Lapland Welcome

Lapland Welcome Travel and program services in Rovaniemi, Kemi and Inari (Ivalo), Lapland and Finland Let us plan your Lapland visit!
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Lapland Welcome is an incoming office and program service company authorized by Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority. We offer a large scale of different program services and holiday packages year around in Lapland. Our most popular programs are snowmobile-, husky-, reindeer and Northern Lights programs in the winter time and midnight sun- and wildlife safari programs in the summer time.

16/01/2025

Tarinoita, uutisia, elämyksiä ja vinkkejä Rovaniemen lomaan - etsitpä sitten uutisia talvi- kesä- tai syyslomaan Lapissa

Aurora Experts at their best!
30/11/2024

Aurora Experts at their best!

This nice time we spend on our Aurora tours!
24/11/2024

This nice time we spend on our Aurora tours!

The ski season is on in Rovaniemi!
07/11/2024

The ski season is on in Rovaniemi!

Auroras by ATV. Good picture is more than 1000 words!
04/11/2024

Auroras by ATV. Good picture is more than 1000 words!

18/10/2024

Photographer Donald Burghardt:

Workshop Aurora Borealis

First: when and where. If you are already on your way you can skip this and go directly for the photographic instructions below.

In this workshop you will learn the ins and outs of photographing the Northern Lights. As not every visitor of the Aurorea is a photographer this workshop will be low-level in photography explanation to enable everyone to get a decent photo of this phenomenon.

People often ask me where and when to go to for the Aurora. When is quite simple: always and in the dark. That would be from roughly half august till half april on the Northern Hemisphere. The Aurorae are the result of Earths defense mechanism against galactic radiation and charged particles sent out from our Sun into Space. So basically the Aurorae will be there on a regular basis though not non-stop. No threat, no defense from our atmosphere.

Where is quite more complicated for two reasons. First you have to be somewhere around the arctic circle, preferably north of it so about 66 degrees north or higher. A bit to the south is fine too but not too far otherwise you will only look at it sideways and you'll miss the impressive stuff.
But before continuing: read this about chasing the lights! That is plain bu****it.
There are only a few locations where that works. There are very few spots to watch the southern lights of Aurora Australis so forget about that unless you live in the most southern area of South America or Tasmania. The second reason are the weather gods. Clouds are the major spoilers. When they are thin they can provide you with psychedelic effects when Aurora shows up for her performance but this is not what you want. The light can be very faint and pale and you won't be able to see it with the thinnest of clouds.

So before planning your trip be advised about the local climate. Furthermore you have to go away from the city lighting. Remote rural areas are preferred. The less light the better and you can measure this by looking at a clear sky and make an estimate of the amount of stars that you see. You're pretty close when the sky looks like grainy from stars. But also the moon can make spotting the lights difficult. The moon is a huge lightsource in any dark sky area and spoiles the faint lights. And the lights are more often faint and pale then strong and colourfull.

When you have no experience looking for the Aurora and she is just faintly visible then look for a cloud that still shows you stars. Clouds are not transparent but the Aurora is. The problem is that your eyes are not sensitive enough to see colours when the light is to faint, your colour sight has a threshold and the intensity of the lights need to cross that threshold for your eyes to see the colours. Your camera however is. That faint white cloud will jump out of your camera in bright green if it is the Aurora.

Real Aurora
The aurora to the naked eye at a low to moderate intensity
Look at the stars inside the "cloud"

For good weather information and the determination of the darkness on my location I use the app Clear Outside. Find it on the left side of your screen on a computer and under the menu on a smartphone. The darkness is in the orange field on the top and expressed as the Bortle value. The lower the better.

And then the issue of money. I can hardly advice you about that. Scandinavia is expensive. I go to Finnish Lapland and I have put some links in my links menu about this. I don't give about luxury but about quality. I love the Guesthouse Borealis and amongst the many Safari Companies there is one that stands out in their effort to let you experience the Aurora. Lapland Welcome does have a timeframe but hardly keeps to it if there is any chance that, making it later than planned, will help to spot the lights.

I stay in the city of Rovaniemi which has its own airport and I fly with Finnair for the simple reason that hardly any other airline goes there with the connection at Helsinki that is usefull to me. My favourite time there is September and March around the equinox. The clouds are somewhat better before and after the huge snow deposits but the weather there is extremely inpredictable due to 3 colliding systems. On the other hand... that takes care of sudden clearings quite often.

Last but not least... It is a gamble. An expensive one. Take a week at least and go every night. Go out to a dark sky area, Bortle 4 or lower, and when in winter season don't go alone as temperatures in the winter can be extremely low already or drop in seconds to minus 30 degrees Celcius or lower. If for some reason you are not able to leave a populated area behind you, Lights above the city are possible for sure but they are rare as they have to be quite strong. They can last for hours but 30 seconds for 1 night has been my part as well.

My review about Lapland Welcome on Google
Google is a bit stubborn from time to time so if it is copy and paste: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/110415910932146560106/place/ChIJ8dyneGs1K0QRYzhAdtiEjXo/@59.3011973,14.9990634,5z/data=!4m6!1m5!8m4!1e1!2s110415910932146560106!3m1!1e1?hl=nl&entry=ttu

Maybe we'll meet in Rovaniemi from 12 march till 25 march 2024. See you there!

12/10/2024

11/10/2024

lapland northernlights

Hotel Aurora Apartments. Our favourite in Rovaniemi area. www.katkavaara.com
11/10/2024

Hotel Aurora Apartments. Our favourite in Rovaniemi area. www.katkavaara.com

Lapland Welcome: incoming & DMC office in Lapland Finland organizing safaris & excursions in Rovaniemi, Kemi, Ivalo-Saariselkä: northern lights, snowmobile, husky and reindeer safaris.

In this picture it is easy to understand why you need to book a guided tour to see the northern lights. The blue areas a...
08/10/2024

In this picture it is easy to understand why you need to book a guided tour to see the northern lights. The blue areas are the dark areas. You need darkness and only outside of city lights you can follow all kind of northern lights! You need minimum 20 km to reach the darkness.

04/10/2024

Sunspot region 3842 is on fire! This region is in a perfect earth-facing position and just produced the strongest solar flare of the current solar cycle! X9.0 (R3-strong) at 12:18 UTC. A type II radio emission has been observed so the solar flare is likely eruptive. Now it's a waiting game to see how big or small the CME is on LASCO imagery.

Follow it live on www.spaceweatherlive.com

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Our Story

Lapland Welcome is a program service company authorized by Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority. We offer a large scale of different program services year around in Finnish Lapland. We have daily safari services in Rovaniemi, Saariselka-Ivalo, Kemi and Katkavaara regions. Our most popular programs are snowmobile-, husky-, reindeer and Northern Lights programs in the winter time and midnight sun- and wildlife safari programs in the summer time. Let us plan your Lapland visit!