Husky sledding in Lapland, what it costs

The kennel comes before the trail

A husky safari starts at the kennel. Before anything moves there is a short talk about the dogs, a look at where they live, and time to meet the team that will be clipped into the line to pull. Bearhill Husky, a kennel near Rovaniemi, runs its shortest guided ride as 2 hours 15 minutes in total, of which the sled itself covers about 5 km. Longer tours from kennels in Levi and Saariselkä cover 15 to 20 km and take up to 5 hours, kennel visit included.

On a guided passenger tour you sit in the sled while a musher drives. Bearhill Husky’s shortest tour includes a hot drink and biscuits partway through, and every tour ends with an “informative talk about huskies” back at the kennel. The guide does the physical work on a passenger ride, so dress for standing and sitting still in the cold.

Passenger ride or self-driven sled

Two different products are sold as a husky safari. On a passenger tour a guide drives and you ride in the sled, sometimes taking turns with a companion, and Bearhill Husky fits a maximum of 4 adults per sled or cart on that tour. On a self-driven tour you stand on the runners and drive your own small team behind a guide. Bearhill Husky’s self-driven Happy Trail Tour needs a driver aged 17 or over and fits a maximum of 2 adults and 2 children per sled, and 45 minutes of the 2 hour 30 minute programme is time on the runners.

Anyone under 17, or anyone who would rather not drive, takes the passenger option instead. Both kinds accept children from age 4, and Bearhill Husky frames that limit around driving rather than riding, so ask it directly about a younger child.

Who it is not for

Lapland Safaris’ booking terms state plainly that “children under 2 years are not suitable to take part on snowmobile and husky safaris,” wherever in Lapland you book. Above that age, the limit is about driving. Nobody under 17 can take the handlebar of a self-driven sled.

Extreme cold changes the plan more than age does. Bearhill Husky says it recommends its tours “only for ‘diehards’” below -30C, and cancels below -35C “as it does not benefit our dogs or our guests to travel then.” If your dates fall in the coldest weeks of January or February, build in a spare day so a cancelled tour has somewhere to move.

What it costs

A longer, self-driven tour costs roughly double a short passenger ride.

No listing we opened says whether a child’s price buys a place of their own or a seat shared with an adult. Ask when you book.

Whose land the trails cross

Dog teams are not a Sámi tradition: herding is, and the two share the same country. Several kennels run on or beside land used for reindeer herding, and a team crossing a herding area at the wrong moment is a real problem for the herder, not a picturesque one. Operators who work with the herding cooperatives usually say so on their own pages. Who the Sámi are covers the homeland this happens in.

Four questions for the kennel

We do not rate kennels on animal welfare and we never will, because a badge would be a guess dressed as a fact. What you can do is ask, and judge the answer by how specific it is. The same approach covers the animal rides sold at Santa Claus Village.

• How many runs does each dog do in a day, and how long do they rest between them?
• Where do the dogs live in summer, when there is no snow to run on?
• What happens to a dog once it stops working?
• Below what temperature does the kennel shorten or cancel a tour?

A good answer sounds like Bearhill Husky’s cold-weather policy: a stated number and a stated line it will not cross. Lapland Safaris’ own booking terms say only that its animals “are trained as far as it is possible for the activity,” which does not answer any of the four questions above. Ask the kennel directly before you book, not only on the day.

Which base puts you closest

Kennels run husky safaris from all four of Lapland’s main bases: Rovaniemi, Levi, Saariselkä and Ylläs. A short ride at Santa Claus Village is the easiest to add to a day that already includes Santa. If the whole trip is being built around one morning behind a dog team, our guide to what Lapland costs sets its price against everything else you might book, and what to wear covers dressing for an hour or more of sitting still in the cold.