The northernmost region of Finland called Lapland is the home of Santa Claus as well as the place for people to hunt for the Northern Lights (or Aurora Borealis). There are actually many exciting activities to do there such as taking the reindeer or husky ride, experiencing the midnight sun, ice floating, ice fishing and many more. During our autumn visit, we enjoyed watching the colorful and beautiful autumn trees along the road trip, as well as visiting Santa Claus and had a quick chat with him! Well, these were more than enough for our 2 days at Lapland.
The moment we touched town at Rovaniemi Airport (our first stop of Lapland), we quickly proceeded to Scandia Rent’s counter to get our rental car. The airport is quite small with the car rental counters located just next to the luggage collection area. Just bear in mind that the counter staff of each car rental companies will only be there for a short period of time (during the arrival of a flight). So, make sure to get everything you need from them before they leave. This is probably due to the low frequency of incoming flights at this airport as we noticed the staffs leaving their counters after everyone has collected their rental car.
Tips: Scandia Rent is a local car rental company and their rates are much cheaper than the other international car rental companies such as Europcar, Avis, Hertz, etc. Everything was good and we had no issues with our rental car (rented for 2 days).
Even though Rovaniemi is our first stop of Lapland as well as the home of Santa Claus, we didn’t stop by at the Santa Claus Village but instead drove all the way towards our accommodation at Saariselkä which is 3 hours north from Rovaniemi.
Tips: Despite the fact that 3 hours of driving was shown in Google Map, the actual time was closer to 4 hours (driving within the speed limit).
To be honest, the view along the journey was so incredible that you can just randomly stop anywhere you want for photos worthy to be uploaded onto the social media. Why did we say so? Coming from a tropical country, this was our first time experiencing autumn and the color of the green-turned-yellow autumn leaves are really stunning. Unfortunately, we only stopped once throughout the 4 hours journey because the sky was turning dark soon. We didn’t feel confident driving in the dark since we were not familiar with the place. Hence, what we can do is just to “record” the attractive scenic views with our eyes.
By the time we reached our hotel, Lapland Hotels Riekonlinna, it was about 8.00pm. This hotel is very comfortable on top of their excellent services and delicious breakfast! For more details about their pricing, facilities (there is even a sauna and dryer in the room) and our personal review, please check out our blog post here. After storing our luggage in the room, it wasn’t the end of the day as we rushed to KMarket for a quick grocery shopping (for dinner) before it closes at 9.00pm.
The weather was pretty cold since Saariselkä is located within the Arctic Circle. We bought instant soup powder (to warm up our body) as well as bread and ham for dinner. Sadly, our Northern Light hunting failed due to the rainy weather throughout the night which is also our only night here. This sums up our first day in Lapland.
Our adventure on the second day began by driving northbound to Inari (about 1 hour drive) while passing by Ivalo. There are plenty of nice scenery for you to take photos along the way but the only drawback is the super cold weather which made us running back into the car every time we got down for photo taking. As a matter of fact, we regretted not taking more photos with us in it since most of the photos taken were purely scenery.
We then drove back to our hotel for the continental breakfast! We were shocked to see such a large variety of food being served. The breakfast was just too tasty that we couldn’t stop eating!
After the unforgettable breakfast, we then checked out and continued our road journey (4 hours drive) to the home of Santa Claus in Rovaniemi. Once again we saw many pretty views and amazingly also spotted a herd of reindeer crossing the road!
After our brief chat with Santa, we bought the soft copy of the photo and video taken with Santa from his elves. This cost us EUR40 but luckily there were 5 of us to divide the cost. Of course, you can also choose not to purchase the soft copy or select other packages such as purchasing only the photo at a lower price.
With limited time, we wandered around Santa Claus Village quickly and proceeded to the Santa Claus Post Office to send some postcards to our friends and family.
There are plenty of postcard designs to choose from. As for the stamps, you get to choose between the normal ones and the special edition ones.
You even have the option to post your postcard on the same day or post it to arrive before Christmas. We actually did both postings but sadly the Christmas postcard only arrived a few days after Christmas.
Tips: We noticed that the postcards and normal stamps sold at the building opposite of the Santa Claus Post Office are actually cheaper. In fact, it seems that they have more designs of the normal stamps. If you have sufficient time, perhaps you could check it out for better options.
After posting our postcards, we continued to explore the village. Besides souvenir shops, there are also offices (where the elves are working), restaurants, parks (husky park and reindeer park) and resorts in the village.
Tips: The best season to visit Santa Claus Village is definitely during winter as you get to experience the husky or reindeer ride. It is recommended to contact them (via email or phone) to check the admission fees and operating hours.
We even took a photo of the Arctic Circle line which runs through the Santa Claus Village dividing the village into two.
Lapland is certainly a place that we will probably visit again especially during Christmas. Besides celebrating white Christmas with Santa Claus, there are also plenty of other activities which are only available during winter such as the reindeer and husky ride. Additionally, we also believe that the village would be more pretty when it is covered with snow!
Before returning our car at Rovaniemi Railway Station, we dropped by at the McDonald’s at Rovaniemi which used to be the northernmost McDonald’s in the world. Though it is no longer the northernmost anymore, this is still the northernmost outlet that we have ever visited. We bought our dinner here just to try some burgers which are not available in Malaysia as well as to get some complimentary postcards!
Leaving Rovaniemi was one of our saddest moments but there was something exciting waiting for us. It is the Santa Claus Express! In reality, it is actually an overnight VR train to Helsinki. It is just that the trains arriving and leaving Rovaniemi are dubbed the Santa Claus Express. Taking the overnight train to Helsinki (about 12 hours), we chose the berth which enabled us to sleep in it. As we were concerned about the cleanliness of the bathrooms, we booked one berth with attached bathroom and the other berths which utilize shared public bathrooms. This was actually not necessary as we found the shared bathrooms to be quite clean. Thumbs up for their excellent services and cleanliness (including the beds and toilets)! Throughout the 12 hours journey, it was a quiet and smooth ride giving us a good rest.
Money Saving Tips: Try to get the saver tickets by booking your tickets in advance as long as they are available. In 2017, the saver tickets were available 60 days before the departure date but nowadays there doesn't seem to be a specific time period anymore. To be safe, you may need to check the saver tickets even earlier and more frequently to secure them because it may easily save more than 20% from the normal fees.
Besides the berth option (which you basically have a room to yourselves), there are also other options available such as seats with work stations, pet zone, 6 seats in a quiet room, etc. Since the shared public bathroom is clean as mentioned earlier, we will recommend not taking the berth with attached bathroom as it comes with additional unnecessary cost. Nonetheless, we realized that not many passengers actually use the showers. Just remember to choose the intercity train without any transfer when you are purchasing the tickets for a more convenient ride. There is another option of intercity train with transfer whereby you need to transit to another train at a certain station. The Santa Claus Express is definitely a must try experience if you are visiting Rovaniemi.
Finally, we arrived at Helsinki Railway Station at 6.30am thanks to the comfortable train ride which provided us sufficient rest enabling us to complete our planned itinerary in Helsinki easily!
Stay tune for our next Finland blog post which covers our adventure in Helsinki. We will be sure to include the places of attraction to visit, money saving tips for transportation, delicious foods to eat as well as places to buy cheap souvenirs!
If you would like to know more about booking the VR overnight train ticket which comes with the sleeping berth (with or without attached bathroom), feel free to let us know and we will be glad to share more about our experience.
For our complete 4D3N itinerary in Finland, you can visit our blog post here. We also visited one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Finland namely the sea fortress, Suomenlinna, which we have shared here. Last but not least, please also check out our trip to the medieval Porvoo which is the second oldest town in Finland here.
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