Star Arctic Hotel & Activities

We recently visited Star Arctic Hotel in the hope of seeing the Northern Lights. We chose March having done all the research on likelihood of seeing and being at the peak of the cycle. Despite this and despite the night before our arrival being described as the best of the season, a 2 hour green and pink display lighting up the sky, we didn’t see any despite our best efforts and aurora hunting trips. Whilst we didn’t achieve what we set out to achieve, it’s a game of luck and this hotel, the staff and the excursions still made this an amazing trip. We stayed in the entry level room as we booked only 4 months out and other options were fully booked. Our room was on two floors - the entrance level where we had a bathroom little living space with a sofa bed & the mezzanine level where our bed was. We had ALOT of stuff which at times made it quite difficult but we made it work. If you’re staying for a long time, or more than 2 people definitely get the bigger rooms if you can. The reception desk works 24/7, there is also an excursions desk who are willing to give advice and move things around to accommodate your plans and weather etc… When staying at Star Arctic you get overalls, boots, gloves and thick socks - they are the warmest stuff I’ve ever worn. You definitely don’t have to worry about getting cold. We wore one or two thermal layers underneath and that was plenty. On some excursions like snowmobiling you get balaclavas too (plus helmet with a visor.) We did husky ride, snowmobiling and aurora hunting with the hotel. At the top of where the hotel is is a ski resort, we also went skiing and toboganning which was great fun. If you’re an advanced skier (mountain not cross country) then you won’t be challenged by the runs but for me it was enjoyable and I had a ski lesson too. The hotel has a great restaurant, breakfast gets a little samey after about 2 days and my coffee isn’t great but the dinner was amazing. We ate here 2 nights, repeating some of the dishes as they were so good the first time. The staff were super helpful and accommodating e.g we didn’t have the pre-arranged set menu but it had a chocolate fondant dessert that wasn’t on a la carte, one of the waiters got the chef to make us one and gave us a great price for doing so. They were also super honest with their recommendations on food and drink, not only here but elsewhere in Saariselka. A trip like this does come at a cost and we didn’t go in peak season, it’s mainly the experienced and dinner but this isn’t a hotel thing, this is a Lapland thing so you’ll experience this anywhere. For us, Star Arctic is worth the money. We would definitely stay here and recommend it to others, it’s remote enough but also close enough to get into the town, lots to do and great experiences.

Grandson

Great location at a great viewing point for the Northern Lights. Good access to Saariselka ski resort & toboggan run. Food is sub-par, so we ended up going to the village.

Stayed for 5D4N, half in the Aurora Glass Cabin and half in the Scenic Suite with Sauna. We managed to catch the northern lights on one of the nights in the glass cabin, but the other nights were unfortunately cloudy :(

We did 2 activities with the hotel — 3.5h husky experience and reindeer feeding & herding, and also had one dinner at Restaurant Kanis.

What we loved:
- Winter gear (overalls, gloves, shoes etc) is provided, with many sizes available. Toboggans are also available for free.
- Service was good, with 24h reception.
- Tour experiences were well done, with local partners who were passionate and helpful. We particularly enjoyed the reindeer experience!
- Proximity to ski lift and toboggan run.
- Rooms were clean and well-maintained. Heating/drying cabinet in the suite was very useful.

What could be improved:
- Location is rather inconvenient if you don’t drive. The ski bus only comes up a few times a day and not at all in the night, so it’s tough to have dinner in the town center. It would be great if the hotel could provide its own shuttle for guests.
- No proper aurora alarm system.
- Breakfast was 99% exactly the same every day. Although the food was pretty good, it gets a bit boring if you’re staying for many days.
- It would be good to have fans available, as it got a bit stuffy in the rooms.

Amazing !!! How come the grade 4 , for this terrible Hotel ?!
This is the last place I wanna be in life. All is terrible … alll….
How to type more about this ?!
Everything I should say makes this place worst .
How can they deceive other customers if I tell all true ?

Fantastisch

The hotel is in a fantastic location and the glass rooms are done really well. We were unlucky to not see the northern lights but we still had a great time.

Hotelli todella kauniilla paikalla. Palvelu oli ystävällistä, huone siisti ja sänky mukava. Olisin silti toivonut näin korkealle hinnalle enemmän vastinetta. Esimerkiksi enemmän tilaa tavaroille, kuivaustilaa märille vaatteille ja laadukkampia kylpyhuoneen tarvikkeita. En myöskään kokenut henkilökunnan kohtelevan meitä mitenkään erikoisesti verrattuna siihen, miten muissa hotelleissa. Aamiainen oli loistava!

We had phoned ahead to be sure that dogs would be welcome in the reception/bar area and walked up several times with our dogs whilst staying nearby. We were warmly welcomed each time and enjoyed many a “Hot Chocolate” and a warm by the lovely fire. Big “Kiitos” to Julia, Mitali and Elisa 🤗

This is a premium hotel, located atop a hill with amazing views, offering accommodations and a myriad of activities for both couples and families. We had a room with sauna which was well worth it after a cold day full of activities.

We area arranged 6 activities via the hotel. Our favorites were day and evening snowmobiling, huskies and snowshoing. There also is a ski slop and tobogganing up hill from the hotel. Take advantage of those.

Last but not last, the staff were very attentive, friendly, and accommodating.

오로라를 보고싶다면 최적의 선택! 산 정상이라 석양 뷰가 아름답고, 바람이 심해서 구름을 날려버려서 한밤에 오로라 감상 가능합니다. 2일간 오로라캐빈에서 숙박하는 동안 모두 한밤의 오로라 쇼를 감상할수 있었어요! 연계된 액티비티도 가성비가 좋아요!

This is a premium hotel, located atop a hill with amazing views, offering accommodations and a myriad of activities for both couples and families. We had a room with sauna which was well worth it after a cold day full of activities.

We area arranged 6 activities via the hotel. Our favorites were day and evening snowmobiling, huskies and snowshoing. There also is a ski slop and tobogganing up hill from the hotel. Take advantage of those.

Last but not last, the staff were very attentive, friendly, and accommodating.

We arrived at Ivalo airport to be greeted by the friendly driver from the Hotel and the transfer was quick – less than half an hour door to door.

We had already ‘checked-in’ on-line before our arrival, but we had a few questions for the Reception staff and they were very were attentive and welcoming. In the meantime, the driver had delivered our cases to our ‘Scenic Suite with Sauna’ room!

The accommodation was a great choice. The Suite was quite comfortable, clean and spacious for two people. The small kitchen had an induction hob, microwave, fridge, coffee machine, kettle and cutlery, pans etc. – everything you might need to make light lunches, snacks and hot drinks!



The beds were comfortable and the wet room (shower room) was modern and met every need. A compact living area with sofa, coffee table, and television was nice and relaxing.

We didn’t use the sauna but it looked wonderful.

A great bonus was the ‘Drying Cupboard’ to dry off clothes and boot liners after a day in the snow!

Underfloor heating kept the room toasty – in fact a little too toasty until you get the thermostat worked out!

The views from our balcony across to Saariselkä were wonderful on clear days and the village lights twinkled in the dark skies.

And, by the entrance, there were three toboggans for us to use.

Daily room cleaning is available but you can opt-out as we did. We only needed a change of towels halfway through our stay and some extra toilet rolls and coffee pods along the way. We mentioned this to the Reception staff and they were quickly delivered to our room.

We cannot fault any of the staff at all – everyone was friendly, helpful, spoke excellent English and seemed to want you to get the very best from your stay there. It was interesting to chat to the staff and discover their stories of how they came to be working at the Hotel. Several are not from the region, or even from Finland, but return each year for the winter season.

The Restaurant was excellent, as were all of the staff working there. The breakfast was full of variety and the only problem was what to choose to eat as there was so much choice!!

In the evenings we enjoyed the set-menu and all of the meals were delicious! There is also an à la carte menu.

Activities are plentiful, varied, interesting and sometimes a little challenging. They all start from the reception of the Hotel, with some involving a trip to the Hotel’s Wilderness Centre which is about twenty minutes journey in the Hotel’s mini-bus or coach. We had booked some activities before we arrived but Cass and Kasper were very helpful when we wanted to book some more.

A couple of hours after we arrived at the Hotel we went to get fitted for our snowsuits – all very well organised. The Hotel will provide a thermal suit, thermal outdoor boots and thermal mittens for the duration of your stay (as well as a helmet if needed – for example, for snowmobile adventures). We had brought our own arctic clothing, but still used the excellent Hotel-provided thermal suit and thermal mittens for the activities.

During the ‘Traditional Reindeer Experience’ we met the reindeer and then went on a joyful reindeer sleigh ride with two people per sleigh. We were given lots of information by a very experienced reindeer herder and by our guide, Henry, who told us about the Sami languages and Finnish life while we all sat around a warming fire drinking hot apple juice. After this, there was a good soup and salad lunch back at the Wilderness Centre.

Our ‘Aurora Hunting – Adventure by Car’ was led by a knowledgable and enthusiastic Jannika.

We were lucky to see the very active northern lights from all three stopping places that evening and the group took some very good photographs. There were only seven in the group and four were quite young ‘twenty-somethings’ who hadn’t really come dressed well for the cold and just wanted to take a quick snap with their phone, jump back in the mini-bus and send photos to their friends. Three of us were enjoying the experience and were happy to take many more photographs and had come more prepared. Jannika did a great job of managing the two parts of a group with split aspirations. However, this is something you should bear in mind when you book this activity – it is the luck of the draw who ends up in your group!

The ‘Northern Lights Wilderness Dinner’ was very enjoyable – a chance to try all the local cuisine. It was a beautiful spread of food and you were encouraged to try a bit of all the dishes on offer. The chef cooked the main course of meat/fish over a huge wood-fired grill. It was a lovely evening, but to hear some Sami folklore as well would have been the ‘icing on the cake’ for us. That’s just a personal view though.

Sadly, although we went prepared, the Northern Lights didn’t make an appearance during the Wilderness Dinner. However, an hour after we had returned to the Hotel, the sky cleared and so we walked for five minutes up towards the top of Kaunispää. The Northern Lights were clearly visible and so we went back to our room, got our camera gear and went back out! Ninety minutes later the Lights began to fade, but we had well over four hundred great photos taken from next to the Kaunispää viewing tower.

The ‘Snowshoe Safari in the Wilderness’ with Tommi was great fun! We walked through the trees to the top of the gentle hill, often through knee-deep snow. There was a welcome break at the top where we took a seat on a log, drank hot apple juice and gazed across the snowy and serene wilderness. Then it was time to walk some more. Listen carefully to the information at the beginning of the session as there are a few techniques to remember! We listened but got a bit lost in the moment just after the halfway break and ended up toppling over in the deep snow which was hilarious! We didn’t stop smiling for the whole two hours and finished up back at the Wilderness Centre where there was some excellent chicken soup, bread, salad and cake waiting for us. Thoroughly recommended!

On our final full day we returned to the Wilderness Centre for the ‘Siberian Huskies – The Ultimate Sleigh Ride’ experience and lunch. This was also great fun and a little challenging for whoever is driving because the huskies are full of energy and keen to run. However, you soon got the hang of it! The total distance is about ten kilometres. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and meeting the beautiful huskies after the sleigh ride is an absolute treat – they love a bit of attention and ‘fuss’. We met the husky puppies and then, as before, had a very welcome lunch.

Although it is perfectly possible to book activities at the hotel once you arrive, we would say that you should try to book your chosen activities before you arrive if possible, to avoid any disappointment, especially if you are staying for just a few days, as the experiences are very popular.

On our final day we checked out at noon and took our luggage the very short distance to Reception using one of the toboggans. We waited for a short while in the comfortable lounge area with a delicious hot chocolate until our safe and timely transfer by mini-bus back to Ivalo airport and then home.

So, all in all, a great welcome, a cosy and comfortable stay, very tasty food and wonderful adventures and memories.

Thank you to everyone at the Star Arctic Hotel!

We didn’t stay at the hotel but they were the main centre for all the activities we took part in. Husky dogs and a snowmobile Safari. Both were amazingly organised picked up from our hotel and dropped back after. The whole team super friendly and just so much fun

What a great place to be.
We stayed at the hotel for a week and it was very relaxing.
The activities were amazing und the guides made a wonderful job. It was a great experience to ride the sleighs and the snow mobile.
The stuff in the hotel were always very helpful und most friendly
The food was delicious. A lot of local food.
Sitting on top of the hill you have an amazing view over Saariseklä.
We wish you good luck for your further projects.

The hotel itself is up on a hill, was a bit windy as we were there but did not effect our stay. We booked the scenic room with sauna (Room 209) which was very nice. Small criticism was that the bed is a bit "squashed" in. On the right side you have to go sideways to get in or crawl over the top of the bed. The left side was ok. No side tables. Again, this did not effect our overall experience. There was a wooden side covering that had managed to work it's way loose which knocked a bit on the building, but again no damage to our experience. Apart from that the room was ok and maintained. We booked with a activity package which we enjoyed, just the reindeer experience was not what we imagined it to be. Some feeding, which seemed to take most of the time. A very short reindeer walk, quick tent drink then dinner. The evening meals in the hotel were fantastic, just like the service personnel which I shall come too in the next step of our review. This leads me in fact to the best part, which made up for these little "inconveniences" the service. I would like to thank the following service personal for their absolutely amazing help and attention throughout our stay. Maria, Marina, Mitali, Elisa, Heidi, Marko and Macin and anyone we forgot to mention. Led by a very competent, and for us, amazing manager Jenni. I applaud you all for making us feel so welcome and made it hard for us to leave you all behind. Because of you we are thinking of coming again, so hat off to you all. Everything bundled together it was a wonderful stay and we enjoyed it very much. Steve & Joke

北欧のオーロラ観光を目的に宿泊しました。スキー場が近く見晴らしの良い丘の上にあるコテージ型のホテルで、あたり一帯の雪原を臨める最高の眺望でした！ご飯も美味しく、寒さも感じないしっかりと温度調整された部屋で、室内のライティングも最高でした。一点だけリクエストをあげるとすれば、水回りのシャワーとトイレの部屋が共用で、シャワーで床が濡れてトイレにも影響してしまうことかなと思います。ただ、トイレとシャワーのある部屋（バスルーム）は、床暖房が効いており嫌な感じはなかったです。

オーロラ観測については、徒歩30秒でスキー場の丘上まで行くことができ、オーロラ観測には困ることはないと思います。私たちの場合、たまたま太陽フレアが活発なタイミングと重なり、夜空全体に光のカーテンが降りてくるような幻想的な体験をすることが出来ました！

言語面では、英語の聞き取りは必須で、こちらが話す分には、単語レベルでもスタッフがしっかり意図を読みとって対応してくれる感じでした。

とにかく、静かで最高の景色とオーロラ体験を目的とされる方にはオススメできるホテルだと思います。

Had an absolutely cosy and comfortable stay at Star Arctic! The room was very well-kept with extremely high housekeeping standards alongside the strong room heater and high shower head pressure. The only con was that the temperature of the heated water was way too high that you may very well end up scalding yourself during your shower.

Buffet spread was great with a relatively wide spread of variety. I especially like how the breakfast hours are till 12pm. We booked the snowmobile and Aurora hunting with husky activities with Star Arctic, and I would strongly recommend all in-house guests to do their activities with the hotel’s partners as it’s extremely fuss-free and takes away all the coordinating stress.

The snowmobiling activity was fantastic, and my friend and I had a ball of time. We went on an hour plus long ride and the scenery throughout the ride was just breath-taking beyond words. The pace was perfect as well, and we also got to enjoy some free flow soup and coffee.

However, I wouldn’t say the same for the husky ride as it was really just dog-sledding the whole time with little photo opportunities. When approached for help with photo-taking, the guide simply brushed us off saying she was busy (well to be fair to her, she indeed was occupied at that moment, but she could have offered to help thereafter. Honestly it wouldn’t have taken more than a couple of seconds.) There also wasn’t any food for this activity during the campfire time - just some warm glogg.

For those who are looking at booking with Star Arctic but concerned about the transport to the hotel, know that you can arrange for a pickup with the hotel at a fee - either from Rovaniemi, Ivalo airport or Saariselka Holiday Inn bus stop. I had arranged for the pickup from the Holiday Inn bus stop as well as the ride to the airport and both arrangements were extremely fuss-free.

And for the million dollar question about northern lights sighting from the igloo, we unfortunately did not get to see it during our stay :( it was snowing pretty heavily on both nights, so we caught zero lights from the igloo. But still, the hospitality of the staff and well-kept room made for a very enjoyable stay, and I would definitely recommend Star Arctic in a heartbeat!

Excursions offered and run by the Star Arctic Hotel
These guys are just fabulous when it comes to excursions and activities! We were staying at the Holiday Club but inghams arranged activities with them. We did the Aurora Canpfire, Siberian Huskies Ultimate experience, Snowmobile safariand the Aurora hunt by mini coach ( others still to do inc night Snowmobile Aurora hunt and ice karting)
Everyone was so helpful and went out of their way to make the experiences fantastic! Lovely Nora took some and we had amazing help from the lovely lady and gent in the equipment place too. The driver on the Aurora hunt was superb and I can’t fault a thing ( except perhaps the coach was super busy for the Aurora hunt!)
Truly magical each experience! Huskies were longer trail than two years ago when we came and far far better! Each trip was slick and well organised! Can’t wait for the last two we are doing in next two days! If you’ve any doubts.. don’t .. just go and do it it’s worth every penny!!
Thank you so much star arctic team. Very happy customers here!!

Star arctic is one of many options in Lapland and in Saariselka specifically that cater to winter enthusiasts and aurora seekers. We stayed in a glass cabin and it was comfortable. We did the reindeer sled, snowmobile three peaks and the car search for the aurora. Star Arctic is VERY organized, Everything ran well. Everything promised was delivered. The Kaunis restaurant was very good. Honestly- the experience was extremely good. Due to a huge snow front- we saw the aurora for only about an hour but we were thrilled with that. The snow mobile was great. The reindeer experience was great thanks to Julius and Hilla. We came away with great pictures and an appreciation of the reindeer culture of the Sami. So- I was already at 5 stars but I left my purse in a chair on the way to the airport and the wonderful receptionist helped find transport for it to airport so I didn't miss my flight. EVERY SINGLE person was committed to excellence at Star Arctic and they actively tried to make everyone's experience positive.