Hetta's Hotels

Hotel Hetan Majatalo

One of our favourite hotels in Hetta: a family-run, typically Finnish place in the village centre, right beside the hiking and cross-country ski trails. Operating since 1924 and now in its fourth generation, Majatalo is the oldest family tourism company in Hetta. It has the warm, homely feel of a traditional inn, with home-cooked Lappish and Finnish food, a downstairs gym, a ski-waxing room, and a peaceful northern-lights lounge with a small art gallery, library and conference room.

The new wing has 27 spacious en suite rooms for 2 to 6 people, most with an unusual loft space and skylight for watching the northern lights. More basic rooms sharing a communal shower are available in the annex for tighter budgets. The saunas are constantly heated, groups can hire large bunk rooms in the old hotel, and guests can choose bed and breakfast, full or half-board.

Majatalo's only real drawback is its traditional set evening meal times, which are very early, and a set menu that varies by day - Finnish reindeer stew one day, salmon / pea / vegetarian soup and buffet on Thursdays. Approached with an 'experiencing the culture' mindset, it is no problem.

Hotel Jussan Tupa

Jussan Tupa Hotel is right in the centre of Hetta, straight across the road from the supermarket. The hotel has 32 rooms and a total of 58 beds. All rooms are en suite and are fitted with a TV, telephone and radio. There is wifi in the lobby, a pool table in the bar area - open each evening - a small swimming pool downstairs and public and private saunas. The restaurant serves Lappish food and can accommodate 192 people. Jussan Tupa is open most of the year but tends to close just after Xmas. Larger groups can book the wilderness restaurant / venue which belongs to Jussan Tupa, called Vuollikka, set on a peaceful and scenic site on the shores of Lake Ounasjärvi.

Lapland Hotel Hetta

Hotel Hetta has 39 double rooms (shower/toilet, TV, radio, telephone), 16 hostel rooms (shower/toilet, telephone), 9 apartments for 2-6 persons (shower/toilet, TV, kitchen or kitchenette) and 2 rooms with their own sauna. All guests have year-round access to a sauna, Jacuzzi and small indoor swimming pool (just EUR4 for a spa evening), plus an ice swimming hole in winter. Its dance restaurant and bar seats 352, its auditorium 100, and its restaurant enjoys a wonderful lake view across to the 711m Pyhäkero Fell.

Luxury Cabins and Wilderness Centres (in or within 5km of Hetta)

Ounasloma Luxury Cabins has 13 high level holiday cottages in two different sizes close to the cross-roads leading to Alta, Norway. The smaller cabins sleep 6 comfortably and the larger ones, 10. All cottages have a sauna and fully equipped kitchen, and the owner offers rowing boats, bicycles, kick sledges and outdoor equipment free of charge.

Hetan Lomakylä offers versatile accommodations from rooms and cottages with showers to fully equipped log cabins with sauna for 2 to 5 people, plus electric pitches for camping trailers and mobile homes on the banks of the river Närpistöjoki. Hetan Kota Oy, c. 4km from downtown, provides camping grounds and huts with accommodation space for 43 people, bookable saunas, a restaurant and a bookable wilderness cabin.

Hostel-Style accommodation and Cheaper Cabins

Paavontalo Holiday Village is a family-owned company that provides camping-hut-style accommodation for 44 people on the eastern side of Hetta near Lake Ounasjärvi and Jyppyrä - one of the best value options in Hetta. The cabins sleep 2-4 people and are equipped with a clothes drying cabinet, fridge, kettle and coffee maker, with showers, toilets, a communal kitchen, two saunas and a heated bath tub in the nearby main building. During the spring season Paavontalo offers full board so that guests can concentrate purely on skiing. Majatalo and Hotel Hetta also offer hostel-level rooms in their older hotel wings with communal bathrooms and shared living areas.

Camping, Caravans, Private and Wilderness Cottages

Hetan Lomakylä has camping trailer and mobile home spots on the banks of river Närpistöjoki, and Hetan Kota is a hiking and camping centre with accommodation for 43 people, 2km from the centre of Hetta.

Private cottages include Ounistieva (a 55m2 6-bed cabin by lake Ounasjärvi, 1.5km from Hetta Huskies), Villa Mäntyniemi (a fully equipped holiday home sleeping up to 7, 3km from the village), and Närppä Cabin (48 m2, sleeps 8 but recommended for 1-4, with no electricity or running water, bookable through Ounasloma).

Snow Castle

Hetta's unique Snow Castle is a popular winter attraction, built each December and lasting until it melts in the May sun. Filled with ice sculptures and fairy-tale lights, it is redesigned yearly and draws c. 5,000 visitors. From roughly January through April, 20 people per night can sleep in its custom rooms: beds of the purest snow, bedframes of steel ice from the mountain lake, and bedding of reindeer skins, mattresses and comfortable sleeping bags.

A twin room costs 110 euro/person, a single 149 euro. Prices include a castle tour, sleeping instructions, thermal sleeping bags, warm drinks, transport to and from the castle (max 10 km) and the Certificate of the Polar Night.