Ice fishing in Lapland, what it costs

A hole, a short rod, and a lot of quiet

Ice fishing is one of the slowest things you can book in Lapland, and that is the reason to do it. A guide takes you to a frozen lake, shows you how to drill a hole through the ice, and teaches you the basics: a short rod, a small lure on the line, moved up and down in the water. Then you wait. Wild About Lapland’s Rovaniemi trip goes to a lake about 20 km north of the town, over the Arctic Circle, with a 5-minute walk through the forest from the car to the ice. While you fish, the guide lights a fire on the shore for snacks and hot drinks.

What you catch is up to the lake. Lapland Safaris’ Lake Inari trip names trout, perch, grayling and pike as what the catch “might just be.” Wild About Lapland cooks a fish of decent size over the fire and puts undersized ones back. On Lapland Safaris’ Rovaniemi snowmobile trip you fry your catch over a campfire; on its Lake Inari day you choose between releasing the fish and frying it.

Ice fishing in Lapland, three ways to reach the lake

The fishing is the same on every tour. What changes the price is how you get to the lake and how long you stay.

• By minibus or car, the shortest and the lowest priced. Wild About Lapland collects you from accommodation outside the city centre, and Lapland Safaris drives to a private lake about 30 minutes from Rovaniemi and adds a short snowshoe walk.
• By snowmobile, with two people sharing one machine and taking turns to drive. Lapland Safaris runs these from Rovaniemi, Levi and Saariselkä, and the Rovaniemi route follows the frozen Ounasjoki river into the hills. The rules of the snowmobile safari page apply.
• By coach to Lake Inari, a 5-hour day north of Saariselkä with a campfire lunch, for people who want a longer day.

Every trip we checked includes warm outer clothing. Wild About Lapland lends winter overalls and boots and says “it can be very cold on the lake”; Lapland Safaris includes a thermal outfit on all of its fishing trips. Bring your own base layers underneath, because you sit still for most of the trip.

Who it is not for

Minimum ages differ by operator and by trip. Wild About Lapland takes children aged 4 or older. Lapland Safaris lists its Rovaniemi minibus trip as suitable for children over 2, and its Levi snowmobile trip and Lake Inari day for children over 4. On the snowmobile trips a child rides in a sled pulled by the guide’s snowmobile at the child price, a child over 140 cm can sit behind an adult at the adult price, and the driver must be at least 18 with a driving licence valid in Finland. Lapland Safaris also states that its snowmobile programmes are not suitable for pregnant women.

Wild About Lapland says its trip is not recommended for anyone with heart complaints or other serious medical conditions, and that it may require some endurance.

Weather changes the plan. On its snowmobile trips, Lapland Safaris reserves the right to refuse small children when weather or trail conditions are demanding. Cancelling is costly on both operators’ terms: Lapland Safaris keeps the full price if you cancel 71 hours or less before departure, and Wild About Lapland charges 100% inside 24 hours and 50% inside 7 days. A spare day in the plan gives a cancelled trip somewhere to go.

What a guided ice fishing trip costs

At Lapland Safaris in Rovaniemi the snowmobile version costs from 208 EUR against 124 EUR by minibus, for the same four hours. If the fishing is what you want, the minibus or car trip costs less; if you also want to drive a snowmobile, the combined trip saves booking two. Lapland Safaris sells a solo snowmobile for a 50 EUR supplement and a 20 EUR waiver that reduces the driver’s liability for damage from 980 EUR to 150 EUR.

Do you need a permit to ice fish in Finland

Not usually. Eräluvat, Metsähallitus’ permit service, lists ice fishing as a general fishing right that “does not require a fishing permit,” defined as fishing with a short rod and a jig moved up and down on a line. Vesi.fi, a Finnish water information site, puts it more simply: angling and ice fishing are free of charge for everyone.

Three limits are worth knowing:

• The right does not apply in rapids and running waters with migratory fish, or where fishing is restricted on other grounds. Eräluvat points to the Kalastusrajoitus.fi map service to check a lake, and says several Metsähallitus angling permit areas need a permit for ice fishing too.
• It covers one rod. Anyone aged 18 to 69 fishing with two or more rods must pay the fisheries management fee and get the water owner’s permission. For 2026 the fee is 47 EUR for a year, 16 EUR for a week or 6 EUR for a day.
• Lure fishing, as opposed to ice fishing with a jig, needs the fee from 18 to 69.

On a guided trip the operator chooses the lake and supplies the gear. We could not find a statement on either operator’s pages about permits for their lakes, so ask if it matters to you, and check the map service before you fish anywhere on your own.

How thick the ice has to be

Suomen Uimaopetus- ja Hengenpelastusliitto (SUH), the Finnish swimming instruction and lifesaving federation, says an adult needs at least 5 cm of clear, hard ice, preferably 10 cm, and a snowmobile at least 15 cm. Grey, brittle snow ice carries only about half as much as clear ice. In spring it warns that thickness stops being a guide at all: once the snow has melted off, sunshine weakens the ice from above, and ice several tens of centimetres thick can give way.

That is one reason to go with a guide the first time: the operator picks the lake. Lapland Safaris’ fishing trips all appear in its listings for November 2026 to March 2027. If you go out on the ice on your own later in the trip, SUH’s first rule is to take someone with you.

Adding it to a Santa trip, and where else it runs

Ice fishing fits well into a family trip to Rovaniemi because the shortest trips take half a day and need no licence. A morning on the ice, an afternoon at Santa Claus Village and a sauna in the evening is a full, unhurried day. Our Christmas trips and family trips pages cover what else to book around it.

Beyond Rovaniemi, the trips we checked run from Levi and Saariselkä, where the Lake Inari day starts. For the layers under the operator’s thermal outfit, see what to wear, and for what a winter week in Lapland costs in total, see our guide to what Lapland costs.