The 14-day tour starts in Helsinki and spends 4 nights in Finland before the coastal voyage. There are 13 departures from September 2027 to March 2028.
Norwegian shipping company Hurtigruten is selling a 14-day winter tour that starts in Helsinki, crosses Finnish Lapland by train and coach and then follows the Norwegian coast on its Coastal Express ships. The tour is called Follow the Northern Lights – Finland to Norway. The first group leaves Helsinki on 21 September 2027 and the last on 21 March 2028.
The group meets in Helsinki for dinner on the first evening and takes the train to Rovaniemi the next morning. The days in Lapland go like this:
Day 3: a husky safari near Rovaniemi. The dogs pull a sled when there is enough snow and a wheeled cart when there is not, and a guide does the driving.
Day 4: Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle, a stop at the old church in Sodankylä and a night in an aurora cabin or a glass igloo at the Northern Lights Village on the edge of Saariselkä. In the evening, Sámi guides take the group on a reindeer safari.
Day 5: Siida, the Sámi museum in Inari, and then across the border to the Snowhotel in Kirkenes, Norway.
On day 6 the group boards the Coastal Express in Kirkenes. Over 5 nights the ship sails south along the coast, calling at Vardø, Hammerfest, Honningsvåg and Trondheim and passing through the Lofoten islands, and the voyage ends in Bergen on day 11. From there the group continues by train and fjord ferry, including the Flåm Railway, and the tour ends in Oslo on day 14.
Prices are per person for two people sharing a cabin, as of 5 October 2026. The cheapest departure was 29 October 2027, from 4,965 euros, or 4,190 pounds on Hurtigruten’s UK site. The Christmas and New Year departures on 27 and 31 December 2027 started at 5,764 euros, and the first departure, on 21 September 2027, at 6,688 euros.
The price covers 8 hotel nights, 5 nights on board with all meals at sea, the excursions above and an English-speaking tour manager. Flights to Helsinki and home from Oslo are extra, and on land most lunches and dinners are at your own expense. According to Hurtigruten, groups usually have 20 to 30 people.
Hurtigruten promises a free 6- or 7-day voyage if the northern lights do not appear within sight of the ship on a voyage of 11 days or more, for departures between 20 September and 31 March. This tour lasts 14 days, but the time on board is 5 nights, so ask Hurtigruten whether the promise covers it before you book.
Everything on the Finnish leg is also open to independent travellers: the train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, husky safaris, Santa Claus Village, glass igloos around Saariselkä and the Siida museum in Inari.
Our guides to Rovaniemi , Saariselkä and Inari cover where to stay and what to do in each season, and husky safaris and the northern lights have their own pages.