Inari Travel Guide

Lake Inari is Finnish Lapland's sacred pearl—a vast, pure lake dotted with countless islands, Finland's third-largest and a holy lake to the Sámi, its beauty and stillness a moving portrait of the northern wilderness. Lake Inari is Finland's third-largest lake, deep in northern Lapland, vast and crystal-clear, dotted with thousands of islands, sparsely populated and raw with northern purity. To the Sámi who have lived here for generations, it is both home and a sacred lake with holy islands. The lake changes with the seasons: in summer, blue waters mirror the midnight sun—boat to the islands; in winter, the surface freezes into a vast snowfield where the aurora may dance overhead. Whenever you come, its vast, pure, sacred beauty inspires awe. Exploring Inari and its sacred northern lake, feeling Lapland's wilderness and the Sámi's sacred spirit, is Inari's not-to-be-missed sight.

Siida is the core museum of Sámi culture in Finland, by Lake Inari above the Arctic Circle, pairing indoor exhibits with an open-air settlement of traditional tents, fishing huts and storage racks that tell of Europe's only indigenous people — their reindeer, language, dress and seasonal migration. In winter the snowy encampment's smoke feels ancient. It is also the gateway to Inari lake, auroras, Sámi crafts and reindeer sledding — the key to northern Finland's people and nature.