Welcome to Inari, the heart of Sami land.
Our tourist hotel has been welcoming friends of Lapland to the rapids of River Juutua for over 80 years. In Inari you can find the glimmering Midnight Sun and the blazing Northern Lights. Additionally we would like to share with you our versatile traditions: Sami culture, traditional life of Lapland, fabulous surrounding nature, the gold rush and our architectural heritage.
We have gathered these elements into an experience so that you can sense, comprehend and engage yourself in the northern life.
Tiervâpuáttim!
Kaisu ja Heikki Nikula
Our Hotel
We celebrated our hotel’s 80th anniversary in 2017. Our full renovation project was completed in 2015 with inspiration from and respect for our long history. You can choose your room from our charming Traditional Hotel with its many stories or from our modern River Hotel, where you can enjoy the luxury of your own sauna and river views from your own balcony.
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Traditional Hotel
Situated in our main building, our Traditional Hotel was built in 1956, on the foundations of the original 1937 Tourist Hotel destroyed during the II World War. The bedrooms have been fully renovated and they are decorated in a historic theme that is inspired by our long history and the golden era of Finnish design, which dates back to the early years of our hotel. In these timeless rooms you can find these design classics, beautiful materials that have passed the test of time and also stories from the colourful history of our hotel and tourism in the area.
River Hotel
Our River Hotel is located right next to our main building along River Juutua. River Hotel has 16 superior rooms decorated with quality materials to the spirit of the surrounding nature. All rooms have a direct view to the rapids. The rooms have a direct entrance and on the river side each room has an own balcony or a patio. Rooms are equipped with own sauna, drying cupboard, tv, fridge, kettle for tea and coffee and free wi-fi. One of the rooms is equipped for disabled and therefore without a sauna.
River front sauna – Meeting room
We warmly recommend the gentle heat of our original log sauna with a fantastic view to the river. On the cool-off terrace you can enjoy a refreshing drink, watching the splashes and listening to the steady wash of the water. Our hotel guests can book a private hour in the sauna with a nominal fee. In our restaurant we also have a small meeting room which hosts max 30 persons in classroom form. We provide the usual meeting equipment and wireless internet connection to the room.
Fish camera and Northern Light camera
Our underwater fish camera follows the life of the Juutua River fish during the summer season. The camera is located outside our hotel in the rapids. The most exciting times start towards the end of the summer when the really big red trout of Lake Inari starts to swim upstream to spawn. These giants are regular guests of the show! When the night starts to get longer we start to operate our Aurora camera. Located on our roof top, this all-sky camera will show us in the comfort of the warm indoors if the sky is clear above us and when the Aurora start to appear.
Restaurant
Our dining room has a fine view to the lowest rapids of River Juutua. The view is possibly at its best on midsummer’s evenings as the sun shines low from across the water, sunlight flickering on the splashes. In the dark evenings of autumn and winter a cosy wood-burning will keep you comfy in our bar and lounge area. We have 110 seats for diners at any one time.
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Food
Our hotel was founded in 1937 when all the food served in the restaurant was made from local ingredients, as there was not much anything else available: fish from Lake Inari, local reindeer meat, milk from hotel’s own cows and eggs from the village. In the autumn, summer harvest was preserved in different ways for the winter. When we returned back to our home village in 2002, to take over our mother’s hotel business, we began to further develop the use of local ingredients again.
Wines
“Waitress, may I have a glass of wine with my whitefish, a good glass of wine?”
But what makes wine a good wine, what makes it mediocre or even bad? Wine is bad, if it is faulty, when there really is something wrong with it. Good wine however is a wide and mind blowing concept. We can honestly say, that on our wine list we have chosen only ‘good’ wines.
Drinks
Our drink menus are built upon the surrounding nature. There you can find so many good and beautiful things for inspiration. In the summer time it is nice to walk along the river and smell the angelicas and find new ideas for the future. In the autumn we are mushroom crazy and smell and taste the berries off the ground. More and more things go into our bank of ideas.
Our award-winning restaurant
We are happy to tell you that our restaurant has received various awards in recent years. Our chef Heikki took part in Nordic Sapmi Awards competition in 2014 and finished 2nd in the final for Sami cuisine and knowledge. In 2015 we participated in a national food tourism competition and also finished 2nd with our Inari Menus. In 2016 the same Inari Menus won the series ‘Best Foodservice Expereince’ in the international Foodtrekking Awards competition. In 2017 we were featured for the first time in the Nordic White Guide, which presents the best restaurants in the Nordic countries. The restaurants are re-reviewed yearly and we are a bit proud to announce that our rank among Finnish restaurants is 8th in 2018!
Offers
Here you can read more about what nice things we have on offer for you right now and the seasons coming up.
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WINE & DINE AND SLEEPOVER
Come and spend an evening and a night with us! You can make a quick visit, enjoy a lovely dinner in our Aanaar restaurant, put your head down on a comfy pillow and relax or maybe spend a few days in Inari, visiting Siida and enjoying our versatile nature.
Our package includes 1 night in your chosen room type and Inari Menu 5, which includes 5 memorable courses full of flavours from the nature and creativity from our kitchen. You can see our current Menus here. The menu can be also made with fish only or as vegetarian / vegan version.
Dinner and overnight for 2 in our historical Traditional Hotel 256 euros, additional overnights with breakfast 106 euros / night. Same package for 1 person 171 euros, additional nights with breakfast 96 euros / night.
Dinner and overnight for 2 in our River Hotel, a superior room with own sauna and balcony towards the rapids 280 euros, additional nights with breakfast 130 euros/night. Same package to 1 person 185 euros / night, additional nights with breakfast 110 euros / night.
The package is offered during 1.12.2021 – 20.4.2022. Bookings can be made by email inarin.kultahovi@co.inet.fi or by phone +358-16-5117100. Welcome to enjoy a great dinner in the Finnish Restaurant of the Year 2020 and a stay in Lapland’s most traditional hotel!
AUTUMN IN INARI
Inari is a great base for exploring northernmost Lapland and the eastern part of the Arctic Ocean coast. Actually Inari itself will offer you lots of experiences in culture and nature to fill up a few days’ short holiday. We recommend at least the following:
Must places to visit in Inari are of course Siida museum, where you will get a great view into our indigenous culture and our wonderful nature, but also Sajos, our neighbouring Saami culture centre with things going on also in the summer season. In addition to learning about our culture you should also enjoy our surrounding nature. Great examples would be a cruise on Lake Inar (in September)i, visiting our ancient holy island Äijih (aka Ukko), trekking to our old winter village and still standing wilderness church in Pielpajärvi or enjoying river scenery and beautiful rapids along the Oh Juutua trail. We usually see the first Auroras of the season in the end of August. The most impressive Auroras can maybe be experienced on the Tuulispää mountain, where the sky opens wide and if you are really lucky, you may see the Northern Lights across the sky and reflecting from the still surface of vast Lake Inari. Here you can also enjoy a late snack by taking a picnic to Tuulijärvi camp site surrounded by small mountains. A Northern Lights cruise on Lake Inari is also a memorable experience.
A great day trip from Inari would be to the Lemmenjoki National Park. Located an half-an-hour drive from Inari, you can trek on your own or join a river boat ride (in September) deeper into the the park with its legendary gold digging history.
If you are not interested in the touristic North Cape route, why not make a day trip to the eastern part of northern Norway. There is a great circular route first heading to the eastern border to Näätämö, passing on the way the central Skolt Saami cultural village Sevettijärvi. Once you cross the border, you will see the impressive waterfalls of Näätämö River and on the high river bank you will find the new Skolt Saami museum. Driving north you will get to the shores of Varanger Fjord and a great place to visit here would be the picturesque fishing village of Bygøynes. The ring route would then take you back to Finland and south along the beautiful Teno River valley towards Inari. In September this route can be especially colourful as you will be traveling mostly above the pine tree line.
If you stay with us for a minimum of 3 nights, you can book our summer package. A room and breakfast in our Traditional Hotel is 300 euros / 3 nights or a superior room with own sauna in our River Hotel 360 euros / 3 nights. Bookings can be made directly from the hotel by email inarin.kultahovi@co.inet.fi. For the trips you will need a rental car. Prices are valid during 25.9.-31.10.2021.
CHRISTMAS IN INARI
In Inari December may be the darkest time of the year but the magic of Christmas fills the place with warm and cosy atmosphere. White snow with glistening diamonds, starry skies and at best amazing Northern Lights also help! The cooks in our Aanaar kitchen work hard creating a feast suitable for the occasion, not forgetting the local traditional specialities for our Christmas Eve Dinner. The winter activity programme is in full swing and you can also do winter walks, with or without snowshoes, cross-country ski or go sledging. Our local Christmas tradition is to visit the Inari cemetery on Christmas Eve, where most Lemmenjoki legendary gold diggers have their final resting place on their very own row.
Our Christmas package includes accommodation for 5-7 nights, breakfasts, dinners and festive Christmas Eve Dinner including a visit from the Big Man himself. Prices are: 5 nights in our Traditional Hotel 430 euros / person in a double room or in our River Hotel 525 euros / person in a double room OR 7 nights in our Traditional Hotel 567 euros / person in a double room or in our River Hotel 672 euros / person in a double room. Bookings can be made directly to the hotel by email inarin.kultahovi@co.inet.fi
SUSTAINABILITY
We have been awarded the Green Key Eco Label for hotel-restaurants in 2021. This prestigious label is great, because the criteria oblige and encourage us to continuous work towards sustainablity and yearly improvement.
Summer
Inari Sami village is situated in the heart of Finnish Sami land but also along many routes. You can stop here for a few nights, learn about Sami culture in Finland and enjoy our water-rich nature by hiking or boating.
Winter
Inari hosts all kinds of winter visitors. Already in early winter guests have their eyes directed to the dark skies in hope of seeing the Northern Lights and this activity continues until the light nights of late April.
Midnight sun
Different interesting natural phenomena are connected to our ever-changing seasons. Sun shining around the clock can be a confusing experience. Quite often our guests don’t realise that it is time to go to bed! Already from the end of April we don’t have any dark nights at all and after the middle of May the sun shines around the clock to higher ground, for example of the slopes of nearby Tuulispää mountain. The sun goes down again in the end of July. Altogether we have approximately 65 days of midnight sun in the Inari area.
Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis is perhaps the most well known attraction in the North. Inari area is located in the so called Aurora zone and the Northern Lights occur here roughly 200 days each year. Some of them are invisible, as they occur during the nightless time.
Our hotel’s history
Our traditional Tourist Hotel was first opened in June 1937. The decades have been filled with all kinds of guests and events. In our facilities you can explore our mini exhibitions on the hotel’s history and special occasions. You can read for example what Kaisu and HRH King Baudouin of Belgium got up to in summer 1969 or what the moods were when the Tourist Hotel was closed down in autumn 1986. When you stay in our Traditional Hotel, you will find a piece of the hotel’s history in the stories hung on the walls of each room.
We have put together a short history of our hotel so that you can acquaint yourself with our eventful past even from a distance
