In Rovaniemi a husky safari is bookable from three years old with our own supplier and from four at the kennel with the lowest published child fare, but nobody under seventeen is allowed to drive anywhere we have checked, so a small child rides in the sled basket while an adult stands on the runners. Below three, a safari is not the thing to book: the husky park at Santa Claus Village publishes no minimum age at all and sells twenty minutes with the dogs for a fraction of the price. The day, not the ride, is what tires a small child out.
Small children and husky dogs are an easy sell, and almost everything written
about the combination is a photograph with a caption. The questions parents
actually ask before paying two hundred euros are duller than that and nobody
answers them: how young is too young, and who is driving while my four-year-old
sits in the sled.
The answers are published. They are just scattered across four operators who do
not agree.
The number that decides it is the minimum age
Where
Youngest child it publishes
Snowtrail, four-hour safari
3
Bearhill, Happy Trail tour
4, as its youngest child fare
Arctic Circle Husky Park
Nothing published
Levi, self-drive 5 km
“Not recommended for children under 4”
Three is the lowest number on a full safari anywhere we have checked in
Rovaniemi, and for a family with a three-year-old that is the difference between
going and not going. It is also the only place in this comparison where our own
supplier is clearly ahead of the rest, so take it as read that we would say so.
The park’s blank is not the same as a yes. It publishes no minimum because
nobody drives there and a child is a passenger in a shared sled, which is a
different product rather than a more permissive version of the same one.
Nobody under seventeen drives
This is the rule that surprises people, and it is stricter the further you look.
Bearhill allows self-driving from seventeen. Ylläs Experience says only adults
may drive and that anyone under eighteen sits in the sled. The Levi operator
requires at least one adult driver on every sled and will let a fifteen- or
sixteen-year-old drive only with the guide’s approval.
So a family safari is one adult standing on the runners and everyone else
sitting down. If the point of the trip was that your twelve-year-old would drive
a team, there is no operator here who will allow it, and the
husky safari guide explains what that leaves.
Where a small child sits, and the one thing to ask
In the sled basket, under a blanket, facing forward, with an adult behind them.
That is the arrangement everywhere, and it works: the child is low, out of the
wind and holding onto something.
The gap is that our own supplier does not publish who drives its sleds or how
many people ride in one. For a family that matters more than the price does,
because it decides whether a parent is steering or whether a guide is and both
parents are sitting. Ask before you book. A four-hour tour is a long time to find
out that your arrangement was not the one you pictured.
When a child is too small, and what to book instead
Under three, stop looking at safaris. Nothing in Rovaniemi sells one, and the
reason is not caution about the dogs — it is an hour outdoors at speed in
temperatures a Lapland winter reaches without trying.
What works instead is the husky park at Santa Claus Village, which publishes no
minimum age, charges €15 for an adult and €10 for a child of four to twelve to
walk in, and sells twenty minutes petting the dogs in a fenced pen for €35. A
toddler gets the dogs, close up, warm-ish, for as long as their patience lasts
and no longer. The
Arctic Circle Husky Park article works
through what each part of that costs.
The other honest answer is that the dogs are not the only animals. Snowtrail’s
reindeer safari and its Santa cabin tours both start at three as well, and a
reindeer sleigh moves at a pace a small child finds a great deal less alarming
than fourteen huskies going flat out.
Four hours for forty-five minutes on the sled
Here is the figure that decides a family’s day more than any age limit. The
safari is four hours. The ride inside it is forty-five to sixty minutes. The
rest is the pickup, the drive, getting four people into thermal overalls, the
briefing, the fire, the reindeer and the drive back.
For an adult that is a fair trade. For a three-year-old it is a long morning
with one exciting hour in the middle of it, and the tiredness arrives on the way
home rather than during the bit you paid for. Book the earliest departure your
children are civil at, feed them beforehand, and treat the afternoon as written
off.
What to ask before you book
Four questions, in the order they matter: how old is your youngest and does the
operator take them; is there a child fare; who will be driving our sled; and how
many of us fit in one.
None of that is difficult to find out. It is simply that no operator volunteers
it, and a family that asks afterwards has already paid.
If the answers rule the sled out, the dogs are still available. A
husky farm visit has no minimum age to
clear and no seat to fit anyone into, and it costs a fraction of a safari —
which for a three-year-old is very often the better purchase.
Questions people ask
Is there a child price?
Sometimes, and it is worth checking before you choose the operator rather than after. Bearhill publishes a full ladder — €196 for an adult, €167 for a teenager of 12 to 16 and €128 for a child of 4 to 11 — so a family of four pays noticeably less than four adult tickets. Our own supplier publishes one price of €199 and no child fare at all, which is a genuine mark against it for families and the first thing we would ask about. At the husky park a child of 4 to 12 pays €10 against €15 for an adult.
What will the children actually wear?
On a safari, what the operator hands you. Snowtrail's four-hour tour includes warm winter clothing, and thermal overalls and boots in a child's size are the difference between an hour outdoors and ten minutes of it. The husky park is the opposite: it tells visitors to wear clothes according to the weather and lends nothing, so a family in city coats and trainers will be back at the gate quickly. If you are travelling light, that single line decides which of the two is the cheaper day.
Can the whole family share one sled?
It depends where, and only some operators say. At the husky park each sled takes three to five people and a guide decides how a group is split, so two parents and two children usually get a sled to themselves. In Levi the self-drive sled is sold for up to two adults and one small child under seven, which is a hard limit on family size. Our own supplier does not publish how many people ride in a sled, so a family of five should ask before booking rather than arrive and find out.
What happens if we go before the snow arrives?
You may be booking a cart rather than a sled, and with small children that is a different day out. Bearhill runs winter sled tours from 30 November to 4 April and sells a separate cart-or-sled tour from mid-October to the end of November, and at the husky park the one-kilometre ride is described as being on wheels. A cart rolls rather than glides and is noisier, which some small children dislike and others do not notice. Ask which one your date gets.
Written by
Lapland Handbook Staff
Lapland Handbook is written by its editorial staff in Rovaniemi. Every price, age limit and group size in a comparison is read from the operator's own page and marked "Not stated" when the operator does not publish it. Each guide names who should not book, and says so when a competitor is the better choice.
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