Tankavaara

Tankavaara is a village in Sodankylä, Finnish Lapland. It features a gold prospecting museum and a company called Gold Village offering services for travellers and locals. The former national park visitor centre is now part of the Gold Village: Tankavaara Wild conference centre, offering nature activities and services.

From Tankavaara village there's an easy access to some trails and nature paths of Urho Kekkonen National Park.

Understand


Tankavaara is famous for its gold prospecting, which started in the 1930s. Since the 1970s, the village has been a tourist attraction including hotel, restaurant and the gold prospector museum.

Get in
Tankavaara is near E75, 90 km north of Sodankylä centre, 30 km south from the Saariselkä resort, and 60 km south of the airport in Ivalo. The railhead in Rovaniemi is 230 km away. There are several coaches daily between Rovaniemi and Inari and farther north along the road (3 hr from Rovaniemi, 45 min from Ivalo). The name of the bus stop is "Tankavaara th".

Get around
The village is small, use your feet. If you are in wheelchair, check what facilities are accessible. One of the nature trails in the national park is accessible with wheelchair, if assisted.

See




Do




Urho Kekkonen National Park
The Urho Kekkonen National Park is adjacent to Tankavaara and there are several marked trails into it, with signs and some infrastructure, such as lookout towers, dry toilets, "Lap pole tents" and campfire sites. For longer treks Tankavaara is not the best starting point, since most of the park is behind Sompio Strict Nature Reserve, where trails must be followed, and there are no trails into the reserve from Tankavaara. It is however possible to walk through the park towards Kiilopää, halfway you pass the north end of the Sompio reserve and can choose the rest of the route more freely.

Events

 * Gold Rush Run Sled Dog Race. Held each year in March.
 * Gold Rush Run Sled Dog Race. Held each year in March.
 * Gold Rush Run Sled Dog Race. Held each year in March.

Buy

 * Souvenirs etc. from the visitor centre and from the Gold village and the Miners Market shopping bus.

Connect
Postal code: 99695 Tankavaara

Free Wi-Fi in the Prospectors Restaurant

Go next

 * Urho Kekkonen National Park, with the Prospector Trail and some other traces of gold mining, and of course vast areas for trekking.
 * Lemmenjoki National Park or Hammastunturi Wilderness Area, where some people still spend their summers panning for gold.