Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort

A resort of log cabins and glass igloos at Kiilopääntie 9, 99830 Saariselkä, in Finnish Lapland, 250 km north of the Arctic Circle by its own account. It is independent, the property of Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort Oy, which also runs Utsjoki Arctic Resort, a separate hotel further north. The official site says “since 1974”; the resort’s YouTube channel says 1973.

It is 2 villages about 4 km apart, East and West, with a reception and a restaurant each. The site prints no room count: Tripadvisor and Expedia give 214, the MICHELIN Guide 41. On 8 October 2026 the booking engine had 213 units free for the night of 8 April 2027: 53 Small Glass Igloos, 12 Large ones, 83 Kelo-Glass Igloos, 2 Luxury ones, 56 cabins, 5 Queen Suites, one Traditional House and one Wedding Chamber.

The resort publishes no star rating on its official site, read on 15 October 2026. The MICHELIN Guide lists it without a Key.

The official catalogue had 14 types on 8 October 2026. 5 are igloos: the Small Glass Igloo, 25 m² for up to 3, in each village; the Large Glass Igloo, 38 m² for up to 5; the Kelo-Glass Igloo, 90 m² for up to 6; and the Luxury Kelo-Glass Igloo, 310 m² for up to 12.

6 are log cabins of 45 to 82 m² for 2 to 6 guests, each with a fireplace, a kitchenette and a private sauna: Small and Large Cabins in both villages, a Large Cabin for 2 and the Gold Digger Cabin. Then come the Queen Suite with its outdoor jacuzzi, the Traditional House and the Wedding Chamber, each for 2.

Snow igloos are not in the catalogue and cannot be booked online. The site still mentions them: its rate pages say the building of the Snow Chapel and the snow igloos depends on the weather, and the accommodation page’s title names them. Google’s description of snow igloos with sleeping bags matches no type on sale.

Yes. The Small Glass Igloo, in both villages, has a small toilet and a washbasin inside and a shower and an electric sauna attached; the Large Glass Igloo has the same for its 4 beds. The resort’s rate pages call both “newly upgraded”, and guests date the change: one saw the new showers and saunas in January 2025, another in March 2026 writes of the igloos renovated to include them.

Older descriptions have not caught up. Google Hotels writes of “shared bathrooms in separate buildings” and Booking.com that some igloos “have shared shower facilities”; neither matches the types on sale on 8 October 2026.

In igloos and cabins alike the shower is open to the bathroom, with no curtain, and the hot water lasts about 12 minutes before it has to heat up again, guests wrote in 2024 and 2026.

The resort gives the season as late August to late April in its FAQ, and “the last week of August to the last week of April” on its rate pages. The glass igloos are sold over the same months: from about the third week of August to the end of April. In June and July the midnight sun rules the aurora out.

Nothing is guaranteed, the FAQ says: it depends on magnetic activity and cloud, and the lights can last 5 minutes or the whole night, at any time between dusk and dawn; statistically the best moment is just before midnight. The resort points to the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s aurora forecast.

Every unit has a northern-lights alarm, and in February 2026 a guest mentions an app the resort has guests download. From the reviews: one guest in March 2026 saw the lights on 4 nights out of 4; others had cloud all week or snow lying on the glass. The paths are lit and the igloos stand close together, so the dark around them is not complete.

In the forest beside the road from Saariselkä to Ivalo, along the Kakslauttanen river. The resort describes itself as 10 km south of Saariselkä, the nearest village with a supermarket, a cash machine and shops, and 40 km south of Ivalo; by road Saariselkä is 11.1 km and 12 minutes away.

Nothing is within walking distance, and guests without a car depend on taxis. Kiilopää, the fell centre on the edge of Urho Kekkonen National Park, is 6.3 km up the same road; the cross-country tracks, almost 200 km of them with about 30 km lit, pass the East Village; the downhill slopes of Saariselkä are 13.1 km away.

It is quiet. Google Hotels scores the area 2.7 out of 5 for things to do and 3.9 for access to the airport.

From the East Village reception to the terminal of Ivalo airport it is 37 km and 33 minutes by car, computed on 8 October 2026 on OpenStreetMap’s roads; a second router gives 30 minutes. From the West Village it is 42 km and 42 minutes.

The resort’s own pages say 35 km and about 30 minutes, Google’s card 37 km, and Tripadvisor 19.3 miles, about the distance in a straight line. A guest in February 2026 timed the transfer at about 45 minutes.

The resort’s transfer page sells a shuttle bus timed to each flight, or a private car for 1 to 3 or 4 to 8 guests; for 10 December 2026 it listed the Finnair arrivals AY601, AY603 and AY605. A guest who stayed at the end of March 2026 paid $57 a person each way for the shuttle. From Rovaniemi the Matkahuolto buses take about 3 hours and stop 100 metres from the East Village reception.

Yes, free and without booking: beside every cabin and in front of the restaurant, the transport page says. The site’s map also marks a charging point for electric cars; you ask at reception.

The MICHELIN Guide’s listing shows “free parking” and “self service parking (charges apply)” together; the resort’s own pages mention only the free car park.

No sea: the resort is inland, in the forest of northern Lapland. The water here is the Kakslauttanen river, where ice-fishing is done in winter and gold is panned in summer, and the small lake beside one of the smoke saunas, where you swim after the sauna in summer.

Lake Inari is a day trip: the summer programme lists a guided fishing tour there and the winter one an ice-fishing safari. By road the Sámi museum Siida at Inari is 81 km away.

No. There is no pool on any official page, and none among the amenities Google Hotels lists. What the resort has is an ice pool beside the smoke saunas in the East Village, a small plunge tub set in the snow, used after the sauna.

Google does list a hot tub: the one the official pages name is the outdoor jacuzzi on the terrace of the Queen Suite.

In winter, with the smoke sauna: the winter programme sells “Smoke Sauna and Ice Pool” as a 2-hour session and marks the ice pool as dependent on the weather. The booking page adds that in November, at the start of winter, it may not be ready.

Unheated by definition, it is the cold plunge of the Finnish sauna. In summer the same ritual moves to the lake sauna, with a swim in the lake, to be reserved 48 hours ahead according to the summer programme.

Each village has its restaurant. The Aurora Restaurant, in the West Village, is the main one for breakfast, lunch and dinner; the East Village Restaurant, in the log building where the glass igloos began, serves the same menu, Lappish and international. The Igloo Bar is a glass dome off the Aurora Restaurant; the East Village has a Piano Bar.

The other rooms open for groups or on request: the Planetarium Restaurant, for up to 350 guests, the underground Korsu, the Smoke Sauna Restaurant and the Celebration House. Opening hours are not published; the kitchen asks guests with coeliac disease or other dietary needs to write after booking.

Some guests praise the breakfast buffet and a dinner menu that changes every night. Dinner is a short menu of 3 courses: in high season there is a wait at table, and vegetarians do well to write to the kitchen after booking. Several write that only one restaurant was open during their stay, and that in the off-season there was no lunch menu. Dinner times are fixed with reception at check-in, a guest of February 2026 notes.

From October to April, yes. The autumn rate, in force from 1 to 31 October 2026, includes a buffet breakfast and a 3-course dinner, and so does the winter rate, half board, in force until 30 April 2027. The summer rate, which ran from 1 June to 30 September 2026, included breakfast only.

The packages of 2 and 3 nights are full board: they add a soup lunch. Drinks are not mentioned as included anywhere, and a guest in January 2026 notes being charged for hot drinks outside meal times.

Google Hotels manages to say both “breakfast and dinner are free” and “breakfast: extra charge”: the official rate pages are the ones to go by.

There is no spa in the hotel sense: no treatment rooms, no pool, no steam room on any official page. There are saunas. Every cabin and igloo has its own electric sauna, the FAQ says, and the East Village has 3 smoke saunas: one by the lake, a small one, and the Large Smoke Sauna for about 200 people, “potentially the largest smoke sauna in the world”, with its own restaurant.

The smoke saunas are heated for hours before use, the resort says, and followed by the ice pool, a roll in the snow or a cold shower. The numbers vary by source: Google Hotels counts 3 saunas, Booking.com 6, each with a relaxation room and an open fire.

The electric sauna in your own cabin or igloo is part of the room. The smoke saunas are booked and paid for as an activity: the summer list prints “Smoke Sauna by the Lake” from €62.87 a person, the winter list “Smoke Sauna and Ice Pool” from €727.18, a figure that reads like a private session’s though the page does not say so.

No day pass is published. For people not staying, the site has a page called “Visit Kakslauttanen”, which offers a tour of the glass igloos and the large smoke sauna with a hot drink, without a price.

Yes. The session lasts 2 hours and starts from the reception; in summer it must be reserved 48 hours ahead, the summer programme says. In winter it is for guests aged 12 and over, who bring a swimsuit and are given towels and woollen socks.

No timetable is published for the saunas, and the electric one in the room is used when you like.

No massage or beauty list is published. What the resort offers under wellness is of another kind: morning and afternoon yoga, sound-healing concerts and private sessions with singing bowls, a guided “Arctic Tantra” workshop for couples, and retreats that combine them with time outdoors.

Prices for these are not printed on the pages read; the wellness page sends requests to the events office.

Children of all ages are accepted, Booking.com and the MICHELIN Guide say, and the booking engine counts as children those up to 11. There is Santa’s Home in the West Village, from €59.73 a person for the regular visit, reindeer sleighs for all ages and husky safaris from the age of 3; snowmobiles are from 12, and drivers must be 18 with a licence.

A cot for a child under 3 was €60 a day on the winter 2025-26 rate page; the current pages say only that it can be requested in advance. Children are charged: in January 2025 a family in a Kelo-Glass Igloo wrote of €710 added at check-in for 2 children of 11 and 13.

Sleighs, huskies and snowmobiles are outdoor activities and depend on the weather.

Yes: every room page states “Pets are accepted. Additional charges may apply”, without giving the amount. Expedia puts it at €40 per pet per day, in specific rooms to be requested in advance.

The resort’s own animals are part of the stay: 2 husky farms next door, reindeer by Santa’s Home and Finnhorses at the stables.

Winter temperatures run from 0 to −40°C, −14°C on average, the resort’s booking pages say, in dry air and with little wind. Inside, the glass igloos are kept at about 21°C. In summer the days reach about 20°C.

Thermal overalls, boots and gloves are handed out on the safaris. For the rest of the stay the resort rents overalls, winter boots, hats and gloves, from €20 a day on the winter list; its advice is to dress in layers and keep your socks dry. In the polar night, from December to January, there are about 5 hours of twilight, from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. The pages read set no dress code for the restaurants.

Kakslauttanen Cosmos, in the West Village: the planetarium, an art gallery, a design shop, a brewery and distillery, a café and the Igloo Tower, a glass room 30 metres above the forest. On 8 October 2026 the planetarium, the tower and the café were marked “closed for the season”.

Then the things to do: husky, reindeer and snowmobile safaris, horse sleighs, ice-fishing and ice karting in winter; hiking in Urho Kekkonen National Park, gold panning, quad bikes, canoeing and berry picking in summer and autumn. All of it is booked through the resort, which lets only its own suppliers collect guests.

Wi-Fi is free in the rooms, the reception and the restaurants. There is no television in the cabins, there are gift shops, and drones are forbidden without the management’s consent.

Yes, on the offers page: for the winter of 2026-27 a one-night package with a husky safari and the planetarium from €983, 2 nights with full board from €1,824, the Honeymooners Escape of 2 nights from €2,562 and 3 nights in a Kelo-Glass Igloo, with snowmobiles, huskies and Santa, from €4,428. They are prices per stay; for the 3-night package the engine takes arrivals on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The conditions are strict in winter: once the deposit is paid 50% of the booking is non-refundable, and 100% from 60 days before arrival. The October rate can be cancelled free up to 30 days before. The site promises the lowest price on its own booking engine.

Yes, the resort has a weddings and honeymoons page and an office for them. The ceremony is held in the Glass Teepee, a glass chapel in the forest that takes 8 guests; in winter a Snow Chapel is built too, weather allowing.

For the party there are the Planetarium Restaurant, for up to 350 guests with a glass-roofed room for 80, and the Celebration House, which the resort calls Finland’s largest log building, for up to 250. The Wedding Chamber, the Queen Suite and the Kelo-Glass Igloos are the rooms it suggests to the couple.

No price list or package for weddings is published: requests go to the weddings office by e-mail.

No programme for 31 December 2026 was on the site on 8 October 2026. The night is on sale at the top rate: on the booking engine a cabin for 2 with breakfast and dinner was €946, a Small Glass Igloo €1,679 and a Kelo-Glass Igloo €2,040; on 24 December the cabin and the Kelo-Glass Igloo cost the same, and no Small Glass Igloo was left.

Guests who were there on 31 December 2025 describe a New Year’s Eve buffet served in sittings, one of them at 9 pm.

No: golf appears nowhere on the official pages. The outdoor programme is the forest and the fells, as the summer and autumn list has it: hiking, horse riding, quad bikes, rafting, canoeing, fishing and gold panning.

The glass igloos are available “right through the northern lights season”, which the room pages place from about the third week of August to the end of April. On the booking engine, read on 8 October 2026, every night from 8 October 2026 to 30 April 2027 was on sale, igloos and cabins alike; from 1 May 2027 nothing was, on any of the dates tried up to December 2027.

The site announces no closing dates. Its rates show the pattern: a summer rate from 1 June to 30 September 2026, an autumn rate for October, a winter rate to 30 April 2027, and nothing covering May.

Open does not mean everything is running. Guests in October 2025 and September 2026 found the East Village closed and were lodged and fed in the West Village; on 8 October 2026 the site marked the planetarium, the Igloo Tower and the café “closed for the season”. Expedia notes that reception is staffed 24 hours only in winter.

On the official booking engine, read on 8 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night with breakfast and dinner, the cheapest log cabin was €278 on 9 October 2026, €536 on 14 November, €617 on 10 December, €946 on 24 December and on 31 December, €617 on 14 February 2027 and €501 on 10 April. A Small Glass Igloo was €468 on 9 October 2026, €850 on 14 November, €963 on 10 December, €1,679 on 31 December and €784 on 10 April 2027.

A Kelo-Glass Igloo, on the same reading: €569 on 9 October, €1,086 on 14 November, €1,220 on 10 December, €2,040 on 24 December and €996 on 10 April 2027. For 24 December no Small Glass Igloo was left. The last night on sale was 30 April 2027, a cabin at €501.

Google Hotels, read the same day for the East Village listing, shows the lowest price from any seller, which is a cabin’s: €251 on 9 October, €494 on 14 November, €572 on 10 December and €946 on 24 December. The figures include taxes: for 9 October Booking.com’s link on the card stated a total of €278.00 of which €33.07 was tax, the same €278 as the resort’s own site, and the €251 came from an agency.

“All our prices and services include gratuity and local taxes”, the resort’s FAQ says, and the Google Hotels card agrees: the amounts it shows for Finland have the tax inside.

What the rate leaves out is listed on the rate pages: daily cleaning at €18 a person a day, luggage handling at €13 a person each way (€12 on the autumn page), the firewood service at €37, with staff lighting the fire, and €22 for each refill (€35 and €20 in autumn). Daily cleaning is included only in the Kelo-Glass Igloos.

Smoking in a room costs the price of one night. Safaris, the planetarium, the smoke sauna and airport transfers are all paid for apart: the 2-hour husky safari starts at €80 a person, the planetarium ticket at €23.05.

On 8 October 2026 Google gave the East Village listing 4.1/5 from 1,419 ratings, 64% of them 5 stars, and the West Village listing 4.3/5 from 850. Tripadvisor gave 3.8/5 from 2,374, first of 19 specialty lodgings in Saariselkä, with location at 4.4, service at 3.6 and value at 3.2; Booking.com 8.0/10 from 750, with value for money at 6.8; Expedia 8.4/10 from 243.

The praise goes to the place itself: the forest, the igloo at night, the private sauna, the huskies and the reindeer, and often to individual members of staff. The reviews also come back to plain cooking, the pace of service in high season, the extras added to the rate and igloos that stand close together.

A portal’s score covers both villages and every type of unit, from a €278 cabin in October to a Kelo-Glass Igloo at Christmas, which goes some way to explaining how far apart the reviews are.

Check-in is from 3 pm and check-out by 10 am, on every room page; the packages’ schedules put check-in at 2 pm, as Booking.com and Expedia do. Early arrivals leave bags in the luggage room.

For guests who stay in both villages the transfer between them is free. Wooden sledges stand about for carrying bags, and the paid luggage service has to be ordered in advance.