Every September, once the sky gets dark enough again, we start getting the same message from readers: someone has found the “Professional Northern Lights Hunting Tour – Guaranteed (PRIVATE)” listing, seen the €1,990 price tag, and wants to know if the booking page is actually going to work before they hand over that kind of money on a phone connection from their hotel room.

So this post is just the practical answer. Not whether the private hunt is “worth it” in the abstract — we get into that too — but the actual mechanics: what you click, what you'll be asked for, how the guarantee is worded, and what changes if you book the small-group version instead and save well over €1,700. Joona has spent years around the aurora guides who run these routes out of Rovaniemi, so we also know exactly which parts of the listing are marketing language and which parts are the bit that actually matters on the night.

How the booking actually works

Quick orientation before the walkthrough: the Private Guaranteed Northern Lights Hunting Tour5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 is the listing this whole post is about, and every step below applies to it directly.

There's no separate enquiry form for the private tour, which surprises people — at this price point they expect a human to call them back first. Instead it runs through the same live booking calendar as every other StayLapland activity. Scroll down to the calendar on this page, pick your date, and the system shows you real availability for that night, not a generic "contact us" message.

Two things about the private tour specifically that trip people up on the booking form: it asks for your pickup address (usually your hotel or cabin in or around Rovaniemi), and it will not give you a fixed start time immediately. That's normal — see the timing section below. You pay in full at the time of booking, same as the small-group version, and you'll get a confirmation email with a WhatsApp or email contact for the guide team.

Open the booking calendar for the private hunt →

One practical note before you commit: this is the tour to book if you specifically want your own vehicle and your own guide's full attention, not the group energy. If you're travelling with kids who might not last through a slow, quiet wait for aurora activity, the privacy is genuinely useful — you can turn the heater up, let a child sleep across the back seat, and not worry about anyone else's schedule.

What "guaranteed" actually means here

This is the part worth reading properly, because "guaranteed northern lights" sounds like a marketing overreach until you see what the guarantee is actually tied to. On both the private tour and the small group version5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5, the listed terms are specific: if no northern lights photographs are captured during your outing, you get a 100% refund. Not "if you didn't see them with your own eyes" — the trigger is whether the guide's camera came back with aurora photos, which is also how you'll actually know afterwards whether it happened, since the sky can look like faint grey cloud to the naked eye while a long-exposure photo shows clear green activity.

What it doesn't promise is a specific KP index, a specific duration of visible activity, or a specific location. The guide is chasing clear sky and aurora probability that night, wherever that takes you within reach of Rovaniemi, which is the entire point of hiring someone who does this for a living rather than driving yourself to one fixed viewpoint and hoping.

Mention the code HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 when you check out — it takes 5% off regardless of which of the three hunting tours you pick.

Who this is actually for

Book the private version if: you want total flexibility on pickup time and location, you're a family or couple who doesn't want to share a minivan with six strangers for four-plus hours, you have a specific request (a particular language for the guide beyond English, a photographer who'll spend extra time on your family's shots, a slower pace for older relatives or very young kids), or the €1,990 genuinely doesn't move the needle on your trip budget and the extra comfort is worth it to you on its own.

Skip it if: budget matters at all. This is not a "10% nicer" version of the small-group tour for 10x the price — it's a private-charter premium, and the actual chase, the actual gear, the actual guarantee are shared with the Small Group Guaranteed Tour5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 at €199 per person. We'd tell most readers who ask us this directly to book the small group tour and put the savings toward another night in Rovaniemi.

Check dates for the small-group version (from €199) →

What's actually included at this price

Per the current listing: a private tour for your group only, a professional Northern Lights guide and photographer working in English (other languages available on request, though availability is limited — email or WhatsApp after booking if you need this), and full winter clothing in adult and child sizes — overalls, boots, gloves and socks — so you don't need to bring your own thermal gear. You'll also get a briefing on how the northern lights actually form, which sounds like filler but genuinely helps you read the sky yourself afterwards, on nights when you're not on a tour.

If you'd rather have the same private setup but around a fire with food, rather than driving to chase the best sky, the Private Northern Lights Tour at the Campfire5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 is a different product built around that — three hours, private, with local food and drinks included, from €790.

See the private campfire alternative →

Timing, pickup and the vague start window

The listing gives a start-time range of 17:00 to 21:00, confirmed by email around 14:00 on the day itself. That's not the operator being vague for the sake of it — aurora forecasting genuinely tightens up a few hours ahead, and locking a fixed time the week before would mean ignoring better conditions later the same night. In practice, once you've booked, build your evening around "we'll hear a firm time in the afternoon" rather than planning a fixed dinner reservation right after.

Pickup is normally from your hotel or cabin address in the Rovaniemi area — put this in accurately at booking, since it's how the guide plans the pickup route for the night. If you're staying somewhere unusual, we've written more generally about whether Lapland tours pick you up from specific hotels, which covers the pattern most operators here follow.

Cost & value — is €1,990 worth it

Run the maths for your own group before deciding. For a family of four, the Private Guaranteed Hunting Tour5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 works out to roughly €497 per person; the small-group tour at €199 per person for the same four is €796 total — less than half. The private tour only pulls ahead in per-person value once your group is large enough to fill most of a private vehicle anyway, at which point you're really weighing "shared minivan with strangers" against "just us," not the guarantee or the guiding quality, which are identical.

Where the private tour earns its price for some readers: genuine flexibility on timing if you have an early flight or a late one, a language need beyond English, or simply not wanting to sit next to strangers for a four-hour evening. That's a real preference, just not a "better" tour in terms of what you'll actually see.

Two cheaper guaranteed alternatives

Alongside the private and small-group hunting tours, StayLapland also runs a Guaranteed Northern Lights Hunting Tour by Bus, from €109 per adult for a five-hour outing with the same weather-based guarantee and professional photos included — the most affordable of the three guaranteed hunts, and a sensible pick if budget is the deciding factor rather than group size. See the bus tour and current dates5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5.

Check the bus tour from €109 →

If your priority is a slower, cosier evening rather than an active chase across the region, pair this with our thoughts on the reindeer-based aurora evening in our Northern Lights Reindeer Safari review — a genuinely different pace of tour worth comparing before you book. For the exact click-by-click booking flow on a different activity entirely, our Kuoksa Husky & Reindeer booking walkthrough covers the same StayLapland checkout process step by step, if you'd like to see it once before committing to the aurora hunt.

All three hunting tours — private, small group and bus — take HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 for 5% off at checkout.

Frequently asked questions

Do I book online or does someone call me back?
Everything runs through the online calendar on this page — pick a date, pay, and you'll get a confirmation email. No callback is required for either the private or small-group version.

What happens if we don't see the northern lights?
The listed guarantee is a 100% refund if no northern lights photographs are captured during the tour — the trigger is the guide's camera, not just a clear sky.

Why doesn't the listing give a fixed start time?
Start times run between 17:00 and 21:00 and are confirmed by email around 14:00 on the day, once the aurora forecast for that night is more reliable.

Can we get a guide in a language other than English?
Other languages are available on request, but availability is limited — email or WhatsApp the operator after booking to confirm before your date.

Is winter clothing provided?
Yes, on both the private and small-group tours — overalls, boots, gloves and socks in adult and child sizes are included, so you don't need to pack your own thermal layer for the tour itself.

What's the cancellation policy on the private tour?
Per the current listing, cancellations are free up to 7 days before the activity; inside 7 days, a 100% cancellation fee applies. The small-group tour's free-cancellation window is shorter, at 24 hours — check the exact wording in the booking calendar for your dates before you pay.

Our final pick

If you're reading this because the private tour is the first one you found, our honest recommendation is to at least look at the small-group guaranteed tour5% off · HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 before you pay ten times more. The guide quality, the guarantee, and the gear are the same — you're paying for privacy and flexibility, which is a legitimate thing to want, just not the same thing as a better chance of seeing the aurora. Whichever one you book, don't forget code HUNGRYTRAVELFAMILY5 at checkout for 5% off, and build your evening around a flexible start time rather than a fixed dinner plan.