Cabins in Luosto

Luosto has no centre to speak of. The houses are log, low, and far enough apart that the forest comes back between them: old pine, some of it dead and standing and silver with age, on ground nobody has ever cleared. Ukko-Luosto rises behind. The Lampivaara amethyst mine is up on the fell, one of the few places in Europe where a visitor digs out their own stone, and the walk up is worth a morning whether or not you go in. Pyhä is a short drive around the park when you want a bigger hill and a restaurant table. That is how most guests use the pair: sleep at Luosto, spend the day at Pyhä.

The slopes here are short and gentle, right for children and for anyone still learning. Winter at Luosto is mostly about what surrounds them. The cross-country trails leave the village and are inside the national park almost at once. Snowshoe routes go under pines carrying so much snow that the branches close over the path and the light underneath turns grey-green. Almost nothing lights the sky from below here, so the northern lights take no planning: you look up on the way from the car to the door, and some nights that is the whole of it. Reindeer farms, husky kennels and snowmobile trips start in the village or just outside it.

The climb up Ukko-Luosto is short enough for a family and steep enough to feel earned, and the top opens onto green in every direction, no road and no roof in it. Blueberries and lingonberries take over the forest floor late in the summer, and there are marshes and lakes around the village for birds and for a slow paddle. Under the midnight sun there is no hour to be back by, and after a few days you stop checking. Then ruska turns the ground red, the mosquitoes go, and September here is very quiet indeed.

Rovaniemi is the usual airport, and the drive north from it is straightforward in any weather. Kemijärvi is the nearest railway station and takes the sleeper from Helsinki. Pyhä is a short drive around the shoulder of the fell. Bring a car if you can: Luosto is small, and most of what you will want to do in a week sits around it rather than in it.

People come to Luosto to be off duty, and a cabin is the version of that which works. A sauna at the end of a cold day. A kitchen, so nobody has to hold a table for seven. Quiet enough that the loudest thing in the room is the fire. Our cabins here are looked after by the same local team as the ones at Pyhä, cleaned and checked between every stay. Booking is direct on this page, so nothing is added to the price on the way through, and the number on your confirmation reaches a person.

There is no reception at Luosto and you will not miss one. The address, the door code and the practical notes come in a cabin guide linked from your booking, so arriving at eleven at night after a long drive is a matter of parking and opening the door. Do the shopping before you turn off the main road; the village shop is small. The cabins have proper kitchens, most have a sauna, and there is drying space for whatever came back wet. Bed linen, towels and the final clean can be added to the booking.