Planning a Scandinavia holiday

It sounds like Northern Norway is your best bet. The town of Tromsø has good connections with flights. From there you can go in various directions: The Lofoten Islands are incredible, and so are also the mountain range called "Lyngen Alps" (Google some pictures). You may also head into the interior towards Finland and Sweden (or even Russia).

November/early December sounds a little bit too early for snow, though. And in the Arctic it is dark almost 24/7 around that time. A better option is March.

I think whale watching and northern lights is a bit of a difficult match. In wintertime it is very dark, depending on how far north you are, you might not see any sun.
If you're thinking about a remote log cabin and dog sledding I would recommend Finland (Enontekio for example has a very nice husky farm and snowmobile trips and a shop in the center of the village). Snow falls around October/November but the lakes might not be completely frozen- and it's better that they are because a lot of trips with the dogs (but also with reindeer and snowmobiles) are over lakes and give you an intense feeling of freedom with seeing so much space. I think February or early March are the best balance between dark night for the aurora and bright days for activities. Of course February might still be very cold (good for the lights but dress well). There are some app that you can install on your phone (also free ones) that have an alarm for when you have a good chance to see the NL. Other activities: sauna, snow shoe walks, skiing.

Why would whale watching be difficult to combine with northern lights? Thousand of people combine that every year. So, please do not give false advices. Here is one example
http://tromsosafari.no/activity/humpbacked-whale-and-killer-whale-safari/

Finland is good for remote log cabins, but so is Norway and Sweden. No need to travel for many hours (or even days) to get to Finland if you are already watching the whale at the Norwegian coast

Thanks so much everyone for your advice!

The trip is starting to develop and take a bit more form and I have decided to change the trip dates to late feb/early March when there will be plenty of snow for winter activities (I believe) but also a little more light (not too much to block the aurora hopefully!) Gets us away from the Christmas season too, though I am sure a Scandinavian Christmas would be spectacular.

I have started to settle on Sweden, and to focus more on the northern lights/winter activities (side note - I have decided to do separate trip to Norway another time to specifically visit the fjords in autumn and see the whales at this stage. There is just so much to see in Scandinavian I really cant do it justice in a few days)

So following this more developed theme - I am hoping to be based in Norther Sweden - within travel range of Jukkasjärvi to do a single night in the Ice hotel as I have heard it is a once in a lifetime opportunity, but the rest of the time I would like to be a bit more authentic and rugged in a cabin/igloo etc away from the bright lights and more in the nature. So if anyone has any recommendations around this area I would be very grateful to hear them - everywhere looks lovely on the websites but its great to know what experiences people have had.

Thanks so much

Authentic - iglo - dog sledging???
You are planning a trip to Sami culture area in Scandinavia and looking for things related to inuits (Alaska, Greenland, Canada). Drop the authentic and realize you want to be entertained by tourist activities. Fine but drop the idea that you will be doing somthing "authentic" the locals used to do.

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