Visiting Lapland (not for Santa trip - in Feb)

[juneau]

Just wondering if anyone has done a trip to northern Sweden/Norway/Finland and whether you'd recommend your tour/tour operator or any particular country or area?

We're thinking of taking my parents in Feb half-term 2019 for 5-7 days and are hoping to do some dog sledding, visiting Sami reindeer herders, snow-shoeing, northern lights, etc. They're in their 70s and in good health, we're in our 40s and the DC will be 11 and nearly 8. I think probably we need to do something organised, so as to maximise our time and experiences there. It's something I've wanted to do for ages and I'd absolutely LOVE to see the aurora. Any tips?

Not yet been (going just after Christmas) but Travel The World have been amazing in organising our dream holiday to northern Norway - we are doing everything you mention (except snow biking instead of snow shoeing) plus whale watching. Their Lapland specialist is called Bruno, and he has been super helpful and v quick to respond to all sorts of questions and last minute worries!

Oh thank you be! I'd found Discover the World in my random internet searches and thought they looked good (lots of choice, not just one trip, flexibility, etc), so it's good to hear that they're as good as they look.

I'd love to hear how your trip goes so could you report back? I hope it's amazing. I'm really excited about the idea of visiting Lapland and so our kids!

Well done at interpreting my (incorrect) company reference - yes, Discover The World.

I will pop back and tell you all about it

We're going to Saariselka (Finnish Lapland) in February half term. I am Finnish and I've visited Lapland but haven't been as far up as where Saariselka is. We booked ours directly with BA so can't recommend any tour operators.

What I can say is, that Lapland is absolutely magical and you will have amazing time. All the resorts and towns are small so will be easy to get around.

Write to a tourist bureau and ask them directly about suitable tour operators and what to do (Swedish Lapland) for example in the municipality of Kiruna: www.kirunalapland.se
(Why does everyone go through expensive tour operators? )

Yes very true - we don't need to go through a tour operator and actually the prices are very high so I'd like to look into doing it independently and see if we can save some money. You don't always get a better deal doing it independently though - so I'll need to see if we can. Often tour operators can offer better rates through booking blocks of seats on planes and rooms in hotels than an individuals can booking just six seats and three rooms. I'll do as you say hevonbu and contact the tourists bureaus direct.

Did you find somewhere Juneau?

I'm still working on it at the moment Queen. I've got the brochure from Discover the World and have spoken to Bruno, but I still need to explore the independent option and see if I can get a significantly cheaper trip, because it's definitely more convenient to have someone else book everything for us. However, the cost is high!

We went in February 2015 with Transun. It was absolutely brilliant. Not cheap, but the holiday of a lifetime.

I've been with Thomson over Christmas staying in Santa Sport hotel/dog-sleighing, reindeer sleighing, Xmas meal with Santa and fireworks, etc - very magical but Santa experience rather than for wider family. Also been in summer to Lapland flying with Finnair for 2 weeks and saw brown bears in the wild staying at Arola Bears in a chalet and they make home cooked foods and you canoe there, also went on toboggan and whitewater rafting, waterparks, beach, loved it esp seeing 8 bears really close in the wild.

It is seriously cold in the winter and daylight hours are short, it the summer it was light until almost midnight. You do need proper gear to be outside in winter and even then 2 hours is kind of a max. but the places have restaurants in to defrost in. The place Thomson took us to had lots in one place. Bear season is May to mid August so after ski season. More reindeer on roads than cars. Love the place.

We had 8 hours of daylight when we went in February.

I had a quote from Discover the world (not Bruno though) 4 nights 2 adults £4700!!! I don't think so dear!

We're booking independently, flights tours etc I'm fine with it's the accommodation I'm struggling with, while I don't mind a bit of rustic I don't want a basic wooden cabin but don't need top end either, there's no in between it seems. We aren't Santa hunting either but hotels will be full of families who are. I hope you find something lovely!

They won't be looking for Santa in February. Our hotel wasn't full either.

How about Rovaniemi? There's a winter sports centre at Ounasvaara where you can have ski/cross country/snow shoe lessons. There's lots of local operators doing husky or reindeer sled trips. Loads of snowmobile tours into the forest, ice-fishing, northern lights hunting... Also a snow/ice hotel and restaurant. Flights via Helsinki from Heathrow, or direct from gatwick. It's costing us 400 Euro to rent an apartment (with sauna) that sleeps up to 4.

Oh that's interesting B1rdonawire and sounds like what we're looking for. The DTW prices were all multiple thousands, especially as there will be 4-6 of us, and Bruno said the excursions (i.e. reindeer, huskies, etc), would be approx. £1000 per adult for a 4-day trip and no way can we afford that.

I really liked Rovaniemi, it's the so called capital of Rovaniemi but in reality it's a sleepy little town. It has a lot to offer though and the bridge between the town and Ounasvaara makes it very picturesque.

As a family we really liked the Santa Claus Village, lots of shops and activities to choose from. We travelled with Thomson but we went there on our own on our "day off" (easy bus journey from town centre) and ended up spending seven hours there!

*So call capital of LAPLAND!!

As promised, I am reporting back. OMG it was totally amazing. Husky sledding was the best thing we did. But we also saw a family of Orca and Reindeer sledging and feeding.

It was brilliant to have everything organised. And yes it was expensive, but everything there is! DTW were very very responsive. If you are going for a company I would recommend them definitely.

However, when we go again (and we will) we will do it independently. I recommend carefully investigating the activity providers. They seem to fall into 2 camps - small high quality “experience” but they do what they do and it is luck if you see whales or the northern lights (which we had) or large “mass tourism” ones where they vary the experience to make sure you do see what you are hoping to (eg Humpback whales were much further North and It was too cloudy on the coast to see the lights - some of the companies (not ours) chased them to where they were).

However, Tromso Lapland are a brilliant, authentically Sami, Reindeer experience that I would recommend to everyone.

I personally wasn’t impressed with Malangen Resort. Overpriced, and felt money grabbing - tea and coffee available at breakfast but if you wanted hot chocolate it was NOK50!! Half-board was a fixed menu, no choice (though DS was wonderfully accommodated). Setting was absolutely jaw dropping though.

I recommend the Scandic Ishvahotel in Tromsø.

My top tip would be NOT to book Aurora hunting trip in advance. Depends so much on the weather and there are loads of companies offering it.

Sigh. Wish we were still there. Amazing holiday of a lifetime.

If you look at the visitrovaniemi.fi website, you can get prices for the activities - ranging from shorter reindeer sleigh rides at c.50 euro each, to longer 4-5 hour activities which are more like 120euro each. It depends how much you want to pack in, and how much you'll be happy with cheaper things like hiring snow shoes or skis and enjoying the trails. I've been before with adults, and am now taking kids. Can't wait I've always booked travel, accom, and activities myself and it's been no problem at all to arrange. Last time I did the night in the ice hotel and it was genuinely hundreds of euro cheaper to book it direct on the hotel website.

We're going Feb half term - staying in Levi ( Finnish Lapland) . Booked all through Inghams travel who are primarily ski holiday operators. Booked all our trips, snow shoe walking, husky safari, horseback safari, snowmobile, reindeer farm, icehotel plus hiring thermal suits through them. Staying K5 hotel in Levi. Inghams have so far been excellent, look under the heading winter wonderland on their website.
The draw for me being in the southwest was that we can fly from Bristol and at good times.

Don’t know if you’ve booked yet, but we have just used dream of Lapland www.dreamoflapland.co.uk/.
They have been fab and offer discounts of other tour operators packages. Still expensive, but the other option is to diy. Apparently it’s pretty easy to get an overnight train from Helsinki and book hotels or air b&b separately.

Wow - thanks for all the additional posts and to BeBesidetheSea for reporting back. We haven't booked anything yet and DF is all in a flap about various things at the moment, so I can't get him to commit one way or the other yet. It's still a year away too, so it's a bit early to book, but I've made a note of all your info and will report back myself when we've made a decision.