Tot ce trebuie sa stii despre Laponia – activitati, costuri, sfaturi de calatorie

Winter landscapes, reindeer, sleighs, huskies, and most importantly, Santa Claus and his helpers... these are the first things you think of when you hear about Lapland. The land of Santa Claus enchants and impresses any visitor, whether he is a child or an adult, it is the perfect place to feel the magic of Christmas and get into the spirit of the winter holidays.

In this article, I will show you the most important things you need to know about Lapland, if you are getting ready for a trip to the Arctic Circle: how to get there, what activities you can do here, where to stay and, finally, how much it would cost you a vacation on this wonderful land.

What do you need to know about Lapland?

1. About Lapland

Lapland is a cultural region in northern Europe, spread over the territory of four countries: Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia, and most of the territory is north of the Arctic Circle. Traditionally, the region is inhabited by the Sami people, an indigenous people living in Northern Scandinavia.

Lapland

Lapland - The Land of Santa Claus

Touristically, Santa Claus's Lapland is located in Finland, near the city of Rovaniemi. Santa's village is located 7 kilometers from the city center, so those who want to visit Santa's Land, must know that Rovaniemi is the destination they must reach! I mention that further on, in this article we will refer to Finnish Lapland, that part of Lapland which tourists choose to visit in such a large number.

 Finland has been a member of the European Union since 1995, and the official currency is the euro.

Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village

2. Why to visit Lapland

Lapland is a fairytale place, with beautiful winter landscapes, as you will see only in movies. In addition to the childhood storybooks images, Lapland has also become a very popular tourist destination in recent years, especially in the winter months, when visitors come here to discover Santa Claus's Village, the magic of the places and the atmosphere of the Christmas holidays. In addition to Santa's house and office, you can find here a lot of activities that you can try, specific to Lapland: you can go for a walk with a sled pulled by husky dogs or reindeer, you can admire the northern lights or you can take a snowmobile tour.

Lapland
Lapland

Lapland is a special place, it offers you an unique and original experience, and it differs from any other trips that you can normally do in Europe. During the winter, a vacation here can take you a little out of your comfort zone, due to the low temperatures and the few hours of daylight, but I guarantee that after you have arrived in these lands and experienced all these activities, it will be all worth it!

It is good to know that Santa's Village is open throughout the year, so you are not limited to the winter months to visit his house. But at the same time, keep in mind that in the summer you can't take part in all the activities, such as the sleigh ride or the northern lights.

If you arrive in Rovaniemi, the city that hosts Santa's Village, I recommend you also go to Levi. It is a ski resort located 170 km north of the city of Rovaniemi, very popular and more animated than Rovaniemi.

3. How is the weather in Lapland

Located at the Arctic Circle, expect low temperatures and few hours of daylight in winter. Winter appears here as early as October and can last until April-May.

In December, the average temperature is -6 degrees Celsius, but it can drop to -20 degrees. You will catch the polar night, with only a few hours of light per day, when the sun rises at 11 o'clock and sets before 2 o'clock. But even then, you will never see the sun high in the sky, but rather you will catch it at a sunset level , that is if it is not cloudy and snowing. And at night, if it's a clear sky and you're lucky, you can see the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village

Instead, during the summer you will have 24 hours of daylight, with average temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius.

We traveled to Lapland in December, and from our own experience, we can say that, although we caught -13 degrees every day, with the right clothes and properly dressed, we felt absolutely no discomfort. The wind was not blowing at all, so the cold was quite bearable.

4. How to dress in Lapland

Lapland is a tourist destination for which you need to prepare properly, especially when it comes to clothes, because the temperatures are not the most friendly ones. If you will travel in winter, I recommend that you always have the following with you:

  • The first layer of clothes consisting of shirts and tights especially for skiing or snowboarding
  • The second layer of warm fleece
  • Pants for skiing or hiking in the snow
  • Winter jacket, thick, waterproof and windproof, which will offer you comfort at the lowest possible temperatures
  • Collar or scarf to cover your face
  • Two pairs of gloves: a thinner pair, with which you can also use the phone, and on top a thicker pair of skiing gloves
  • Thick socks
  • Warm hat
  • Special footwear for snow
Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village

Apart from the jackets, we bought all the clothing items from Decathlon. We compared the products, read the properties of each one, and in the end we created a complete kit of winter clothes, with which we can feel comfortable at temperatures down to -20 degrees.

5. How to get to Lapland

To get to Santa's Country, I recommend you to choose the plane. The main airport is in Rovaniemi, but, 150 km away, there is also the airport of Kittila, where you can land.

Daca mergi pe cont propriu insa, Rovaniemi este aeroportul mai mare. Din Romania, din pacate, nu este zbor direct, dar poti gasi diferite variante de escale, mai scumpe sau mai putin scumpe, cu companii de linie sau low cost. Cu Google Flights or kiwi poti cauta si compara diferite variante.

Cateva idei de trasee de zbor:

  • Cu Wizzair sau Ryanair pana la Londra, iar de acolo cu Ryanair sau easyJet pana in Rovaniemi
  • Cu Wizzair sau Ryanair pana la Paris, iar de acolo cu easyJet pana in Rovaniemi
  • Cu Wizzair pana la Milano, iar de acolo cu Ryanair sau easyJet pana in Rovaniemi
  • Budapesta – Helsinki – Rovaniemi cu Finnair – aceasta este si varianta pe care am ales-o noi
  • Cu Turkish Airlines, cu escala in Istanbul

Another transport option can be by plane to Helsinki, and from there to take a night train to Rovaniemi.

How to get from the airport to Rovaniemi

You can get from the airport to the city center with a shuttle bus that you can take from the front of the airport, and a ticket costs 8 euros.

A taxi ride costs 25-30 euros. I recommend that you install the Meneva Taksi application, a kind of local Uber, where you know in advance the costs of the taxi journey and pay directly from the application.

Taxis in Rovaniemi
Taxis in Rovaniemi

6. How to get around in Lapland

Depending on where you choose to stay and what activities you want to do, you can use public transport, taxis, private transfers or rental car.

If you will only stay in Rovaniemi, you will manage with buses or taxis. For taxis, I recommend you install the application Meneva Taksi.

If you will have different activities, such as husky/reindeer sledding or Northern lights hunting, usually the ticket price will include the transfer from the hotel or from the city center to the location of the activity.

By car in Lapland

For more flexibility, a rented car can be a good option to move from one point to another.

Although it snows almost every day in winter and the roads can be covered with snow, there is no need to panic and give up the idea of driving in Finland. It drives very well, the roads are quite good, although they can be covered with snow, but most importantly, the cars are equipped with special winter tires, different from what we have in our country. The car does not slide or skid, regardless of the weather conditions. Even so, I recommend driving preventively and carefully!

Lapland

There are different rental companies where you can rent the car, including Europcar, Sixt or Green Motion, a local company.

7. Where to stay in Lapland

When you arrive in Lapland, you have the possibility to stay in AirBnb apartments, with prices starting from 100 euros/night, or in exclusive locations, igloo style, which can reach up to 2000 euros/night.

Accommodation in Rovaniemi

Bellow you will find a list of accommodations in Rovaniemi:

  • Santa Claus Holiday Village  - You can choose to stay directly in Santa Claus Village, to be in the center of the excitement and the festive atmosphere. A night's accommodation in one of the authentic Finnish cottages starts from 300 euros/night in the winter season. During the summer, it costs a little over 100 euros/night.
  • Arctic Light Hotel 
  • Lomavekarit Apartments 
  • The accommodation that we had, a chic apartment fully equipped, for which we paid 130 euros/night in December, was Northern Lights Center Apartment 2.
Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi

Accommodation in Levi

Accomodation in Levi:

We chose to stay in the town of Kittila, located 15 km from Levi resort. Having a car and being flexible, we decided to save this time on accommodation, the prices in Kittila being significantly lower than in Levi. Our accommodation was at Guesthouse Golden Goose, a very nice and welcoming guesthouse. We paid only 100 euros per night (in December), while in Levi the prices for accommodation started from 150/night.

8. What to eat in Lapland

If you arrive in Lapland, respectively Finland, you have the opportunity to try various traditional and local dishes, such as dishes made from reindeer meat, fish or salmon soup.

Other specific products that you will often meet here are the berries, together with the deserts or drinkings made from them, such as Gloggi, the traditional drink served during Christmas, a kind of mulled wine, but which can also be served without alcohol. Gloggi, bautura traditionala servita in perioada Craciunului, un fel de vin fiert, dar care poate fi servit si fara alcool.

Lapland

Some places to serve meals would be:

Rovaniemi:

Santa Claus Village:

Coffee House, Rovaniemi
Coffee House, Rovaniemi

9. What to do in Lapland

Lapland is the perfect place to spend your day doing various activities! The day is quite short, so you will have to look for different ways to spend your time during nightly hours. But luckily, you have a choice!

Visit Santa Claus Village

The highlight of Lapland, the main tourist landmark of the area and the place for which Lapland has become so well known worldwide is the Santa Claus Village. Everyone knows that Santa lives and works in Lapland, and from here he leaves every year with his reindeer, on Christmas Eve, to bring gifts to children from all over the world.

Santa Claus Villageitself is a very cute theme park, located 7 km from Rovaniemi. We felt in love with this place, it is so positive, cheerful, and with such a good energy! We spent a whole day here, and we still didn't manage to do all the activities that we wanted to do!

Santa Claus Village

Here you can visit Santa Claus in his office, you can send letters from Santa's post office, you can go for a walk with reindeer or husky dogs, or you can simply wander around this whole park and admire the colorful and illuminated landscape of Santa's world!

You should know that Santa's Village is open throughout the year and the entry is free, but the activities you can undertake here are for a fee.

I recommend you to read this article, where I described everything you can do in Santa's Village: A Day In Santa's Village In Lapland - What You Can Do At Santa's Home!

Take a ride on a husky sled

One of the activities that you should not miss if you arrive in Lapland in winter is a ride on a sled pulled by husky dogs! It is an unique experience, which you must try, and I recommend the route of at least 5 km, where one of you drives the sled, and the other sits quietly in it.

It is an activity that can be expensive, but the feeling and sensation you will have while being in the sled are amazing. After the sleigh ride, you can enjoy a glass of hot Glogg, the local drink, inside a heated cabin.

You can book such an activity both in Rovaniemi, and Levi.

Visit a reindeer farm

We can say that reindeer are the most representative animals in this part of Europe, they are very beautiful and friendly, and if you want to see them up close, feed them or just enjoy their presence, I recommend you to visit a local farm of reindeer. You also have the opportunity to take a sleigh ride pulled by these peaceful and beautiful animals.

You can do such an activity both in Rovaniemi, and Levi.

You can also find combinations of visits and rides with husky and reindeer sleds: Levi: Lapland Reindeer and Husky Safari.

Hunt the Northern Lights

One of the most important and fascinating moments you can experience in Lapland is to catch the aurora borealis, the beautiful green northern lights that appear in the sky in winter.

There are several conditions for the northern lights to be seen, and the most important is that the sky is clear and that you are not near a city. It also depends on luck, the lights can appear when you least expect it, or you can spend whole days without it appearing in the sky.

Even so, in Lapland there are tours organized by car or snowmobile, through which the organizers will take you to the place where the aurora borealis is supposed to appear that evening. But, as I said, it also depends on luck, and the chances of you seeing the aurora after such a trip are not maximum.

Some such tours in Rovaniemi and in Levi are;

If you have a car, you can try to go on a Northern Lights hunt on your own, and there are application that can help you: Hello Aurora or Aurora Forecast.

Walk around the city of Rovaniemi

If you have arrived in Rovaniemi to visit Santa's Village, you will most likely end up in the city center as well. Rovaniemi is considered the capital of the Lapland region and has a population of only 60,000 inhabitants.

Rovaniemi

I recommend you spend an evening here, walk around the center and stop at a nice restaurant for dinner. Some recommendations would be Nili Restaurant or Gustav Kitchen & Bar.

Arktikum Museum

If you have more time, you can also visit the Arktikum museum, a scientific museum where interesting information about the history, culture and nature of the Nordic land is exhibited. An adult ticket costs 18 euros, and for children between 7 and 15 years you will pay 5 euros.

Discover the Levi ski resort

Levi is a beautiful ski resort in Lapland, 170 km from Rovaniemi. Besides a lot of ski slopes that winter sports lovers can try, Levi is also a center for activities that can be done here, such as sledding or aurora hunting, and the prices can be lower than in Rovaniemi. Moreover, being further north, the chances of catching the northern lights are higher.

The landscapes are even more different than Rovaniemi, more hills, denser forests, more mountain trails.

Personally, I recommend any traveler in Lapland to split their vacation and visit Levi as well. Here you will find a much livelier atmosphere than in Rovaniemi, and you will feel like you are in a very popular winter resort.

Levi
Levi

Ride the snowmobile

What can be more beautiful than to admire the beautiful winter landscapes, the trees dressed in white, vast lands, covered by a white layer of snow, and with snowflakes falling incessantly? A special experience through which to discover these landscapes can be a snowmobile ride, through the middle of these fairytale places.

You can try this activity both in Rovaniemi, and Levi.

Lapland

Visit the theme parks from Lapland

In Lapland you can find different cute theme parks, some are suitable for families with children, others also suitable for adults.

SantaPark

SantaPark is a theme park related to Santa Claus, near Rovaniemi and Santa's Village. Santapark is located underground, in a natural cave, and offers a variety of activities for children and adults, such as different craft workshops or meetings with Santa Claus and his elves.

An entrance ticket for adults costs 42 euros, and for children (3-12 years) 36 euros.

Arcandia

Arcandia is an adventure park in Levi, where you can try various activities specific to the park, such as archery or snowmobiling. What is impressive in this park are the lights and the whole scenery, it looks like a landscape taken out of the movies, with beautifully lit story houses, in a very snowy forest.

An entrance ticket for adults costs 20 euros, and for children 15 euros: Kittilä: Arcandia-Arctic Adventure Park Ticket.

10. What are the prices in Lapland

From the start, we can say that Finland is not a cheap destination at all, and Lapland, especially in the middle of the winter season, requires a certain more consistent budget.

Starting with the plane tickets, accommodation, activities and food, all these add up, and in the end you will realize that a vacation in Lapland is not one of the cheapest vacations you have taken so far. But, with a little attention and organization, you can save some money here and there. The prices shown below are valid for the month of December, in full season in Lapland.

  • Airline tickets: here it depends on how you find them, if you fly with low cost companies or not, and how far in advance you buy your tickets.
  • Accommodation: prices start from 150 euros per night in Rovaniemi and Levi, in AirBnb accommodation.
  • Activities: these seemed to us to be the most expensive and they increased the total price of the trip a lot:
  • Food: a meal at a restaurant starts from 20 euros/person, but here you can earn if you eat at yoursaccommodation - for example, you can buy cooked food from the supermarket for 3-4 euros.
  • Souvenirs: prices for magnets start from 5 euros, for Christmas Balls from 4 euros.
Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village

How we organized and how much our 4-day vacation in Lapland cost

For us, the holiday in Lapland was one of the most different and remarkable trips we have made so far. We were introduced to a story from the first moment we landed in Rovaniemi, we were impressed by the country, the winter landscape, the Christmas atmosphere and everything we experienced. Santa's village and the ride with the sleigh pulled by the husky dogs exceeded all our expectations, and the low temperature, of -13 degrees, felt much higher through the beautiful feelings that we had here.

Santa Claus Village
  • We traveled in December, we flew from Budapest with the Finnish airline Finnair on the route Budapest - Helsinki - Rovaniemi. Because we decided only a week before, the plane ticket cost us 500 euros/person, with all luggage included.
  • In Lapland, we divided our visiting days between Rovaniemi and Levi. For two nights of accommodation in Rovaniemi and two in Kittila, the town next to the Levi resort, we paid a total of 500 euros. These were our accommodations:
  • We also had a rented car during the vacation, a Toyota C-HR hybrid rented from Europcar, directly from the airport, for which we paid 400 euros.
  • As activities, we chose to go for a sled ride in a local husky farm, an activity that cost us 270 euros/2 people

In total, 5 days (4 nights) in Lapland cost us around 3000 euros/2 people. Is much? Is it a little? What do you think?

Santa Claus Village

Travel tips for your holiday in Lapland

  • It is good to know that Santa's Village is open throughout the year, so you are not limited to the winter months to visit his house. But at the same time, keep in mind that in the summer you can't take part in all the activities in the park, such as the sledding.
    • Entry to Santa Claus is free.
    • In high season, expect queues at the entrance. In December, the waiting time was one hour.
    • Before entering Santa Claus, you can buy a surprise gift worth 30 euros, which Santa will give to whoever you consider during the visit. It is a suitable gesture if you are going with the children, they will certainly be delighted to receive a gift directly from Santa Claus!
    • Once you enter in Santa's office, you will have the chance to talk with him for 2-3 minutes. He will ask you some questions, ask you where you come from, and most likely, he will say a few words in your language.
    • At the end, you have the possibility to buy the physical photo from the meeting with Santa, worth 35 euros, or the digital package of photos and video worth 50 euros.
    • Santa's office is open throughout the year, so you can visit him any time you arrive in Lapland!
  • If you arrive in Rovaniemi, the city that hosts Santa's Village, I recommend you also go to Levi. It is a ski resort located 170 km north of the city of Rovaniemi, very popular and more animated than Rovaniemi.
  • Don't be afraid of low temperatures! Although We caught -13 degrees every day, with the right clothes and properly dressed, we didn't feel any discomfort. The wind was not blowing at all, so the cold was quite bearable.
  • Din Romania, din pacate, nu este zbor direct, dar poti gasi diferite variante de escale, mai scumpe sau mai putin scumpe, cu companii de linie sau low cost. Cu Google Flights sau kiwi poti cauta si compara diferite variante.
  • If you don't rent a car and will travel by taxi, I recommend you to install the Meneva Taksi application, a kind of local Uber, where you know in advance the costs of the taxi journey and pay directly from the application. For example, a trip from the airport to the city center costs 25-30 euros.
  • Don't be scared by the thought of driving in Lapland in winter! Although it snows almost every day in winter and the roads can be covered with snow, it is very easy to drive, but most importantly, the cars are equipped with special winter tires, different from what we have in the country. Even so, I recommend driving preventively and carefully!
Lapland

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