Janka Resort

Guests arrive by road from Kittilä airport, a 45-minute drive into Ylläs and the village of Äkäslompolo. Jänkä Resort is thirteen villas set on land the owning family has held for decades, each with floor-to-ceiling windows and its own hot tub. Geothermal energy heats the villas, a detail that matters more here than in most places, given how the resort has arranged its buildings to avoid disturbing the reindeer herding still practised on the surrounding land. A ranch on site keeps huskies, reindeer and horses, and guests can join a guided visit to meet them, feed lichen to the reindeer, or take a sled dog ride through the forest trails nearby. Fatbikes, canoes, snowshoes and skis are rented from the resort reception for exploring Ylläs and the neighbouring national park under guide. In winter, snowmobile tours run out to a wilderness hut by a remote lake with no road access, where dinner is cooked on a gas stove and lit by candlelight before a sauna and, for the willing, a swim through the ice. The restaurant serves Nordic dishes built on French technique, open through the evening in summer. You can watch the northern lights from a snowmobile stop in the forest, weather and solar activity allowing. Check-in runs from 3pm, checkout at 11am.