Lapland - Santa and skiing, is it possible?

[Avacadoandtoast]

Has anyone done this before, combined their ski holiday with a Santa trip for the kids on the same trip? We aren’t sure we can afford Lapland for Santa and a ski trip next year - so seeing if we can combine?!

We've been researching this too and started looking at Levi, Finland as a possibility. Have you seen any good locations?

Visited Santa years ago with Canterbury Travel. The trip took us close to Levi (flew into Kittila) where we were told we could see Santa, do husky rides, reindeer rides, skidoo safaris etc, as well as ski. Completely different to Alpine skiing - slopes were shorter and you don't get the same elevation - and obviously flood-lit if you're there in the middle of winter. But it did look magical 😊

Yes, absolutely. We've been skiing in Levi for about 7 years and the first time we did the whole Santa thing. here.

It's such a magical place. There are fells, rather than mountains but you can still get in some good skiing and there are never queues for lifts. Plus you can do husky and reindeer rides and hopefully see the aurora.

we did this…but wasn’t a full on ski holiday. More Santa with skiing as a side order. We stayed in Rovaniemi, which is where all the Santa activities are.

there is a ski resort in the town which is small. Think I would’ve been bored if I spent more than a day skiing there. But it’s really convenient- drive to small car park and it’s a 2 minute walk to pick up lift passes, then go on ski lifts.

lots of cross country ski options which my kids loved

This sounds perfect to be honest, the kids are still young so we don’t need a full on ski holiday at this age and mixing it in with Santa / husky activities would be ideal I think. Thank you so much for sharing!
Any accommodation / package recommendations? Also - is food as bad as people have been telling me?! We do like good food!

Just looked at the Canterbury website - thank you, will maybe give them a call on Monday!

Yes we skied in Ruka with crystal ski and I organised loads of trip with the local tourist information. Was brilliant and super easy

Basically all the ski resorts also have Santa and all the husky, reindeer etc. You don't need to do a package, it is easy and so much cheaper to DIY. Just pick a resort, book some flights and accommodation then book all your activities direct with the providers.

There is a Facebook called Lapland on a budget which can be useful if you use the search function. Mostly it is full of people incapable of searching for flights themselves despite the fact they clearly have the internet as they are on Facebook and at least 50 people a day ask if their thermals will be ok.

Food seems variable in the AI places, lots of accommodating for Brits I think with chips etc. But there is plenty of self catering available and restaurants.

We've done a week in Saariselka, self catered and supermarket was fine. Ate a few times at the restaurant at the bottom of the ski slopes which was nice, simple lunch stuff (burger, soup etc) and had a lovely meal out one evening with delicious reindeer, crab etc. Plus the obligatory pepperoni pizza for dc3 who eats most things at home but when it isn't home cooking turns in to a pain in the neck.

We did lots of walking and sledging and 3 days of skiing.

We're off to Pyha for half term. Self catering again. Older DC will ski a bit and we'll just see what we want to do.

We have family who did Ruka too- two days of skiing and loads of other activities, Santa etc. They had an amazing time!

Levi has a variety of good restaurants if you decide to self cater plus two good supermarkets with food you'd recognise and happily eat. It also has the most reliable snow.

We usually go with Ingham's who are excellent and with charter flights make it very easy, especially when travelling with children. The transfer from Kitilla airport is very short.

Depending on offers, we book trips and activities either with them or directly if that is cheaper. We sort our own ski hire and lifts passes when we are there, though most log cabins have some ski passes included.

We've stayed at a range of accommodation from the spa hotel to lovely log cabins. The food at the spa hotel was pretty grim, the best food we had in a hotel was at the Crazy Reindeer Hotel and that was surprisingly good. The log cabins were self catering and have well equipped kitchens.