Lapland holiday advice please

[Shanini]

Hello! Thinking of booking to take family to Lapland in December 2017. Lots of companies arrange trips, and huge variation in prices. Can anybody recommend a good company, where to go, what to do etc? Want an "authentic" Santa experience, rather than being shuttled round in a crowd. Thinking of going for 3-4 nights. There will be 9 of us - 4 adults, grandmother, and 4 children aged from 4 to 10.
Thanks very much!

Not Thomsons - the present from Santa was a Thomson's dog!

I'm a travel agent and if I was booking for myself I'd go with Inghams. Unless money was no object then I'd do a private tour and Santa visit with Sovereign.

I'd go to Levi with that age range it's better for adults while still having loads for the little ones.

jolufc don't knock Thomson the Dog, DS goes to bed with him every night!

Thanks for the advice. Do you know anything about a company called Canterbury? Seem amazing but expensive. What do you get that more than Inghams for the price? Thanks x

I don't have a contract with Cantebury so no personal experience but they've got an ok reputation. Main things to check - are the experiences full or taster ones? Makes a huge difference to what you'd spend in resort. Are all experiences, transfers, Santa visits etc. pre arranged with time slots - saves loads of time there. I've just had a customer come back from a trip and she sent me the pics to put on my Facebook business page, it looks amazing - I'm so tempted for next year but I've already got three holidays booked 😬

I think I've posted on your other thread. We've used Canterbury. They were really good. Every thing but 2 lunches were included (we did 2 nights). There wasn't any time for us to do more/spend more money as by the time we got back to the hotel all my DD (she was 5) wanted to do was go to sleep because the days were ram packed with stuff. If you go for longer then there may be optional experiences that you'd have to pay more for (skiing etc.) but they are listed as such.

We've just come back from Luosto with Canterbury - we stayed 3 nights & had 4 days & it was amazing. I couldn't recommend it more. We went with our DSs ages 5, 8 & 10.

It was expensive as a holiday but we spent barely 250 euros whilst there (150 euros was on souvenirs so entirely optional & the other 100 was drinks with dinner). All food was included & it was very nice.

The trips were fab - 30-40 mins of reindeer sleigh, 45 mins husky ride (I didn't realise I'd actually be driving the husky sled!!), snow mobiling (although wasn't as long only about 10mins.)

The whole thing was so well organised & planned that I couldn't fault it at all. It really was so magical. There was no pressure at all to pay for any extra trips (in fact they weren't even mentioned but were in the literature you received beforehand).

We stayed in a cabin & that was great too. Loads of sledging around the resort & the kids got to drive snow mobiles themselves too (all very safely attached to a guide).

The SANTA & elves experience was also amazing & totally unexpected when it actually happened.

Feel free to pm me if you want more info as I couldn't have been happier - it was the best holiday! I couldn't recommend Canterbury more.

We're in Levi right now 😊 and had our santa experience today at a place called Tontulla Elves Hideaway, we were there for 3 hours and it was amazing I would highly recommend it. We booked flights & accom through Inghams, it's the first time we've used them and they've been great. For all our excursions we booked through the local tourist information office, you can do this online or in person when you're here, again they were great too.

I worked for Canterbury Travels a few years back on a repeat seasonal contract. They were great TBH. The customer experience was excellent and they really looked after their staff too (mark of a good company imo)

I'm looking at booking Lapland for next winter, for several reasons will probably have to be at the beginning of December.

Any recommendations for places to stay? Eat?

CheekyR- which local tourist office did you book the santa hideaway with - sounds just what we're looking for.

I think we will probably stay in levi, presumably we can hire snow suits from somewhere!
Do you know if hotels do their own all inclusive/half board packages or is it best to email them direct?

We have been recently and can thoroughly recommend www.santaslapland.co.uk

Thank you, I'll take a look at that.

We too are hoping to go December 2017. One of my children, ( and husband) is a very fussier eater and I am worried we will struggle to feed them. Will we manage to find some junk?

We've returned from Santa's lapland. It was excellent and run very well. I would go back again.

The extra excursions are pricey and not neccessary IMO as there was already plenty to do (huskies/reindeer/Santa/snow mobile etc)

Food was ok. Just ok. Hot I guess but not many options. Very meaty and buffet style and you couldn't really put a omplete meal together. For example, the gala dinner was meat. There were potatoes but no veg. Also lots of pickled stuff. We didn't go hungry and it was for a short period of time.

I also took lots of snacks.

Hotel was good for facilities but the rooms are a bit tatty.

I would recommend Santa's Lapland - afterall, we weren't there to eat or sleep!