Lapland - please reassure me!

[attheendoftheday]

Hi all.

I am all booked to take our two dds to lapland just before Christmas. I am dead excited and we saved for ages. Reading another thread this evening I am now really worried that dd2 will be too young and will hate it.

We're going for 4 days/3 nights. The dds will be 5.5 and a few weeks short of 4th birthday. We are going to Luosto with Canterbury Travel.

I'm hoping someone can tell me a happy story of going with kids this age and having a brilliant time!

I think the other thread you read, the DD was 2.6 (she would've been 3.6 if they went next year)

Is there any age recommendations on the booking site? They will supply you with cold weather clothes, I think keeping smaller DC warm enough is the key.

As you're doing the 4 days, you won't have an early start/late finish and knackered DC (though they won't sleep the night before )

How do you plan to tell them?

Thanks. I hope you are right!

Not sure about how to tell them, I'm torn between telling them the weekend before so they can have the pleasure of looking forwards to it and telling them at the last minute so dd1 doesn't tell everyone at school and leave other families having to explain why they aren't going.

I'm also not sure about how to tell them - a letter from Father Christmas maybe? But then dd2 would be able to read it, so I'm not sure - open to good ideas if anyone has them!

I took DD 1 at 5 on the 2 night 3 day trip with Canterbury Travel. She had a brilliant time. There were younger children on the trip and they all had fun.

The winter gear and boots they provide are warm and you are given plenty of chances to warn up again. What you do need to make sure is that you have warm gloves. I'd recommend long ones so you can tuck them well up her sleeves and make sure there aren't gaps. Ski gloves are the best so they can play in the snow. The only issues we had were to do with cold hands.

Having done a day trip to Lapland, I'd say it's too long for under 5's.

But the longer stay will spread it out and be fine and not so overwhelming as well as being a 4am start and flying home at 10pm at night.

Thank you for replying with positive stories! And big thanks for the tips about gloves!

Would you mind me asking how much you've paid for the trip?

I've been looking but I can't get any price breakdowns

I went, it was the most amazing magical experience. Honestly its beautiful!
The ages are lovely so don't worry, take plenty of photos. The first day is exhausting, late night, not much sleep, early start. Im convinced the Finnish must think we are all cranky in the UK if they witness the parenting & kids behaviour going on, on the first day!!!
But do try to make the most of it. The lack of daylight slightly puts you out of kilter, make sure you drink plenty of water - its easy to forget to do that.
Don't plan too much, the snow will keep them occupied for hours!
We did 2 pairs of gloves, good quality woolly gloves with proper ski long ones (you will hear "I've got snow in my gloves" ALOT) over the top and glove clips to stop them falling off.
Its basically ruined every christmas though, as it will never be as good as that one.

I'm a but scared to admit the cost - it was just over 6000 but we are going with both our mums and the trip just before Xmas is more expensive than the ones earlier in the month. I think it might be cheaper if you stay in the hotel than having your own cabin too?

Tickle, thank you so much! I really wanted someone to say it will be they had a lovely time, your are very reassuring. I will have a look for ski gloves and glove clips.

www.polarnopyret.co.uk/mittclips-60018813-198
These were the clips I got.
I was worried I had built it up too much for it to meet my expectations, but it excelled it.
Canterbury travel is expensive but they include a lot of trips (husky, reindeer etc) that you'd pay extra for when your out there.

Thanks Tickle.

I'm very BTW.
My DC are teenagers so though I'd secretly love to take them to Lapland (or even Lapland UK) they'd be Old and Cynical and I'd worry about them spoiling things for any young children.
Plus you;d never get me on skis/skates/snow mobiles.

I'll need to wait for Grandchildren (and at £6000 I'll need to save )

My DD went ski-ing a couple of years ago.
We got really good ski gloves in Costco
Base layers (thermal long johns and tops) in Aldi when they did their ski collection

Heatech fleece layers in Uniqlo

And don't forget very high Factor 50 face protector and lip protector . Got this in Decathlon.

Don't worry it's not like the ski resorts as your in the arctic circle you won't need the sun screen it's only vaguely light for 3/4 hours. Even then it's still not properly light.

I got the kids expensive thermals (helly Hansen and polarnopyret) and I had aldi & marks and spencer
So it went:
Thermal layer (inc bottoms)
T shirt
Trousers
Fleece jumper
Decent thermal socks
Their suit
Their socks

Do take a scarf and face covering (so balaclava type) as youll certainly need them for the husky and snow mobile.

I made sure we travelled in snowboots (thanks aldi) and ski trousers so the minute they got off the plane I didn't have to shout at them to stop having fun rolling around in the snow.

70isalimit sounds like the northern light tour is the one for you. I didn't see much skiing, i think it's more cross country there (I can't ski and WILL break something if I try) .They use snow mobiles like cars so have their own tunnels and tracks, I didn't want to drive one so went in the kids one. Which was basically a big sledge being pulled, that was brilliant. When I went there was grand parents who'd been 4 times so far, as they'd taken each of their grand kids!!!!

I think with the skiers (School Trip) they had to protect their faces from wind chill ,ore than sunlight (especially the cheek area directly under the goggles)
Whats the temperature at Lapland? I'm guessing minus degrees?

I'd love to do one of the Reindeer Sleigh rides , nice and sedate.

Plus I've heard (not sure if its true but I don't want to find out) that huskies when they run, get a bit 'excited' and can have loose bowelled accidents which then gets kicked up into the snow behind them.......I'd be wearing goggles and a balaclava

Yeah they do poo as they run, it bloody stinks!!! Didn't have any flicked up though, that would have been awful!!! They have to eat a hell of a lot of calories so it's no wonder what goes in ummmm comes out!!!

We were lucky it was between -4 and -10 when we were there which is apparently really really mild. Normally it's colder (I remember figures of -20 and -30 being banded about) but you get a better chance to see the northern lights if it's colder I heard.

Thomson are advertising a 3 night half board trip for £2800 for a family of 4. Last year they went as low as £1300 for a family of 4 if you were flexible on dates and could go last minute!

I really want to do this! What would be a good age? At the moment I'm thinking Dec 2017 so 5.6?

I went with a 7, 9 and 2 year old.
7 was perfect. The 2 year old had a great time, but the magic and activities were lost. 9 year old loved it but I think there was more magic in the 7 year old being that bit younger so I can see slightly younger it would be even more magical.

Me and dh are currently saving so when dd is 6 we can go. We're looking at Canterbury travel when we do it. :)

Wow, some great advice. Especially to tips about where to get kit.

Poo or no poo I am excited about the husky ride!

I posted a Q in Shorthaul but got no responses - clearly this is the better area for people already using the C word!

We want to do Lapland this winter with a 6 yo. Is Canterbury Travel the one people have been most impressed with? I was wondering about the Santa's Lapland people?

Any recommendations?

I was really impressed with Canterbury travel but I don't have anything to compare it with. What you do need to check is that you don't end up seeing a Mall Santa. For some of the day trips I was looking at you were basically going to end up seeing Santa at the arctic circle shopping mall (or similar). If you have the money to do more than a day do it. Otherwise it's very long and exhausting for the DCs. An overnight or two makes the whole thing much more laid back.

My DD1 still talks about it so much that three years later my DD2 is really excited about meeting Snowy Bowy (one of Santa's Elves) this winter when she and DH go.

Thanks. I am inclining to steering clear of the Thomson/Thomas Cook option. Both CT and Santa's Lapland offer private visits to Santa in the course of a 2 night/3 day trip, which I think is what I'm after.

It's just so damn expensive I want to make sure I don't make a mistake!

We did santas Lapland. It was wonderful. But we did have to pay extra for some of the trips that were included with Canterbury travel, the Canterbury travel accommodation looked nicer as well.
The Father Christmas was incredible, the elves were incredible. The kids write a letter to fc before you go, when you see Father Christmas he has that letter in his hand.
We shared our hotel with Thompson and they had bingo and karaoke type evening events. I did also hear a few complaints that Father Christmas was a rushed conveyer belt. Whilst santas Lapland had a whole day of activities, ice fishing, Huskies, a little show, reindeer ride, snow mobiles. All short little tasters but it made a great day.

Canterbury travel was my first choice but they had no availability left so we went with santas Lapland.