Nova Skyland Hotel, Rovaniemi: Aurora Suites, Nordic Cottages, Prices and Is It Worth It

Updated 5 October 2026.

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Nova Skyland gives you a large suite or a Nordic cottage with its own sauna, a short walk from Santa Claus Village. You are paying for space and a private sauna next to Santa, not for a glass roof.

What Nova Skyland actually is

Nova Skyland is a small hotel of large suites and Nordic cottages. The units have large windows and a Nordic design in natural materials, and every one has its own entrance. The difference from a normal hotel is scale: the suites are 56 m², and the 82 m² Luxury Nordic Cottage sleeps up to eight.

Every suite and cottage has a private sauna. Not a shared sauna down the corridor, but your own löyly (the steam that rises when you throw water on the stove) at whatever hour suits you. With small children, that distinction is the whole trip. You come back frozen from the village in the afternoon, switch the sauna on, and nobody has to queue in a towel.

The four unit types compared

Four unit types, and the names do not tell you much. This is what is behind each label.

The Honeymoon Suite is the odd one out: 34 m² against the Aurora Suite’s 56 m², and in mid-January it cost 1,010€ a night against 990€ for the bigger suite. If you are two adults, take the Aurora Suite unless the skylight over the bed is the point. The Luxury Nordic Cottage is the unit for groups: 82 m², up to eight people, a kitchenette and its own sauna.

What a night costs

The cheapest unit is the Aurora Suite, and its price follows the calendar: 999€ a night in late November, 990€ in mid-January, 825€ in February and 690€ in mid-March.

Rates are Booking.com prices per night for two adults, checked at the end of September 2026. Prices are for the 2026-27 season and change annually, so check current rates for your dates.

Mid-March costs about 30% less than late November for the same suite, with far more daylight. For the December dates marked not on sale, ask the hotel directly.

What is included in the rate

Your private sauna comes with every unit, along with a minibar, a kettle and a tea and coffee set. Breakfast is included on the hotel’s direct rates; on booking-platform rates it depends on the rate you pick. The hotel also mentions travel assistance cover for certain unexpected events on its direct bookings, which is a nice extra but no substitute for proper travel insurance.

Dinner is the open question this winter. The restaurant was under renovation in September 2026, with the hotel’s site promising “something new” in October. Until it reopens, plan your evenings around the restaurants in Santa Claus Village, 300 metres away. The cottages and the Honeymoon Suite have a kitchenette; the Aurora Suites have a minibar and a kettle only.

Where it is, and how to get there

The hotel sits 300 metres from Santa Claus Village, which is on the Arctic Circle 8 km north of Rovaniemi centre. Rovaniemi airport is a few minutes away by car. Practically, that means no transfer drama: you land, you are at the hotel in minutes, and the child who has been asking about Santa since Heathrow can see the place before dinner.

The trade-off is the city. Ten kilometres is a bus ride or a taxi, not a stroll, so Rovaniemi’s restaurants, the Arktikum museum and the shops are an outing rather than a whim. If you want to eat somewhere different every night without planning it, this is the wrong side of town and you should stay in the centre.

Activities booked through the hotel

Husky experiences, snowmobile tours, northern lights hunts and private Santa visits are all sold through the hotel, and all cost extra. Treat them as a separate line in your budget.

What to know before you book

First, no glass roofs. The name and the “Aurora Suite” label pull in people expecting to watch the lights from bed. The windows are large, but the ceiling is a ceiling; the one exception is the Honeymoon Suite, which has a skylight window over the bed. If a glass roof is the point of your trip, book somewhere that actually has one.

Second, light. Being 300 metres from the village means you are 300 metres from the village’s lighting, and that matters for aurora watching. A strong display will still show, but the faint green arcs that make up most nights get washed out. Watching the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s aurora forecast and then driving or joining a tour out of town is the realistic plan here, and it is worth budgeting for.

Third, dinner. Until the restaurant reopens, dinner means the village restaurants 300 metres away, or the kitchenette if you have booked a cottage. In December, when the village is at its fullest, book a table rather than walking in.

Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere

It suits families and groups who want one big unit rather than two hotel rooms, who value a private sauna, and whose trip is built around Santa Claus Village. Four or five people in one 56 m² unit with your own sauna and a 300-metre walk to the main attraction is a specific product. It also suits couples who would rather have a suite than a cabin, though the pricing makes the Honeymoon Suite a hard sell against the larger Aurora Suite.

Look elsewhere if you want a glass roof over the bed, if you want dark skies without driving, or if you want to walk from your door to a choice of restaurants and bars in the evening.

Booking timing, especially for December

December is the problem month: it sits in the hotel’s peak season, and both December windows in the rate table were off sale at the end of September. If you want those dates, ask the hotel directly and book early.

Outside December the pattern is simple: the later in the winter, the cheaper, with mid-March the value window at 690€ a night for the suite that costs about 1,000€ in late November and mid-January.

The alternatives worth comparing

How I researched this

Non-price facts here come from novaskyland.com in September 2026: unit sizes, capacities and layouts, the private saunas, the breakfast policy, the season dates and the restaurant renovation. Nightly rates are Booking.com rates as shown on Google Hotels on 30 September 2026 for the dates in the rate table, two adults, cheapest unit available. Nobody from Lapland Trip Planner has stayed here; the verdict is a researched comparison, not a review.

Common questions

Written by Ville Laukkanen

Ville is a Finn who runs Lapland Trip Planner. The site is a researched planning guide: hotel rates come from Booking.com listings and activity prices from the operators' own pages, each dated, and nothing is presented as a personal stay or trip unless it was one.