Snowmobile safaris are the most exhilarating way to explore the forests and fell country around Rovaniemi in winter. Guided tours leave from operators based in and around the city and head into birch forests, along frozen lakes, and up onto the open fell ridges where the views extend for tens of kilometres in every direction. Most operators require no prior experience and give a brief training session before departure; the machines are straightforward to drive on well-maintained trails.
Half-day tours cover 30 to 50 kilometres and are the right length for most visitors. Full-day safaris go further afield and often include a meal at a wilderness cabin or reindeer farm. The experience is genuinely physical — the cold at speed is intense even in proper gear, and the concentration required for trail driving is tiring — but the sensation of moving through an Arctic forest at speed, with snow-loaded trees on either side and the silence of the wilderness between engine sounds, is one that Lapland does better than anywhere else. Operators are concentrated along the road to Santa Claus Village; book in advance in December and January.