Asgard is our original dedicated northern lights chasing holiday in Utsjoki, Finland. We have been running our northern lights tours here since 2014. Over the years we have been able to expand the site with new cottages. So now it consists of 10 cottages, which is split into two sites, 5 cottages in each. Site A is our awesome original 5 cottages which have served us excellently over the years and site B is 5 newer cottages.
At both our Asgard A & B sites we offer our very special 4 night/5 day northern lights holidays which run Monday to Friday and shorter 3 night/4 day northern lights holidays over the weekend. This page applies to our 3 night northern lights holidays.
The 3 night and 4 night tours are exclusive of each other and can be booked in their own right whether you want to spend the week with us, or just have a quick weekend getaway. However, a lot of our guests fall in love with the place and say they wish they could have stayed here longer, so it is totally fine to book both 4 night and 3 night tours back to back to make a 7 night aurora holiday if you so wished!
Our Asgard tours being at almost 70° North and surrounded by official wilderness areas means we have absolutely pristine clear skies with zero light pollution. Once you get this far north combined with being in these wilderness areas, your chances of seeing Northern Lights sky rocket. This is statistically the best place in Finland (and the best place in the EU!) for Northern Lights.
At the time of writing, we have 100% record for the current aurora season. Meaning every week since our tours started, we have seen northern lights. Yes some weeks it has been touch and go whether we would keep that record, it hasn’t all been plain sailing, but with a slice of luck (and sometimes you need that) we have got an aurora show even right up to the last night. Some weeks we have epic northern lights every night of the week!
It is a 2 hour drive to the nearest airport (that being Ivalo airport), but ask any of our thousands of guests in past winters was the drive worth it and I am sure you will get a resounding YES. In fact, many of our guests come back year after year. Some of them have been coming every year since our inception in 2014! The beauty of being this far out is that it’s not touristy. You will see real Lapland as it lives and breaths. There are no gimmicks, no mass tourism and no false advertising. You’ll likely see Reindeer beside the road on the drive up here and even the occasional Moose. You get what we advertise, a lovely cosy cottage, set in beautiful scenery on the periphery of civilisation. True peace and quiet.
Our Asgard tours have won a certificate of excellence for almost 10 years straight on Tripadvisor. Indeed, we as a company, have been ranked #1 out of 250 tour companies in Lapland on Tripadvisor. If this is a once in a lifetime trip for you, why choose anyone else than the best?
Here is a video from one of our aurora tours, this was filmed on 3 nights of the same tour:
We can’t promise weeks are always that good 😉 but when the Earth weather and Space weather play ball, that really is what you can expect here.
Our motto “it’s all about the lights” has never been truer, because we hand picked every single thing about this northern lights holiday ourselves entirely from an aurora chasers perspective. It is 100% dedicated to Northern Lights and about maximising the chances of seeing them. We go chasing the lights to some of the most beautiful and northern locations in Finland such as Utsjoki and Nuorgam. But we don’t stop there, we also cross the border into the Finnmark region of Norway and chase the northern lights even up to the Barents Sea itself! We tap into our knowledge from running the aurora information service, and use all the tools we use for that (and many others we have at our disposal) to help get you under the Northern Lights.
Our responsibility for you seeing northern lights is not just when we are driving round in the evening trying to find them. Our responsibility of helping you see Northern Lights begins when you step off the plane, until when you step back on it! So even if we are not with you at the time, we want to maximise your chances of seeing the lights! For this reason, we have chosen not to put you in a hotel, instead we have personally selected some cottages that you will be staying in that hugely maximise your chances of seeing the lights, even if we aren’t with you at the time. If we aren’t with you when the aurora kicks off (eg at 2am), no worries, we will make a whatsapp group when we pick you up and we are in continues contact through that during your time here. We send auora alerts through that. Sometimes the aurora comes at 6pm, a couple hours before we are due to go out! So you never know just when they are gonna show up! You can also use the whatsapp group to chat with your guide if you have a problem or need anything.
So you will have 3 nights accommodation in your own cottage situated a stones throw from the banks of the famous river Tenojoki. You can watch the Northern Lights all night from your cottage, from the kota (wooden teepee with fire inside – super warm!) or from our Massive Watch Tower! Both our Asgard sites have access to the watchtower (it’s inbetween both sites), you can wander up there as much as you like.
The maximum number of people we take PER WEEKEND is just 12. This means even if we are fully booked, it’s just you and 11 other aurora chasers for the entire week at our large site. You have your own cottage with your own kitchen and sauna too, so it is a really comfortable system, you can wake up when you like, eat when you like, and have a sauna when you like all in the comfort of your own cottage with your own privacy.
As with all our tours, we generally require a minimum of two people. However we often have odd numbers of people or large groups in one or two cottages, so we usually accommodate individual travellers throughout the winter, so please do contact us if you are an individual and would like to visit.
Itinerary
The 3 night aurora holiday is Friday to Monday. On the Friday afternoon when you arrive, we’ll pick you up from Ivalo airport (all the details on which airport to fly to, which flights to get and lots of other useful information is here). Depending on the road conditions, it is about a two hour drive back to your cottage through beautiful snow capped pine forests and past frozen lakes.
Before we get to your cottage, we’ll stop at the supermarket so you can get some groceries etc for the weekend (remember your cottage is self catering). The supermarket is pretty big and it has everything you need for breakfast, lunch and dinner all weekend. It also has a wine shop in it. Your cottage is only 2km from the main village of Utsjoki. There is a small general store in Utsjoki village, should you need anything in an emergency. There are also a few restaurants in the area.
Once at your cottage you’ll be shown around, instructed how to use the sauna etc. The cottages are nestled in a small pine wooded area which helps shelter you from the arctic wind. There are 2 kota’s (fire huts) in the grounds of our cottages where you and the other aurora service guests can warm up on cold nights and you can stay out watching northern lights for as long as you like. Your cottage also has a terrace you can sit on and watch the lights from, or you can even sit inside the cottage and watch the auroras from the window. It’s entirely up to you.
It will be around 5.00 pm by the time we get you to the cottage and you will have been travelling non-stop all day, so we’ll leave you to settle in to your cottage and have an evening relaxing after a hard day’s travelling. We’ll just show you the kota and watchtower, where you can watch the Northern Lights from on your first night. The aurora chasing begins on Saturday evening. It’s important you relax the first night so you are fresh for the rest of the weekend, because we will be out chasing the light for a couple of nights straight, and depending on the the aurora show, we could be out quite late each night, well into the early hours.
You have the daytime to yourself. Whether you want to go for walks, take up some of the activities we offer or just relax at your cottage reading a book. You can do anything you like, at your own pace. It’s especially good if you’re a photographer you can use the daytime to work on your previous nights aurora footage 🙂
On Saturday and Sunday at 7.30 pm each evening (purposefully just after dinner time so your not chasing the lights on an empty stomach), our aurora chasing tours begin. We will come and collect you from your cottage and go out chasing the lights for 4-5 hours or more (depends how good the show is) each night. When we get back to the cottage, you can put some wood in the kota/fireplace and carry on watching the northern lights into the early hours at your own leisure, with a beer or a glass of wine in your hand.
On the Monday morning we’ll come and collect you around 9.00 am and take you back on the beautiful 2 hour drive to Ivalo airport.
Some of the optional daytime activites you can add on to your holiday if you wish:
If you want to do some of our optional winter activities in the day time, you can add-on to your holiday. Click here for more details.
The Price
Asgard A Cottage – 3 nights €995 per person
Asgard B Cottage – 3 nights €1095 per person
Kids under 11 are half price.
-with only €100 deposit to secure your place and the remainder payable 1 month before arrival.
What you get:
- 3 nights accommodation in your own cottage with your own sauna.
- 2 nights aurora chasing 4-5 hours.
- Free collection to and from Ivalo airport.
- Free hot drinks and snacks while out aurora chasing.
- Free snow suits, snow boots, hats and gloves.
- Free help and advice with your own camera.
- Free aurora pics and video on a free pen drive we give you that we have taken on our pro cameras.
- Free firewood for both your cottage fire and the fireplace outside.
What isn’t included:
- Flights are not included.
- Meals are not included. Your cottage has a fully equipped kitchen so you can eat what you want, when you want (we visit a supermarket on the way up from airport).
Our Utsjoki Asgard Tour Dates 2024-2025 Aurora Season
Tour 1 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 1st November – Monday 4th November 2024
Tour 2 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 8th Nov – Monday 11th Nov 2024
Tour 3 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 15th Nov – Monday 18th Nov 2024
Tour 4 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 22nd Nov – Monday 25th Nov 2024
Tour 5 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 29th Dec – Monday 2nd Dec 2024
Tour 6 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 6th Dec – Monday 9th Dec 2024
Tour 7 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 13th Dec – Monday 16th Dec 2024
Tour 8 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 20th Dec – Monday 23rd Dec 2024
Christmas Break
Tour 9 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 27th Dec – Monday 30th Dec 2024
Tour 10 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 3rd Jan – Monday 6th Jan 2025
Tour 11 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 10th Jan – Monday 13th Jan 2025
Tour 12 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 17th Jan – Monday 20th Jan 2025
Tour 13 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 24th Jan – Monday 27th Jan 2025
Tour 14 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 31st Jan – Monday 3rd Feb 2025
Tour 15 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 7th Feb – Monday 10th Feb 2025
Tour 16 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 14th Feb – Monday 17th Feb 2025
Tour 17 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 21st Feb – Monday 24th Feb 2025
Tour 18 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 28th Feb – Monday 3rd March 2025
Tour 19 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 7th March – Monday 10th March 2025
Tour 20 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 14th March – Monday 17th March 2025
Tour 21 | Weekend (3 nights) Friday 21st March – Monday 24th March 2025
Secure your place on one of our tours now with only €100 deposit: