Our story
One thought led to another
It all started with the Aurora Borealis.
Every winter, people travel thousands of kilometres to Lapland hoping to see it. They wait, look up at the sky and hope that this will be the night when nature decides to reveal itself.
Sometimes it does.
Sometimes it doesn't.
We began to wonder whether the Aurora Borealis could be experienced in a way that didn't depend entirely on one clear moment in the sky.
We wanted the aurora to be part of the experience every night.
That became the first idea behind Lapland Aurora World.
A place where the Aurora Borealis isn't simply something you wait for in the sky, but something an entire world has been created around.
And very soon, one thought led to another.
What if we didn't have to chase the aurora?
We didn't want our guests to travel all the way to Lapland only to spend much of their evening sitting in a vehicle, driving from place to place in search of the Aurora Borealis.
We wanted them to be outside.
In the forest.
Surrounded by snow, darkness and silence.
So we decided that Lapland Aurora World wouldn't chase the night.
We would create a place where the night could come to us.
A place where there is something to experience from the first moment to the last, whatever happens in the sky.
And if the real Aurora Borealis eventually appears above the forest, you won't need to search for it through a car window.
You'll already be there.
Where does the experience really begin?
Next, we started thinking about the journey.
Aurora World lies beyond the city lights, surrounded by the nature of Lapland. To reach it, you have to leave Rovaniemi behind.
At first, that journey could simply be considered transportation.
We didn't want to think of it that way.
As the city disappears behind you, the landscape grows darker and the forest begins to surround you, something is already changing.
So why wait until you arrive for the experience to begin?
We decided that the journey itself should become part of the story.
From the moment we pick up our guests in Rovaniemi, Lapland Aurora World has already begun.
Getting from the city to the forest isn't simply a transfer from one place to another.
Then we began to build a world.
Once we knew what kind of experience we wanted to create, we began thinking about every detail.
What should the first path feel like?
What should a guest see first?
When should the forest be completely silent?
Where should a story be told?
Where should the fire be waiting?
How could light transform the atmosphere of the forest without hiding the forest itself?
And above all:
How could the aurora be present even when the sky doesn't reveal it?
Little by little, individual ideas began to form an entire world.
Lapland Aurora World.
An experience created around the aurora, where forest, snow, reindeer, fire, stories, light and silence all belong to the same journey.
Every detail has been considered.
But we didn't want to design everything.
Nature was here before us.
The further we developed Aurora World, the clearer one thing became.
The most powerful things around us didn't need to be created.
The forest was already here.
So were the snow, darkness, cold and silence.
We wanted to create an experience where the things we introduced wouldn't compete with nature.
They should bring you closer to it.
To feel the snow beneath your feet.
To notice what the forest sounds like when there is nothing to hear.
To feel the cold air against your face and the warmth of fire in the darkness.
To remember to look up from time to time.
We didn't want our guests simply to look at the nature of Lapland.
We wanted them to feel part of it.
Then we decided eight was enough.
We could have made everything bigger.
More guests.
Larger groups.
More departures.
But in doing so, we would have changed something essential.
Silence doesn't feel the same in a large crowd.
An encounter with reindeer doesn't feel the same.
Stories don't feel the same.
And neither does the forest.
So we decided to keep our world small.
Eight guests at a time. That's all.
Few enough to stop.
Few enough to ask questions.
Few enough that sometimes, no one needs to say anything at all.
We wanted it to feel as though this world had been opened just for you.
And finally, we returned to where it all began
