Rovaniemi, Finland: The Jubilant Center of Christmas Joy
Personal Blog - Finland - Christmas - Auroras - Igloos - Snow
We had a dream. A dream to see one of the most beautiful wonders of the world, found only in the northernmost and southernmost parts of the globe. Because our home base of London is much, much closer to the North Pole than the South Pole, we decided to pack our bags and go on an adventure to hunt for the Aurora Borealis, popularly known as the Northern Lights. Our destination of choice was Rovaviemi, the capital of Lapland in northern Finland, because of the added bonus of Santa Claus Village being located just a short bus ride from the town center (more on that later…). Another bonus was that it would be Monica’s first experience with snow, and I was super excited to show her the wonder of the white powder. When we walked out of the plane onto the tarmac at 9 PM, we were met with gently falling snow that I myself had only experienced once before. Probably the best welcome that Rovaniemi could give us.
Itinerary
- Lunch at Santa’s Salmon Place
- Santa Claus Village
- Santa’s Igloos
- Picture with Santa
- Christmas Postcard
- Northern Lights Postcard at McDonald’s
- Santa Claus Village
- Reindeer Sleigh Ride
- Husky Ride
- AirBnB Northern Lights Hunt
- Ranua Zoo
- Check into Apukka Resort Aurora Cabin
- Lookout for Northern Lights
- Apukka Resort Husky Adventure
- Lunch Buffet
- Overnight Train to Helsinki
- Walk around Helsinki
- Helsinki Cathedral
- Uspenskin Cathedral
Day 1 (Santa Claus Village)
Our first day was spent entirely at Santa Claus Village. This village is known worldwide as the home of the real Santa Claus, and it serves as one of the entryways into the Arctic Circle. The architecture of the buildings, numerous pine trees, and fluffy snow that could reach 0.3 meters deep (sometimes even more!) really fit the Christmas tone that they were trying to display.
To get ourselves into the Lappish culture, our first meal was had at Santa’s Salmon Place. After a short queue, we stepped into the small hut where the seats and large flame grill (cooking dozens of massive salmon filets) are located. There are only 4 food items on the menu (salmon, Lappish cheese, pate, and a cake of the day) along with a selection of hot and cold drinks, including the hot berry drink, which is highly recommended at any traditional Lappish dining establishment. The salmon was plump and charred to perfection, and the cheese was super tasty as well! Unfortunately Mon is not the biggest fan of seafood, but she still took this opportunity to try the best and freshest salmon Lapland had to offer! Very proud.
Next we went into the central building for the meet-up with Santa Claus. When it was our turn, Mon and I stepped onto the platform and sat just across from jolly old St. Nicholas himself. We did visit during the COVID-19 era so there was a glass wall between him and us, but luckily that doesn’t really appear in the pictures! We had a nice discussion on visiting Rovaniemi, where we are from, etc. and ended it off by promising Santa to be on good behavior this year. Downstairs at the gift shop, Santa’s post office has an option to mail yourself or anyone else a postcard to arrive the following Christmas. Mon and I each wrote for each other, sending to my USA address and her Singapore address respectively, and to this day I still have no idea what message she had written for me.
Fun Fact: Finland has a very widespread sauna culture. In addition to its health benefits, the sauna is considered sacred by the Finnish people and are used to cleanse their mind and soul, in addition to their bodies. Our AirBnB host offered to let us use his sauna as an intro to Finnish culture; tossing the water and hearing the crisp sizzling against the hot stones, and feeling my toxins exiting my pore as the heating steam surrounds us everywhere. It truly was a relaxing experience. Keep a look out for hosts or hotels that offer these saunas!
We spent the rest of the day frolicking around the village. We went to see one of the famous glass igloo hotels, made snow angels in the deep snow, and peeped in shops along the way. A big highlight for us was Monica’s first time snow sledding! Snow sleds can be found all around the village for free use, and I took this opportunity to show Monica the joy and wonder of sliding down the slippery snowy slopes (and she was hooked after the first drop!). Pulling her around the village in the sled made me feel like her own personal reindeer.
Another fun thing to do at the gift shop here is to acquire a Northern-Lights decorated Certificate of Crossing the Arctic Circle indicating that you have crossed, packing the memory of a lifetime into a tangible achievement. While there have been reports of being able to get a passport stamp indicating the border crossing, we were unable to find such an offering. When evening came, we took the bus back to Rovaniemi and grabbed a quick bite at McDonald’s, our main intention being the Northern Lights postcard that they gave out.
Day 2
Our only set plan for the second day was to go out at night and hunt for the Northern Lights, so we didn’t really know what to do during our daylight hours. We went out to the city center to first grab a bite to eat, and we stumbled upon a Vietnamese restaurant with tasty comfort Asian food and bubble tea, rare things to come by this far north in Scandinavia. It was especially nice to have a steamy hot bowl of soup after walking around in 0°C weather. From there, we decided to take the bus back to Santa Claus Village for reindeer and husky rides that we had skipped the day before.
The reindeer ride was a peaceful, magical experience. We went with the 1km Forest Path option, but there are 400m and 3km options available as well! We got to pet the reindeers a bit before getting comfy in our sleds, and their fur is a bit rougher than I was expecting. Wrapped in our fur blanket in a spacious wooden sled, we gazed around at the endless fir trees and gently falling snow as the reindeers trotted along the shoveled path.
We immediately went for the husky sled ride right afterwards. We drank some bottomless hot berry juice as we waited for the dogs to get ready. The sled for the husky ride is much longer to account for the speed difference, and boy was there a difference! Compared to the reindeer ride, this felt like a roller coaster minus the loop de loops. Snow was still falling as we enjoyed the ride, constantly chilling our faces as snowflakes pelted our eyes. But we both agreed that the husky ride was more of our thing and we definitely wanted to do this again later on the trip.
That night, we were picked up by our AirBnB Experience host at our accommodation. There is no shortage of these Northern Lights experiences being offered by locals, as this is the likely the main reason tourists come to this region. We were together in the van with 2 other groups, and the host drove us about an hour in the midst of the night to a remote campsite where there would be zero light pollution. We did get stuck in the parking lot snow for a little while but we eventually got situated around a campfire setup. The host had brought along tea, cookies, sausages, and set up a toasty campfire for us where we could warm up and cook our sausages.
We were very nervous because the past 2 days had been completely cloudy. As we all waited patiently around the fire waiting for any appearance of the lights (and constantly checking the KPI index every 15 minutes), the host shared with us some stories of past camp outs, specifically several nights where they would drive nearly four hours to the border of Finland-Sweden to catch a glimpse. After about 4 hours, with our snacks and cold tolerance running thin, we unfortunately ended the night without seeing the lights. However, we had another opportunity the next day so all we could do was hope for the best.
Day 3
The day following our failed Northern Lights excursion was also bound to be exciting, as it would be both of our first times seeing a polar bear! (Mon’s favorite animal if you guys didn’t know). We arranged private transport to Ranua Zoo, a 40 minute or so drive from Rovaniemi, to see the polar bears and their other 50+ Arctic animal species.
In the winter season, everything including the main trail is covered in snow, offering the perfect backdrop to see these animals in their natural habitat. Highlights for us include the numerous owl species, which look like cats according to Mon, the Arctic wolves fighting over meat, and the wolverine zooming around its habitat at blazing speed.
We managed to see one polar bear out of the two living here, Venus the mother bear. She spent most of the time lying down by the entrance to their den, getting close to the lookout only a few times, before eventually going back inside. We even looped back after some time to see if the bear had emerged again, but sadly it did not. Overall, we had a great time at the second northernmost zoo in the world.
We checked our Apukka Resort Aurora Cabin following our zoo visit. After having seen these glass igloo stays all over social media, it was imperative that we stayed in one for at least a single night. The glass igloos are advertised to have clear views of the sky while you remain in the comfort of a heated enclosure, so this was our second chance to spot some auroras. After walking around the resort where we discovered a gigantic frozen lake and a cool tube slide, we went back to shower and prepared to stay up the entire night. The Aurora Cabin itself was splendid; it really did feel like a dream staying in one. As we lay in bed and watched the night sky, constantly checking our aurora detection app, the weather was not in our favor. Sadly, we woke up from 1-2 hours of sleep after not seeing any lights again.
Day 4
We booked a 10AM husky ride tour with Apukka Resort a day or two before, so we were lucky there was still space available. We changed into warm Apukka winter gear and walked across the road to see the huskies. There were more than a few dozen of them, including some young puppies that we got to pet also. This husky experience differs from the one at Santa Claus Village in that one person was responsible for steering and braking the sled because the path is less defined. This one was also much longer! We both had more fun in this experience than the previous one, so this is highly recommended. Many pictures and selfies with cute doggies later, we checked out of our cabin, enjoyed the resort’s savory lunch buffet, and lounged around until our taxi arrived to take us to the train station.
Day 5 (Helsinki)
Our decision to take a night train to Helsinki was entirely based on curiosity. Our tickets included a private room with shower and bunk bed, basically enough for us to be clean and comfy for the 8+ hour train ride. The fun part was just being on the train itself, knowing that we got to travel such a long distance while sleeping on a mattress. We had some pasta from the train canteen before showering and spending the entire ride watching Netflix. We arrived in Helsinki the next morning, where we immediately rushed to a Starbucks to replenish our low energy reserves. We walked around the city for half a day, finding that the main picturesque locations include Uspenskin Cathedral and Helsinki Cathedral as well as the primary shopping districts. Our flight departed from Helsinki that evening, and we made our way back home to London, satisfied from the snowy adventures but looking ahead to our next Northern Lights hunt.
Gallery
Bucket List
Only 1 thing remains to be done in Lapland… I want to one day see the Northern Lights shimmering right above us in a glass igloo or aurora cabin. The entire time we were in Lapland, it was constantly cloudy with low KPI according to our various apps. Maybe in the future when we are able to fund a longer stay at the cabin resorts, we will make sure to share it out to the world.
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