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Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland.

Plan a trip to Rovaniemi From Kittilä

It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately 66,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 70,000. It is the 17th most populous municipality in Finland, and the 11th most populous urban area in the country.

Get in

Getting to Rovaniemi

  1. 01
    Rovaniemi Airport
  2. 02
    Rovaniemi
See

Worth seeing

Most tourists come to Rovaniemi for precisely one thing: Santa.

Do

Things to do

Various Arctic safari companies can arrange all sorts of cold and snowy activities like snowmobile safaris, husky sledding and reindeer sledding. Most of the tour operators have summer activities available too. Try e.g. a wild moose safari; you'll get half of the price back if you don't see a moose. In total, there are nearly a hundred companies that serve travellers with a variety of activities!

Eat

Where to eat

Considering the size of the city, Rovaniemi has a remarkably wide range of restaurants. You will find anything from sushi to bear meat and from hamburgers to traditional delicacies. As elsewhere in Lapland, the traditional restaurant meal is sautéed reindeer (poronkäristys), consisting of slices of reindeer meat stewed in a frying pan with butter and water.

  1. 01
    Alvari food
  2. 02
    Korundi Kitchen and Café

    Lapinkävijäntie 4 (at Culture House Korundi).

  3. 03
    Lapin Krassi

    Raidetie 1 (on the way to Saarenkylä from the airport, in a small industry park), jouko@lapinkrassi.fi.

  4. 04
    Restaurant Rinne Feenix

    Koskikatu 25,.

  5. 05
    Roka Street Bistro

    Non-expensive 25-seat street food bar and bistro.

How locals move

Getting around Rovaniemi the local way

  • Get inThere are also scheduled flights from international destinations and a remarkable number of seasonal charter flights, mostly from the UK.
  • Get inHowever, Santa Claus Bus provides a minibus shuttle service between the airport and hotels in the city centre at a fare of €7 per person one way.
  • Get inUnless you like driving long distances or visit destinations along the route, a good alternative is to take a ferry from Travemünde to Helsinki, then board an overnight train (see above) from Helsinki and unload your car in Rovaniemi, ready for any local trips.

From Wikivoyage: Rovaniemi, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: kallerna (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.