Spend a day in Jukkasjärvi for the Icehotel, the old church and the Sámi reindeer yard, all within a short walk. Give the next to the mine tour and the new centre, which together explain why Kiruna is moving. Then go west: Abisko and its Aurora Sky Station are 95 km away and worth a night, because aurora needs clear skies and more than one try.
Kiruna sits on top of the iron ore that built it, and the mine is now swallowing the old town. So the town is moving: a new centre opened in 2022 and the red church rode five kilometres east in 2025. Come for the Icehotel and the aurora, and watch a city relocate.
Rebuilt every winter from Torne River ice and opened in December, while ICEHOTEL 365 keeps art suites frozen all year. Day visitors buy tickets on site, and the ice bar and the art halls are the reason to come even if you sleep in town.
A bus drives into Kiirunavaara and down to LKAB’s show mine at the 540-metre level, inside the world’s largest underground iron ore mine. It is the one visit that explains why the town is moving. Places are limited, so book ahead.
The red timber church of 1912 rode five kilometres east on trailers on 19 and 20 August 2025, all 672 tonnes of it. It reopens on its new site at the end of 2026; until then the exterior and the story are the visit.
A chairlift up Nuolja to a viewing station above the Abisko valley, run on winter nights by the Swedish Tourist Association. It is 95 km from Kiruna, so plan a night in Abisko rather than a round trip.
Henning Larsen’s faceted town hall, opened by King Carl XVI Gustaf in November 2018, was the first building of the new centre. The core holds public exhibition halls, and the old town hall’s 1958 bell tower stands with it.
The village’s oldest building, first raised around 1607 and rebuilt since, and the only block-pillar church left in Sweden. Go in for Bror Hjorth’s carved teak altarpiece, built around the preacher Lars Levi Laestadius.
A reindeer yard run by Sámi herders beside Jukkasjärvi church, opened to visitors in 1996 when thick ice locked the grazing. Walk in to see the herd and buy feed, or book a guided tour for herding stories and sled rides.
The manor of LKAB’s first manager, the man behind the company town, moved in three pieces from the subsidence zone to the foot of Luossavaara. It is now a museum, café and shop, and the clearest picture of early Kiruna.
Sweden’s highest mountain, its ice-free north peak at 2,096.8 metres since the glacier on the south summit melted below it. The trail runs 19 km from Nikkaluokta to the STF mountain station, five to eight hours on foot.
The Swedish Space Corporation’s launch base sends sounding rockets and research balloons into the Arctic sky. Guided tours cover the visitor centre and the launch areas; book ahead, as visits run around the launch schedule.
The first building of the new centre, opened in November 2018.
Opened as an open-pit mine in 1919 and worked until 1967. Now the town’s ski hill.
Three lifts and four runs on the old mine hill; closes below −20 °C.
Birch valleys and the Kungsleden trailhead, 95 km and about 1 hr 15 by road.
Snow sculpture contest and sled races in town. The 2027 edition runs 27 to 31 January.
Marked across Sápmi on 6 February, the date of the first Sámi congress in 1917.
Blocks for next winter’s Icehotel are cut from the Torne River and put in cold storage.
The sun stays up round the clock from about 27 May to 14 July.
The resort reopens for midnight-sun skiing around midsummer, when the snow allows.
Two days of music in the new centre, free to enter in 2026 (26 and 27 June).
A two-week festival of culture, music, sport and food as the dark sets in.
The new seasonal hotel opens after six weeks of building. The 2025 edition opened 12 December.
About 6 km from the centre, with direct flights to Stockholm Arlanda in about 1 hr 35. SAS and Norwegian both fly the route.
SJ’s sleeper leaves Stockholm in the evening and reaches Kiruna the next morning, about 15 hours. The line continues to Abisko and Narvik.
Line 501 reaches the Icehotel in about 30 minutes, and buses run to Abisko and Nikkaluokta. Weekend services end early, so check the last bus back.
A car makes Nikkaluokta, Esrange and Abisko easy day trips. Rentals come on winter tyres, and parking in the centre is paid.
Thin-shaved reindeer fried with onion, served with mash and lingonberry.
Salted, smoked reindeer from the Sámi kitchen, often in flatbread.
Sámi flatbread baked on the fire, the wrap for suovas.
Arctic char from the mountain lakes, smoked, grilled or cured.
Cloudberries, tart and amber, over ice cream or warm cheese.
Squeaky Tornedalen cheese, cubed and dropped into hot coffee.
Vendace roe from the Bothnian coast, on toast with red onion.
Norrbotten’s potato dumpling stuffed with salt pork, with lingonberry.
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