Reindeer farms and sleigh rides in Rovaniemi

Reindeer in Finland are semi-domesticated. Every animal has an owner, every owner has a mark of their own, and the herds graze freely in the forest regardless of who owns the land. The reindeer herding area covers 36 % of Finland and is split into 54 herding cooperatives. Rovaniemi is the largest town of the Palojärvi cooperative, so the farms you visit here are part of a working herding area.

At the end of the 2024–2025 herding year Finland had 179,509 living reindeer and 4,197 reindeer owners, a little over a quarter of them under 25. The Reindeer Herders’ Association states that most people offering farm visits to tourists are herders themselves.

Who herds the reindeer around Rovaniemi

The Sámi began herding reindeer and moving with their herds through the seasons. Finnish settlers took up herding early and adapted it to their own needs, and according to the association it reached Finland via Enontekiö and Muonio. Today both Sámi and Finns herd reindeer. The Sámi Homeland in Finland covers Enontekiö, Inari, Utsjoki and the northern part of Sodankylä. Rovaniemi is not part of it, and the farms around the town are largely run by Finnish families. Sieriporo, a farm on Lake Sierijärvi whose family has herded reindeer since at least 1800, points out that most reindeer owners in Finland are ethnic Finns.

That is worth knowing when you compare programmes. The Sámi Parliament’s ethical guidelines name the invented “Lapland baptism”, non-Sámi staff in imitation Sámi dress and linking the Sámi with Santa Claus as harmful. Some farms hand out a “reindeer driving licence” at the end of a ride, which is a souvenir rather than a tradition. If Sámi culture is what you want to learn about, our page on Lapland culture explains where to go.

How long is the ride

Most product titles do not give the distance, so here are the rides you can book from Rovaniemi, from the shortest to the longest.

The short rides take place at the farm and last a few minutes. They are a good fit with small children or when the farm visit itself is the point. For a ride through the forest, look at the 2–3 km formats. The farm inside Santa Claus Village also runs short rides of 400 m and 800 m for visitors who walk in, about 5–7 and 10–15 minutes long. Combination tours that add a husky ride are covered on our husky safari page, and one snowmobile safari drives out to a reindeer farm for a short ride, see snowmobile safaris.

Reindeer in Santa Claus Village

You do not need a tour to see reindeer. Santa Claus Reindeer has its farm on Joulumaantie in Santa Claus Village, 8 km north of the centre and on the year-round bus line 8. Between 30 November 2026 and 10 January 2027 it is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, and from 11 January to 30 April 2027 from 10:00 to 16:00, a period the farm still lists as to be confirmed. Santa’s Pets, also in the village, keeps reindeer alongside alpacas, sheep and goats, and is open every day of the year from 11:00 to 18:00.

Day ride or evening ride

Daylight is short in early winter. On 21 December 2026 the sun is up in Rovaniemi only from 11:08 to 13:22, with civil twilight from 09:16 to 15:14. A daytime ride in December therefore often happens in blue twilight. By 1 February the sun is up for more than six hours.

The evening safari covers 3 km in about 45 minutes, in a group of up to six. On a clear night the northern lights can appear, on a cloudy one you ride through the dark forest. No operator can promise a sighting, so treat the lights as a possible extra and book a dedicated aurora trip if they are your main goal.

Snow and the season

Sleigh rides need snow, and around Rovaniemi they usually start in mid-November. The median snow depth at the airport is 9 cm on 15 November and 19 cm at the end of the month (1991–2020), so early in the season some farms replace the ride with feeding the reindeer. Rides run until early or mid April, when the snow is still deep after its peak of around 77 cm in mid-March.

Check what is included before you go. On the 1.5 km farm ride, for example, overalls and boots cost extra, and sitting still in a sleigh gets cold quickly in January.

Reindeer on the road

If you drive yourself to a farm, watch for reindeer on the roads. The Reindeer Herders’ Association counts 4,000–5,000 reindeer injured by cars and trains each year in northern Finland, mainly in October, November and December, with dusk and dawn the riskiest times.

All reindeer rides from Rovaniemi, from 400 m at the farm to evening safaris, are compared on rovaniemi-reindeer.com.