We have wanted to go to Lapland for a few years now, but as you probably know, it’s not the cheapest of trips. When I was looking 2 years ago at the prices, I thought I could only keep dreaming. But I’ll tell you how we ended up actually making it happen for a reasonable price!
Lapland is a region that spans over Norway, Sweden and Finland, in the far north of the countries. We were looking particularly at Finland (Rovaniemi) as its were you can find also Santa Claus’ Village! Lapland also offers activities like Northern lights tours, Husky and reindeer rides, and much more which I will touch on later in the blog!
But before we get into the details, this blog has various links embedded so you can quickly access the things I talk about. Some of those links may be affiliate meaning I earn some commission through them however this is a disclaimer that this does not influence my opinion. I will still share my honest thoughts and only recommend what I would do myself.
So back to planning the trip. I started looking in autumn, when airlines do sales for winter (Ryanair/easyJet). We found easyJet tickets from Edinburgh to Rovaniemi for £150 each (return) – not the cheapest – Manchester and London had way cheaper flights, with London being around £70 return! But it’s the airport closest to us, and if we tried travelling to Manchester or London it would have cost us more in the end with all the extra transport costs to get there and back.
The dates were early December (6th-10th) which suited us, so I thought £300 for both of us was a decent price and booked it there and then. We did add one 10kg bag which cost us an extra £20 but that was about it.
Next I looked at accommodation for 4 nights. Booking.com had some nice hotels – and if you sign up with them and book through them you will be part of a reward system, which gives discounts on certain places! We considered the following:
- Arctic City Hotel
- Santa’s Hotel Santa Claus
- Santa Claus Holiday Village – to be right in Santa’s Village
Make sure to change to your dates for accurate pricing and availability!
We ended up also looking at airbnb which was the cheaper option for us!
If you’re a group or a family, you can easily find an apartment on airbnb and split the cost between everyone, for a cheaper price. Our Airbnb apartment cost us around £400.
Itinerary
Day 1 – Travel and Arrival in Rovaniemi
We arrived in the afternoon on the 6th of December, and because Lapland only gets about 4 hours of sunlight a day in December, it was already quite dark. We got a taxi from the airport to our apartment, just from outside the terminal which cost us around €35. We then checked into our apartment and went out for something to eat in the centre.
Day 2 – Santa Claus Village
We woke up at around 10am, which was when the sun was rising! The temperature was showing as -15, which is the standard at this time of year. So definitely suggest layering up! We did 3 layers – base layer of thermals, then a layer of fleece top/hoodie and leggings/tracksuit bottoms, and then a top layer of a coat and ski pants.
After breakfast, we walked to get the bus to Santa Claus Village. You can find the schedule of various buses here.
We got the bus number 8. The ticket cost us around €3 each, one way. The journey was about half an hour but was quite pretty, with plenty of snowy trees along the way.
When you get to Santa Claus Village, the entry is free. You don’t have to pay to walk around – it’s the activities you have to pay for! The area is like a forest winter wonderland, with snow everywhere, cute huts scattered around and lots of colourful lights.
We walked around the area, took lots of photos, crossed the Arctic Circle, and went to find the reindeers! You can do a reindeer ride with different distance options which means different price points. There is 400m, 1km and 3km. We went for the middle option which cost us €40 per person. You can check out all of the activities here.
The ride lasted around 15- 20 minutes, and in my opinion was worth it. It’s 2 people per slay, and they take you around the forest part of the village. They will also take photos for you with the reindeer.
The village also has a reindeer farm where you can pay to feed the reindeers which can be an additional or alternative activity.
And of course you can meet Santa – I suggest that once you arrive to the village you go straight to the big hut where Santa stays and you book your time slot – you can’t just walk in which is why we didn’t do it as the queue was big! To take a photo with Santa, it costs around €35.
After the ride, we went to get some food and buy souvenirs – this wasn’t cheap at all. I would recommend packing a lunch if you’re with kids and on a budget!
I would recommend staying at the village until it gets dark to see everything light up!
We got back on the same bus back to Rovaniemi centre – there is a bus sign to indicate where to wait, but it’s the same area you get dropped off.
We were supposed to end the night with a Northern lights tour, which we booked on getyourguide. It cost around £70 per person which included pick up from your accommodation, the tour and hot drink and food! Unfortunately due to the weather conditions the tour got cancelled – if it’s too cloudy you won’t see a thing. They notified us 3 hours before the tour and we got a refund within a few days. Which on the positive side, at least they didn’t just take our money and leave us dissapointed.
Here are other northern lights tours we were looking at:
- Northern Lights Wilderness Tour with Camera – around £100 each
- Northern Lights Tour with Guaranteed Sightings – around £160 each but has a high rating
Day 3 – Snowboarding
This is definitely something you don’t have to do but we decided to try as ski season in Finland starts a lot earlier. But it is a more expensive and out of the way activity.
We started with a breakfast at McDonald’s- the most northern McDonald’s in the world! Worth a vist just to say you visited and the breakfast is cheap.
We then set off for a 45 minute walk to the Ounasvaara Resort. We don’t drive and couldn’t find a bus that was running towards that direction so we decided to walk. It’s not the first time we have done long walking journeys so we didn’t mind but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re considering skiing or snowboarding and you haven’t rented a car.
Once we arrived, we checked in for our snowboarding lesson and to collect our equipment – I booked this beforehand on their website. This cost me around €119 per person – it includes equipment rental, 1.5 hour lesson, and a lift pass for 3 hours.
We found the instructor nice and his English was perfect so we had no problem understanding. He taught us the basics and then we had some time to practice.
I did fall over so many times in so many ways that at the end of the day, my body ached! So if you don’t usually do this or don’t really workout like me, then your body will feel it! Also a heads up to the girls reading this, either don’t wear make up or wear waterproof makeup – I had a normal mascara on and after all the falls it looked like I had cried my eyes out with mascara streaming down my face!
After our snowboarding, we handed back our equipment and went to the cafe in the resort for a tea and a doughnut. I thought it was the perfect thing and the doughnut tasted amazing.
We then walked back to our apartment, which was way harder because everything hurt!
Day 4 – Shopping and walking around Rovaniemi
We planned to go back snowboarding but my body ached so much, it hurt to move! So we decided against it.
Instead we went to get breakfast and do some shopping.
We also found a church nearby – the area was so peaceful and pretty. The lake was also close by so we walked to check it out – we just used Google maps to find our way around.
Day 5 – Going back home
The last day was not very exciting, we had an early wake up and taxi to the airport at 9am. I forgot to mention that the airport is about a 15 minute drive to the centre. You book a taxi through booking.com even if you haven’t booked a hotel through them.
Our flight was at 11am so we just chilled out after getting through the security. The airport is quite busy in December so I’d keep that in mind if you’re traveling with bags and kids!
Other Activities Ideas:
Feel free to leave any comments or questions 🙂
Leave a Reply