Nordic Countries - Lapland with family in April

Hi

We're planning to travel to Lapland in April from Paris, and at this period there doesn't seem to be much if any organised trips - which I'm not enthusiastic about and have never tried but they offer chartered direct flights from paris.

Travelling with 3 and 1 year old children, wife and baby sitter so we would prefer a large accomodation, preferably high end and also be able to enjoy some typical lapland wintersports although we don't ski - hence we are not looking at a ski resort, it could just be some place rural.

Any advice on which hotel or resort to head, which would offer snowy landscape at this period and where we could book the extra activities locally and that arrange a convenient shuttle from local airports ? Decent food with a la carte restaurant would be extremely welcome.

Any place with extra activities linked to Santa Claus would be a plus.

Thanks
Luis

I live in Kiruna (the northenmost city in Sweden). Just so that you know, in April there's a chance that by April the snow will have begun melting, and even if it hasn't the snow won't be too great anyway, as by that time it will have been churned up by snow ploughs thousands of times and be dirty anyway. April is kind of late in the winter season.

Anyway for a family-oriented non-skiing trip I think you could do far worse than Rovaniemi, located on the edge of the Arctic circle. They have a tourism website @ http://www.visitrovaniemi.fi/In_English.iw3

I mentioned it because they have a Santa themed attraction located there which is pretty popular:
http://www.santaclausvillage.info/

I've not stayed in a hotel whilst visiting there (I have family there), so I can't recommend that. The tourism website has a lot of suggestions though.

In Rovaniemi you should be able to book any of the usual winter tourist activities - dog sledding, snowmobiling, etc. There are also 'safaris' for viewing reindeer in the wild and stuff like that.

Just so that you know, in pretty much every city/town in Lappland you will be able to book the usual activities. It'd be pretty hard to find a town that didn't have a local company offering dog sledding etc.

Personally I prefer Swedish Lappland to Finnish Lappland, as in Sweden the mountains and landscape are a lot more impressive (imo) :P But I think Finnish Lappland is the one that most people think of when they hear the name.

Thanks Kaerii !

I guess at this period going somewhere upper north and more rural than Rovaniemi would offer better snowy lanscape than Rovaniemi ?

Spent a few days in and around Oslo last june and loved the area - was told there that we have to drive around Sweden - cheaper and also very "raw" so I don't doubt a minute about the quality of swedish lanscapes and planning to go back sooner than later _ had a great time in Stockolm as well a few years back. But for some reason it seems Santa Claus is living in Finland so for the kids it looks more attractive this trip now that we have promised the elder to go and visit Santa . Let me know if i'm wrong though !

Was presented with links to :

http://kakslauttanen.fi/en/accommodation/

which is upper North near Ivalo airport and more rural than Rovaniemi but still offers a small Santa village as well as the usual winter activities from Lapland nearby.

Do you have any feedback about the place ?

Cheers
Luis

I guess at this period going somewhere upper north and more rural than Rovaniemi would offer better snowy lanscape than Rovaniemi ?
Not really. All of Northern Finland is quite flat and empty, and while Rovaniemi is by far the biggest town in Lapland, it's still only around 40,000 people. The safari operators etc can take you 30 min out of town and there will be nobody else around.

As a rule of thumb, snow starts to melt in Lapland in April, since it's the first time when daytime temps rise above zero. But how much snow there will be varies: last year was quite snowy (even down south) and there was over a meter on average.

Was presented with links to :
http://kakslauttanen.fi/en/accommodation/
which is upper North near Ivalo airport and more rural than Rovaniemi but still offers a small Santa village as well as the usual winter activities from Lapland nearby.

Rovaniemi's Santa Claus operation is much larger, it's more like a theme park. I've never heard of the one at Kakslauttanen, and based on the website it's not much more than a house with a guy in a Santa suit and a plate of cookies.

All that said, if you can get to Ivalo for a reasonable price, I'd probably go there instead. More snow, more wilderness, and there's not much to see in Rovaniemi anyway.

Thanks Jpatokal, flights from Paris offer reasonnable connection in Helsinki - and so far very cheap rates for April so this part would be fine. Found some not so nice reviews about Kakslautannen so looking at other accomodations in Northern Lapland but haven't found anything quite similar yet (their Queen Suite looks attractive) . Issue might be it's very isolated so if one doesn't feel well with the place - regulary it seems customers feel at odds with the management - they must feel trapped !

Santa's village is quite small indeed, i'm looking for more feedback on wether kids enjoy the visit there. As of Rovaniemi's Santa village, they have 2 nice live feeds when you can see the kids chatting and taking pics with Santa as well as the main outdoor square :

http://www.santaclauslive.com/main.php?link=santa_claus_live&kieli=eng&pid=2

http://www.santaclauslive.com/main.php?link=santa_claus_live&kieli=fin&pid=3

I'm waiting for a reply from Kakslauttanen, but an alternative destination where there will be a little more life is going to Saariselkä village, which offers more accomodations and entertainment in case we get bored staying in a recluse resort.

Any feedback on this area ? I thought there was still plenty of time to decide but apparently many cottages are already booked for the period we plan to go (9 to 16th April )

Well, no internet connection in the rooms and not even a DVD player for a week in a secluded area will be too much for us... the Queen suites are nice but Kakslauttanen won't do it.

Might forget the Santa touch if there is some place nicer in Sweden. Any resort that springs to mind , comfortable and with a snowy hilly landscape, that also offer the same kind of activities we get in finnish lapland - bar the Santa ? Seen only a few nice cottages on the Saariselka website and of those most are already booked or we need to get the key 1 to 3 kms from there ?!?

Plus how important is the fire to heat the room in those cottages ? It sounds like a joke but if we were in a relatively isolated cabin in need to light a fire to heat the room we'd be nearing panic :(

So it's probably better if the cottage or room or appartment belongs to some kind of resort where we can call for help to some staff nearby in case we're overwhelmed with the situation.

Thanks for all info !

edit in : I've started checking swedish lapland offerings and they look much less family oriented, and more athletic. Am I right ?

Might forget the Santa touch if there is some place nicer in Sweden. Any resort that springs to mind , comfortable and with a snowy hilly landscape, that also offer the same kind of activities we get in finnish lapland - bar the Santa ? Seen only a few nice cottages on the Saariselka website and of those most are already booked or we need to get the key 1 to 3 kms from there ?!?
Cottages are intended for people with their own transportation, they don't really make sense if you don't have a car. But Saariselka is a large-ish ski resort and there's plenty of hotel accommodation, restaurants, tour operators and even a free shuttle bus that travels around the area once an hour or so.

Plus how important is the fire to heat the room in those cottages ? It sounds like a joke but if we were in a relatively isolated cabin in need to light a fire to heat the room we'd be nearing panic :(
As you'd expect, heating and insulation is usually very, very good in Lapland. In the unlikely event that the heating breaks down, just call the repairman!

Thanks again Jpatokal. I've finally booked an apartment in a hotel in Saariselka. Probably a safer alternative for a first journey so far North.

I watched again last night some video we shot last summer in a ski resort near Oslo ( Norefjell I think ) and some of the cottages look great. Would love to spend a few days in one of them although indeed it must be more convenient if one has his own car - but I wouldn't dare driving in such snowy environment.

Came back yesterday from Saariselka so here's some feedback :

First of all thanks for all the advice on this -and other - threads. Overall we had a very good time.

The cottage rented through this website ( http://www.saariselka.com/individual/accommodation/cabin/accommondationsummary_view ) was large and very comfortable, actually better than what I'd expected. Will definetely look again from a cottage when visiting next rural Scandinavia. Renting a car proved a very good idea -again- so we could drive through the area between Ivalo and the Russian border - the highlight of this trip with the first husky safari. The roads there are very quiet, with plenty of reeindeers along the way when coming close to the russian border, many frozen lakes and rivers, and we spotted a couple of people fishing through an hole in the ice. Awesome landscape !

There is much to say about the best season to visit, this year was apparently warmer than usual and a little late to enjoy fully the winter activities. On the other hand it was warm enough to enjoy most of the day outside and the long daylight.

We had a great time doing Snowmobile, Husky, Reeindeer with a santa visit safaris as well as snowshoe, a little ski and toboggan for the kids. be warned about Husky Co though, my only experience with them through a second husky safari ruined my mood on our before last day there . Utter rip off and the owner had no qualm lying blatantly when we went back to the agent office who rented me this trip. Husky Co has a lousy husky farm which looks more like a touristy small restaurant as well as a large office downtown office renting out all sorts of activities . There is much competition and I would advise anyone to look for the competition.

I don't know the name of the first husky farm we went to, but it was great, a bit outside the town, with around 150 huskies in a large outdoor space as well as dozens of puppies in large cages near the entrance. The safari starts immediatly in the wilderness and goes on that way. There are two guides who lead the way on a sledge. Very different than the cheapo Husky's Co model.

Besides as it's been said, Saariselka is largely oriented to cross country skiing, with much crowd over 40 y o, which is fine for us.

Doubt it will be Saariselka because I'd like to change a little but we will definetely head back to Lapland - and pretty soon to southern or middle Scandinavia. We had 2 trips there in less than 1year and both were memorable !

Enjoy your lapland visits !
Luis

Sorry, posted in the wrong thread - deleted the content