Visiting Swedish Lapland in Winter 2025
Sweden's Lapland is a winter wonderland of majestic beauty and tranquillity.
Our staff will respond to your query promptly and provide detailed information to your questions.
6 days - Independent Aurora tour through Swedish Lapland staying at the Treehotel and ICEHOTEL
Stay at two of Scandinavia’s most iconic and celebrated hotels – the ICEHOTEL and Treehotel – on a memorable tour of Swedish Lapland, including a scenic train ride from Kiruna to Luleå and a fabulous choice of winter activities. This trip has been designed to serve you the highlights of Aurora watching in far northern Sweden, coupled with staying at some of the most amazing accommodation you will ever encounter.
Read about the highlights of ICEHOTEL here. For several other Northern Lights holidays read here.
As a Certified B Corporation, 50 Degrees North has designed this tour using handpicked local hoteliers and suppliers who share our ethos of delivering services and activities of high social and environmental standards.
The CO2-e per person per day of all tours is carefully measured following each season. We fully offset all emissions of our tours on your behalf, and we constantly look at ways to reduce emissions where possible.
Private transfers, local train and local transport.
On arrival in Kiruna you will be brought to Jukkasjärvi, and your accommodation at the ICEHOTEL. Wander around the ICEHOTEL - check out all the different art suites. Choose between two restaurants - the ICE Restaurant with an "Ice Menu" or the Old Homestead with a more traditional feel.
In the evening you can enjoy a drink in the uber-cool icebar before settling into your snow room at the ICEHOTEL. Dinner is also included this evening.
Inside ICEHOTEL, the temperature is never colder than -5 °C to -8 °C, regardless of how cold it may be outside. Dress in warm thermal underwear, put on a hat and slip into the cozy sleeping bag. You are awakened in the morning with a cup of hot lingonberry juice at your bedside. Breakfast buffet, guided tour of the hotel, storage locker, WiFi, morning sauna and towels are included in your stay.
This morning, explore the magical world of ice sculpting for yourself with an introductory class. Working with your hands completely absorbs you. It's relaxing and intense at once. The guide begins the class by giving you some background about working with ice, and an introduction to the tools.
Each sculptor apprentice is then given a block and chisel and off you go!
In the early afternoon, head outside for a Dogsledding adventure. Touring with a dog and sled through the pristine forest and over frozen rivers provides a dream-like feeling. You’re side by side with nature and we promise you an unforgettable experience. The tour begins at ICEHOTEL where your guide will provide you with warm clothing, gloves and hat. After that a safety briefing and instructions and then it’s time to go! After an hour of sledding, we’ll pause to enjoy a warm drink in the beautiful wilderness before returning to ICEHOTEL. If you would like to mush your own sled, please let us know as this can be possible.
You will be sleeping in a warm room this evening.
Train journey this morning to Luleå and transfer to Treehotel. Treehotel is located in Harads, near the Lule river. There is a small village of about 600 people close by to wander through. When you arrive at Treehotel, you check in at Britta's Pensionat. Then it's just a short stroll (5 mins) through the beautiful nature to your treeroom. You can either carry your luggage or it can be transported.Once you have settled in, head to the small TreeSauna for a 2 hour steam session.
From your Treehotel's room you get a fantastic view of the Lule River valley, miles of forest and the powerful river. And don't forget that the Treehotel location above the Arctic Circle, away from artificial light makes the camp a perfect spot for watching the Aurora Borealis.
After breakfast, drive to visit the Forest Sami Eriksson family in Flakaberg, a journey which indulges all of the senses. Lars, who is a great storyteller, will tell you about Sami culture, his childhood, youth and his life as a reindeer herder in the forestland of Swedish Lapland. You will get to meet the reindeer that wander the farm, try pot-boiled coffee by the campfire and be treated to a tasty lunch prepared by Lars’ wife, Anette. The tour also includes a visit to the Arctic Circle.
After breakfast, head off on a 2 hour snowmobile safari. This favourite winter-past time of the locals has you snowmobiling through snow-covered forests. The tour goes to some beautiful places with great views as you enjoy the tranquillity of the forest. Experience the wilderness and freedom of Swedish Lapland. Along the narrow trails, stops are made so the guide can tell you about the surroundings.
Snowmobile suit, boots, socks, warm gloves, fleece suit, hood for underneath the helmet and helmet are provided by the tour operator.
All prices listed are per person, based on two people sharing a room. Prices are indicative for 2025. Please ask us about an upgrade to a Art Design Room at the ICEHOTEL.
Please note that the itinerary and price is subject to availability. We do our utmost to create an itinerary as close to this published tour as possible.
Be sure to ask us about optional activities offered at each hotel so we can book and secure your place.
Winter activities that could be substituted into your program at the ICEHOTEL are horseback riding, wildlife and nature photography, moose safari on horseback, arctic wildlife safari on snowmobile, cross country skiing and reindeer sleigh excursion.
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL:
The original and famous ICEHOTEL was one of the first accommodations in Kiruna to become ‘Sustainable Arctic Destination’ certified and the hotel’s connection with the environmental cycle is core to everything it does. The hotel is located on the Torne River and ice is harvested every winter to make the hotel, and in the summer, when the hotel is melting, the water returns to its origin. As such waste and emissions are kept to an absolute minimum.
Sweden's Lapland is a winter wonderland of majestic beauty and tranquillity.
Scandinavia and Finland are the incubators for innovative ways to spend your leisure time relaxing and restoring your body. Add a special note to your tour by booking a floating hot tubs in the Copenhagen harbour, gondola saunas in the SkyWheel of Helsinki and floating saunas throughout Sweden and Finland.
Planning your Northern Lights trip and want to get the best advice? As we approach another Solar maximum period, solar activity will start ramping up, and auroras should increase in frequency, peaking in 2024/2025.
If you want to commit to a booking please use the Book Tour form below.
Book your tour now. We will contact you to confirm this request.
Travel insurance is compulsory for all tours with 50 Degrees North. The safety of our travellers, staff and operators is a major priority of 50 Degrees North. With an operational office in Norway, 50 Degrees North has access to an up-to-the-minute flow of information regarding the countries we work in. We are also in regular contact with the various operators we use. Their in-depth knowledge and understanding of their various areas is vital.
At 50 Degrees North, we generally include at least one of our favourite activities into your tailor-made itinerary but there will also be extra time when you could add something extra. There are lots of different optional excursions to enjoy during your stay at the ICEHOTEL. Now that it is open 365 days a year, the range is even wider.
During the summer months, enjoy the 24-hour daylight with kayaking, hiking or bike riding. You can rent your own equipment for half or whole day adventures.
Prices and validity dates vary - we will assist you with up to date information at the time of booking.
The tours always include top quality equipment and our guides are trained in wilderness safety and touring in Arctic climate. Your tour begins with an introduction and safety demonstration by the guide. All outdoor activities are weather dependent and may be cancelled or replaced by more suitable alternatives should the conditions not permit to run the tour as planned. The snow depth at the beginning and end of the season determines start and finish dates for activities.
All tours start and finish at ICEHOTEL Meeting Point, Jukkasjärvi. Please note that there must be a minimum of two adults per tour, as it will otherwise be cancelled.
We also recommend you calculate for some “warm time” between activities, for you to go inside for a couple of hours, change clothing if necessary and re-heat.
Never shower, wash your face or put on water-based creams or make-up before going out on an excursion as this means you remove the skin’s natural protective layer of oil and you are more exposed to the cold.
The activities start and finish at ICEHOTEL meeting point so no transfers to/from the activity are necessary. Our snowmobiles are purchased from contractors who are leading in environmental sustainability. The machines have four stroke engines that are environmentally friendly and not very noisy so good for our guides and our neighbours too. All vehicles are run on unleaded petrol or environmentally friendly diesel. ICEHOTEL staff or our suppliers prepare and maintains the snowmobile and dog sledding tracks so that we can ensure that it is done in a way that is not harmful for our surroundings. ICEHOTEL management works closely with local land-owners and Sámi villages to continuously maintain sustainable levels of land-use in connection with our activities. ICEHOTEL seeks to work with local suppliers of food in order to minimise our carbon footprint and promote local entrepreneurs. ICEHOTEL strives to avoid using disposable items where possible.
We recycle and re-use as much as possible and our guides always bring back wastage from the tours to dispose or recycle at the main hotel facilities. ICEHOTEL has set out a goal to become CO2 negative, which means that we will contribute to producing more energy than we consume.
All our guides are trained and hold the Swedish Transport Board’s permission to work as a snowmobile guide. All snowmobile tours begin with an induction to the vehicle that you will be driving. Should a damage occur during a tour, the snowmobile will be inspected and if necessary taken out of service to be repaired until it can run on tour again. In order to drive a snowmobile on a tour operated by ICEHOTEL, you must be at least 16 years of age and have a driver’s license. If your license has been issued before Jan 1, 2000, you are entitled to drive snowmobile on your own or in connection with a guided tour.
If your license was issued after this date, you are only eligible to drive a snowmobile under the supervision of a certified guide. To attend Ice driving as a driver, you must be at least 18 years of age and have a driver’s license that is valid in Sweden. If you are unsure, please check with our Destination Specialists. Alcohol must not be consumed prior to or in connection with a
snowmobile or ice driving activity. A breath alcohol test may be carried out prior to the tour and ICEHOTEL reserves the right to refuse your participation without refund if levels are found to be too high. All our guides are trained in wilderness safety and to prevent associated dangers such as frost bite. First aid and other health and safety equipment are always brought on the tour and our health and safety policies are developed in collaboration with the local emergency services. ICEHOTEL provides necessary safety equipment for our activities, e.g. helmets for the snowmobile and ráidu tours. Crossing frozen rivers is always done by ICEHOTEL snowmobile guides before customers in order to check the resilience of the ice. Despite this, accidents may still occur.
We recommend that you book your activities at least three weeks prior to your stay, to ensure that there is space for you on the excursions that you are interested in.