Finland

Mario and I headed to Finland for a few days of fun in the Arctic snow! Finland makes country 34 worldwide for me! ​We would be flying to the Lapland region and staying in Rovaniemi.

Our flight plan consists of three flights. Stuttgart to London Heathrow, London Heathrow to Helsinki and Helsinki to Rovaniemi.  For a future trip I would like to see if we could decrease the number of flights. It is important to keep in mind when leaving the EU and arriving in the UK and leaving to go back into the EU, you have to take additional steps. In London, we had to go through security and once in Finland we had to go through passport control. Make sure you are looking at what terminal you are arriving and departing from. While in London Heathrow airport, we arrived in Terminal 5 but left from Terminal 3. There is a shuttle bus which runs every 6-8 minutes and takes 10 minutes to arrive at the new terminal, a really easy exchange but something to remember when looking at layover times. 

Sipping on some blueberry juice.

Welcome to Apukka Resort

During our time in Rovaniemi, we would be staying at the Apukka Resort which is a quick 12 minute drive from the airport. We booked the It's All about the Aurora package which included transfer to and from the airport, daily breakfast winter gear rental and two tours to see the Aurora lights. We would stay in the Kammi Suite with a dome roof offering 360 degree sky view. We added some extra excursion to our package which are held at the resort. The resort does offer different type of rooms depending on your family size and price range.  Here is their website if interested.
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The resort offers two restaurants. The main restaurants called Aitta offers breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets and a la carte options after 3pm. The other  is a pizza place. We had the dinner buffet our first night. It was 32 euro a person so a little pricy. It had a nice selection of food. We didn’t try the lunch but the breakfast buffet was very delicious every morning. 

We would be staying in a Kami Suites which offers a double bed on a loft which offered 360 degree sky view from the glass dome roof. There is a small kitchen and sitting area. There was no TV because the resort wanted you to enjoy the outdoors. The resort offers wooden sleds that guests can use to  bring their luggage to their room. 

Aurora Hunt on the Snow Train Excursion.

We went to get fitted for our winter gear for our evening excursion. Our winter gear options were a thermal overall, boots, wool socks and gloves. We were able to sign out the gear for the whole time we were there. 
​Sadly due to cloudy and snowy weather we didn't see the Aurora lights. But we enjoyed hot drinks, sausage and s’mores minus the chocolate by the campfire.

The next day we headed to the breakfast buffet. They had scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt. They had different drink options like juice, water, coffee and tea.  

Our excursion today was Ice Fishing Like a Finn. Our excursion took place on the resort's frozen lake. We received a quick demo from our guide and set to work to ice fish like a finn. We both were successful and caught a fish. We had some warm drinks and then headed back to our room. During the time were were there daylight was between 10:30am and 2:30pm and pretty much dark the rest of the time! 

Our resort had reindeers and horses. 

We spent the afternoon at Santa Village. Our resort offers a shuttle bus which run between the resort Santa Village and the town on Rovaniemi. It was 10 euro person each way. The time tables didn’t work so we decided to get a taxi which was very pricy. 
Across the street from Santa Village is gas station, so we decided to eat lunch in their little restaurant. Then we walked across the street and explored Santa’s Village. It is a huge tourist trap, but I got my picture with Santa, crossed the Arctic circle and mailed some postcards. 

For dinner decided to eat off the A la cart menu. For an starter we had reindeer and then I had a steak and Mario a chicken burger. ​

The next day we snowshoed in the snow covered woods. We met our guide and our group. It was a nice small group of only 6 including ourselves. We got fitted in our snowshoes and then walked to the woods. The woods where all the excursions take place is across the street from the resort. You simple cross the main road and you are there. We snowshoe around the woods took a little break and headed back to the resort. 

We got pizza at the Pizzeria Kota which is the other restaurant at our resort.

At 8:30 we went back into the woods to meet the huskies. Our group was shown how to drive the sled, how to stop and what hand movements to use. Mario and I both took turns driving the husky sled.  After about an hour we headed back to camp where we had hot drinks while learning about the huskies.

Our afternoon excursion was snowmobiling in the woods. At 1:30pm we headed to meet our group and get our gear. We walked to the snowmobiles and was given a safety demonstration and how to operate the snowmobile. We drove into the snow covered forest and the views were so beautiful. We drove half way and stopped for a quick cookie and warm drink. I did try and drive the snowmobile but it was too much for me so I went back to being the passenger. 

We took a 7:30am taxi to the airport, which was part of our resort package. The Rovaniemi airport is super tiny with only 9 gates. On our journey home we took 3 flights again with 3-4 hour layover, so we took adventure of the Finnair lounges. Another great trip in the books!