Lapland Christmas Trip

[nicola1904]

Hi everyone,

Looking for some general tips or advice from people who have booked and went on a trip to Lapland.

Myself, my partner and out two daughters (4&8) are hoping to go before the magic runs out for our eldest.

This is an expensive trip and I would like to make sure we do it right and Goethe best deal we can. Can anyone recommend destinations, travel companies etc they have used?

Thank you for any advice xxx

Have a look at [[www.santaslapland.com]] - we travelled with Esprit but booked through them and got a better deal.

We went to Saariselka which is less commercialised than some of the resorts and had a great time. Did a 4 day/3 night stay over Christmas and dd did the same a couple of years beforehand as well with my parents (a couple of weeks before Christmas).

it can be freezing there, it was -28 on Christmas Eve when we were there but we had been given all the special clothes. We did take some extras such as thermal underwear, woollen gloves to wear under the ones they gave (Ski gloves unless they are the really expensive special ones are no use as they get wet very quickly when they play in the snow) and our own hats (a lot of the children had balaclavas).

Just to warn you if you want a drink - alcohol is very expensive in the hotels - ours charged 40 a bottle. There was a off licence attached to the supermarket which was a lot cheaper or you can buy it at the airport to take on the flight with you.

It was a fabulous experience and really glad we went. After all we had never had frankfurters with every meal - they have to import a lot of their food so you will find most meals are buffet style.

sorry www.santaslapland.com

Hi, I hope you don't mind me gatecrashing this thread, rather than starting a new one. We are going to Lapland just for a day. I am sat here trying to buy clothing for everyone without spending a fortune just for one day.

The children are probably fairly sorted. Although I was going to put them in fleece lined Regatta waterproof coats with several layers underneath. Is that folly? Do they need padded ski jacket type affairs?

I am looking at trousers for the adults. Do we need salopettes / water proof trousers? The instructions just say a couple of layers of trousers - no jeans, and that salopettes would be ideal Nothing about being waterproof.

We aren't being given anything on arrival.

Any tips about cameras too? Apparently they will freeze...

If you are going on an organised tour, you will be given winter overalls and shoes,hats, scarves, gloves etc. You will need warm things underneath and please not tights for kids as they get sweaty feet and then they will be cold and difficult to change. And yes, I used to work there! :)

We went with Thomson in 2012 and it was as brilliant. Worth every penny. We went to saariselka as it's the most likely place to see the northern lights and there is a free of charge sledging slope.
Take base layer and fleece clothing (or fleecy tracksuits) and some of them hand warmer sachets. We were nice and snug with those layers plus the snowsuit they gave us but ds found his hands were cold sometimes.
Take a spare battery for your camera because the cold zaps the life out of it pretty quick.
We stayed half board and the food was good. It also saved us having to gear up and go out every time we wanted to eat. It was just me and ds so we were quite happy to stay in the hotel on an evening.
The best part of the trip for me was going on the reindeer safari, it was magical!
All of the excursions were expensive but don't fall for all the crap about booking before you go as there were still plenty of places left when we got there.