Chasing the Northern Lights in Finnish Lapland 🇫🇮

From canceled plans to aurora magic: Kerri's unforgettable journey.

This week’s Postcard is a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the Northern Lights in Finland, narrated by

Kerri Linsenbigler

.

Kerri is a marketer based in Buffalo, NY. A lifelong travel lover and Type A planner, she started Kerri On Travel to share carry-on packing tips, travel itineraries, and stories of her favorite places.

You can also follow her on TikTok at @kerriontravel and Instagram at @kerri_ontravel.

---

A dream trip years in the making

I built up a trip to Lapland in my head for years before I actually set foot on Finnish soil.

It all started in 2018 or 2019, when I saw a (since deleted) vlog from a Youtuber spending a dark, cold week north of the Arctic Circle. I immediately bookmarked the video, looked up the resort, and started plotting how and when I would get there.

Of the Nordic destinations, Finland still tends to fly under the radar for Americans. I’m not sure why. There aren’t the dramatic fjords of Norway or the thermal anomalies of Iceland, but something about the quiet nature of Finland called to me.

Finally, in March 2020 I was ready to go. Our trip was booked. My bags were packed. We were leaving for the airport in the morning. Then the burgeoning pandemic spurred a travel ban. There would be no more flights from the US to Europe for the foreseeable future.

What followed was a chaotic attempt to get in touch with the airline, our hotels in Helsinki, and the resort in Lapland to rebook or refund our trip. Some were happy to credit us for a future trip, while others said we were out of luck.

I was crushed, but ultimately hopeful that one day we could pick up our plans where we left off.

And we did, two years later.

Learning to let go

With only a week to spend in Finland, we split our time between Helsinki and Lapland. I always assumed all-inclusives were a beach thing, but we booked a 4-day package with Wilderness Hotel Inari that included meals, accommodations in lake-front cabins (including our own saunas!), and daily activities like snowmobiling, reindeer feeding, dog sledding, and, of course, aurora hunting.

Seeing the northern lights was not guaranteed, and they make you well aware of that. Going in, you have to have the mindset of enjoying every experience for what it is and the lights are a bonus.

This is the attitude I try to take on all of my trips. It might seem a surprising mindset for someone who meticulously plans every trip like I do (you should see my spreadsheets), but I find that knowing my options actually allows me to be more flexible and spontaneous. I never have to worry about what we’ll do next or where we’ll eat tonight, so, of course, we can check out that place we stumbled upon. I’ve got a backup if needed.

Once I’m there and the planning is done, I remind myself to sit in the moment and enjoy it as it happens. This has opened up so many cool experiences for me over the years. If things don’t go as planned, you just have to (try to) roll with it.

With our cancellation and years long journey to get to Lapalnd, I was just happy to be there at all. Of course we had our sights set on the lights, but the memories of dog sledding across the snowy wilderness, feeding a reindeer from my hand, snowmobiling through the fog, and playing board games by the lodge fire were more than enough for me. But after two cloudy nights, our perseverance was rewarded when the clouds broke, setting us up for a spectacular light show.

Lights in the sky

The night of our aurora camp, our guides drove us out on sleighs across frozen Lake Inari to a camp with a large tent, fire, and hot drinks ready to serve.

We looked toward the northern horizon for a while before faint lines of milky green started to streak across the sky. They got brighter and brighter until there was no denying—those were the northern lights.

To the naked eye, the lights can seem hazy and aren’t nearly as colorful as you see online. That’s because your camera or phone set to long exposure can pick up a much wider spectrum of color than your eye.

The colors and vibrancy also depend heavily on the strength of the solar storm. As many in the northern hemisphere saw in May or October 2024, a super strong flare can produce extremely vibrant auroras visible further south and more varied in color.

Even though it wasn’t the strongest storm, watching the lights dance over a frozen lake in Lapland is a memory that is burned into my brain. It’s one of those moments that take your breath away and make you indescribably grateful to be here on this planet.

I’ve been chasing that travel high for as long as I can remember. I’ve felt it in the tundra of Alaska, a pub in Dingle, even on my block in North Buffalo. You don’t need to go to the far corners of the earth to find it, but it sure is more fun that way.

---

Check out Kerri’s latest post about Helsinki!

How to Have a Good Time in Helsinki