Polar night in Saariselkä

6 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Saariselkä lies at about 68 degrees north, far enough above the Arctic Circle for the sun to vanish completely for a few weeks each winter. The period is darker than a normal winter day but not pitch black. Around noon the sky brightens into a long twilight, and the rest of the day belongs to lamps, snow and, on clear nights, the sky. If you plan a trip for December, the times on this page tell you when outdoor tours make sense and when the evening starts.

Dates for the winter of 2026/27

Calculated for Saariselkä with a flat horizon, the sun does not rise from 6 December 2026 to 6 January 2027. The last short appearance comes on 5 December, when the sun is above the horizon from 11:49 to 12:12, only 23 minutes. On 7 January it returns for half an hour, from 12:02 to 12:32. Even before the polar night the days are brief: on 1 December the sun is up from 11:03 to 12:55.

The real view depends on where you stand. Kaunispää and Iisakkipää rise right next to the village, and forest blocks the horizon in many places, so the low sun of early December and early January may stay hidden behind a fell for a few extra days. On an open fell top you have the best chance of catching it.

How much light a day has

No sunrise does not mean no light. Around midday the sky brightens for several hours. Civil twilight, when you can see the landscape without a lamp, lasts about five hours on every day of the polar night. It is shortest around the winter solstice and grows again in the first days of January.

Cloud cover shortens the useful part of the day, since a grey sky lets through less of the dim light. Count on the brightest stretch between about 11:00 and 13:00 and keep the edges of the twilight for getting to and from a tour. The regional tourist office sums up the season as polar night, snowy landscapes and short daylight hours in December and January.

Fitting tours into the twilight

Short tours that start late in the morning or at midday use the light best. The daytime reindeer safari from Saariselkä leaves at 12:00, collects you at your hotel and lasts about two hours, with an hour on the sled in Urho Kekkonen National Park, a try at steering and a break in a kota. You are back well before the twilight ends. A two-hour snowmobile ride with hot drinks or the two-hour snowshoe walk that starts a few steps from the national park border fit into the same window.

The cross-country ski lesson by Outdoor Expert is a good fit too. The operator gives 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00 as starting times, so the earlier slots fall into the light. Afterwards you can keep skiing on your own: part of the trail network around the village is lit from 6:00 to 22:00, according to the trail cooperative, and the trails are mostly groomed every morning.

Longer trips cannot fit. A day trip to Inari with the Jäniskoski bridge and the Siida museum takes seven hours, which is more than the twilight, so part of the drive on the 75 km to Siida happens in the dark. Siida is open from Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00, and closed on Sundays; on 24 December it opens from 10:00 to 14:00 and on 25 December from 12:00 to 17:00. Our page on day trips from Saariselkä compares the options.

Long evenings under the sky

After about 15:00 the night is long, and the polar night falls in the middle of the aurora season, which the regional tourist office gives as September to April. The Finnish Meteorological Institute names the hours either side of midnight as the best viewing time, and the tourist office points to the area's position under the aurora oval and its low light pollution. Clouds sit below the aurora, so a clear sky matters more than darkness.

The moon changes the picture as well. New moon falls on 9 December 2026 and again on 7 January 2027, so the nights around those dates have the darkest sky, which helps faint auroras stand out in photos. More on cameras in the cold is in our guide to photographing the northern lights.

Several evening tours make use of the dark. The photo tour by minivan picks up within 15 km of the village centre and drives as far as it needs to find a clear sky. One small-group tour offers a full refund if no aurora is captured on camera during its eight hours. For a walk instead of a drive, Xwander runs a polar night snowshoe trek from its headquarters in Ivalo, with overalls and boots provided; a transfer from Saariselkä costs extra.

Lights also come from the ski resort. Its aurora tobogganing run starts at the top of Kaunispää, with a light installation that the resort says looks best from December to February. The planned opening date for the 2026/27 season is 15 December 2026. Sledging is allowed only while the lifts are running, because snow cats work on the slopes at other times, and the run from the top is not suitable for children under 7.

Cold, snow and what to wear

Weather records from the station in the village give average temperatures of roughly −9 °C in December and −12 °C in January over 1991 to 2020, and the tourist office warns that it can drop below −30 °C. In every one of those 30 winters there was snow on the ground from 1 December, on average roughly 30 cm deep at the start of the month and close to 40 cm by the middle. Dress in layers with wool or synthetic fabric next to the skin, add a warm mid layer and a windproof shell, and bring mittens, a hat that covers your ears and a scarf or neck gaiter. Many tours lend overalls and boots; the tour cards show what is included. Our page on what to wear in Saariselkä has the full list.

After the polar night

The sun comes back fast. On 15 January it is up from 10:56 to 13:44, and by 1 February from 09:34 to 15:15, with twilight from 08:19 to 16:30. The tourist office notes that the days become noticeably brighter from February, and by 1 March the sun shines from 07:33 to 17:14. If you prefer long ski days to long evenings, the month-by-month guide shows how the light changes through the winter.