A Winter Adventure to Swedish Lapland with Kids

When you hear the word Lapland you probably think of Santa's workshop in Finland, but did you know Lapland actually stretches across Northern Sweden as well? Lapland refers to the nomadic Sami region, and compared to its Finnish counterpart, Swedish Lapland is a lot less crowded and more affordable, but with many of the same things to see and do.

I'm from Sweden myself but this was my first time venturing this far north and it actually ended up being one of my favourite ever trips. We spent five nights in Kiruna with our 3-year-old daughter, and here is what I would recommend doing if you are planning on visiting Swedish Lapland with young kids.

When to Visit Swedish Lapland with Kids

The busiest period for winter trips to Lapland is the month of December, but the winter season this far north is anytime between October/November through till end of March. This is also when you are most likely to see the Northern Lights. Peak winter here can be very harsh, with temperatures often dropping to -20°C in December/January, and during these months you also get the polar nights with very little daylight (great for Northern Lights, but it mean you'll have little time in the day to do things like dogsledding and other activities).

We visited mid-March and it was a really nice time to visit - it's at the end of the season which means it's less crowded and more affordable, but we were still able to experience winter. The days are longer with the sun setting/rising at similar times to the UK and the rest of Europe, and temperatures are milder (we had lows of -6°C at night and highs of 2°C in the day).

It's worth mentioning as well that the area is a really popular destination in summer, especially for hikers with the famous Kungsleden trail. In June/July you can also experience the phenomenon of midnight sun where the sun never fully sets. Although Kiruna isn't near any sea, there are plenty of lakes with water temperatures sometimes reaching above 20°C.

How to Get Around Swedish Lapland with Kids

The best and easiest way to get around with kids is to hire a car. This gives you the most flexibility when exploring, especially if you are planning on visiting places like Abisko National Park (this also means you can stop for sled breaks when the kids get bored of the car!). If you visit in winter, all cars will be fitted with winter tyres and are safe to drive on snowy/icy roads.

There is public transport available with regular city buses going around Kiruna, as well as regional buses connecting Kiruna with other places like Jukkasjärvi, Abisko and Nikkaluokta. The regional buses are less frequent with some buses only running once a day, so if you don't hire a car and still want to explore, make sure to double check the timetables and plan accordingly! And if you are planning on doing a few tours, a lot of them offer hotel transfers.

What to Bring and Wear in Swedish Lapland with Kids

If you are doing a winter break, make sure to bring lots of warm layers! (In fact, even if you're going in summer it can get cold, especially in the mountains.) Make sure to bring things like thermals, fleeces, woollen socks, snoods, hats, waterproof gloves, ski trousers, waterproof snow boots and a warm, wind-proof jacket (ideally with a hood). As we went outside of the coldest winter months, we also brought a few thinner layers so we could "peel off" in the middle of the day when the sun was quite warm.

For our daughter, we brought:

• merino wool base layers

• thick wool socks

• waterproof snow boots

• balaclava, hat and snoods (we mixed it up a bit but ended up wearing the balaclava most)

• waterproof, fleece-lined gloves

• overalls

• ski jacket and ski trousers (we ended up using this more than the overalls as it was more practical with toilet breaks!)

• woollen jumpers and fleeces

• fleece trousers and thick trousers

I would also recommend bringing sunglasses and sunscreen with high SPF as well as hand warmers and a head torch (especially if you are planning to hunt for Northern Lights!).

Where to stay in Swedish Lapland with Kids

There are a few areas to consider when visiting Swedish Lapland with kids, and where is best to stay will depend on things like budget, what you plan to do and whether or not you have access to a car. We chose to stay in the Lakeview Cabin by Bohemian Lucky Bastards which was perfect for us as it was on a husky farm next to a frozen lake. Our daughter loved the dogs and the access to the lake meant we could take our daughter sledding and go down to view the Northern Lights after bedtime. A lot of Swedish cabins don't have running water, something which surprisingly didn't bother us much (despite travelling 7 months pregnant and with a 3-year-old!).

I do understand though that staying somewhere with no running water might not be for every family so here are a few other options (with running water!) in different areas worth considering:

Kiruna - if you want to stay central with easy access to tours and activities

Recommended acommodation: Scandic Kiruna, Kiruna City Studios

Abisko - if you want to stay in the middle of the beautiful national park (limited accommodation options so book early!)

Recommended accommodation: STF Abisko Turiststation

Jukkasjärvi - for a unique experience, stay at the Icehotel!

Recommended accommodation: Icehotel

Poikkijärvi - right next to the river, great for Northern Lights

Recommended accommodation: Aurora River Camp, Reindeer Aurora Riverfront Lodge

What to Do in Swedish Lapland with Kids

There is so much to explore in this part of Sweden - so let's get into it! We spent 5 days here in March (which is still winter here), so the below activities are based on there being a lot of snow still and some are seasonal and won't be available in spring/summer.

Icehotel

The Icehotel, as the name suggests, is a hotel entirely made out of ice. Every spring, the hotel melts into the Torne river and the production for next year's Icehotel starts in March each year with ice harvested from the same river. When winter returns in November, artists from around the world gather to carve out the new hotel.

For a really unique experience, you can actually stay in one of the Art Suites of the Icehotel! The rooms all hold a temperature of -5°C to -8°C and the beds, which, like everything else, are made of ice, are covered with a reindeer skin and you sleep in a warm sleeping bag (made for temperatures as low as -25°). There are warm toilets and changing rooms available in the buildings next to the Icehotel. If you're interested, you can book your stay here.

If you don't want to stay in the hotel, I would still highly recommend visiting for the day, which is what we did. It's a really impressive place to visit, with a really interesting concept. Tickets are around £30/adult (free for kids under the age of 4) and can only be bought onsite.

We started off with a drink in the ice bar, served in a glass made of ice, then explored the exhibition of the different rooms. Each room as been sculpted by a different artist and had a different theme. As a former Art History student, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different rooms and the creativity and imagination that had gone into creating each one, and my daughter who is obsessed with Frozen (and yes, we brought her Elsa dress solely so she could wear it here) loved playing in "Elsa's castle".

There are a lot of rooms to see so make sure to allocate enough time here! And if your child gets bored, like mine, your ticket allows you to leave and come back so you can take them to the warm cafe for a snack break (or a hot chocolate!) and take it in turns to explore.

Dogsledding

This is without a doubt one of the most fun things you will do! You can choose to do a tour with a guide or a self-guided tour. We did one with a guide as most self-guided tours aren't suitable for young kids or pregnant people (I was 7-months pregnant when we visited). You can also choose if you want to do a morning tour, afternoon tour or an evening tour with the chance to see the Northern Lights.

As we stayed on a husky farm, we chose to do a tour with the people we stayed with, which was extra special as we got to know the dogs a bit more over the course of our stay. We did a morning tour with our host Zbynek which took us across the lake where we stayed and over to the Torne River. After about 30 minutes, we stopped at a traditional Sami goahti, a type of wooden hut with a fire in the middle, where we had some fika (coffee/hot chocolate and warm cinnamon buns) and a cuddle with the dogs as they cooled off in the snow, before heading back again.

Most tours will include clothes to wear for the tour as it can get quite cold (tackets, trousers, boots, gloves, etc.). They even had some things that fit our daughter which was very handy! On the way there we rode with my daughter in front so she could see, but she did end up getting a little cold, so on the way back she rode in the middle between us which kept her a bit more sheltered.

Recommended tour: Small Group Dog Sled Tour with a Unique Team of Dogs

Northern Lights

Did you know Abisko in Swedish Lapland is considered the best place in the world to see the Northern Lights? Due to its position far from the sea and next to mountains and Lake Torneträsk, it benefits from the "blue hole" phenomenon, meaning the skies are much clearer here than other parts of the Arctic Circle. It is also directly located under the Aurora Oval, which means there is often high solar activity in this part of the world.

If you're here in the winter months, seeing the Northern Lights is probably high on your list! During mid-winter, the lights can be seen even in late morning/afternoon as the nights are longer, whereas when we went in March it didn't get properly dark until around 6.30-7pm, and sunrise was around 6am. This meant we were more likely to see the Northern Lights after our daughter's bedtime, so we specifically chose a place to stay with good access points so that we wouldn't have to drive around and find them. As we stayed right next to a frozen lake, it meant we could go out onto the lake in the middle of the night (one night we set an alarm for 2.30am...) and bring the baby monitor with us.

We were lucky enough to see the lights 3 out of the 5 nights we stayed here (and we could have seen them on the first night as well had we not been so tired from our 6am flight). I read somewhere that if you stay here for 3 nights, there is an 80% likelihood you'll see them so the odds are pretty good! To keep up to date with the latest Aurora forecast, I would recommend getting a few different apps. We mainly used the My Aurora Forecast & Alerts app, which is a good general app for checking the forecast in different locations, and the IRF Aurora Alert, which is a good one for alerts from the Swedush Institute of Space Physics.

Recommended tour: Aurora Wayfinding with Hidden Histories

Abisko National Park

The beautiful Abisko National Park is only about an hour from Kiruna with gorgeous mountains and views of the frozen Torneträsk lake. Abisko is also the best place to see the Northern Lights as it has the least cloud coverage!

We dedicated a full day to exploring the national park, starting by taking the ski lift up to Mount Nuolja. It's a 2km cable car ride up to the top and it does get cold so even if it's a warm day, layer up! I have a fear of heights so I was slightly terrified going up, but the views from the top are truly incredible. There is a cafe with a viewing platform once you get there so we had some hot chocolate and a cardamom bun whilst admiring the views before heading back down again.

Next to Mount Nuolja are a few trails of varying length and difficulty - we wanted to explore a bit more but didn't want to overdo it so we decided to do the shortest trail to Kanjonen, a canyon with a frozen waterfall, about 30 minutes roundtrip (though it took us more like an hour with a 3-year-old who did not want to sit in the sled...). The trail is easy and mostly boardwalked, so very kid-friendly (though there were a few parts that were quite icy so walk with caution!). You can also walk down into the canyon, and we even saw someone bouldering up the frozen waterfall, but as it was nearing dinner time we just stayed at the top.

On the drive back to Kiruna it was already getting dark and we were lucky enough to see the Northern Lights dancing in the sky the whole drive back.

Moose spotting in Nikkaluokta

If you're renting a car, I would highly recommend doing this drive from Kiruna to Nikkaluokta. It's about an hour's drive on a straight road, and although nothing much happens on the drive in terms of scenery, it's a very good road for seeing some wild moose so keep your eyes peeled! Especially around the half-way mark as there is an Icelandic horse ranch and the moose like to sneak over and steal the horses' food. We managed to spot three moose on our drive, as well as three reindeer.

Nikkaluokta is also a nice place to explore with beautiful scenery right next to the mountains and a frozen lake (you can see Sweden's highest mountain, Kebenekaise from here!). If you are going for hiking in summer, this is also part of the Kungsleden hiking trail (we saw a few hardcore hikers here even in winter, as well as some cross-country skiiers).

There is a cafe and a shop here, as well as some information about the different trails, but we ended up just taking our sled and going for a walk out onto the frozen lake which was beautiful!

Recommended tour: Moose Spotting Tour from Kiruna to Nikkaluokta

Nutti Sami Siida - Márkanbáiki

I'm ashamed to say that despite being Swedish, I know very little of Sami culture and their traditions, so I really enjoyed learning more about it on this trip. If you want a full, immersive Sami experience, there are several tours that let you join the Sami reindeer herders for a day. These are quite pricey though, starting at around £230/person, and weren't all suitable for young kids, so we decided to instead visit the Sami open air museum in Jukkasjärvi, right next to the Icehotel.

The main attraction (at least for my daughter!) was meeting and feeding the reindeer (reindeer food can be bought at reception). This was really fun and we got to get really up close to the reindeer! Apart from the reindeer encounters, you can walk around the open air museum and learn about the history, food, traditions and nomadic way of living of the Sami. You can view and enter different types of Sami accommodation, like the lavvu (temporary accommodation, similar to a teepee) and goahti (a Sami hut). You can also have a go at throwing a lasso and see if you can catch a (wooden) reindeer and there was a kids corner where kids could learn more about the region and the different Nordic animals that live here.

Onsite inside a large lavvu tent is the restaurant Ovttas where you can try authentic Sami food like reindeer meat. It's a really cosy spot with a fire in the middle and we ended coming back here for dinner as it was only a 10-minute drive from our cabin - the food was delicious and our daughter enjoyed some hot lingonberry juice.

Recommended tour: Reindeer Herder Tour with Sami Dinner and Transfers

Sauna and Ice Bath

If you want the real Nordic experience, book somewhere you can have an ice bath and a sauna! Obviously not suitable for young kids, but if you're staying in a lakeside cabin, chances are you'll have access to both and can do it after bedtime/take it in turns.

As I was pregnant I took it very easy and listened to my body, only staying in the sauna for short intervals and going for a very quick dip in the ice bath - but my husband managed to stay in the water for 16 seconds! It wasn't actually as cold as expected (we wore scuba socks, gloves and hat) and felt very refreshed afterwards.

And if an ice bath feels a bit too scary, it is also really refreshing to just cool down outside under the stars (our host Evy very kindly prepared some snacks and water for us and made the are cosy with some cushions and candles).

Sledding and Snowman Making

If you are travelling here with kids in winter, you don't need to book lots of activities - some of my daughter's favourite things to do were building snowmen and going sledding! There is so much nature everywhere that you can literally just stop the car and find a spot to yourselves and play in the snow. Grab a bunch of carrots for snowman noses, a thermos of hot chocolate and a sled and get out in the snow!

We bought a plastic sled (pulka in Swedish) from Intersport which cost around £20 and took it around everywhere. We didn't bother with a stroller on this trip, but the sled was a good alternative for when our daughter got too tired to walk (top tip: get one that can carry adults as well as kids - you're never too old to go sledding!).

All in all, we found that Swedish Lapland was a great destination for a family holiday. Though it doesn't have the Santa experience of Finnish Lapland, it's a much more affordable and less crowded option (especially when you go at the end of a season like we did) and still allowed us to have a proper winter wonderland experience!