Welcome to Midnight Sun Geocaching mega-event
FALL IN LOVE with the midnight sun! We invite you to Kiilopää, Finnish Lapland, to experience the second Midnight Sun Geocaching Mega-event with wonderful geocaching, awesome wilderness and diverse nature. This Mega-event will take place on June 14-16th, 2019, next to Urho Kekkonen National Park.
GC7REGW is the official cache code of this Mega-event. You will find the cache description here: https://coord.info/GC7REGW. Log in!
Programme
Download the final programme here (FIN/ENG, pdf)
The event programming is centred on nature in Lapland and the many ways to experience it. Here you will get to meet and spend time with other geocachers and get to know the Lapland landscape. You will also get to experience the magnificent white nights as the sun shines 24 hours a day.
For most visitors, the main attraction of the mega event at Kiilopää will be self-guided hiking and geocaching in the area. There are nearly 200 geocaches at Kiilopää and the surrounding area. "Kiilopään keino" is a 67-cache trail that runs in the fells and forests just west of Kiilopää, in addition to caches near and around the Fell Centre itself. The adjacent Urho Kekkonen National Park also has geocache offerings for day hikers, backpackers and since 2018 also for mountain bikers. There are also mountain biking trails and numerous geocaches northwards towards Saariselkä.
On Saturday, 15 June, we will have a variety of guided tours and activities. We'll arrange birdwatching and botanical tours as these were popular last time. There will also be hiking and mountain biking excursions of various distances. The 18-hole frisbee golf course is open for all. We will have activities just for families, too. Families can also enjoy the Moomin children's trail at Kiilopää on their own time.
As a side program, there will be a cruise to Lake Inari on Friday with an event cache Ukkosenjumalan jäljillä (terrain 5).
Schedule 
Thursday, 13 June
20 – 21 PM Campfire pancakes in Turf Hut Maahinen
Friday, 14 June
8 AM – 18 PM Lake Inari excursion and cruise (full)
Daytime Guided tours in the Kiilopää area (see below)
17 – 18 PM Geocaching for beginners workshop
18 – 19 PM Kiilopää Round the Year photography show
20 – 21 PM Meet & Greet event (GC8752Q)
21 – 22 PM Mystery evening - register here
Smoke sauna available throughout the evening
Saturday, 15 June
Meet Signal the Frog! All day every full hour.
6 AM – 20 PM Various guided tours, e.g. birdwatching, botanical tour, trekking, mountain biking (see below)
10 AM – 18 PM Adventure Lab caches open
10.30 AM – 14 PM Family activities
14 – 16 PM Campfire songs and pancakes
10 – 10.30 AM and 16.30 – 17 PM Frisbeegolf intro - register here
18 PM Northern Lights GeoTour info
12 AM (Midnight) Midnight sun at Kiilopää peak (GC8845X)
Smoke sauna available throughout the evening
Sunday, 16 June
9 – 10 AM CITO event
11 AM Group transportation departs
Goodbye, and hope to see you again soon!
Hiking and MTB tours
On Friday and Saturday we will have a variety of guided tours and activities. We arrange birdwatching and botanical tours, as well as hiking and mountain biking excursions of various distances. There are limited number of places per tour, so it’s better to book in advance. Hiking and walking tours are free.
Hiking/walking tours
Hiking tour Friday at 10-14. Distance 5-8 km.
Birdwatching tour Saturday at 6-8. Distance 2-3 km.
Botanical tour (arctic plants) Saturday at 9-11 and 16-18. Distance 3-4 km.
Hiking tour with some caches Saturday at 9-12 and 14-18. Distance 5-8 km.
Nature art tour Saturday at 13-15. Distance 2-3 km.
You can book the hiking tours here (click the left upper corner for English version)
MTB tours
Long MTB tour and caches, by e-MTB bike. Friday at 10-15. Price 59 € including bike rental, free by your own bike.
Midnight Sun MTB tour Friday at 22-01. Price 49 € including bike rental, free by your own bike.
MTB tour with some caches Saturday at 8.30-10.30 ja 15-17. Price 29 € including bike rental, free by your own bike.
Mini MTB course with e-fatbikes. Saturday at 11.30-13.30. Price 29 € including bike rental, free by your own bike.
The MTB tours are guided by Roll Outdoors. You can book the MTB tours by email kiilopaa@rolloutdoors.com.
Accommodation at Kiilopää
At Kiilopää you can choose your accommodation between a hotel room or a cabin, or you can stay in our hostel, go camping or park at one of our caravan sites.
You can book hotel or cabin accommodation at the Kiilopää online shop. The tent camping reservations and caravan sites are not available online, please contact Kiilopää Fell Centre directly at +358 16 6700 700 or kiilopaa@suomenlatu.fi.
The special rates below for hotel, hostel, and cabin bookings are for reservations of at least two nights. Use the campaign code MEGAEVENT2019 when booking to receive these prices. Click here for Online-booking.
Kiilopää Hotel 
Room for 2 persons: 68€ / room / night
Room for 1 person: 58€ / room / night
Price includes breakfast and evening sauna.
Hostel
Bed in women's or men's dormitory: 28€ / bed / night
Price includes linen and towel, breakfast and evening sauna.
Kiilopää cabin accommodation
Cabin for 1-4 persons: 95€ / cabin / night
Log cabin for 1-4 persons: 115€ / cabin / night
Price includes linen and towel, evening sauna, and post-departure cleaning
Camping site
Campsite for a tent for 1-4 persons: 20€ / site / night
Price includes shower/toilet facilities and evening sauna.
Kiilopää Caravan site
20 € / night with electricity
15 € / night without electricity
Price includes shower/toilet facilities and evening sauna
Meals
You can book your meals in advance at discount price together with your accommodation.
Breakfast (if not included in accommodation): 10 € (in advance) / 12 € (on site)
Soup lunch: 10 € / 12 €
Dinner buffet: 20 € / 23 €
Other accommodation
There is plenty of other accommodation available nearby. Tievatupa camp centre and Kakslauttanen are nearest from Kiilopää. Many hotels operate in the Saariselkä area, for example Santa’s Hotel Tunturi, Holiday Club Saariselkä, and Lapland Hotel Riekonlinna. You can also book cottages in the area through Saariselkä Booking. A free Mega shuttle bus will operate on the main day (June 15th) between Saariselkä and Kiilopää.
Getting there and around
We hope that as many people as possible will come to Kiilopää by public transportation or by carpool. Kiilopää is 3 hours away by bus from train stations in Rovaniemi or Kemijärvi. Or, from Ivalo Airport, the airport bus will take you to Kiilopää in about 45 minutes.
During the event day (Saturday), a free shuttle bus will run between Kiilopää and Saariselkä. This will be convenient for those with accommodation outside Kiilopää as well as for those wishing to geocache at both locations! The timetable for the shuttle bus will be confirmed and published later.
Northern Lights GeoTour - A new tourist attraction in the Saariselkä area
This spring, the Northern Lights GeoTour will be published in the area around Kiilopää and Saariselkä.
The goal of the GeoTour is to highlight sites of interest in the area to geocachers. Indeed, the area already has many geocaches, but we believe that the GeoTour will bring renewed interest as well as an international audience.
Our intention is to share information about the natural features, culture, and history of Lapland through the geocaches. We aim to make all the caches winter-accessible, since winter is the main tourist season for the region. The caches will be created by volunteers and maintained by Suomen Latu.
The length of the GeoTour has not yet been decided, but the idea is that it can be completed in a few hours, making it suitable even for visitors on tighter schedules.
We will publish the caches in the beginning of June, before the Midnight Sun Geocaching 2019 Mega event in Kiilopää. This way, we can test that they work as designed before Mega attendees arrive. There will also be a Northern Lights GeoTour geocoin.
