Lapland North Pole visit - recommendations?

[MrsLem]

Has anyone been on a North Pole/ Lapland visit before?

Would you recommend it? Looking to hear experiences if possible. Good companies? Did you go for one day or a few days?

We are thinking about booking one, probably for next Christmas rather than this one and my little boy will be 5.

Thanks in advance!

I'd love to know this too. How long are the flights?

Flights are around 3hrs and 20 mins and the holiday companies fly direct to northern Finland. Lapland is a region not a country and as such covers northern Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden I think? But don't quote me on that bit. I've been to Finland - first time was Levi, Then Saariselka and also Yllas. Levi is your best best for a first trip. Avoid Saairiselka - the transfer is horrendous from the airport! Flights are into Kittila for Levi which is a transfer of approx 20 mins. Snow is good. It is northern enough that snow is guaranteed as It is well inside the arctic circle (unlike Rovaniemi which had NO snow a few years ago and hit the headlines for ruined holidays as a result!). I'd advise going with Inghams (unless you have deep pockets in which case there are some more elite companies). Tui repackaged there but the complaints queue for their rep was horrendous in our hotel but Inghams was top notch! We actually stayed in the Crazy reindeer hotel which was routed as a 3 star but was actually pretty bloody good. I would go back. The rooms had an outside balcony off them which was great for my son to play in the snow whilst us adults got our snow suits on! We have had several reindeer rides, husky rides and a night time snowmobile jaunt and they have all been fabulous. Father Christmas was amazing as was the Ice Hotel which is carved out of ice with amazing statues. We keep going back because we love it so much. We missed last year but are hoping to make it this December. Our son was 4 and a half the first time and loved it (and still does). Hope this helps! Xx

Oh and first time we did 4 days, travelling back on Xmas eve itself which was so magical. The whole place is. Due to how far north it is there is not much true daylight- it's a sort of blue light. The Finns love twinkly lights on all of the buildings. :)

We went to Rovaniemi for four days and organised the trip ourselves, saving about £2k in the process. It was wonderful. One story for you:

We went to Santa Park - which is like an underground theme park for kids. We got there shortly after it opened and had a great time with my 6yo decorating gingerbread, going to elf school and meeting Santa (there were about three people ahead of us in the line). At around 12.30, suddenly, seven bus loads of day trippers arrived and the place transformed into hell! I later read that these flights had been delayed out of Manchester and other UK airports, families queued for three hours to meet Santa and some had to leave to catch their return flight before they got to the front of the queue, meaning a whole day trip just to stand in a line indoors! There were a ton of complaints.

We left 20 mins after the hoards arrived and went somewhere else to have a snowball fight before going back to our hotel for a nap.

We had an amazing time, but I can see how it can easily go wrong!

We went with inghams and it was brilliant! We were lucky that because there was forecast to be not much snow they had allowed people to cancel so almost nobody was there and we didn't have any queues at all, it was all very magical. The forecast was wrong, there was loads of snow and we went on husky and reindeer rides. I would highly recommend them. We stayed in a log cabin, and had our food at the hotel near by. We will be going back.

Did any of you see the Northern Lights? Is it the right time of year?

Yes but only a light green tinge of northern lights. Apparently, the night we stayed in for a chill night, the lights were fabulous. Typical! You're less likely to see them in Levi though as it's in a Fell and tends to have cloud cover a lot. However they run trips from Levi to (maybe) see the lights. But it's luck of the draw.

We went with Santas lap land, for I think three nights and we stayed in Sariselka. Loved it! I would wholeheartedly recommend both the company and the resort

We did a DIY trip to Roveniemi for 5 days and it was amazing. We went in January, though, so it was much quieter and with guaranteed snow. Santa is there all year. We stayed in an airbnb which was a 10 minute drive from the airport and Santa Village.

The only problem with the trip was that our flight from Roveniemi to Gatwick was cancelled. We were put up in a fabulous hotel overnight but we missed our flight back to Dublin, and because we had booked it all ourselves, we had no comeback at all and had to fork out €1500 to get another flight home.

Thanks everyone, wonderfully helpful replies! I'm so glad you enjoyed your holidays. @UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername that sounds like a sore one!