Lapland, Finland DIY – How much does it cost and money-saving tips!
We recently went on a 4-night 5 day trip to Rovaniemi in Lapland, northern Finland. We, like many others, were aware that this sort of trip to Lapland (especially at Christmas) has a reputation for costing an awful lot of money. So how much did our DIY Lapland trip cost us in high season? And do we have any money-saving tips? Read on to find out more.
Flights to Lapland
So the biggest expense of most trips is usually flights. Our flights were direct flights with Ryanair from London Stansted to Rovaniemi Airport. The return flights cost £1333.90 for the 4 of us. We only took one suitcase between the four of us but we each had a reasonably sized backpack to carry on with us. This is expensive for a 3-hour flight with a budget airline but as it’s the peak time for people to want to visit Father Christmas it is to be expected. As always I recommend looking around for flights, I find SkyScanner is worth checking for getting the best deal.
Accommodation in Lapland
We stayed at the Santa Sports Apartment Hotel which was about 2 miles out of Rovaniemi and 15 minutes from the Airport. It cost us £743.32 for 4 nights. For this price, we got 1 double bedroom, 1 single bedroom, a living room with double sofa bed, dining area and open planned kitchen. There was also a bathroom, shower, sauna, and separate toilet. We also had a balcony (but it was too cold to use it!)
Car Hire, Rovaniemi
We toyed with the idea of getting taxis and buses while we were there but after a few calculations figured out that it would likely cost similar to having a hire car. We hired a car using Green Motion and it cost £256.00. This was for a small economy car which was perfect for the 4 of us but for any more people or with more luggage you’d need to upgrade. We really appreciated having the car as it allowed us to explore and go to the supermarket whenever we needed to.
Husky Safari, Apukka Resorts
Our one ‘big’ expense of the trip was the Husky Sledding at Apukka Resorts. Having spoken to many people who’d been to Lapland previously, this was the activity that always got recommended so we opted to do it. It cost £481 for the 4 of us, including transfers (if we needed them) and Arctic clothing (which the girls used). It is expensive but I did a few quotes and this seemed to be the going price. We had a wonderful few hours exploring the winter wonderland on a frozen lake. It was definitely one of the best winter activities that we did and we have a really good time.
Reindeer Sleigh ride, Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village (sometimes called Santa Claus holiday village) is free to enter, but some activities have additional costs. The Reindeer Sleigh cost us £92.21 as we did the Forest path which is 1km long and lasted about 20 minutes. There are a variety of reindeer sleigh rides available detailed below:
Reindeer Path (400 m)
– 18 € / adult
– 14 € / child
No pre-booking!
● Forest Path (~1 km)
– 29 € / adult
– 23 € / child
No pre-booking!
● Winter Adventure (~3 km)
– 70 € / adult
– 55 € / child
Santa Claus Photo, Santa Claus Village
Entrance to see Santa Claus at Santa Village is free but you can’t take photos inside so I expect most people buy the official one. We opted for the medium-sized photo and it cost £35.47.
Mrs Claus entrance and photo, Santa Claus Village
Another of the additional costs at Santa Claus Village was Mrs Claus. It cost 5 euros for each of us to enter (£4.43). Then if you want to purchase the photo it is a further 10 euros (£8.87).
Santa Park Tickets
(We were kindly gifted tickets for Santa Park, all opinions are our own). There’s loads to do there (and it’s all underground so nice and warm!). Amongst other things you can go to Elf School, visit Santa, watch an Elf Show and decorate Gingerbread Cookies. It was a lovely day out and your tickets are actually valid for 2 consecutive days.
Adults 42 euros (£37.24)
Children 36 euros (£31.92)
0-2 FREE
Clothing for Lapland weather
This was a big cost for us as we had nothing. So we needed everything from the socks upwards. We have a reliable estimate of around £500-£600 spent. However, a lot of the clothing that we purchased will be used many many times and are good investments for the future. I will exclude this from the final cost as there is such a variation on what people would need, for example, if you are skiers you likely have at least 50% of what you need already.
Spending Money
We spent approximately £400 on food, meals, petrol and incidentals like sledge hire and soft play entrance. We didn’t eat out at any ‘posh’ places so we could easily have spent more but the food was good value and the children both ate it which is always the goal! Also, because the distances were so short we didn’t spend much at all on petrol (around 15 euros).
TOTAL COST
So in total, if we exclude clothing, we spent £3,506.81 on our 4-night 5 day trip to Lapland at arguably the most expensive time of year (the week before Christmas). We did everything we wanted to and our days were full. We had the most wonderful authentic Lapland experience and would go back in a heartbeat, it’s up there with our favourite ever family holiday.
Top Tips
My number 1 top tip for saving money would be to do a DIY trip. Whilst there are certainly benefits to the organised tours – not having to think about what to do, provision of a thermal suit each and a tour leader to help with questions, this costs ALOT more. I’ve done a quote for 2023 for 3 nights half board in a family room and it costs £6969.00 for 2 adults and 2 children. Whilst this isn’t an exact comparison – for example, the organised tour is half board and we only had bed and breakfast. But this organised tour is a family room whilst we had an apartment. So I think I can safely say give or take a bit, it’s approximately double to do an organised tour. There are a number of tour companies that do Lapland holidays so shop around if you decide to go that route.
If you do a DIY tour, consider the time of year you go. If Santa isn’t important (i.e. if you have older children), then it can be every bit as snowy and magical after Christmas and into January and February.
We hired a car and found it really helpful, especially with children. it meant that we could come and go as we pleased and make changes to our plans without worrying about taxi costs. It meant we could pop into Rovaniemi (the capital of Finnish Lapland), for lunch without worry. And also, it allowed us to go to the supermarket which further drove down costs as we ate a light lunch or dinner at the apartment some days.
Linked to the above point, and something we do on every trip – when you can (i.e. if you have a kitchen or fridge), visit the supermarket on your holiday and buy things like drinks or snacks from there. You can then use these for your time at your accommodation or on trips out which can save you huge amounts of money. For example, we got caught short at Santa Claus Village and the girls were ‘so hungry’ that we got them two mini cupcakes which cost 8 euros! I dread to think how much we could have got for 8 euros in the supermarket!
Free Activities
As mentioned above it is free to enter Santa Claus Village so you can cross the Arctic Circle (which was on my bucket list!), play with the sledges and the snow, and browse in the shops for free. Sledging at Santa Claus Village was great, and we had the best time. Swimming at our hotel was also free and a great place to unwind after a day out in the snow. And if you are lucky enough you might see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) for free (you can also do a tour but this would come at an extra cost).
Summary
So the good news is a DIY trip to Lapland is 100% doable and for much less than an organised tour. I loved that we had a personal trip, including just what we wanted to do and the freedom to shape our days how we wanted to. I often find it’s hard to predict how we’ll feel day to day (especially with kids) so having that freedom was invaluable. It was the perfect place to visit with children and we had a wonderful family trip in the official hometown of Santa Claus!
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