Day trips from Saariselkä

6 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Saariselkä is an outdoor resort village surrounded by fells and forest. For Sámi culture and museums, you travel north. The Siida museum in Inari is 75 km away, and most guided trips spend a full day on the road there and back, with a stop at the rapids of Jäniskoski on the way. Two other directions are on offer: the small village of Nellim on the south-eastern shore of Lake Inari, and the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, where the draw is a king crab meal.

All the trips below are guided and include transport. Look closely at where each one picks up. Some collect guests across Saariselkä, Kakslauttanen and Kiilopää, while others start in Ivalo and only reach Saariselkä for an extra charge or not at all.

Inari and the Siida museum

Siida is the national museum for Sámi culture and the regional museum for the Sámi area, and it shares its building on Inarintie 46 with the Metsähallitus customer service for northern Lapland. Inside, the exhibitions link Sámi culture with the nature of the north. Outside, an open-air museum is open all year whenever the weather allows a safe visit. From 5 October 2026 to 31 May 2027 the museum opens Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00, and it stays closed on Sundays. On 24 December it opens from 10:00 to 14:00, on Christmas Day from 12:00 to 17:00.

The guided trips combine Siida with a short walk in the forest above the Juutua river. The trail leads to a suspension bridge over the Jäniskoski rapids. From there it is a short drive into the village, where Sajos, the seat of the Sámi Parliament, stands on the bank of the Juutua at the point where the river flows into Lake Inari.

The trip by Trafinari lasts seven hours. It collects you from your address in the Saariselkä, Ivalo or Inari area, walks out to the Jäniskoski bridge and grills sausages over a campfire with buns and warm juice. Warm clothing for the walk and the picnic is part of the tour, as is the Siida ticket. Lunch in the village is at your own expense.

Lapland Welcome keeps it to six hours, with a guided tour of the museum, lunch at a restaurant and winter gear, and picks up from hotels on its pickup list in Saariselkä. Arctic Tours stretches the day to eight hours and adds an ice fishing session to the museum and the bridge. It collects guests in the Kakslauttanen, Kiilopää, Saariselkä and Ivalo areas, serves a buffet lunch and does not take children under 6. The operator states that neither a catch nor a reindeer sighting is guaranteed.

From Ivalo, Hotelli Ivalo runs a six-hour version by minibus with an outdoor lunch by the Juutuanjoki and a stop at Jäniskoski. Its reviews so far come from July and August, so check on the tour page that it runs in your travel dates. Our page on Inari village and Siida covers what to see if you go on your own.

Nellim on Lake Inari

Nellim is a small village on the south-eastern shore of Lake Inari, where Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Finnish traditions meet. It lies less than an hour from Ivalo airport. The village tour by Hotelli Ivalo takes four and a half hours, of which about 45 minutes each way are spent in the van. Stops include the church in Nellim, an old channel once used for floating timber and the bridge over the Paatsjoki river, with a view towards the Russian border. The walking part is short and suitable for everyone, and a traditional Finnish lunch is served outdoors.

This trip picks up only at Hotel Ivalo and Hotel Kultahippu in Ivalo, so from Saariselkä you need your own way to Ivalo first. Its reviews date from September and October. Groups are limited to eight.

King crab in Kirkenes

Kirkenes lies on the Norwegian side of the border, 120 km by road from Inari; from the town it takes about 40 minutes by car to reach the Finnish border. The crab trips are long days. Strange World Tour collects you from your hotel in Saariselkä in a 4x4 van, crosses into Norway for a crab meal and returns after about 11 hours. Groups are limited to eight, and children under 6 cannot join.

The private trip by Arctic Tours lasts about 12 hours, with roughly four hours of driving each way to northern Norway. On the fjord you ride in a sled behind a snowmobile, the day includes entry to the snow resort in Kirkenes and a king crab meal, and thermal suits, boots, mittens and helmets are provided. The trip also looks out for the northern lights, which the operator says it cannot guarantee. The tour page names several pickup areas in one place and Inari in another, so confirm your pickup point before you book.

Bring the right document. The crab tour page asks you to carry the travel documents you need for Norway. According to the Nordic Council of Ministers' information service, citizens of EU and Schengen countries need a passport or national identity card, and citizens of other countries generally need a passport.

Planning a long day in winter

Light is the main constraint. From 6 December 2026 to 6 January 2027 the sun does not rise in Saariselkä, and on 21 December civil twilight lasts only from 09:36 to 14:41. An eight-hour trip to Inari in that period leaves in darkness and returns in darkness, and the walk to Jäniskoski falls in the few hours of blue light. From February the days lengthen quickly; by 1 March the sun is up from 07:33 to 17:14.

Keep the museum's Sunday closing in mind when you plan. A trip on a Sunday from October to May cannot include the exhibitions. Sajos has a café-restaurant open from 9:00 to 15:00, useful if your trip leaves lunch to you.

The region is Sámi homeland, and Inari is its centre in Finland. The Sámi Parliament asks visitors to respect the privacy of local people, and not to photograph anyone in Sámi dress who is not working in tourism without asking first. Reindeer herds must never be approached without the owner's permission. Our page on reindeer and Sámi culture covers these guidelines in more detail, and ice fishing and Lake Inari lists the trips onto the frozen lake itself.