Lapland - A Winter Wonderland

Time of the Year- February

Flight  - Turkish Airline. One Stop layover. There is no direct flight from Mumbai.

Helsinki.

We took an uber from the airport to the apartment. 40 Euro from Airport to Centre.

Apartment : Airbnb Kamppi 

Be sure you get dropped exactly at the location. Its quite stressful looking out for an apartment with luggages and with cold wind tearing you apart.

Recommended Area to Stay : Aleksanterinkatu . Its ideally the best area. Its buzzing with people and activity.

Helsinki is a small city and you can mostly walk towards most places.

I mean you cant really not take your eyes off this pair. I mean the horses obviously.

However, you can buy a day or a two day ticket which is validated from your first validation until the next 24 or 48 hours which is a good option if you do not want to walk too much.

I would recommend using this walking guided tour . It guides you in the most efficient and economical way.

 https://www.nomadepicureans.com/europe/finland/helsinki-walking-tour-self-guided/

Your starting point can be from where you stay and you can join the map accordingly and reroute.

Tips : Keep in mind opening and closing times so you do not miss out on entering places. Most of the places shut by 5 pm.

Below are some listings of the places we visited.

Recommend : MUST SEE THE LIBRARIES. There are two beautiful libraries. Dont miss it for the World. They encourage people to use libraries and give free access and are spreading education in a positive way.

Beautifully designed National Library of Finland

National Library of Finland

Oodi Library - There is a game room, a virtual play station room, books, lounges, meeting rooms, cafe. 

How to get to the fortress. There are ferries running from the city to the Fortress. You can buy the tickets right outside the port terminal. The fortress entrance is inclusive in The same tickets if bought on ABC zones, depending on the zones that you want to do, and the hours that you buy it for.

2) Suomenlinna Fortress : Helsinki

Suomenlinna Fortress is quite a walk. 

Definitely do not do the flying cinema. Its terrible. Do not waste your money there.

There is a Finnish Spa there Allas Sea Pool, if you want to try the whole "jump in the cold water, and then quickly run into the Finnish Sauna" experience.
We didnt do it.

3) The Helsinki Cathedral

Its White and Huge.

4) Sibelius Monument




5) The Chapel Of Silence

Kamppi Chapel of Silence

6) The Amox Res Art Museum

The design city has this open museum.

7) The Pohjola Insurance Building

 I peeked in. Its beautiful . It looks so ancient and has a Harry Potter Hogwarts Look.

Finnish Art captured on the exterior of this Building. Magnificent.

8) Uspenski Cathedral

We didnt get a chance to check it from inside as it shuts by 4 pm. And well we reached by 4.07 pm.

9) Jääpuisto Ice Park Ice Skating Rink Opposite the Railway Station. It is open till late in the night. Its fun. Theres a cafe for people who do not want to skate to sit around and wait and watch your companion skate.

Adults: 6 euro -  No time limit

Skate rentals  - 6 Euro.

10) Helsinki Casino
I didnt know we would find a casino in Helsinki, so we landed up there and its quite expensive to play so I guess skippable unless you are itching to. We played slots.


If you are well planned and book a car, one can finish seeing Helsinki in a day. But, we like to shop so we end up spending half a day shopping always. The regular shops - the likes of Zara, H&M, Mango.

Local Shops :

1) Bik Bok
2) Cubus
3) Flying Tiger Copenhagen

The commercial street is quite buzzing.


Restaurants:

1) The Green Hippo- Vegan Restaurant

2) Fafa's - Falafel

3) Thai orchid in Kamppi Mall.
4)Cafe Regatta - Near the Sibelius Monument. If Helsinki is known as the design capital, this place defines it. Its a very cute cosy cafe next to the water with barbecue pits and hot chocolate to keep you warm. 

https://www.facebook.com/pg/caferegatta/about/

Clubs:
We visited a local bar On the Rocks right next to the casino opposite the Ice Park.
Pretty decent. I think they had a stand up night or Karaoke club happening downstairs. Not sure didnt check it out.
2 days is more than enough for Helsinki.

Next Stop :

Rovaniemi
Uber to the airport.

Travel to Rovaniemi - There is an option of an overnight train but we flew the local airline. Finn air.

We got picked up the santa claus holiday van from the airport and they dropped us straight to our rooms with the luggage which is very helpful. Its quite a long walk from the reception to the cottages with luggages.

It was a 45 min flight.

Hotel : Santa Claus Holiday Village

Accomodation - The cottages are very spacious with a sauna and a small kitchenette. They also provide the toboggan for each cottage for enjoy sliding in the snow.

If you plan better and reach early, you can enjoy Santa Claus Holiday village in a day.

Its definitely a place to go during Christmas. And is really fun for the kids.

Things to do in the Santa Claus Holiday Village:

1) Meet and Greet Santa. There are two Santas. Yeah TWO!!

2) Pose with the Christmas Tree

A little late for Christmas in February, but nevertheless its Christmas and Snow in Santa Claus Village.

3) Cross the Arctic Circle.

It was snowing. So -1 is still hot. It couldve gone much lower if not for the snowfall.

4) Ice Park at additional fees

5) Santas Post Office

Postal Stamp

Post Cards

First Post from the Arctic Circle via Santa Express

6) Toboggan on the winter slopes



7) Adventure Activities : Husky Safari, Reindeer Sleigh Ride, Snowmobiling

8) Picture with a Giant Sized Snow man

Definitely do the husky safari and reindeer sleigh ride in Rovaniemi as it is cheaper and a half hour of these rides are just enough. However in Rovaniemi there is a sleigh with the huskies and a trainer. Higher up north you get the ride the huskies yourselves. Thats a fun experience.

Restaurants:

1) Pizza and Burgers at Santa claus holiday village. Best option if you are a vegetarian. There is a lunch menu meal like happy hours so check that.

If not there will be like 7 more restaurants to choose from.

Drinks:

Reception Hall of Santa Claus Holiday Village. Though drinks are available at the breakfast restaurant also. We tried their local drink Glogg. Um not so yum. but its a hot drink . perfect for the cold weather.

Santa Claus Holiday Village to the City Centre. Booked a bus. 5 Euro a person. drops you at the city centre. But the hard part was lugging heavy luggage across the snow till the hotel.

Rovaniemi City

Booked at an Airbnb right next to the Rovaniemi Mall. Also we

In the evening went to the Arctic Snow Hotel.

Picked up from the city centre. Booking is done with a pick up visit and drop. You can choose from their website. There is a dinner option too. We didn't take that since we are vegetarian. As our choice of eating options are limited.

The hotel is built of ice and is only accessible in the winter months. Everything from the rooms to the toilets to the restaurant, chapel and sculptures are all made of Ice. Hence the name Ice hotel.

Fortunately for us we saw an Indian marrying a Finnish lady in the ice chapel.

A sit down dinner table made of Ice for Private Dinner.

Thats the bouncer in ice sculpture outside the ICE BAR.

ICE BAR with Shots in Ice Shot glass.

KOROUOMA Frozen Waterfall Trek

We signed up with a tour agency and started at 8 am in the morning. It was a private trek as we were the only family that signed up. We went in a van out for almost a 2 hour drive towards the waterfalls hike.

It was snowing, so it was a beautiful hike in the snow. The most amazing experience to take back home of trekking in snow and snowfall, as Ive never done it before. It was breath taking.

Frozen Waterfalls at Korouoma National Park

Flow with the Snow

Drive to The Korouomo National Park

Frozen Waterfalls at Korouomo National Park

Campfire Pit Stop in the Hike. Vegetarian sausage, bread, cookies, chocolate and coffee.

Aurora Hunt

We signed up for the Aurora Hunt with photography by Lapland Welcome. its a bus ride to a pit stop one hour outside the rovaniemi city.

Northern lights are best seen when there is darkness and on a new moon night. 23rd Feb was a new moon night. However, we saw a very pale aurora. Perhaps it was better up north.

It was 90 Euros a person. We did a bus trip. They give you all the overalls, torches, food. The tour agency was in our apartment building.

https://laplandwelcome.fi/one-last-picture-23-2-2020/

It was our first aurora night and it danced the whole night

In the night we went aurora hunting and we saw the pale aurora do the dance for us. They served vegetarian food and some nice hot coffee. There is a teepee under which food and a campfire is available.

Timings - 8.00 pm until 1.30 am in the night.

In the photography tour, they take your pictures.

Saariselka

Next day we took off for Saariselka. Took an uber till the bus stand and then took a bus from there.

Rovaniemi to Saariselka - 31/2 hour bus ride straight till outside Saariselka Holiday Club Hotel

Hotel : Saariselka Holiday Club Hotel

The hotel rooms are very small. I would never stay there again. However its location is the best.

We reached in the evening at 3 pm. Everything was shut by the time we reached, as it was snowing so went to the water pool spa area of the hotel and relaxed.

Finnish take their sauna and steam and shower naked in open cubicles. 

Next day we had a hectic day . We did all the adventure activities. The highlight of being in the lapland is experiencing all the snow adventure activities. All these tours will give you the overalls as its included in their packages.

1) Snowmobiling by husky tours. The tour agency is bang opposite our hotel.

2)  Husky riding by Aurora Village. They pick you up from your hotel and take you for the tour and drop you back.

You get to rude your own husky sleds. The downside with tours is that there will be other groups with you and if teams are slow your husky tends to go slow. Also Id never want to do this again. Feels like animal harassment!

3) Reindeer sleigh ride by the agency joikutsumo . Its a 2 hour reindeer slow ride in the forests in the dark. Beautiful experience but perhaps two hours were a bit too much. We made camp in the forest and had some hot coffee in the cold.

We saw this sunset from our reindeer sleigh ride in the midst of the forests. Looks right out of a movie scene.

However, its totally skippable.

In the night we walked up the mountain national park by ourselves.to spot the auroras, but no luck,  No lights on the slope. Get clear directions from your hotel where is this national park as there is no sign board outside.There is a heated room upstairs with an electric fire light for people to tale a break from the cold outside while looking out for the auroras. You can definitely go here and if you dont want to pay for a tour every night to spot the auroras. The key to spotting the auroras is to find a pitch dark place hence the hike up the national park away from the city lights.

Next day we went to the ski slope for tobogganing. Took a bus for 5 euros which has unlimited validity for the day. We only took it to and fro. Once we reached the slopes, we booked the ski lift to ride up the slope for 7 euro. However, that same bus even goes up the ski slope so you dont have to use the ski lift.

Tobogganing was the most AWESOME adventure activity. We were running out of time but if we did have time, we would have done the tobogganing multiple times.

Restaurants : 

Rakka - in the Hotel Holiday Club

Anne's Garden Grill and Cafe

Pnimo Pub: Beer pub right next to Annes for some beer and drinks. No food available here. Has karaoke nights too.

Shops
A little distance from the hotel, were some souvenir shops. Picked up some reindeers souvenirs. And there is a mall too. We didnt go uptil the mall though.

Inari
Hotel : Holiday Village Inari

Next day we took a bus for inari. There was a schedule of bus timings at the hotel but that bus never arrived so we took a bus by Golden named bus operator uptil Ivalo and then we changed into a min shuttle which was going to Inari.
Unfortunately we mistook the name of our hotel as inari wilderness hotel so we got dropped to the wrong hotel.

Be careful of the name of your hotel and get down at the right stop else you might end up paying heavily.

We ended up booking the local cab for 20 euro for a distance of less than 5 mins until our hotel.

We specifically decided to go to Inari to see the northern lights from the igloo.

However this is how our accommodation looked.

It was a delight to live here and just spend the entire day amidst snow clear skies and a beautiful frozen lake side view. There is a jacuzzi and sauna. Unfortunately it was snowing so everything was snowed in so could not take the pleasure of using the facilities.

Frozen Hot tub.

Igloo rooms in a row.

Igloo Room with a view

Restaurant 
1)Papana's

Things to do:

1) SIDA museum -  About the Sami culture
2) Inari Ice Park - It has a white reindeer and sculptures made in Ice.

We took a lot of cab rides. It was too cold to walk around. Got fleeced for 20 euros ride for a 5min distance. It is a small place and there are probably only 8 taxis in that city.

WE SAW THE AURORA FROM OUR IGLOO. Well that was the highlight.

Next day we left for norway from the Ivalo Airport. Cab charged us 80 Euro from hotel to the airport.

LOVE FROM FINLAND. TRIP ENDS.

Ivalo Airport all covered in snow.

I was excited to land and take off in snow. It was one of my firsts.

From there onwards we flew from Ivalo to Oslo with a layover at Helsinki.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Finland and it opened up my world to winter holidays. So perhaps Ill have more of winter holiday blogging.