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8 days - Join expert Northern Lights Photographers, David Evans and Kelly Champion on this Finland and Norway tour.
Join our new escorted photography tour of Finland and Norway, with FOUR nights sleeping in glass igloos. This very special photographic tour is led by David Evans, former Lonely Planet photographer, writer and award-winning travel, landscape and commercial photographer. David has been spending time in recent years exploring his Finnish and Swedish heritage, including travel throughout Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden in both summer and winter. For 2024, another award winning photographer, Kelly Champion will be joining the tour.
One of our 50 Degrees North Scandinavian escorts will also host this journey, taking care of all services throughout the tour program and providing insight into the local culture and history.
This is a unique and very special itinerary, photographing and experiencing the rich culture and landscape of the far north of Norway and Finland.
David and Kelly are experienced and awarded photographers who will guide you through many aspects of travel and landscape photography, covering topics such as;
• Perfecting capturing the Northern Lights
• Long exposures
• Post-production of images
• Image review and professional critique
Our activities and excursions are tailored towards seeing and capturing the best light and most photogenic locations. Capture the Northern Lights and beauty of the Lapland's winter!
With just 10 passengers, be assured that you will be travelling as a small like-minded group. All levels of photographic ability are catered for.
Private group transfers
International flights, travel insurance and luggage handling.
Transfer to your hotel and check in to your Aurora Glass Cabin where you will be spending the next four nights!
Meet your guides and the group for a welcome dinner at the hotel then get ready for your night in under the stars - and hopefully the Northern Lights.
Finnish Aurora Glass Cabins provides 'one-of-a kind' opportunities to admire the Northern Lights and millions of stars in the crystal clear sky while enjoying a comfortable room temperature. Built with a massive special thermal glass window facing sky wards, the temperature inside the cabin always stays at a normal level. It also prevents the glass from not getting white frosted, hence keeping the view clear even when the temperature outside drops to under -30°C.
After breakfast, get ready for today's husky safari - an unforgettable journey through breathtaking winter scenery.
On arrival to the husky farm we will provide you with a warm outer thermal suit, gloves and hat and then we will present your very own husky team. You will be given a lesson on how to drive the sledge and how to observe important hand signals given by your leader.
Each team consists of about six dogs, you, the driver, and your passenger, who is comfortably seated in the wooden sledge. The driver and the passenger can change places during the safari. Duration 4 hours including lunch.
In the evening, join a Northern Lights search by snowmobile. Driving by snowmobile we can go anywhere! Your guide, a professional Aurora Hunter will lead you through the snowy forests to the high terrain to spot the Northern Lights far away from any artificial lights. It’s really exciting to drive at night. You might even see some white rabbits or reindeer in your headlights. Hot drinks and snacks are included when you arrive at the Kota shelter as well as the tales and stories of your experienced guide.
Nature connected visit to a local Sámi reindeer herder family home. They live by a lake side surrounded by forest and hills. Meet the family reindeer, feed them and photograph them up close. Together walk a short distance in the forest near by. You will hear stories about how important nature diversity is for the reindeer and for the local nature.
Then you can visit the Sámi home, a traditional log house. You get to see their family´s traditional Sámi dresses as you hear stories about Sámi culture and about the Inari Sámi language revitalization.
Return to the Aurora Village for lunch and free afternoon to explore. This evening, discover Lappish food with a traditional local meal.
Get ready for action as your group heads out for a half-day excursion taking you through the snowy landscapes to a frozen lake where you will prepare a traditional snack by open fire in a rustic outdoor hut. There are plenty of opportunities for taking amazing photos. Duration 4 hours including lunch.
This evening, head out for another aurora hunt, this time by car. After some research on the weather forecast, your guides will take a car and drive it to places where the sky is most clear and the probability of seeing the Northern Lights is highest. Your experienced guide, a professional Aurora Hunter has some interesting stories to tell as you drink hot drinks and snacks along the way.
Transfer by private group bus, door to door from Ivalo to Kirkenes (3.4 - 4 hrs). Along the way, stop in Inari for lunch and a guided tour at Sami Siida Museum - the national museum of the Sámi and a national special museum in Finland. The guide will help you to have an in-depth view of Siida’s permanent exhibitions. Siida’s exhibition tours cover the permanent exhibitions of the house.
Every room in Kirkenes Snowhotel is like a small treasure. The rooms are equipped with everything needed for a comfortable night in the somewhat extreme conditions. The pictures look like you are sleeping on ice, but that would be too cold and too hard for your back. The beds are framed with ice blocks and the beds have comfortable mattresses with thermal insulation on top. You sleep inside a sleeping bag graded for -35 degrees celcius. However, snow is a very good insulator, so even when it's -35 degrees outside, the Snowhotel remains a stable -4 degrees.
Upon entering the gates of the Snowhotel, you will receive a welcome drink at the snowbar, made from berries collected from surrounding hills. It will then be time to make the ‘coolest’ hotel check-in around!
Your evening will then progress to a delicious 3 course dinner. The food served is charmingly traditional and locally sourced. Your guide will be available to help you prepare for the evening ahead, making sure you are as comfortable as possible. After dinner you will have the opportunity to walk around the snowhotel and say hello to our resident reindeers, and with any luck, catch a glimpse of the northern lights.
Today you will join an Arctic King Crab Safari - a very popular highlight for our travellers north.
The Arctic King Crab is a sought after delicacy and you will learn how to catch, prepare and eat them. Your guide takes you out and you can lend a hand in sawing through the ice before your guide attempts to land you a few of these massive crustaceans. Enjoy the day's catch for lunch seated by a cosy fire in a small local farmhouse by the lake. You will travel to the lake by snowmobile sleigh.
The afternoon is free for exploring before a group dinner at the snow hotel.
Be amazed by coastal Norway. Today you will have a 5-hour exploration of the coastal region around Kirkenes. Possible places to visit include the Russian border and if the snow is heavy, we can put on some snow shoes to assist our exploring.
On return, join a private group tour to see the Snowhotel. Enjoy a drink in the icebar to celebrate the end of the tour before a group farewell dinner.
Independent transfer to the Kirkenes airport after breakfast. If you are interested in continuing down the coast of Norway on the Kystruten route, all the way to Bergen, we can arrange this for you.
Prices listed are per person sharing twin/double rooms. Singles can share with another fellow traveller of the same gender (if available), or pay a single supplement.
Although we have an emphasis on photography, all levels of photographic ability are catered for, and our itinerary is also of interest to non-photographers, including partners. All of the activities and sights are incredible in their own right.
Photography Escort David Evans:
David Evans is a former Lonely Planet travel, landscape and commercial photographer and travel writer, and a Master of Photography who creates images of high fidelity, depth and substance. David’s motivation is to remind us that wild, untamed and sublime places are critical elixirs in life…and through travel, nature, observation and art, we find clarity.
Photography Escort Kelly Champion:
Kelly Champion photographs humanity. More than just a technician, she is a collector of memories, and an acute observer of the nuances of human interaction. Whether it is love and laughter or the serious moments of personal crisis, she turns her lens towards her subjects with passion, understanding and commitment to telling their stories
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL:
Your glass igloo hosts in Ivalo were the first accommodation in Northern Lapland to receive the Green Key award, the leading standard for excellence in the field of environmental responsibility and sustainable operation within the tourism industry. This prestigious eco-label represents a commitment by businesses that their premises adhere to the strict criteria set by the Foundation for Environmental Education. Some examples of how they carry this out include offering recycling facilities in all cabins and no longer offering plastic bottles in accommodations, along with protecting the diversity of the surrounding nature, i.e., bird house and insect hotels. Hiking, biking, and skiing tracks are direct from the hotel and as such they encourage low carbon activities such as snowshoeing and toboggans.
Planning your Northern Lights trip and want to get the best advice? As we approach another Solar maximum period, solar activity will start ramping up, and auroras should increase in frequency, peaking in 2024/2025.
If you want to commit to a booking please use the Book Tour form below.
Travel insurance is compulsory for all tours with 50 Degrees North. The safety of our travellers, staff and operators is a major priority of 50 Degrees North. With an operational office in Norway, 50 Degrees North has access to an up-to-the-minute flow of information regarding the countries we work in. We are also in regular contact with the various operators we use. Their in-depth knowledge and understanding of their various areas is vital.
