24 hours in Lapland 🇫🇮
31st Jan - 1st Feb
Flight took off 6.30am from Dublin to Rovaniemi, took just under 3 hours. A super efficient journey from the much maligned, Ryanair. Arrived 11.20am. No bags to collect so breezed through passport control and onward to collect rental car. I used Addcar which is part of Scandia Rent. It took about 45 minutes as when I went to collect the car, it wasn’t ready despite being exactly on time at 12.00. Bit of a pain but nonetheless. Checked in at air BnB apartment at 1.30. Very basic place but convenient location with free parking at the Arkitikum museum which is located right across the street and 10 mins walk to central area/Lordi’s Square. Unloaded bags and headed to the supermarket for milk (I need my coffee) and straight from there to Santa Claus Village.
There’s ample parking at the village and only about 10 minutes away by car. I had booked in advance the 1 hour snowmobiling through Artic Forest with the company in the village. It was £118 for 1 adult, 1 child. Snow suit provided and out to the mobiles for 3.00, no hanging about. The leader was great, super informative about the area and good spots on the route to see Northern Lights at night. Stopped twice on the journey to swap drivers and take some photographs. I had also booked a northern lights with BBQ tour through Air BnB at £128 for both of us but unfortunately the host cancelled as the weather was thick cloud and calling for snow he said there was no chance of seeing Aurora. Disappointing but we spent a good few hours in the Santa village instead mainly just walking about playing and climbing in the many giant mounds of snow.
We were able to see the huskies and reindeer’s but sadly the latest time for rides is 4.00pm. Headed back to the car to blast the heater and eat our sushi from the supermarket before browsing in the Santa Claus post office and souvenir shop (bring your credit card), as expected souvenir prices are extortionate. For dinner that night we went to McDonalds, as it is the most northern one in the world. Sweet potato fries, nice! A cappuccino and a cinnamon bun for 4 euro? Yes please! We decided to check out the Angry birds park so drove there to find it amazingly deserted apart from one other family. It was still well lit and we had everything to ourselves. Definitely bring a sled, there were none lying around but Angry birds park had some great hills for sledding. Plenty more mounds of snow and wonderful views over the frozen lake.
Thursday morning we had a true arctic experience. Walked to Soko Coffee house for breakfast about 10 minutes from the apartment in blizzard conditions . Literally covered from head to toe in snow but it was magical lol. Lovely coffee and bagels in Soko and a snowball fight outside before heading back to the apartment and making our way to the airport for 12.00. Unfortunately there were quite a few delays due to the aforementioned weather conditions in Rovaniemi, the runway was closed for the first part of the day. However, after a short delay we got on our way with memories to last a life time (or at least until next winter when we hope to go back and get lucky enough to see the northern lights) 😬
Tip: hire a car if you can and book the car as soon as possible. When I first looked, the car rental was coming in around £50 but I was undecided and didn’t book until 2 days before travelling so it had shot up to over double the price.
Total cost: £623
*It’s not a cheap day trip but it is magical
Flight £130 return (1a / 1c)
Airport hotel night before £66
Car rental £101
1 night air BnB £128
Snowmobiling £118
Food around £80
