Lapland December – have we left it too late?

[JaneDoe]

Husband and I,in our early 50s, have just realised we have a few days of holidays we need to take before end of year.
This morning he randomly mentioned that he always wanted to go to Lapland – huskies, reindeers, northern lights, Santa village!

Just spent the day looking at options. Seems BA are flying direct to Ivalo – but is there much to do there as there is in Rovaniemi?

Direct flights to Rovaniemi are v expensive so looked at options via Helsinki and that is doable.
I then looked at accommodation – and there doesn’t seem to be much left and even moderate hotels are coming at £500 a night.
I did find an apartment in town that is reasonable priced.
My logic is unless we are getting some unique accomodation than I rather spend less on accomodation and spend more on activities

Appreciate any thoughts as this is a place I really know nothing about.

[Princess]

We visited Rovaniemi two years ago with the kids and another family. While it’s definitely not a budget destination, we had a wonderful time—and for the kids, it truly felt magical. We flew directly with Ryanair, which was cheap, but only because we booked nearly a year in advance (just like we usually do when booking flights with Avios).

In terms of activity for what I remember I read Ivalo seems to offer the same outdoor activity you will find in Rovaniemi a part Santa Village (that is actually quite lovely). Rovaniemi also has a really well done museum were we spent 3 hours.

We stayed in a small apartment just outside the town. It was fairly basic, but it did have one great feature: a private sauna. That turned out to be a real luxury, especially in December when temperatures can drop extremely low—one evening it reached -25°C. After spending time outdoors, often freezing during activities, having a warm sauna to return to was a real comfort.
I hope this helps

[Pebbles]

I don’t think there’s loads to do in Ivalo itself (it’s more just a normal village rather than a resort) but it’s the airport for Saariselkä (which is more touristy and has all the activities you’d expect in Lapland). There’s a bus from Ivalo airport directly to Saariselkä (but it may only be timetabled to meet Finnair flights from Helsinki; not 100% sure whether it runs for the BA one).

I think there is probably more to see in Rovaniemi overall and that’s definitely where the main Santa village is. However, a couple of considerations which sometimes make Ivalo/Saariselkä a better choice:

1) It’s significantly further north, so depending on how early in the winter you’re planning to go, you’ve got a bigger chance of snow there. The weather has been really weird in Lapland this year (very hot summer), so it’s hard to know what the winter is going to be like.

2) It’s probably easier to see the northern lights from there without having to pay for an expensive tour. You need to avoid artificial light as much as possible and with Rovaniemi being a bigger town, it’s harder to get away from street lights etc to look at the sky properly. Saariselkä has street lights too, but it’s on the edge of a national park so it’s very easy to walk a little way into the forest and get dark skies.

Regardless of where you go, I’d recommend looking at:

Lapland Safaris (https://www.laplandsafaris.com/en) for activities. Like with everything in Lapland, prices are horrendous, but I’ve always had a positive experience when I’ve booked with them.

The NL Alert app (https://www.nlalert.fi/) for aurora alerts. You have to install the app, then pay for a log-in key for the nights you’re there. The app then gives you alerts when northern lights are spotted. Unlike some of these apps, which can be rather hit and miss, these guys have cameras situated around Lapland which monitor the sky for aurora activity. So when you get the alert, you can look at the screen-capture from your nearest camera and decided whether it looks worth putting on multiple layers of clothing and going out in the cold!

As Princess says, accommodation in Finland can be a bit on the basic side. If you’re booking an apartment rather than a hotel, make sure to double check whether it includes towels & bed linen. There seems to be a cultural assumption over there that you’ll bring your own, so it sometimes costs an extra €10/€15 if you want them provided!