If you’ve ever thought about visiting Lapland, you’ve probably pictured mountains of snow, herds of reindeer, tonnes of layers and a visit to Santa. But what if I told you that visiting during the summer months was just as magical? I wouldn’t be offended if you didn’t believe me, as someone who has had the absolute privilege of visiting Finnish Lapland every winter for the past 20 years, I too had never considered venturing above the Arctic Circle in the summer. After all, what would I do if I couldn’t snowboard? Surely a summer spent in an isolated log cabin, in the tiny village of Akaslompolo would be boring…
I was wrong. So very wrong.
So let me take you on a little journey 200 km above the Arctic Circle…
In June of this year (2024) my husband and I decided to spend 2 months in Lapland. For a little backstory, my dad owns a cabin in Äkäslompolo, he bought it around 2007ish so we’ve had lots of cabin fun over the years. And the cabin sits empty throughout the summer so my dad very kindly said Joe and I could spend as long as we liked there. Let me tell you now, it was a life-changing trip, and here’s why…
Midnight Sun
First things first, Lapland is the land of the Midnight Sun (no, it’s not filled with vampires from Stephanie Myers imagination) - for about 3 months of the year the sun does not set, every night is bright and beautiful. As a couple from the gloomy UK, it was a bit of a shock and took some time to get used to, but by the end of our trip we didn’t even notice it. In fact we came to love the endless sunshine, there's something so otherwordly about being wide awake at 2am with the sun shining.
Travel tip: before going, check that your accommodation has blackout curtains. My dad’s cabin does not, which meant we had to take some really great eye masks with us.
Photos don’t really do this natural phenomena justice, but I’ll drop one here so you can get the idea…
Hiking
Lapland has made a hiker out of us…honestly, if you’d have told my husband and I last year that we would be hiking mountains and going on 3+ hour long walks we would have laughed. But after only a week surrounded by nature parks and trails we were pushing our bodies to the limit.
It was worth every step.
There’s so many routes to hike or cycle in Äkäslompolo and beyond - Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park is Finland's third largest national park, covering 1020 square km. We hiked a whole bunch of trails (I’ll put my favourites below), and we saw so many beautiful scenes. The trees, the rivers, the waterfalls, the lakes, the marshlands and the mountains were all like something from a movie. I couldn’t (and still can’t) believe that some people were just lucky enough to live with all of that on their doorstep.
Travel tip: download the Komoot App to find routes and to track the ones you do - it’ll keep you safe and en route as well!
Routes I highly recommend:
Kesänki Hike - time taken: 2 hrs 40 mins, distance: 11.2 km. This is a challenging but stunning hike to the top of Kesänki mountain, walking through the forest on the way down.
The Waterfall Hike - time taken: 1 hr 29 mins, distance: 7.32 km. This is a relatively easy hike that starts just behind the Kellokas Visitor Centre. The walk takes you along a lovely duckboard path through the forest, following alongside the river.
Ylläs Mountain Hike - time taken: 2 hrs 57 mins, distance: 15.5 km. My absolute favourite walk, you start at the Kellokas Visitor Centre and hike (a little challenging) to the top of Ylläs Ski Mountain. Once at the top you're rewarded with a beautiful view across Äkäslompolo and the mountains in the distance.
The hike across the mountain and down the other side is relatively easy and so much fun. We stopped for a basket of chicken and fries at the base and planned to get the gondola back up to walk back home, however a storm rolled in and the gondola closed which meant we had to walk all the way back up. It poured with rain and ended up being my favourite memory of the whole trip!
Kesänkijärvi Hike - An easy hike around a stunning lake and through the forest. This is a great hike for beginners - there’s a little cafe halfway around where you can sit and enjoy the incredible surroundings.
I could honestly go on and on and on, but no one wants to read an essay about hikes I enjoyed!
Reindeer
If you’re an animal lover then you will absolutely love Lapland during the summer. I have never seen so many wild reindeer in my life, including during my winter visits. The summer landscape was their playground, there were herds galore and solitary reindeer on every road and in every forest we visited. The locals were obviously very unbothered by them, but it honestly made my day every single time I saw one.
I took way too many photos to insert them here, but I did create a video round-up - enjoy!
Community
Perhaps one of my favourite things about visiting Lapland is how kind and lovely the people are. They’re so welcoming and they loved learning all about my husband and I, almost as much as we loved learning about them.
We spent most nights and weekends in the only pub in the village, Selvä Pyy, and we made so many lovely friends who made our 2 months in the village feel like home. Together we celebrated Midsummer Solstice, went to the local karaoke bar and partook in some traditional Finnish singing and dancing, and listened to live music at the pizza restaurant.
We even ended up getting friends and family discounts on all food and drinks - a win, win.
Ylläs Outdoor Week
Don’t worry this blog post is almost over…I could go on and on and on recounting stories and suggesting things for you to do, but I won’t. Instead I’ll leave you with one final event that was a highlight of our trip - Ylläs Outdoor Week.
As the name suggests, it’s a whole week in Ylläs dedicated to outdoor activities. You can do yoga on top of mountains, cycle from one mountain range to another, canoe from lake to lake and so much more. But the most fun part of Ylläs Outdoor Week (at least for those of us not taking part in sports) is the day of the marathon.
Everyone in the village heads to the pub where there’s an outdoor music festival, food trucks, games and a local market. Everyone waits for the runners to return and when they do there’s loud cheers and the ringing of reindeer bells. It’s such a fun day and even though we couldn’t understand a word of what was being said (our new local friends translated some for us), we still had the best day!
Anyway, that’s all for now,
B x
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