Where to drink in Rovaniemi: centre pubs and cocktail bars a few streets apart, a brewery taproom and an ice bar 30 minutes out. Ratings, hours, prices.
The only town in Lapland where you can choose a bar on foot.
Rovaniemi’s bars sit in a tight grid between Rovakatu, Koskikatu, Korkalonkatu and Maakuntakatu, so a night here is a walk, not a taxi ride. Café & Bar 21 on Rovakatu is the cocktail room the whole town mentions, Uitto Pub on Korkalonkatu is the old institution, Kauppayhtiö on Valtakatu mixes beer with live music, and Roy Club on Maakuntakatu takes over after everything else closes. Two are worth leaving the centre for: Lapland Brewery pours its own beer beside the tanks on Teollisuustie, and the Ice Bar at Arctic SnowHotel in Sinettä, about 30 minutes away, is rebuilt from ice every December.
Most of the bars are in the city centre within a few hundred metres of each other; Lapland Brewery, Pub Sarvi and the ice bar are outside it and need a car or a taxi.
The Ice Bar at Arctic SnowHotel is open daily 11–22 from mid-December to the end of March and needs a SnowHotel entrance ticket unless you stay overnight.
Lapland Brewery runs a brewery tour and tasting on Fridays at 17:00 in winter; register by Wednesday, minimum three people.