adjusted, with less saturation, a little less brightness and warmer shadows, so the photographs on a page sit together. We never add, remove or move anything in a frame, and an adjusted photograph says so in its credit. We do not publish photographs of identifiable people.

Corrections

When a page is wrong, we correct it and date the change.

Source: This page. Checked 24 September 2026.

Questions our research left open

Some things a trip planner would want to know are not published anywhere this site can cite. When a page meets one, it says so and leaves the number out. The list below gathers those gaps from the research behind each page, as they stood on 25 September 2026, each linked to the page where it matters.

The sky and the weather

• A count of nights clear of cloud, by month, for Rovaniemi or anywhere in Finnish Lapland. No Finnish Meteorological Institute page publishes one, which is why the Northern Lights guide puts no percentage on a trip.
• An official comparison of clear skies on the Norwegian coast and inland Finnish Lapland. The figures in circulation come from blogs that cite nothing (Finland or Norway for the Northern Lights).
• The Kp value at which the aurora shows over a named Finnish place. No FMI or NOAA page opened for the research gives one (reading an aurora forecast).
• Snow-depth normals for Swedish Lapland: SMHI’s 1991 to 2020 normals cover temperature and precipitation only (Abisko).
• Abisko’s polar night dates, because the sun calculator the Finnish pages use has no entry for Abisko.
• A 1991 to 2020 temperature normal for a station at Levi, which the FMI report does not carry (when to go to Levi).

Prices

• Nightly rates at several glass-roof resorts that price only through a booking calendar (glass igloos).
• What the Arctic Circle crossing certificate costs. Neither the tourist desk’s site nor the village’s page shows a price (Santa Claus Village).
• A room rate in SEK at the Icehotel, or a price for the Aurora Sky Station’s night visit; both sell through booking systems (Kiruna).
• Room prices week by week in December. Statistics Finland publishes monthly averages, so the weeks before Christmas cannot be set against the days after (Lapland in December).
• How far ahead to book. Only companies selling trips put a number on it, and none cites a source (Lapland in January).
• Rovaniemi’s single city-bus fare, published only as a picture of a fare table (Lapland on a budget).
• This winter’s fare and timetable for the Rovaniemi Airport Express. On 25 September 2026 its site linked only the summer timetable (Lapland’s airports).

Rules and ages

• A legal minimum age for husky sledding in Finland. No government source turned up, so the ages given are each kennel’s own (husky safaris).
• The licence and age the law requires to drive a snowmobile. Traficom’s site yielded no page that states it, and the page quotes the operators’ terms instead (snowmobile safaris).
• Any minimum age for a reindeer sleigh ride: none of the operators checked publishes one (reindeer sleigh rides).
• Whether entry to Finland’s national parks is free. Metsähallitus says its hiking services are free, and none of its pages opened states that entry itself is (Lapland on a budget).

Places and getting there

• The current timetable of bus 91 along the E10 through Abisko; the regional operator’s line page could not be read (Abisko).
• Which UK routes fly to Tromsø in winter 2026 to 2027. Avinor’s route list is built in the browser and returned nothing readable (flights to Tromsø).
• Whether Kiruna church is open to visitors this winter. The municipality gives no reopening date (Kiruna).
• The size of Oulanka National Park. Two sources disagree, 270 or 290 km², and the park authority’s own site could not be read (Ruka).
• How far the older Arctic Circle markers elsewhere in Finland now sit from the true line (the Arctic Circle).
• A register of Sámi-owned or Sámi-endorsed tour operators. None was found, and the page sends you to the Sámi Parliament’s own guidance (the Sámi people).