Lapland
Things to Do in Lapland - Places to Visit in Lapland
If you were to list the 5 best trips in your life, Lapland would definitely be in it.
I spent a very happy week there. The activities were nice, but I think the features that impressed me the most were the wonderful nature, the calmness, the silence, the cold that made you feel very refreshed and the peace I felt. I should also add the log house with the fireplace to these.
I organized my tour as follows. I went from Istanbul to Helsinki and stayed there for 1 night. The next day, we went to Rovaniemi with Finnair. After staying there for 2 nights, we went to Saariselka by road, which is the place that impressed me the most. After staying in Saariselka for 2 nights, we returned to Helsinki by plane.
Helsinki is a different matter. I will tell you about Lapland. (Actually, I prefer to call it Laponia or Lappi 😊)
Rovaniemi: The Heart of the Arctic Circle
Located on the Arctic Circle, this city is known for its Santa Claus Village and has a fairytale atmosphere throughout the year.
Santa Claus Village: Santa Claus holiday village is one of the first places to visit for those who go to Rovaniemi. It can be reached from the city by bus in 15 minutes. The village is like a fairytale world for both children and adults. Here; You can meet Santa Claus, cross the Arctic Circle and feel the lovely atmosphere in the environment. If you want, you can even get a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle. There are many activities related to Christmas in this village. One of the ones that caught my attention the most was Santa Claus's Post Office. You can get a card from this post office and send it to your loved ones. You can even send a card to be delivered in December of the following year. Of course, there are also souvenir shops, restaurants and even a hotel section. This is the only official Santa Claus office in the world. You can also do your reindeer safari from here. There are 400m and 1000m trips. There is no advance reservation but there is a line. We made a separate day.
Santa Park: Santa's cave house. Only go here if you have children. It is a few kilometers from the Santa Clause holiday village. The bus to the Santa Clause village also stops here. Your ticket is valid for two days. I went there but I realized that it is a great place for children.
Riverside stroll: You will visit the center anyway. It is a small place. However, do not return without going down to the riverside. Especially if possible, go when the weather is bright and be there when it gets dark so that you can see the red of the sunset hitting the frozen river and the bridge. After all, the day sets around 14:00-14:30 in December.
Toboggan Slide: There is an Angry Birds park 10 minutes away on foot from the center where the restaurants are. You can go sledging there.
Public or private saunas: You can go to the public saunas by the river (WNTR Sauna by Kesarafla) and then you can go into the frozen river (ice swimming). If you want, you can also prefer private saunas. You can choose classic or modern saunas. Whichever one you go to, you need to make a reservation in advance.
You can taste foods made with venison. There are a few authentic restaurants serving local delicacies. Most require a reservation in advance.
You can rent thermal clothing. It costs 25 euros for the first day and the price decreases for the following days. For example, it costs around 75 euros for 5 days. We didn't rent because we went here quite well-equipped. I've explained it below.
If you want to catch the northern lights and watch their green and purple dance, this city is again an ideal place. To experience this, you need to get away from the city and head towards nature. Don't forget to take a warm thermos with you. You may have to wait a bit. I recommend a useful link for you to follow the plans of the northern lights. 😊
You can follow the probability values of seeing the northern lights in your region from here.
You can also download one of the applications that provide Aurora Alerts service to your phone.
In the Ounasvaara forest, you can go snowshoeing or hiking in Kuninkaanlaavu or Napapiirin. There are illuminated routes, but I recommend that you do this with a guide, so you can leave the routes to someone who knows them.
The Arctic museum Arktikum is a great place to understand the nature and culture of the region.
You can do a Husky safari, a Reindeer safari, Northern Lights tours and many other activities. I recommend you to read about my adventure with Husky below. It's not what it seems😊 You can also see how our Reindeer tour went and what we learned below.
If you want to visit the Ice Hotel, you have to go after December 14. This hotel, which is rebuilt with a different concept every year, opens after December 14.
You can go ice climbing.
Rovaniemi makes you feel like you're in a fairy tale with its magical atmosphere
Saariselka: The Meeting Point of Adventure and Peace
Here, time seems to have stopped. Silence, endless whiteness and fresh air immediately envelop you. This feeling and image gives you great happiness.
There is a main street with hotels in Saariselka, and a market and a few souvenir shops on this street. The rest of the streets are in the forest and there are log houses, cabins and bungalows scattered on these streets.
Reindeer safari, husky safari and all other activities are available here. Snowmobiling, Cross-Country Skiing (walking on forest paths on skis); Ice fishing, Northern Lights hunting, electric bike tours in the snow, hiking in nature with snowshoes… You can find them all here too.
Sauna experience: Saariselka is not only an adventure but also a peaceful stop. Sauna culture is also quite widespread here and according to the locals, after a sauna session, immersing yourself in the snow renews the body and soul. Of course, it takes some courage. We tried the igloo sauna and then the hot jacuzzi outside. (Hot Tub) When you turn off the lights in the igloo sauna, looking out the window at the snow and the forest outside is wonderful, especially if there is a full moon. Then we went outside and got into the hot water that had been prepared for us. It really felt good. You can check out the saunas in the hotels and make a reservation in advance. You can search for Igloo Sauna + Hot Tub.
Our Husky Adventure: Some say it was beautiful, exciting, enjoyable. But if you ask us, there are moments that we would say it was stressful, scary. First, they take you to the place where you will do the husky safari by bus and someone there shows you on a fixed sled and tells you how to use it. The person who will be using the sled (that's me) will know how to stand on the sled, how to bend their knees while the sled is turning left and right, how to brake, etc. In other words, it's not as easy as it seems. They also tell those who will be sitting on the sled not to put their arms out of the sled. I guess to minimize the damage in case of an accident. However, there was something they didn't tell us; it was how to steer the sled. Isn't it great!
We are asked to leave 3 meters between the sleds. In case the sled in front stops suddenly, has an accident or the driver falls off the sled. However, if the man on the sled 3 meters in front starts to fall, you can pass over him with your sled. In other words, this 3 meters is such an insufficient distance. I asked one of the ladies on duty there: "If I fall, will the sled behind not be able to stop and pass over me?" I said. "That's why we say leave 3 meters in between," she replied. "I hope 3 meters will be enough to stop," I said. He said with a sad expression on his face, “I hope so too.”
In fact, when we braked during the ride, we stopped only after 8-10 meters, and since we saw that 3 meters was definitely not enough.
Since the dogs always ran from the right side of the path while driving, we almost hit trees a few times and we passed only a few centimeters away from the trees. We experienced similar problems at the bends because they turned very wide. A rope was dragging under the sleds. We had to hold that rope and direct the dogs right and left. The other sled drivers were not holding that rope either. However, since there were 6 dogs in our sled, unlike everyone else, it was harder to control. In fact, we were going uncontrolled. Although we told the guide who was driving the snowmobile in front when we stopped a few times, he did not tell us this and only told us at our last stop, 300 meters before the end. As a result, we could not feel the spirit of the wild nature as expected by those who sold us the tour.
After returning to Turkey, I learned that some tourists other than those who participated in these Husky tours also experienced the same feelings we did.
Our Reindeer Tour: Our tour was a bit short. A woman dressed in local clothes pulled the lead reindeer by the reins. Since all the reindeer sleds were connected to each other, this movement was enough and all the sleds started moving. Of course, the tour was done at a calm walking pace, not at a running pace. I liked this better. (If you read our Husky adventure, you understand why) Then we stopped and petted the 2 baby reindeer in the fences and listened to what one of the local guides told us. Everyone was asking why the Finns eat their reindeer. They don't eat them like we eat quail. Almost all meat dishes are made from reindeer. They roam the forest in the summer and probably come back again in the winter because they can't find anything to eat in the snow covered forest. Our guide told us that there are 125,000 reindeer in Finland and that the female reindeer have a calf every three years, and that they have to eat them otherwise they won't be able to cope with the increase in the reindeer population. But on the other hand, I read some articles about reindeer and learned that the reindeer population in the North Pole has halved. I guess they won’t have to eat them soon. By the way, wolves sometimes come here in the winter to eat the reindeer.
Clothing: First of all, we had very good jackets or coats. Mine consisted of a waterproof layer over a thick jacket. It’s not easy to buy a good jacket. They show you thin jackets and say they can withstand -20 -30. No, they can’t. Our boots were thick-soled snow boots. We also bought a long-sleeved thin sweater made of real wool. (We ordered online from a company that only makes wool underwear.) Our pants were snow pants and we wore thermal or wool tights under them. For our feet, we bought socks from the camping equipment section of a sports store that said they were 80% merino wool, but they looked more like towels than wool. In fact, even though we wore two socks on top of each other, they didn’t warm us at all. My toes hurt from the cold. On the second day, I wore socks that I had bought in Estonia on one of my previous trips and that the women there had knitted at home using real wool. Even though I only wore those, I didn’t feel cold at all. So if you have those thick socks your grandmother knitted at home, take them with you. I will say the same thing about gloves. I bought snow gloves called mittens. However, if you don’t wear wool gloves under them, it’s like you’re not wearing any gloves at all. These are just for waterproofing. On the second day, I left these mittens and wore another pair of fingered wool gloves and another pair of very thick wool gloves without fingers (I bought them in a cold country like Estonia). However, when you take the gloves off to take photos, your hands start to hurt like they’re being cut with a saw within a minute or two. You can wear a very thin glove for using your phone under them if you have any. Are you done? We’re not done. We also bought a lot of heat tape before we went. They are available there too, but it’s much more economical to buy them from here. We bought foot warming strips (suitable for placing in shoes), body warming strips (wider), and hand warmers (these are not adhesive. You can put them between two layers of gloves and also in all your pockets). We got a lot of use out of them. However, if you still have these on when you go through the x-ray at the airport, you won’t be able to pass. You have to take them all off beforehand.
Tips:
You can drink water from the tap in Lapland. And the hosts especially recommend it. They said that they have very tasty and healthy water and that we should definitely drink it from the tap. I really couldn’t get enough of it. There’s no need to buy water from the market.
Glittery air: When we got off the bus in Saariselka, I saw that the whole air was covered in glitter. They were very densely suspended in the air. They must have been ice crystals. When I noticed this wonderful image, I understood why Christmas cards used to be glittery. It was dark at that moment and they were only visible in the light. So the car headlights gave us a great view. I stared in amazement. Later, we watched them with great admiration as we walked along the road with our flashlights. However, my mistake was that I thought this image was always present and decided to take photos the next day. However, I did not see it until later. Don't delay!
When you fly with FinnAir, they ask if you want water or blueberry drink. I definitely recommend you to try this drink, which is given free of charge. It is a great taste. They make many foods and drinks with this fruit, which we understand grows very abundantly in Finland.
The minimum shopping amount for Tax Free in Finland is 40 euros.
I am putting the link of the Northern Lights weather site here again so that you don't skip it.
https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/auroras-and-space-weather?station=SOD
And this is a nice page to see which months and which hours are light, dark, or which shades of twilight are there. I set it according to Rovaniemi. You can change the city.
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/finland/rovaniemi
· Another thing; if you are going just to say you went to Lapland, some tour companies have 3-4 day tours that seem economical. They take you to Lapland quickly. They stay in a hotel far from the city, squeeze a few activities into each day, and advertise Lapland as an activity holiday. They would almost say it is the equivalent of Disneyland. I feel sorry for those who get caught up in this vortex because Lapland; a place where you can have fun without the hustle and bustle and feel the peace, tranquility and happiness that these bring in your heart.
I hope you have a wonderful Lapland trip by feeling it and doing it justice.
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