The forest. The table. The sauna. The dark.
The house is where the holiday comes together.
Days here are shaped by the conditions.
Snow closes around a private house in Inari or Rovaniemi and the week becomes smaller in the best way: the people you came with, the forest, the table, the sauna, the dark. Days can go out into the snow or stay close to the fire. No one in the party has to run the holiday from a telephone. The work stays behind the scenes; the house holds the time together.
Dinner begins with the brief.
At the centre of the house is a kitchen with a brief, not a generic dining programme. A private chef works in an allergen-controlled kitchen. At the enquiry stage, the chef is briefed on the dietary lines of the party. The foraging menu is then rebuilt around the day of arrival.
What arrives at the table belongs to the north — cloudberries, lake fish, smoke, and silence. Nobody will hand you a fixed menu, because the menu is decided by what the day gives: salmon set around the fire, berries picked within sight of the house. Dinner is not a reservation somewhere else at eight o’clock. It is the reason the evening stays where you are.
Uuvana
Eight bedrooms under one roof, and 344 square metres to lose fourteen people in; the lake is 1.3 kilometres through the trees.
Villa Kesäranta
A sauna, four bedrooms, and 54 kilometres of road between you and Rovaniemi.
Villa Lehtoniemi
Five bedrooms in 176 square metres, with room for eight on the Rovaniemi lakeshore.
Privately booked, one day at a time.
The days are not assembled from a coach itinerary. Each departure below is privately bookable with the named operator, then placed around the house and the party. In Ivalo, that can mean huskies, northern lights or a tent sauna with ice swimming; around Rovaniemi, reindeer, ski, snowmobile, sauna or an aurora dinner. When a Sami-led reindeer-farm visit is part of the plan, it takes place on private working land — not a tourist programme.
Ivalo & Inari
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Private husky sledding
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Private northern-lights departure
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Private tent sauna, with ice swimming
Rovaniemi & around
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Private reindeer farm, and a sleigh ride
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Two days on skis, a night in a wilderness cottage
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Private Finnish sauna, hot tub and fire
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A full day on snowmobiles
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Aurora dinner at a private farm
Stay out for the aurora.
After dinner, the aurora belongs to the long part of the night. Watch beside a fire or leave on a private northern-lights departure. A wood-fired sauna and cold-water swim can wait at 02:00, with towel and tea waiting. The house is still there when the sky goes quiet.
Seventeen houses around Inari and Rovaniemi.
Houses for twenty and more
Houses for twelve to eighteen
Houses for eight to ten
Houses for six or fewer
What the house holds, and what sits outside it.
What a private house holds
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A private chef, working from an allergen-controlled kitchen and briefed on the party's dietary lines at the enquiry stage.
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One named concierge, available 24/7, as the single point of contact across the whole trip.
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A driver and a fleet matched to the party for the length of the stay.
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Sami-led guides who meet you on private working land, not inside a tourist programme.
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A housekeeping team that works around the house rather than through it.
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Every driver, chef, guide and member of housekeeping has signed a discretion agreement before the family lands.
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Emergency medical cover pre-arranged across Finland and Norway before you arrive.
What sits outside the house
- Flights, and any private aircraft, which are arranged and billed separately.
- Private activities. Each is booked for your party alone and billed on top of the house at the vendor's own price.
- Restaurant meals taken away from the house.
- Alcohol and cellar, which are bought to the party's brief.
- Travel insurance, which we ask every party to hold.
- Lift passes, equipment hire and any activity a vendor prices per person.
- Anything a third party charges directly to you rather than through us.
- Gratuities, which are never expected and never added.
How we work
Private Nordic is part of Xwander Nordic. We do not own the houses, the aircraft or the vehicles we arrange, and we do not own land in Lapland. We hold the relationships, we make the arrangements, and we stand behind them — but each supplier's own terms apply to their part of the trip, and we will tell you whose terms govern what before you commit to anything.
One enquiry
Begin with a named concierge.
A named concierge replies within twelve hours and stays with you from the first message through your arrival home. Tell us the region, party size, and travel window; one person will already know the family when the planning begins.