Finnish Lapland

A 7-day trip in Finnish Lapland

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Are you ready to enter Santa Claus’ homeland? Because trust me, Lapland is exactly how you imagined it; a Winter Wonderland!

We arrived in Rovaniemi after a lay over in Helsinki, and we only used buses on the first day in the Lapland capital, because it is fairly easy to reach for instance Santa Claus village and the center from the airport. When visiting Santa Claus village, bring your passport if you want the “Arctic Circle” stamp on it (information center).

On the second day we took our rental and we drove towards Kiilopaa National Park. We first stopped at Luosto National Park (117 km-1h20)where we did a short 1 hour hike around the lake, worth the stop! Once we arrived at Kiilopaa (170 km-2h), it was too late to rent snowshoes, but we where able to hike on top of the Kiilopaa mountain and back to the hotel. Before going to sleep, we took a dip in the ice pool followed by a long warm sauna. The following day we rented the snowshoes at the shop and we hiked another time the mount Kiilopaa and then we hiked for 10 more km around the hotel, and then we did the longet Toboggang slide in Finland! After that, our destination for the night was north of Inari (90 km-1h15), a cabin on the banks of a lake.

We were able to enjoy the sauna in the cabin as well, and we started the following day with a hike on the lake, where we crossed a pack of reindeer. We continued our road to the northernmost point in Europe (Nuorgam), and we even crossed a little red fox on the way there. Once in Nuorgam (168 km-2h), we slept in the northernmost igloo in Finland, the Aurora Hut Igloo. It was such a brilliant experience.

The morning after we started our descent towards Enontekio (410 km-5h20), and we passed through Lemmenjoki National Park (we stopped there in Pokka, the coldest city in Europe, where in 1999 the temperature of -51.5C was registered). BRRRRR. Once we arrived in Enontekio, we did our Aurora Hunt Dog Sled Trip, a 6 km tour during the evening. The Hetta Huskies farm is wonderful, and we could really feel that everyone working there loves the doggos and their job.

The following stop was Yllas North (144 km-1h50)for skiing. It is the biggest ski resort in Finland and, even if the complexity of slopes does not match the Alps, we had a blast; it was all fresh snow, not many people were skiing, and the slopes/ surroundings are wonderful. We slept close to the resort, and the following morning we rented snowshoes to hike the Kuertunturin. What can I say, even this hike was breathtaking. Unfortunately, after the hike we had to drive back to Rovaniemi (164 km-2h5), where we had dinner at the Ice Restaurant (not only it was surreal, food was delicious).

For our way back the next day, we had a 4 hour lay over in Helsinki, so we went and walked downtown. It is actually a super pretty city, and I could recommend you spend at least one night there!