Ultimate Lapland Vacation: the Best Lapland Winter Itinerary

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For my winter vacation this year, instead of going somewhere warm to escape the cold, I wanted to go chasing the Northern Lights on a Lapland Adventure. There are so many things to do in Lapland! This ultimate Lapland vacation consisted of a road trip from Norway to the bottom of Finland.

When I started researching places to watch the Northern Lights a few places popped up; Alaska, Iceland, and Lapland. I had watched he Northern Lights on a solo trip last year so i had to make the decision between the other two. Is Iceland or Lapland better to watch the Northern Lights? I had a really hard time deciding, but finally chose a Lapland road trip so I could go on an icebreaker cruise.

Since we are not familiar with the area and don’t speak the language of the countries in our itinerary, we got some help from a travel company, Adventure By Design.

The first day we flew in business class to Paris from the United States (for $5.60 per person). (Find out what we did with 24 hours in Paris here!) We chose a stopover to give ourselves a little break from flying. You can do this, or fly all the way to Tromsø. You also may find some connecting flights in London or Helsinki.

Here we are in our first class seats. That night we had plane food for supper. :/

We spent most of this day flying. Our flight didn’t leave Paris until just after 2 in the afternoon. Our first flight was delayed so that caused us to miss our connecting flight in Oslo.

We had never flown SAS before. We had business class seats but they were not any different than any other seat on the plane. Still three to a row and no tv to watch. We did, however, get free WiFi and some food. I had my first rooster on this flight!

We had our first experience in Oslo where we had to wait for our name to come up on a screen before we could enter the next gate. Chris said he felt like he was back in kindergarten waiting for his name to be called.

The first class lounge and airport in Oslo was much bigger and nicer than the one in Paris. After an hour and a half, we boarded the plane to Tromsø, Norway.

I sat by the window looking for some hint of the Northern Lights. A friend had told me they were visible from the plane so I had my eyes glued to the window! And, would you believe I saw them?! If I had never seen them before I would have thought it was a cloud. Fortunately for me, I had seen them the year prior and knew the gray moving cloud was actually the Northern Lights!

It was Chris’s first time seeing them and he contained his excitement much better than I did. 🙂

The food on this plane was not the best to put it politely. It was some cheese sourdough roll that was cold. It may have tasted better warmed up. But, I can’t complain, it was “free.”

When we arrived in Tromsø we were met by our tour guides, Gareth and Elina. We had spoke for almost two months on the internet putting my ideas and hers together to make this perfect custom trip. When we actually met in person for the first time it felt like they were  family.

We gathered our luggage and headed to the car for our drive to stay in a glass igloo at Lyngen North. On the way, Elina gave us a Scandinavian tapas style dinner in the back of the car (since our flight was late coming in), such as cold smoked salmon, reindeer fillet and elk sausage.

While driving, Elina and Gareth told us about life in Norway and Sweden. I told them how I had seen the Northern Lights from the plane and they had hoped we had. We learned that Tromsø and Kilpisjärvi have different weather. While chasing the Northern Lights, if the weather is bad in one town, just go to the next.

As we drove, we could see the Northern Lights building up. Still, they were not a bright green until we got closer to Lyngen Fjord. That’s were Chris started to show his excitement. By the time we arrived at the glass igloo, we were ready to watch them from the comfort of our glass igloo.

The next morning we were greeted with breakfast by the owner of the glass igloo at Lyngen North.

Shortly after, Elina and Gareth arrived and we made our journey to Kilpisjärvi. The ride along Lyngen Fjord is so beautiful. The bright red houses in contrast with the white snow is just gorgeous. We could even see the mountains reflecting in the water.

Here’s where we crossed the border from Norway into Finland. No border patrol here!

For lunch, Gareth brought us for some authentic Finnish food. I have to say, it was quite yummy!

After lunch, we made our way on the snow covered road to our accommodation for the evening. We stayed at the Tundrea, which was really nice. We even had a sauna and a drying cupboard for our wet clothes which was really handy since it was so cold outside.

After getting settled, we met our guide, Martti Niskanen from Lapland Connection, to take us snowmobiling to 3 different countries. We hopped inside a wagon as he pulled us with the snowmobile to where ours was waiting. The road was a bit bumpy, and we laughed as we tried to stay in a seated position.

We each practiced driving and turning before heading off on the trail towards the three countries. This is where Sweden, Norway, and Finland all meet. It is known as the friendliest border in the world. There are no border patrol and one can drive freely between the countries. There’s even a Three Countries Cairn in the middle of the lake to show where the countries meet.

This was our first time snowmobiling. (You can watch us in the blog post above!) Chris wanted to drive a little crazy but followed the rules. There’s a 1200 Euros charge for an accident to the snowmobile.

We worked up an appetite snowmobiling and were ready for supper at Tundrea restaurant. The supper was included with our stay there so that made Chris super happy! Our meal included an entree and either an appetizer or dessert. We chose to split an appetizer and dessert so we could try more of the Finnish food.

For the appetizer we had the fried Gouda cheese.

For our entrees, Chris had the reindeer steak and I had the normal cow steak. While my food was good, his was much better. The reindeer had a lot of flavor and was well cooked.

For dessert we had the chocolate fondant. It tastes like a chocolate lava cake we have in Tennessee.

Since the weather in Kilpisjärvi was cloudy, we headed towards Norway. We stopped at a fjord, and just a few minutes after arriving, the light show began.

At one point, it lit up the sky and reflected off the lake. Gareth and I were so excited as we took picture after picture. He spent a lot of time helping me learn the best techniques to take photos, whether it be the landscapes or the Northern Lights.

Then, it simmered down and teased us and left us guessing if there was going to be another flare. In the end, we snapped a lot of pictures and even got to hear the ice cracking on the lake as the tide moved in.

After eating a Finnish breakfast at the same restaurant as the previous evening, we waited for Gareth to arrive to go snowshoeing. It was our first time for both of us to try this winter activity.

After another Finnish lunch at Kilpis, we hopped on the Gold Line bus to get to Rovaniemi. The further south we went and the darker it got, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I even saw a rainbow around the sun. Chris took a nap in his reclining seat as I used the free WiFi to share the sights along the way.

Our accommodation in Rovaniemi was at the Arctic Light Hotel. It is supposed to be one of the top hotels in the world and has received many awards.

We chose the Polar room all because I wanted a polar bear on my shower door like the photo online showed. Unfortunately, the only polar bear in my room was the one on my bed. And, maybe the hungry one ready to eat supper.

So, we headed downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant called Arctic Boulevard. This restaurant serves all local food. There’s even a warning on the menu!

I chose the reindeer served 2 ways and Chris chose the white fish and crab. The food was delicious!

The next morning we went down to have breakfast. This breakfast almost gives one of our favorite hotels, the Inn at Christmas Place, a run for their money. There were smoothies, cold cuts, cheese, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, sausage, and all sorts of foods. There was even broccoli!

After stuffing our face, we walked over to the nearby Arctic City Hotel for our husky tour with Bear Hill. It was different from my last experience dog sledding in Alaska, but it was the first time I actually got to take the reins and go mushing.

Upon returning from our husky tour, we walked along the pedestrians only street. It is lined with many restaurants and stores. Despite it being so cold, many people were out ice skating, taking photos of the ice igloo, and shopping.

Then, we headed to meet good ole Santa Claus at the Santa Claus Village. This is the best Santa I’ve ever met. He knows how to speak a little something in EVERY language. He works every day they are open.

Since we were freezing outside, we hopped in a taxi instead of waiting for the bus back to downtown Rovaniemi. We chose to eat at the Classic American Diner for supper. I love that they have cokes in a glass bottle. I’m not sure what kind of sauce they put on their burgers, but it was delicious.

Since I have developed an addiction for chasing the Northern Lights, I went on another tour while Chris stayed in.

We made our way to Kemi, the city of snow and sea, on the morning train. The train station is rather small and we weren’t quite sure which train we needed to be on. The train outside was heading to Oulu so we figured since it was going in that direction, it was probably the train we needed to be on.

We hauled our 2 carry ons and 2 suitcases up the stairs onboard the train. We were able to put our 2 carry ons above our head in the space provided. The 2 large suitcases were too big to fit in the small lockers, so we had to put them in a corner area by the bathroom with just enough space.

The train ride to Kemi was uneventful and included 3 stops on its journey. Since we did not have cell service or any way of getting a hold of a taxi service, we walked the half mile to our MeriHovi hotel.

It sounds like an easy task but it wasn’t fun dragging our luggage through the snow covered streets. We found the roads in Kemi to be much more slick than our previous stops. We didn’t fall but put on a good show for those watching many times. In fact, one time Chris almost fell and I came in right behind him and almost fell, too.

It does have a sauna like the other places we had stayed in and is centrally located.

Our next adventure was the Sampo Icebreaker Cruise. It was one of the main reasons I booked a Lapland vacation over Iceland. Kemi has the world’s first passenger icebreaker cruise. It was such an exciting adventure watching the ship break through the solid ice.

We even were able to swim in the freezing sea!

When we were done with the tour, we had our driver take us to the World’s largest Snow Castle.

That night, we stopped at Hesburger for supper. This fast food chain wasn’t exactly fast, but the food tasted like any other restaurant of the type. We found it quite funny to have a microwave available next to the condiments. Later, we were told it was to heat up baby food.

We caught up on our much needed sleep and headed to the airport that afternoon. The Kemi airport is super small. In fact, it is so small that there are only about 4 departures a day. We were the first people there. When we arrived, we were told most people don’t show up until 30-45 minutes before departure. There are no food services here. But, there is WiFi.

About 15 minutes before the plane was to depart, everyone filed in a single line to get through the “airport security.” It was the smallest, yet quickest, security I had ever seen in an airport.

Right before boarding, I realized Chris had mistakenly swapped the carry ons. The one that was to board the plane had all of my lithium batteries in it. I kept thinking I was to be the one to cause our plane to blow up!

So, I explained to the nice lady who had checked us in what had happened. I had packed the batteries in a small fire safe bag that my friend Christy Prosser, of One Focus One World, had told me about, but I knew it shouldn’t be in checked luggage.

The employees discussed what had happened over the radio, and soon enough a man came in carrying my carry on suitcase. I quickly pulled out the bag of batteries and he went on his way.

Feeling relieved that I wouldn’t be the cause of our plane catching on fire, we made our way to the Capitol of Finland, Helsinki.

We took a 30 minute taxi ride to downtown Helsinki that cost about $40.

We stayed at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel. While the hotel was elegant looking, we were not impressed with our room. We might have been if the first thing we noticed when we walked in the room was the smell of sewer. When I opened the bathroom door, I noticed someone had left a “surprise” covered with many paper towels. We called for housekeeping who quickly responded to clean the bathroom. When asked if it had been cleaned (obviously it had not, there were even hairs on the seat), the employee stated he asked if the staff member cleaning the room cleaned the toilet but she wasn’t sure if she did it or not. It made me worry about the cleanliness of the rest of the room.

We chose to eat at Vapiano which is an Italian restaurant. This place was packed with many people younger than us. A card is given when you walk in, you go to the line for the food you want, and then use the card as your bill. If you want a salad and pizza that would be in 2 different lines.

We grabbed a taxi to the airport in Helsinki and began our journey home. We flew British Air business class. Here is a picture of the One World lounge.

We weren’t fans of the British Airways business class seating. The seats are close together and there isn’t a lot of privacy.

The food wasn’t that great either.

We arrived back in the US in Philadelphia. We chose another stopover but were too tired to enjoy the city. I guess our ultimate Lapland vacation wore us out!

What do you think of our ultimate lapland vacation? Comment below.