Lake Inari

Inari is not a conventional tourist lake. There are no beach resorts, no paddleboats for hire in the main village. The lake is vast, frequently rough, and most of its shoreline is accessible only by boat. The Sami have fished these waters for millennia; some island sites are still considered sacred and are not publicised. In summer, guided boat tours depart from Inari village to the island of Ukko — a sacred Sami island used for sacrificial offerings until the 18th century. In autumn, the lake acts as a mirror for the surrounding birch-covered hills turning gold. In winter, the ice road across the lake to outlying islands is one of the last surviving seasonal road systems in Finland. The light here — flat, bounced off water in every direction — is unlike anything in the south.