TownBest Late August – March for the aurora

Saariselkä

A small fell resort in Finnish Lapland, at the edge of Urho Kekkonen National Park, built for winter.

Saariselkä is a resort rather than an old village: development began in the 1960s and it had 348 residents in 2023, swelled every winter by seasonal workers. It's in the municipality of Inari, at the western end of the fell ridge that gives it its name, and next to Urho Kekkonen National Park, established in 1983.

What it offers is darkness close at hand. Walk a few minutes out of the resort onto the fells and its lights are behind you.

Northern lights over the forest at Saariselkä, Finnish Lapland, 2019

Photo: Nicolas Buffler from Guilherand Granges, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where to stay in Saariselkä

Stays shown via Stay22 — booking through the map supports the log.

Part of

Northern lights

The Best Places to See the Northern Lights

Seven places under the auroral oval, with the honest odds: far enough north, dark enough, and — the hard part — clear enough.