The Perfect Itinerary For 5 Days In Lapland, Finland
Lapland makes up about a third of Finland’s total area, and it’s a region, not a country. It covers northern Sweden, Finland, Norway and part of Russia’s Kola Peninsula. To put it into perspective, Lapland is as big as Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland all put together. We visited Finnish Lapland for 5 days just before Christmas 2022 and have put together ‘The Perfect Itinerary for 5 days in Lapland, Finland’ to help others have as amazing a trip as we did.
Day 1 – Travel Day
Day 1 was a travel day for us. We flew from London Stanstead to Rovaniemi Airport with Ryanair. It took around 3 hours. Rovaniemi Airport is quite small so it’s very easy to navigate on arrival. We had hired a car for our visit so Dave headed to the Rental Cars while I collected the luggage.
We hired a car with Green Motion and it was a smooth process. We had expected the car to be in a car park away from the snow, but it wasn’t! It was in an outdoor car park covered in snow. But that turned out to be ok as there was a brush in the car for the snow, it was actually easier to clear it than the ice in England!
By this time it was quite late so we drove straight to the SantaSport Apart Hotel just outside of Rovaniemi, it took about 15 minutes and driving in the snow was fine, it was a short but scenic drive!
Day 2 – Santa Claus Village
Our priority on day 2 was to go to Santa Claus Village, which was about 10 minutes away from our hotel. So we got up, had breakfast (which was included in our stay) and headed to visit the home of Santa Claus. It’s hard to describe the sparkling magic of Santa’s Village as you approach it and we were all excited to explore the snow-covered landscape. Santa Claus Village is a very popular place to visit, so we felt the best time to arrive was early with the aim of beating the tour groups. This meant we walked straight in to see Father Christmas with no queue.
Something that did surprise me at Santa Claus Village is that there were two places to see Santa. One in the main house on arrival and one by the Arctic Circle crossing. We went to the one by the main entrance and he was great, the meeting was brief but for our family only and he was lovely with the girls. The visit didn’t cost but you can’t take photos so are incentivised to buy the official photo which cost 40 euros for a medium-sized picture. However, I have to be honest and say that the whole ‘feel’ of visiting him wasn’t any more special than some of the very good ones we’ve done in England. However, the look of him was far better than any other Santas we’ve seen – he was extremely authentic.
But Santa really is just a fraction of what there is to do at Santa’s Village. Sledges are dotted around the village which you can pick up for free. The kids thought this was brilliant and loved finding a slope to slide down. We actually found the sledges the easiest way to get the girls around the village, as it is pretty big and the snow can be a bit tricky to walk on. Plus it’s fun!
My personal highlight of Santa’s village was the reindeer sleigh ride. A bucket list item, these run all day every day so there is no option to pre-book. However, I would advise you to get there in the early morning to avoid queues. We got there at 11 am and had to wait 45 minutes for our turn. You get the choice of a 400m, 1000m or 3km ride and we went for the 1000m option. This lasted about 20 minutes and whilst it was a relatively short trip, it felt about right. The scenery was like a winter wonderland, it was utterly stunning. It cost us 106 euros for the 4 of us.
Tour groups have pre-booked slots and skip the queue so avoiding these times (which are written on the ticket booth) is a wise idea.
After our Reindeer ride, we went for some lunch at the Burger and Pizza restaurant. This was a simple fast-food place but for 55 euros we got two decent size pizzas, two french fries, and 4 drinks. Plenty to keep us going for the rest of the day! There are other places to eat but price-wise this was the best option.
Of course, it can’t be forgotten that you can cross the Arctic Circle at Santa’s Village, which was really amazing. And don’t forget to wave at the YouTube Arctic Circle live stream!
The temperature was around -14c and after a while, you want to head indoors to warm up so we headed back to the hotel. The girls and Dave went for a swim (included in the price of the hotel) and we spent the evening relaxing.
Day 3 – Apukka Resort Husky Safari
Today we headed to our pre-booked Husky Safari at Apukka Resort.
Apukka Resort is a popular place for activites such as huskies, reindeer safari and ice fishing. You can also book to stay in their unique accommodation with the chance to see the Aurora Borealis (Northern lights). They also do Northern lights tours which can be a good way to track down the elusive northern lights as you’ll be with one of their expert tour guides.
The Apukka Resort was about 20 minutes from our hotel. You can arrange to be picked up from various places around Rovaniemi but as we had a car we drove there. The initial bit of the experience felt a bit disorganised, which I think was because a lot of trips started at the same time so there was a lot going on. One thing I would bear in mind is that even if children are dressed for cold weather the guides will still insist that they wear the (included in the price) Arctic overalls. It would have been good if this had been made clear beforehand. However, the girls were toasty warm and cosy for the whole experience.
Once organised we were off on a 20-minute walk to the Huskies. Again, if you have mobility issues you’d probably appreciate having this information in advance. One of the people in our small group had a very bad back so couldn’t do the walk. They swiftly arranged for a snowmobile to take him.
Once we arrived at the Huskies it was incredible. We were given a talk about how to drive the sledge and then shown to our huskies. The sledges are long so the adult sits at the back with children in front of them. The driver (in our case, Dave) stands at the back and controls the brakes and steering. Once the rope was released we were off.
The ride was mostly on a frozen lake and it was utterly unbelievable, the snow-laden landscape rushing past as the dogs ran and ran. We all had a great time and the husky ride was over in a flash (I think it actually lasted about an hour). Back at the base we had time to stroke and meet our huskies, who were really friendly. We then had warmed berry juice and cookies whilst the expert guide gave us some information about the husky farm. Fun Fact – our husky guide owned 28 of the huskies herself!
The weather conditions were perfect for our ride, but if it’s snowing then goggles would be a good idea. The natural beauty of the whole afternoon was really amazing, and we felt it was the perfect place to have done our husky tour.
Once we got back to the Apukka Resort we picked up our car and decided to head into Rovaniemi for some lunch. Rovaniemi is the Capital City of Finnish Lapland and is pretty small with just 64,000 residents. It is quite a unique experience to see a City Centre under a blanket of snow. We found a car park and took a short walk to explore. We didn’t find it easy to find somewhere to eat so decided to go for Chinese food in the end (which was delicious!). It can be quite limiting finding vegetarian food in some Countries and we did find it a challenge in Lapland. However, you can always find pizza and chips or somewhere like a Chinese that will have vegetarian options.
After that we went back to the hotel and Dave and the girls went swimming again. That evening we spent about an hour in the huge soft play in the hotel, this cost us 5 euros per child.
Day 4 – Santa Park
*SantaPark kindly gifted us tickets for our visit – all opinions are our own*
On our very snowy fourth day, we drove around 20 minutes from the hotel to Santa Park. Santa Park is a Christmas-themed indoor park with lots of all kinds of fun christmassy things to do with elves. As it is indoors there is a large cloakroom to put your winter clothing in before you enter.
Included in the ticket are loads of amazing things to do such as:
🎄 Meeting with Santa Claus in his office. We didn’t do this as we’d seen him at Santa’s village but it looked brilliant.
🎄 Gingerbread decoration. We loved doing this and were pleased that we all got one to decorate. They were really tasty too.
🎄 Visit to the Gingerbread Bakery – as with everything in Santa Park the bakery looked so festive and beautifully decorated.
🎄 Visit to the Elves’ Post Office
🎄 Elf School Experience, where you get your own Elf School Diploma and Elf Trainee Hat
🎄 SantaPark’s Exciting Show (performed 3 times a day). We watched this as we ate our cookies which was perfect. However, the show is in the main cafe area so a lot of people ate their lunch as they watched.
🎄 Magic Train Ride. The girls loved this and wanted to do it over and over again.
🎄 Virtual Christmas Sleigh Ride around the world
🎄 Handicrafts in Elf Workshop
🎄 Crossing the Arctic Circle underground was one of my favourite parts of the day. Santa Park is the only place you can do it.
🎄 Visit to Ice Gallery and Ice Bar. You get given a special coat here to keep you warm.
🎄 Two Gaming Arenas
🎄 Toy Factory Shopping Area. I really liked the shopping areas and spent some time picking out some decorations to take home with me.
🎄 Santa’s Corner Shop
I really liked that once you’re in Santa Park nothing is an additional cost. We spent about 5 hours exploring before heading out into the snow! And it hadn’t stopped!
Back at the hotel we rented Sledges for 5 euros per sledge and went to a nearby hill to play. This was one of the best places we found for sledging but the girls also enjoy just exploring the leisure complex where we were staying too. I would think the girls might say this was the highlight of their whole trip and it really was a lot of fun.
Day 5 – Travel Day
This was our last day and we had to head to the airport for our flight home. It was the most beautiful morning and we enjoyed the 15-minute drive to the airport.
A quick word on our accommodation. We stayed at the SantaSport Apartment hotel which was about 2 miles outside of Rovaniemi. It was the perfect base for us for our 4-night stay. It is an aparthotel which means you get an apartment with some of the perks of a normal hotel. Our apartment was a 1 double bedroom, 1 single bedroom and a double sofa bed. It had a kitchen, dining area, bathroom (with shower, toilet and private sauna!) and a separate toilet. There was also a decent-sized balcony. As SantaSport is part of a leisure complex, you can use their facilities at an extra cost (the swimming pool is free). We did swimming, soft play and sledges but you can also do bowling and cross-country skiing and more.
And just like that our trip was over! We felt that having 4 nights and 3 full days in Lapland was just about right, making it a 5 day trip including travel days. I hope this has helped you if you are planning The Perfect Itinerary For 5 Days In Lapland, Finland.
If you’d like to read more about our travels, how about Dubai? Read more here.
