Small-Group Visit to a Sami Family Reindeer Camp with Lasso Throwing

The $195.91 (per person) ticket buys the whole camp visit, transport included. You travel with a small group of at most 16 people, which is the main thing you pay for here: the larger sledding departures take far bigger groups. The listing states the tour runs 3.5 hours and that you are back at the Magic Ice Bar about 3.5 hours after the start.

An English-speaking guide handles the transport and the visit.

Included in the price

• Visit to a Sámi family at their reindeer camp
• Lasso throwing the way Sámi herders catch reindeer
• Feeding the reindeer once you have caught one
• Small-group transport to the camp and back
• Snacks and hot juice in a heated cabin
• English-speaking guide

Not included and rules to know

• No sled ride, the listing excludes it outright
• No hotel pickup, you meet at the Magic Ice Bar on Kaigata 4
• No meal beyond the light snack, so eat before or plan for after
• Come to the meeting point 15 minutes before departure
• Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start
• Bad weather can cancel the trip, with a refund

One more practical point from the listing: infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller, and child seats are available on request if you ask in advance. That makes this one of the easier camp visits to book with a toddler in tow, as long as an older child of 6 or more is the youngest paying guest.

The lasso is a working tool, not a circus act. Sámi herders use a throwing loop to catch reindeer out of the herd, for marking, milking or moving animals between pens. On this visit the family shows you the technique and you get to try it yourself, the same way they catch their own animals.

The listing spells out the small reward at the end: when you have caught a reindeer, you may feed it. That link between the two activities is what separates this visit from the big hand-feeding lines at the larger camps, where you hold out a bucket of feed and move on.

Tips before you try

• Listen to how the herders hold and swing the loop before your first throw
• Expect to miss a lot, the herders make it look far easier than it is
• Wear clothes you can move in, you will be outside at the pens

Lasso throwing is also a competition in Tromsø: the Sámi Week programme holds the Norwegian championships in early February.

The core of this listing is simple: you visit a Sámi family and see how they live. The Sámi are the Indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola peninsula, and reindeer herding inside the Sámi herding area is reserved by law for people with a reindeer earmark, which in practice means families like the one hosting you. You are not watching a performance for tourists, you are at the camp of people whose household work is this herd.

Group size shapes the visit. With up to 16 guests, questions actually get answered and nobody fights for space at the reindeer pen. Compare that with the largest camps in this catalog, which take shared groups of up to 100 per departure, and the difference is easy to feel.

After the lasso throwing and feeding you warm up in a heated cabin with light refreshment. The listing names snacks and hot juice, and it is honest about the scale: this is a light refreshment, not a meal. If a proper reindeer stew matters to you, look at a tour with lunch instead.

The listing states it in plain words: this tour does not include reindeer sledding. You will not ride behind a reindeer, and no amount of snow changes that, because the sled is simply not part of the product. Booking this tour means booking a camp and culture visit, full stop.

That matters most in the snow season from roughly November to early April, when the sledding tours run at a similar price. Outside the snow months the choice gets easier, because no camp runs sled rides then.

If you catch yourself hesitating, ask what you came for. A sled ride is a quiet, slow trip in a caravan behind a lead reindeer, and it is lovely, but it lasts minutes. Time with one family at their camp lasts the whole morning or afternoon.

Both are good answers, but they are different tours.

The listing recommends this visit for children from 6, with child 6-15 and adult 16+ price bands, and infants can ride in a pram. Child seats are available on request in advance, so tell the operator early. All fitness levels can take part, since nothing on the visit asks for more than standing at a pen and throwing a lasso.

It also fits travellers who have already done a sledding tour elsewhere, or who simply care more about the people than the activity. Its 4.9 rating from 78 reviews is the highest in this catalog.

At 3.5 hours, the visit leaves the rest of the day free. The meeting point in front of the Magic Ice Bar on Kaigata 4 is in the harbour-side city centre, a few minutes on foot from the bus terminal at Prostneset and the Radisson Blu, where most other reindeer tours start. Arrive 15 minutes before departure, as the listing asks.

Pairing it with a sled ride

Travellers who want both the small-group family visit and a sled ride can book the two on different days. The Reindeer Sledding, Feeding and Sami Storytelling from Tromsø adds the sled, a large herd and a hot lunch in four hours, and the Night Reindeer Sledding with a 3-Course Sami Dinner and a Chance of Northern Lights adds the sled after dark.

Children on this visit

The listing recommends the visit for children from 6, with a child rate up to 15. Child seats are available on request, so ask for them when you book rather than on the day. Lasso throwing suits children who like to try things themselves, and the heated cabin with snacks and hot juice gives them somewhere warm between activities.

This is the only visit in the catalog capped at 16 guests, and at $195.91 (per person) it costs less than every sledding tour except the budget option at $133. The trade is clear: you give up the sled ride and the meal, and you get the smallest group and one family. If a sled ride or a hot lunch decides it for you, the alternatives below are worth a look.

Figures current for Q4 2026.

The token on this page marks the data currency of the price table above.