How Much Does Swedish Lapland Cost with Kids? Our Real Family Budget
The honest answer to this question is: less than you probably think, and considerably less than Finnish Lapland if you are comparing like for like. When we started planning our trip to Kiruna in Swedish Lapland, I spent hours searching for a genuine family cost breakdown. I wanted real numbers, not ballpark estimates from travel companies pushing expensive packages. I could not find one.
Here is exactly what we spent over five nights in Swedish Lapland. This covers two adults and a three year old toddler, including a full itinerary of dogsledding, the Icehotel, Abisko National Park, and staying directly on a working husky farm.
Total for two adults and one toddler over five nights: £2,132.
For a full side-by-side comparison with Finnish Lapland, read our . For the full day-by-day itinerary we followed, see our 5-night Swedish Lapland itinerary with kids.
Our Total: 5 Nights in Swedish Lapland, 2 Adults and 1 Toddler
Category | What We Spent |
Flights (2 adults + 1 toddler) | £411 |
Car hire (5 days, SUV with winter tyres) | £320 |
Accommodation (5 nights) | £681 |
Dogsledding tour | £370 |
Icehotel visit and drinks | £70 |
Food and drink (5 days) | £280 |
Total | £2,132 |
A few things shaped this total considerably. We visited in mid March, which falls at the end of the winter season and is noticeably cheaper for accommodation. We also cooked some of our own meals at the cabin, keeping the food budget significantly lower than if we had eaten out every meal time.
For context, the exact same trip to Finnish Lapland typically costs £3,350 to £4,550 for a family of three based on average December pricing in Rovaniemi and Saariselkä. This means a significant saving by choosing Swedish Lapland.
Flights
The main route from the UK to Kiruna is with SAS via Stockholm, departing from London Heathrow. We paid £411 for two adults and one toddler booked around ten weeks before departure, travelling in mid-March. That breaks down to roughly £200 per adult return.
Children under two travel on a parent's lap and typically pay around 10-15% of the adult fare on SAS, so roughly £20-50. Children aged two and over require their own seat at a fare close to the adult price on this route.
The biggest hidden advantage of Swedish Lapland is that flight prices stay largely flat across the entire winter season. Unlike Finnish Lapland, where December flights regularly reach £300-400 per person return, Kiruna prices do not surge at Christmas. You can go in December and pay roughly the same as in February, which matters considerably if you are tied to school holiday dates.
Kiruna Airport is about fifteen minutes from the town centre and there are no regular buses so you will either pick up your hire car there (we picked Hertz - compare here) or take a taxi at around £15-20 for the trip.
Budget figure: £150-250 per adult return, booked in advance.
Car Hire
A car is essential. The distances between Kiruna, Jukkasjärvi, the Torne River villages and Abisko are manageable but not walkable, and if you are watching Aurora forecasts in the middle of the night you want to be able to drive to dark skies.
All hire cars from Kiruna Airport come with winter tyres as standard in the winter months, with no supplement for that. We hired an SUV for five days and paid £320 in total, booked through Hertz in advance. That works out at £64 per day, which is on the lower end and reflects booking ahead. The major hire companies (Hertz, Avis, Europcar, Sixt, Budget) all operate from the airport so you can compare the deals here.
One practical note: if you are travelling with car seats, bring your own if possible. Hire car seats in Kiruna exist but are limited and an extra cost.
Budget figure: £60-100 per day for a family-sized car, depending on advance booking and vehicle type.
Accommodation
There are a few different accomodation options available in Swedish Lapland with some really unique places to stay. Here is a rough guide to current nightly rates:
Type | Approximate price per night |
Lakeview Cabin Husky Farm | £80-120 |
Aurora River Camp Glass Igloo | £120-180 |
£130-180 | |
£100-150 | |
£160-250 | |
£400-800 |
We stayed at the Lakeview Cabin by Bohemian Lucky Bastards and it sits directly on a frozen lake with open sky views, which meant we could walk out onto the ice in the middle of the night with the baby monitor and watch the Northern Lights without driving anywhere. It has no running water, which is common for this type of Swedish cabin and was perfectly manageable for us, though I appreciate it is not for everyone.
The cabins on the Torne River and around the husky farms represent the best combination of cost and experience in the region. Staying on a lake or river puts you in the landscape rather than next to it, and Aurora viewing from the doorstep removes the cost of paying for organised evening tours.
For every accommodation option across Kiruna, Jukkasjärvi, Poikkijärvi, and Abisko with full cot availability, family room detail and price ranges, read our Where to Stay in Swedish Lapland with Kids guide.
Activities
These are the biggest drain on a Lapland budget, so I would recommend being selective because you do not need to do absolutely everything. Our trip was built around dogsledding, a day at Abisko, and an Icehotel visit, which covers the essential Swedish Lapland experiences without the budget spiralling. There are however a number of different types of experiences which I've outlined below that might be on your bucket list.
Dogsledding
We paid £370 for the three of us on a guided half-day tour with Zbynek from the husky farm where we stayed, which included crossing the frozen lake and Torne River and stopping at a traditional Sami goahti for coffee and cinnamon buns. As well as staying with them we chose them in particular because I wanted an experience which would be safe for me whilst I was 7m pregnant and also safe for our 3 year old daughter.
Children are usually free or half price on guided passenger tours. Most operators provide full arctic outerwear (jacket, trousers, boots, gloves) for the duration of the tour, so you do not need to own or hire kit specifically for this.
We absolutely loved our experience with Zbynek and Evy and you can see how much they love doing this and being with their dogs. You can book with them here: Small Group Dog Sled Tour with a Unique Team of Dogs
(Download the GetYourGuide app then apply the code TODDLERTRAVELDIARIES5 for 5% off)
Budget figure: £180 - £220 per adult for a half-day driving experience.
The Icehotel
Entry to look around the art suites and ice bar costs around £30 per adult; children under 4 are free. We also had drinks at the ice bar, which pushed our total to £70 for two adults across the visit and drinks.
If you do want to stay overnight at the Icehotel then warm rooms are from around £160-250 per night including breakfast. The other option is the unique opportunity to sleep in the Ice Art Suites which are kept at -5°C to -8°C. These are the individually crafted rooms from ice taken out of hte river and to keep you warm beds are ice covered with reindeer hide, and you sleep in sleeping bags rated to -25°C. These start from around £400 per night so they aren't cheap but it is probably a once in a lifetime experience. Note they officially recommend that children be at least seven years old to sleep in them.
Check room availability here
Budget figure: £30 per adult for a day visit (free for under 4s), £160-250 per night for a warm room and and around £400+ for an Ice Art Suite
Abisko National Park and the Aurora Sky Station
The drive to Abisko from Kiruna takes about an hour. The canyon walk at Kanjonen is free, the Naturum visitor centre is free, and walking the lake shore costs nothing. A day in Abisko built around these activities, including fuel and lunch at the STF station, costs around £30-50 per adult.
The Aurora Sky Station evening visit costs 1,025 SEK per adult (approximately £77), with a 50% discount for youth aged 12-15. Children under 12 are not permitted on the night visit due to the open chairlift and temperatures regularly reaching -15°C to -25°C on the mountain.
We took the cable car up Mount Nuolja in the daytime, which has no age restriction. We had cardamom buns and my daughter loved having her hot chocolate at the café at the top whilst we looked at the views across Torneträsk.
Budget figure: Free to visit Abisko and walk the canyon; £30-50 per adult for a full daytime visit including lunch; £77 per adult for the Aurora Sky Station night visit (12+ only).
The Sami Museum, Jukkasjärvi
Entry to the Sami open air museum next to the Icehotel is priced at a low entry fee on the door. The highlight for our daughter was feeding the reindeer (reindeer food bought at reception). We had dinner afterwards at Ovttas restaurant inside a lavvu tent with a fire in the middle, with reindeer stew for the adults and hot lingonberry juice for our daughter.
Recommended tour: Reindeer Herder Tour with Sami Dinner and Transfers
(Download the GetYourGuide app then apply the code TODDLERTRAVELDIARIES5 for 5% off)
Northern Lights Tours
We watched the Northern Lights from the frozen lake at our cabin on three of our five nights, without any organised tour cost. Walking out onto the ice at 2.30am with the baby monitor while our daughter slept costs nothing except sleep.
However, if you are staying somewhere in town without direct dark sky access, you absolutely need to book an organised Aurora tour. The best ones do not just park you in a field. They use live weather tracking to drive you far away from the Kiruna light pollution to find the clearest skies, whether that means a wind sheltered forest or a completely frozen lake. If you are staying somewhere without direct dark sky access, an organised Aurora tour costs around £60-100 per adult.
Recommended tour: Aurora Wayfinding with Hidden Histories
(Download the GetYourGuide app then apply the code TODDLERTRAVELDIARIES5 for 5% off)
Budget figure: £60-100 per adult for an organised evening tour.
Snowmobiling and Reindeer Experiences
If you are looking for a proper Arctic adventure then snowmobiling through the frozen Arctic wilderness is incredible. The trails take you deep into the snow covered birch forests and across massive frozen lakes where regular vehicles simply cannot go. Many tours specifically head out at night to chase the Northern Lights, giving you the thrill of riding under the stars before stopping at a wilderness camp for hot coffee and a warming fire.
Snowmobile tours typically start from around £90 to £140 per adult. The minimum age for child passengers is usually three to four years old, and they travel safely tucked up in a wooden sled pulled directly behind the guide.
If you prefer a much slower and more traditional pace, reindeer sleigh rides are completely magical for young children. If you want a truly authentic and unforgettable encounter, I highly recommend booking a comprehensive Sámi experience. These premium tours cost around £265 per adult and take you deep into the heart of traditional Sámi culture. You get to take a peaceful, traditional sleigh ride through the completely silent snow covered forest, meet and hand feed the reindeer herd, and then gather around a roaring open fire inside a cosy lavvu tent to taste Sámi inspired food. It is a spectacular way to experience the real Lapland.
Recommended tours:
(Download the GetYourGuide app then apply the code TODDLERTRAVELDIARIES5 for 5% off)
Ice Fishing
There is something special about drilling your own hole through a metre of solid ice and dropping a line into the freezing water below. It requires a lot of patience, but sitting out on the vast white expanse of a frozen lake surrounded by nothing but snow covered pine trees is an incredibly peaceful way to spend an Arctic morning. Even if you do not catch anything, the experience of snowshoeing out onto the ice and warming up by a campfire afterwards makes it entirely worthwhile. This might not be for the younger kids but with all the waiting around but if they are a bit older they are likely to find it interesting fishing in this way.
Basic ice fishing trips usually start from around £75 per adult if you are based over in Abisko. If you want a more comprehensive Kiruna experience that perfectly combines ice fishing with snowshoeing or a wilderness snowmobile ride, you should comfortably budget anywhere from £140 to £195 per adult.
Recommended tours:
(Download the GetYourGuide app then apply the code TODDLERTRAVELDIARIES5 for 5% off)
Sledding and Playing in the Snow
My daughter's favourite activity when we were in the cabin was sledding and building snowmen. We bought a plastic pulka (sled) from Intersport for £20, took it everywhere, and stopped the car wherever the snow looked good.
Food and Drink
We spent £280 across five days for two adults and a toddler, and the reason it was that low is that we cooked a lot of our own food at the cabin. The supermarket in Kiruna (ICA) is well-stocked and a supermarket shop for five days of basics, breakfasts, lunches, snacks and a few simple dinners cost around £80-100.
Eating out at a mid-range restaurant in Kiruna runs around £15-22 for a main course. We had a few restaurant meals across the trip: dinner at Ovttas in Jukkasjärvi, lunch at the STF station in Abisko, and a couple of café stops. These were all good and reasonably priced.
The one thing I would say about food budgeting is this: if you are planning to eat out every night, add at least £50-80 per day for two adults onto whatever figure you start with. Eating out in Kiruna is comparable to UK prices and there is no way to make it cheap if you are relying on restaurants for every meal.
Budget figure: £40 per day cooking mainly from the supermarket; £80-100 per day on a mix of restaurants and self-catering.
Thermal Clothing: Buy, Hire or Borrow?
Most organised tour operators provide thermal suits, boots and gloves for the duration of their specific activity. The dogsledding operators all supply full arctic outerwear, so you do not need to own kit just for that.
For general daily use, the minimum is a proper base layer, a warm mid layer, a windproof outer layer, boots rated to around -20°C, and gloves that are warmer than you think you need. In mid-March we had lows of around -6°C at night and milder days, so the full deep winter kit was not necessary. In December and January you would want a heavier setup.
We saved significantly by borrowing ski gear from family, using whatever mismatch of layers we already owned and buying a few items from Vinted. For our daughter we bought merino wool base layers, waterproof snow boots, a balaclava and waterproof fleece-lined gloves, plus ski trousers and a ski jacket. She has since worn all of it through the cold British winters.
If buying rather than borrowing, budget £60-120 per adult for a solid layering setup. Note for rental options the STF Abisko station and Camp Ripan both have equipment hire if you want to rent for the week rather than buy. Our hosts where we stayed also had lots of warm weather gear and let us borrow it for free so our own layers would stay dry.
Budget figure: £0 if you have winter kit already; £60-120 per adult to buy the basics; £30-50 per adult per week to hire.
Is Swedish Lapland Worth the Cost?
Yes. And the honest version of that answer is that five nights in Swedish Lapland, planned independently, delivers an experience that nothing else in a comparable budget really compares to. We watched the Northern Lights from a frozen lake at 2.30am. My daughter rode a dogsled through a birch forest to a fire-lit Sami hut. She saw reindeer at close range and fed them by hand. She even watched someone climb up a frozen waterfall.
The key is planning it yourself rather than buying a package. The infrastructure is straightforward, English is spoken everywhere, and all the activities are bookable directly. You do not need a tour operator to manage this trip for you.
For the full day-by-day plan, read our 5-night Swedish Lapland itinerary with kids. For the best family friendly accommodation options, read our Where to Stay in Swedish Lapland with Kids.
