See the Northern Lights

On cloudless nights in Lapland you can often see the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis. They are a pale fire of green, blue, yellow and red, rising from the horizon. You see them best in the dark, away from the lights of houses and hotels. On a few nights a year you can see them as far south as Helsinki.

From November to January, various shades of soothing blue are Lapland's most distinctive colors. The land is cloaked in a dim veil of light, known as kaamos. During these mid-winter months, the sun does not rise at all. As a counterbalance to the sleepy world of snow and ice, the Northern Lights flash across the clear night skies.

You can see the phenomenon in almost any part of Lapland - and sometimes much further south, even in Helsinki when the weather conditions are right. But the best bet is in February-March and September-October in the Kilpisjärvi area in the far north of the country.