How to get to Rovaniemi in winter

Most winter visitors arrive by air, and Rovaniemi has grown fast as a destination. In 2025 the airport passed one million passengers in a year for the first time, ending the year at 1.1 million. The millionth passenger landed on 19 December 2025 on a Finnair flight from Helsinki, which says a lot about when people come. If you plan to travel in December, book flights and the first night's transfer early. The alternatives are the night train from Helsinki and long-distance coaches, both of which bring you into town rather than to the airport.

Flying to Rovaniemi

Finavia, the Finnish airport operator, says the airport is 10 km from the city centre. Santa Claus Village is on the same side of town and only 3 km away, according to the village itself, so some hotels near the Arctic Circle are closer to the runway than to the shops in the centre.

Finnair flies between Helsinki and Rovaniemi every day of the year, and Norwegian flies the route several times a week. Finavia notes that Finnair operates the most flights to the Lapland airports and that its Helsinki connections multiply in the winter season. Connecting in Helsinki is the usual way in if there is no direct flight from your home airport.

Direct flights in winter 2026/27

The international winter schedule runs from 25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027. In that period Rovaniemi has 37 routes in total, and in the busiest weeks there are flights from up to 36 international airports. Finavia lists these new direct routes for this winter:

These come on top of the existing routes. Visit Rovaniemi speaks of more than 40 direct connections from Europe, without giving a date. The United Kingdom is the biggest market: between January and November 2025 more than 300 international flights came from there, and 48 per cent of all passengers were on international flights.

From the airport into town

You have four options: the airport bus, a taxi, a hire car or a booked private transfer. There is no rail link to the airport.

Airport Express and Santa's Express

Finavia points arriving passengers to the Airport Express and Santa's Express buses, which serve Santa Claus Village and Rovaniemi Railway Station. The two work differently. Airport Express has no fixed timetable: its operator says the bus meets passengers right in front of the arrivals door between 09:00 and 21:30 and runs every 25 minutes. Santa's Express runs a loop from the railway station through the city centre to SantaPark, Santa Claus Village and the airport.

The buses do not take cash. You can buy a ticket online or pay by credit card on board. Seats cannot be reserved, and a ticket cannot be cancelled, but it stays valid for six months after purchase.

The sources disagree on the season. Santa Claus Village says the private Santa's Express and Airport Express run from November to March, while Visit Rovaniemi describes the airport bus as year-round. In mid-October 2026 the operator's website still showed only the summer timetable, and none of the official pages give a journey time into town. Check the operator's site close to your travel date.

Taxi and hire car

Taxis wait at the stand in front of the terminal at the scheduled arrival times, and you can also book one in advance. There are three taxi platforms outside the terminal, one each for Taksi Rovaniemi, Lähitaksi Rovaniemi and Menevä. Visit Rovaniemi recommends using only official taxis and asking for the fare before you get in.

Several car hire companies have desks at the airport, among them Avis, Europcar, Finn-Rent, Hertz, Scandia Rent and Sixt. Some open only when you have a reservation, so book ahead if you land in the evening. In October 2026 Finavia announced that it had finished reorganising the roads in front of the terminal and expanding the car parks. If someone is picking you up, the first 20 minutes in the car parks are free.

By night train from Helsinki

VR, the Finnish railway, runs night trains to Rovaniemi, Kolari and Kemijärvi. The one to Rovaniemi is known as the Santa Claus Express, a name that Santa Claus Village and Visit Rovaniemi use too. On the busiest nights of the ski season up to five night trains leave Helsinki, three of them for Rovaniemi.

You can choose a two-person cabin on the lower deck, a two-person cabin with its own shower on the upper deck or a three-person cabin in an older carriage. Dinner and breakfast are served in the restaurant car or brought to your cabin. VR also carries cars on its night trains as an extra service, which is worth checking if you want to drive in Lapland without the long road north. Several day trains also run between Helsinki and Rovaniemi every day, all year round.

Rovaniemi Railway Station is at Ratakatu 3. It has no staffed service point, only a ticket machine. City bus 8 leaves from the station yard and reaches the central stop on Ruokasenkatu in five minutes, then continues to Santa Claus Village. Our page on getting around Rovaniemi has the timetable details.

By long-distance bus

Matkahuolto and Onnibus run coach services across much of Finland. Onnibus has direct routes to Rovaniemi from Helsinki, Jyväskylä and Oulu, with connections onwards to Levi, Saariselkä and Ivalo. Visit Rovaniemi points out that coaches are the only public transport linking the town with the northern parts of Lapland. Most long-distance buses use Rovaniemi Bus Station at Lapinkävijäntie 2, and the timetables are on the Matkahuolto website. FlixBus also runs a line between Rovaniemi and Kraków in Poland that calls at Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.

Driving to Rovaniemi

The E75 highway runs straight through the gateway of Santa Claus Village on its way north. If you drive up from southern Finland, the winter rules apply from the start. Winter tyres are required by law from November to March whenever the weather or road conditions call for them, with a tread depth of at least 3.0 mm, and from December non-studded winter tyres on cars must carry the three-peak snowflake symbol. Headlights must be on at all times, and in winter the speed limits on country roads and motorways drop to 80 and 100 km/h. Reindeer on the road are the other Lapland hazard. We cover them, and black ice, on the getting around page.

Which way suits your trip

For a short break of two to four nights, flying is usually the only option that leaves enough time on the ground. The Gatwick flights on Mondays and Fridays, for example, fit a stay of three or four nights. The night train suits you if you are already in Helsinki and would rather sleep on the way north than change planes. Coaches make sense mainly as an onward link to resorts further north. Once you know your arrival day, see how many days to plan and our practical tips on money, shop hours and emergency numbers.