The best Northern Lights ever.

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An abandoned reindeer steak and a scintillating night sky, only in Lapland.

I was enjoying a splendid dinner in the restaurant at the Luosto Tunturi Hotel a few winters back when the other diners started leaving in droves. It was as if there was a fire alarm to which I wasn’t privy.

My dinner companion, the hotel manager, looked at me and said in typically understated Lappish style: “Do you want to finish your reindeer steak or do you want to see the Northern Lights?”

This created something of a dilemma. I’d seen an absolutely fantastic Aurora Borealis the night before and a pan fried reindeer steak is possibly my favourite meal in the world, so what to choose?

Very quickly, spirituality won the day over gastronomy and I joined my fellow diners outside the hotel. I’d made the right decision. Directly above us was the most spectacular Aurora Borealis I have ever seen. To this day, nothing has surpassed it. Even the locals were rushing out and admiring the Northern Lights at their absolute, spellbinding and multi-coloured best.

It was then that I turned to the hotel manager and said “We are going to run searching for the Aurora Borealis holidays here in Luosto.” And in typically understated Lappish style, he smiled and said “I like that idea.”

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Photos

The Northern Lights
Nature's free light show. Spellbinding.
Image copyright: Antti Pietikainen and www.theaurorazone.com