Tromsø: Reindeer Sledding & Northern Lights with Sami Dinner

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/15

Duration4h 30m

GroupUp to 60

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

You'll Feed Reindeer by Hand, Then Ride Behind Them Under the Arctic Sky

You arrive at a Sami reindeer camp, feed and interact with around 300 reindeer, then ride behind them on a traditional sleigh for 15 to 20 minutes. Afterward, you move into a warm, candlelit hut for a three-course meal and listen to Sami stories and traditional songs by the fire. If conditions allow, you'll have a chance to see the northern lights. Hotel pickup and drop-off are included, along with all meals and hot drinks.

4h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Reindeer sledding and Sami culture experience

Travel into the wilderness
Walk among 300 reindeer
Feed the reindeer
Enjoy 15-20 minute sleigh ride
Enter candlelit Gamme hut
Have relaxed three-course meal
Listen to Sami stories and joik
Watch for northern lights if clear

The Experience

You're standing in the snow at a Sami camp outside Tromsø, and suddenly 300 reindeer are moving toward you—not aggressively, just curious. Some will eat from your palm if you hold out your hand. It's quieter than you'd expect, and stranger. The herders have been doing this for centuries; they only started letting visitors in recently, which means you're not walking through a theme park version of their life. You're actually there.

After the feeding, you get a 15 to 20-minute sleigh ride pulled by the reindeer themselves—not the frantic kind you see in movies, but steady and real. Then you're led into a candlelit gamme, a traditional Sami hut, where the air is warm and smells like woodsmoke. A three-course meal appears: hot drinks, bidos (a Sami stew cooked over the open fire), and other dishes. It's not rushed. You eat, you listen. The guide performs joik—a traditional Sami song that sounds nothing like anything else—and tells stories about what it actually means to live this way, herding reindeer across the Arctic.

After dinner you move to a lavvu, a Sami tent, and sit around another fire. If the sky is clear—and that's the honest part, the part that depends on weather and luck—you might see the northern lights. Some nights you won't. But you're already warm, already fed, already inside something real. The lights are a bonus, not the whole point.

Pickup and drop-off are included, which saves you arranging transport in Tromsø in the dark. The guide speaks English and knows the herd and the land. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free meals are available if you need them. Bring warm layers, gloves, a hat, and winter boots—the cold is real, but the hut and the fire make it manageable.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and drop-off at designated meeting points in Tromsø.
transportation to and from the reindeer camp.
access to feed and interact with the herd.
a 15 to 20-minute reindeer sleigh ride.
a three-course dinner served in a candlelit gamme (traditional Sami hut).
hot drinks, coffee, and tea.
stories and cultural information from a Sami guide.
a traditional joik performance.
time in a lavvu (Sami tent) by the fire. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free meal options are available upon request.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcome

Operated by Tromso Arctic Reindeer

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to step into actual Sami life rather than a staged version of it—the reindeer camp, the meal, the stories, and the guide are real, and pickup from Tromsø means you don't navigate the dark Arctic roads yourself.