Winter:
  Exclusive Sapmi
  Northern Lights Winter
  Blue nights and Northern Lights

Summer:
  A Thousand Miles of Fishing
  Summer Journey to The East

All year:
  Sapmi on your own
  Other activities

The most important characteristic of the Sami way of life has always been its high degree of flexibility. Sami culture has been shaped by conditions that have at times been extreme, with great fluctuations in available resources and weather. Such is life in Arctic areas. This flexibility is also a part of Sami tourism. Our tourist sector can offer a wide range of experiences, capturing the diversity which constitutes Sami culture. This diversity ranges from the seashore to the mountains. It includes the life of the farmer and the mountain-lodge warden, the reindeer-herding nomad, and, in today’s modern world, also the cultural entrepreneur, the academic and the politician – and even those employed in tourism.

This is Sápmi today, and this is what we would like to share with you, our guests. The traditional Sami flexibility also means that it will be easy for us to adapt our programmes to your wishes. Even if we invite participants to take part in particular expeditions in the Sami area, these can be altered or adapted to suit the itineraries and preferences of our guests. Do not hesitate to contact us.

WINTER

Exclusive Sapmi

The Finnmark Plateau is known as the last European wilderness. The landscape is wild and beautiful. The undulating tundra offers a glimpse of eternity. But the plateau is also used, and is home to both people and animals. The total silence is broken by animals running through the snow and herders looking for their flocks. In the polar night, under the Northern Lights.
The "dark time" is not dark – it is a luminous blue, it is pink and yellow. It changes. The landscape is coloured by the cold and by the sun’s struggle towards the horizon. People have inhabited this place for 9000 years, and a distinctive culture has emerged from their contact with powerful natural forces.
This is a journey for the intrepid few. We follow the old trekking routes. At every stop you will be met by Sami hosts who have genuine Sami cultural competence, which they will generously share with their guests.
We can offer you a varied journey from western to eastern Finnmark. We will cross the Finnmark Plateau on snowmobiles. We will visit Mikkel Nils and one of the large reindeer herds in their winter grazing area. You will fish on the ice of Iesjavri, where it is possible to catch trout and char weighing up to 10 kilos. You will spend the night at Nedre Mollisjok, a lodge deep in the mountains, tens of kilometres from the nearest road.
We continue to Jergul, a small village with a modern mountain lodge located in beautiful surroundings near the mouth of the river. An experienced local guide will show us around the Sami political capital of Karasjok, before our journey continues eastward. You will go to Polmak, where you will experience Ester’s healing powers and magical world, then on to Sør-Varanger, to the ocean and king crab fishing, where we will, of course, eat king crab for lunch. Our last evening will be spent in Neiden, a borderland where east meets west, and where Sami, Norwegian and Finnish people and cultures have lived in collaboration and conflict for hundreds of years.
The return flight is from Kirkenes.

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Northern Lights Winter

The Sami winter consists of cold, snow, and northern lights, but maybe, above all, of silence. No silence is greater than that which can be experienced on the boundless Finnmark Mountain Plateau. We depart from Alta and drive up to Gargia Mountain Lodge, where you will be fitted out for a winter journey across endless snowy landscapes. You will cross Beskades and strike out across the mountain plateau. The first stop is Maze, where a warm gamme (turf hut) and tables loaded with food await you. Then you go to bed – while someone keeps the fires burning, if necessary. The first item on your agenda next day will be a chance to prove your competence in the skills necessary in the Sami world. When you have passed this "test", the tour continues across more mountains, this time toward Jergul Asstu. We will, of course, have a coffee break along the way. Jergul is a modern lodge with a sauna that can warm even the most frozen limbs.

A journey in Western Finnmark must, of course, include the Sami capital, Karasjok, and its major sights. After lunch we return by bus. Snowmobiles will be waiting for us, and then we set off toward Nedre Mollisjok Lodge. We are now in the winter grazing areas of the reindeer, and there is a good chance that we will encounter herds of grazing animals in their natural surroundings. At Mollisjok we are received by hosts who are renowned for their cooking skills, and you will learn why people like to take warming saunas frequently in this winter land. If the sky should erupt into all the colours of the northern lights, as only the Finnmark sky can, there are few places on earth where the sky is larger and closer than here. The following day you will drive a long way, back to where Gargia Lodge awaits in the distance. Guests are expected to return safely, and you will. Experienced mountain guides will accompany you at all times. The guides have a sound knowledge of Sami culture and winter life. These tours can be customized according to your own wishes. They can be made shorter, or, if you wish, longer.

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Blue nights
and Northern Lights

The "dark time" is drawing to a close. The nights are still heavy with frost, but often clear and with that particular blue colour which has inspired so many painters. The skies are alive with the glow of the Northern Lights, and there are few places in the world where you can feel as close to them as here. The days are full of colour. Snow is not only a phenomenon that has many names in Sami; it also presents itself in all the colours of the rainbow. And it can be heard. The mountain plateau offers silence, but it also accommodates the sound of snow.

Our journey follows the traditional trekking routes, but today everyone travels by snowmobile. The old mountain lodges have been modernized, and we will go from lodge to lodge. We enter a world which is still used for winter grazing by various siidas (Sami camps/villages), where we will meet people as well as animals. This is also an area that has some of the world’s best fishing lakes.

Description of the tour:
Your journey starts in Alta. After being picked up at the airport, you are driven to Gargia Mountain Lodge. This lodge used to be the first stop on the old trekking route across the mountain. Here we will have lunch and you will receive information about the tour and be provided with the equipment necessary for the snowmobile safari across Bæskades, a mountain pass beautifully described by the well-known Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg on one of his visits to the area. Maze is our destination, and here you can sit around a crackling bonfire in a gamme (turf hut) after a long and eventful journey. You are served traditional Sami food, before Tore Turi takes you outside again to test the skills needed to survive in these mountains. The next day we drive on to meet Mikkel Nils who crosses the plateau with his reindeer herd. He invites us into his lavvu (Sami tepee) for a meal, and tells us stories about traditional reindeer herding and how herding is conducted today. Our journey then takes us to Mollisjok Mountain Lodge, where Per Edvard, who has grown up in this part of the plateau, greets us with the hospitality that was expected to be shown travelling people in the old days. The next day he will take you fishing. You will get a chance to draw fishing nets (and there are some very large fish here!) but you will, of course, also be able to try ice fishing on several of the lakes in the area. The day’s catch is cooked before the calm of night settles over Mollisjok. Next day we start our journey back to Gargia by way of Ragesluobbal and Maze. Before the plane takes off, we have time for a visit to Alta Museum, with its rock carvings and exhibition on the history of the area.

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SUMMER

A Thousand Miles
of Fishing

This is a wilderness vacation for people who crave the best and want to pack as much fishing and outdoor adventure as possible into a short period of time. We have put together a menu combining most of the types of fishing that are done in Finnmark. The menu combines the best of inland fishing with deep-sea fishing in Varanger Fjord or another location that fits your itinerary. This is a real wilderness expedition that will give you exciting outdoor adventures and large trout and char, greedy pike, or feisty grayling in the inland areas. On the coast, our aim will be the record cod and coley and gigantic wolffish or halibut. In the village of Bugøynes in Varanger we can offer you a king crab tasting.

Transportation will be by helicopter, seaplane, minibus or rented car.

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Summer Journey
to The East

The Arctic Ocean can be enticingly calm, but it may also unleash its fascinating forces. Nature here is rich and bleak at one and the same time. For 10,000 years it has provided people with a living. In this part of the world, the relics of the past are not hidden in the earth. Eastern Finnmark is a frontier, a borderland between east and west; between different states fighting for control over this northern region rich in natural resources; and between different churches – the Orthodox church in the east and the Catholic or Protestant churches in the west. The eastern areas have a history filled with both conflict and collaboration between Sami, Norwegians, Kvens (Finnish immigrants to Norway), Finns and smaller Russian population groups. In Varangerbotn you can stroll through the captivating Sami history of gammer (turf huts), burial sites and sacrificial rocks. The Tana and Neiden rivers are among the Norwegian rivers richest in salmon, and we can, of course, arrange for you to go fishing in these rivers.

Tour description:
You will be met at Kirkenes airport. We then drive to Neiden for lunch, before continuing to Skoltefossen waterfall, where traditional cast-net fishing for salmon is still practiced. If you want to try salmon fishing in this river system, we can, of course, arrange this. The next day we travel to Bugøynes, the Finnish-speaking community which advertised itself for sale in the late 1980s. Today, Bugøynes is prospering due to the lucrative king crab fisheries. The king crab is exciting to fish for and tastes delicious. We spend the evening fishing while the midnight sun drifts across the sky, before heading back to Neiden, where our catch will be turned into a tasty meal. The next day we set out for Polmak, on the bank of the Tana river. We recommend a visit to Mortensnes Heritage Site and a guided tour through the exciting history of the area. In Polmak we are received by our hostess, Ester Utsi. Ester has her own rowers, so if you want to go after the legendary Tana salmon, this is the place to do it. You can also avail yourself of the inn’s healing powers and opportunities for a rest and have a massage or a sauna. The following day we return to Kirkenes, where there is time for a visit to Sør-Varanger Museum before flying south.

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ALL YEAR

Sapmi on your own

photo: Sami children in Lavvu
(Mikkelgammen)

There’s no denying that the pulse of Finnmark tends to grab visitors and enchant them with a cheerful mournfulness. Plan your stay around Finnmark’s tour operators and attractions. Take your pick from the wealth of available accommodation and destinations and create an itinerary that matches your own expectations of what a visit to Sápmi should be. For a while, allow Sápmi’s pulse to become your own. Our tourist operators are scattered throughout the county. Take a late-autumn hike on the mountain plateau or canoe down the Kautokeino River system and take advantage of the offerings of some of our operators to make your journey something more than the nature experiences you can get elsewhere. Or book a dog-sled or snowmobile ride in winter, led by competent tour guides who know the culture and natural surroundings in ways which have enabled people to survive in these extreme areas for 10,000 years. Maybe you would like to come at Easter and combine a trip to the mountains, or a stay in some of the mountain lodges, with the traditional Easter Festival in either Karasjok or Kautokeino? The Easter Festival has a full and varied programme: reindeer racing, a Sami music competition (Sami Grand Prix), concerts and theatre performances are among the events you can choose from.

We can also help you plan a tour using your own car or a rental car. This would give you the opportunity to stay in various mountain lodges, which offer canoes for hire, provide fishing rights in various rivers, guided hikes on the mountain plateau, an overnight stay in a lavvo (Sami tent), a visit to a reindeer herd, or anything else you would like to include in your visit to Sápmi. All activities are, of course, dependent on the season. Booking and arrangements should be made with the individual lodges and operators.

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Other activities

Through these pages you will find other activities;

AKU-Finnmark | Cavzo Safari | Jergul Asttu | Mikkelgammen
Nedre Mollisjok fjellstue | Neiden fjellstue | Polmakmoen gjestegård

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