Tankavaara

Tankavaara is a village in Sodankylä, Finnish Lapland. It features a gold panning museum with related activities and one of the visitor centres of Urho Kekkonen National Park.

Understand

Gold mining in Tankavaara in 1934

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 situated by E75, some 90 km north of Sodankylä centre, some 30 km south from the Saariselkä resort, and some 60 km south of the airport in Ivalo. The railhead in Rovaniemi is some 230 km away. There are several coaches daily between Rovaniemi and Inari and farther north along the road (3 h 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.

See

• 🌍 Tankavaara Visitor Centre (nature centre), Tankavaarantie 11 B, ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. 29 June–27 August M–F 10:00–17:00, 28 August–29 September 09:00–16:00, other times by appointment. Exhibitions, films, information on the park and the wilderness area, maps, permits and hut reservations. Accessible with wheelchair. Free. (updated Apr 2017)
• 🌍 The Gold prospector museum, Tankavaarantie 11 C, ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. June–September daily 09:00–17:00, October–May M–F 10:00–16:00. A museum dedicated to gold prospection in Lapland and internationally. Large collection of geological samples. Also outdoors museum with several historic buildings. €10/8/5, children fee for 7–16 years old; gold panning €8–10. (updated Apr 2017)
• German Schutzwall military post. Remnants of military post from the Lapland War (fought during World War II). There are repaired constructions along the "Urpiaispolku" nature trail and by the village. (updated Apr 2017)

Do

• Gold panning in the Gold village, Tankavaarantie 31, ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. 09:00–21:00 daily. €12/person/1 hour, €60/family/day. (updated Feb 2019)
• Gold panning in the wild, e-mail: [e-mail]. From short family adventures to week-long backwood camps. Family day €170. (updated Apr 2017)
• Nature activities in Gold Village, Tankavaarantie 31, ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. Hiking, canoeing in the summertime and Northern light tours and snowshoeing in the wintertime. (updated Feb 2019)

Urho Kekkonen National Park

• 🌍 Urho Kekkonen National Park. The second largest national park in Finland, with mires, deep forests and ranges of treeless fells. In the western parts there are good services, while most of the park is wilderness. The adjacent Sompio strict nature reserve includes the same habitats in a smaller scale. Free.  
• Trails (start by the visitor centre). (updated Apr 2017)
  • Geological trail. 7 km trail in the national park, can be combined with the Tankavaara nature trail to a slightly longer route. Check whether the information posters are in English also. (updated Apr 2017)
  • Nature trails. Nature trails in the national park (1km/3km/6km; as snowshoe routes in winter), with bird and landscape observation towers. The short trail is accessible with wheelchair in summer, if assisted. (updated Apr 2017)
  • Sompiojärventie–Nalijoki–Tankavaara trail (start or end by the visitor centre). Through Sompio Strict Nature Reserve, 17–20 km, from the visitor centre to 🌍 Sompiojärventie road, 9 km east of the village Vuotso at E75. Features the Pyhä-Nattanen fell and most biotops of the national park. You can continue to 🌍 Kakslauttanen or 🌍 Laanila (see Saariselkä) by the 35 km Ruija trail, the trailhead of which is by the same road. The trails can be walked either way, check transport to/from Sompionjärventie if you want to start/end your hike there. (updated Apr 2017)

Events

• Kaamos Jazz festival. 
• Finnish gold panning championships. Held each year in July. 

Buy

• Souvenirs etc. from the visitor centre and from the Gold village.
• 🌍 K-extra Sieppi, Säpikästie 3 (in Vuotso, some 10 km to the south), ☎ [phone]. Small grocery store. (updated Dec 2015)

Eat

• Old Gold Prospectors Restaurant (Wanhan Waskoolimiehen Ravintola), ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. 09:00–21:00. (updated Apr 2017)

Drink

• Wild West Saloon. Su–Thu 21:00–23:00, F–Sa 21:00–02:00. (updated Apr 2017)

Sleep

• Kultakylä (Gold Village), Tankavaarantie 31, ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. "Corundum" rooms with modern standard, cottages "in the spirit of gold rush times" with shared kitchen and showers in separate building, and camping. The "Kultaränni" standard hotel twin rooms with shower built in 2018 (12 twin rooms). €100, cottages €60–80. (updated Apr 2017)

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.

Routes through Tankavaara

Ivalo ← Saariselkä ←

N  S

→ Sodankylä → Rovaniemi