72-Hour Guide to Lapland (Part I)

Visiting Lapland has been a dream of mine since my teenage years. I have grown up since then but the dream hasn’t vanished. In the last few years I decided to make this dream come true but realized it’s going to cost me! But in this blog not only will I share my impressions of the Finnish Lapland and Santa Claus village, but also some tips on how to save money during the trip of a lifetime.

In the spirit of this blog, I am doing a 72-hour trip review to show how much you can pack just in 3 days. But you can do even more if you come for a longer period of time. The flight from London to Rovaniemi, capital of Finnish Lapland, takes about 3 hours and as soon as we landed, we were greeted by the blanket of deep snow and temperatures of -13. That’s the true spirit of the north!

Tired from the early journey, we spent the rest of the day unpacking, settling in and exploring center of Rovaniemi, which is literally a small square with few streets branching out filled with cafes, restaurants and shops. Did you know for a while Rovaniemi was home to the most northern McDonald’s (until they opened one up in Murmansk, Russia)?

Day 1

Our first full day in Lapland started with a visit to Santa Claus village, which is located in the Arctic Circle, as we had few activities booked there.

• 

• 

The village itself is a big complex of hotels, shops, restaurants and activities geared towards adults and children. You can easily spend a whole day or two or three doing fun things.

The first on the agenda was a 5km husky ride, which lasted about 20 minutes. Before you even approach the Husky Park, you can hear all the barking of restless huskies dying to go for a run. The Husky Park is within the Santa Claus village and has its own tracks through the forest.

We hopped into a 4-person sleight and off we went! I have to say that the day was pretty warm by the Lapland standards (above freezing temperatures) so huskies were getting hot during the run. Many were eating snow and trying to rub against the snow on the sides of the tracks just to cool off.

• 

• 

Once the ride was finished, we could take few photos with our huskies which were stretching on the snow. The farm has a number of dogs and we walked around the cages to read about each dog and pet them through the cage.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Female husky Hetta, who is apparently a drama queen, was particularly friendly leaning against the cage wall to let us rub her back.

• 

• 

After we were done, we quickly stopped by the Napatapuli café to get some lunch. I went for tasty salmon burger while my husband ordered reindeer kebab with mashed potatoes. We needed to get some energy for the rest of the eventful afternoon. Meeting Santa Claus was one of them! We were lucky that during the low season lines to meet him are not that long. Visit itself is free for everyone but you need to pay for official photos and videos done by his elves (about 45 euros for the whole package).

• 

• 

Despite being adults, it was very sweet meeting the guy. He was very big and super friendly, asking us where we are from and what we have done so far. Apparently, he likes chocolate chip cookies with milk when he comes to drop off the presents! We bid Santa good-bye and got a couple of small Christmas souvenirs in the gift shop run by the helpful elves.

It was almost 3pm in the afternoon and it was time for another exciting ride, this time with reindeers! The caravan of 3 sleights was pulled by Yukka, a lead male reindeer famous for his stubbornness. One thing I didn’t realise when I booked our 40-min ride is that reindeers don’t really run. They walk…very slowly!

So, I thought to myself “Gosh, that’s going to be a long and boring ride”. Just as I thought that, Yukka started to run which is very unusual for him or other reindeers. Behind us was Ulyas, pulling second sleight and constantly being close to my face.

• 

The guide let me and my husband steer our reindeer, which was especially fun at the turns. Overall, it was a nice experience but I recommend going for a shorter ride, especially if it’s cold. The ride ends with some photos with the reindeers. Just be aware, some are friendlier and tamer than others!

• 

• 

• 

I hope you enjoyed Part I of my Lapland trip and will stay tuned for Part II next week.

Happy travels! xx