Reindeer tours with kids

Children and reindeer are a reliable match, and the part kids respond to most is the part every tour includes: feeding the herd. The docile, curious animals that reviewers describe are the whole show for a six-year-old; the sled ride, at 10 to 30 minutes, is a brief bonus rather than the day’s content. That one fact should shape the family choice more than any brochure.

What a family pays

These tours are priced per person, and the price is the most common criticism in the reviews, including in five-star ones. There is no meaningful family discount on most of them, so a family of four simply pays four times over for one afternoon. Two choices bring that total down:

• The 3.5-hour visit at Reindeer Experience Tromsø is the shortest and lowest-priced visit in our comparison. Plan for about an hour on the bus each way: the camp lies well outside town.
• The feeding-only tours skip the sled ride, the most expensive component, and keep what children love most: the animals, the feed bucket, the fire and the hot drinks.

We have not yet verified child rates and age brackets per tour, so we will not print numbers here. Check the price breakdown on the product page for your exact ages before booking; the booking form shows child rates where they exist.

The logistics, tour by tour

• Babies and toddlers: Reindeer Experience Tromsø states there are no baby seats on its transfer. Tromsø Lapland allows strollers on its evening feeding tour but warns the camp terrain is unsuited to them. Plan on carrying small children at camp.
• The sled ride is jerky. A reviewer flags it for people with back trouble, and the same note applies to riding with a small child on your lap. Ask the operator how children ride before you book a sledding tour around one.
• Evening tours run late. The 4.5-hour dinner-and-aurora evenings are wonderful with older kids who can last past bedtime in the cold; with small children, the daytime visits are the realistic pick.
• Camp Tamok means ~3 hours of bus inside a 7-hour day. With young children, the camps 30 to 60 minutes from town are the kinder plan.
• Children get cold faster than adults, because they stand still while the grown-ups move around. Dress them in full layers (our what to wear page has the details), pack a spare pair of gloves, and take them back to the lavvu fire between rounds outside.

One visit suits families with school-age children particularly well: the Sami family farm in Lavangsdalen takes children from six, lasts 3.5 hours with about 30 minutes on the bus each way, and fills the time with feeding, a try with the lasso and stories in a warm hut. On the autumn evening at Tromsø Lapland, one reviewer would not bring small children, because the reindeer get boisterous when the feed comes out.