Chances are right about now you’re looking at public holiday dates and considering your next holiday destination. If you haven’t made your mind up about a spot to visit, you ought to check out Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland. Rovaniemi is better known as the home of Santa Claus and it in fact hosts the Santa Claus Village, a popular spot for tourists during end-of-year travels. Getting to Santa’s Village is convenient – a local bus number 8 leaves hourly from the town centre. But its real attraction is that it lies within the Arctic Circle and is host to some of the most spectacular Northern Light experiences in the world.
Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is a bus ride away from town.
Those of you who’ve chased the Lights before or who’ve spoken to friends in their chase will know that the Aurora Borealis can be fickle. Depending on where you are, you might get 10 days of auroras in a row, or a week with nothing to show for it. But the Lights make their presence felt every 2 out of 5 clear days, and last for hours at a time. Aurora season has just started and local aurora hunter Alexander Kuznetsov (he’s also the editor-in-chief of All About Lapland, a free tourist magazine) has already captured some spectacular images of the lights appearing just after twilight and continuing for hours.
The Northern Lights are already making their presence felt early in the season.
The season starts from August to April, and usually peaks around Jan/Feb, the coldest period of the season. And since the strength of the auroras follow the solar cycle, which is approaching its minimum in 2019, there’s concern that one might not be able to catch them as solar activity winds down. Within the Arctic Circle, however, that issue fades as the locals experience aurora consistently, throughout the solar cycle.
Regardless of the solar cycle, Rovaniemi still gets aurora sightings.
What’s more, you can fly from Singapore to Rovaniemi via Helsinki daily, thanks to Finnair. The airline currently has promotions going on, with flights starting from $1,270 onwards. If you need further convincing, check out Kuznetsov’s video of the Lights he caught, and Visit Rovaniemi’s official video above.