Chasing The Northern Lights
I was excited, and a little apprehensive if I am honest about how I would find the cold weather, because I love the sun and I love my hot sunny holidays.
So what I am going to say now will be just as much of a surprise to you as it is to me.
I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE !!!!
We flew out with Enter Air who are a chartered airline who fly directly into Enontekio, Finland, the flight takes approx 3 hours and 15 minutes.
On arrival into Enontekio, which is an incredibly small airport in the middle of literally no where, after you have grabbed your luggage ( there is no luggage carousel here ) the luggage truck with trailer pulls in into the side of the airport building and you go and grab your cases, it’s a little chaotic but I was surprised at how well we all managed to find our cases.
When we walked through arrivals we were met by our Transun Representative and guided to our transfer coach. Due to the Northern location of where I stayed in Kilpisjarvi, the transfer time is around 2 hours, just under an hour into the drive we stop to get kitted out in out thermal snowsuits and boots.
We must have arrived at our holiday resort ‘Tundrea ‘ about 7pm, the one thing I wish I knew which I am now going to pass onto you is get yourself lunch and a drink at the airport for you to eat during your coach trip.
At Tundrea there is loads of different accommodation options to suit all budgets from apartments with their own sauna right through to glass igloos. At the holiday resort after a long bit of traveling, there is no check in required … yes, that means no big long queue at reception which is always a huge downer to start your holidays. We were dropped off by the coach at our suite, our room key and information was already waiting for us.
Dinner on the first night starts at 9pm to make up for the late arrival, feeling really tired after the early start and the long day of traveling somehow we found our second wind, and I am so pleased that we did. As just walking around the holiday resort we had some really incredible sightings of the Northern Lights, one of the most amazing experiences EVER ! I can see why some sound their winter chasing the lights, nothing prepares you for how amazing they are, and it’s an experience that I will never forget.
All the meals are buffet at Tundrea meal time are : Breakfast 8am-10am Lunch 12.30 -1.30pm Dinner 5.3 - 7pm All of the buffet meals are included in the trip, as well as tea, coffee, juice and water. If you do feel like treating yourself, the restaurant has a a la carte menu, which has everything from Pizza, Reindeer Steak & Burger. There is also a full licensed bar as well.
The night we arrived the full itinerary of our trip is put up on the Transun board in the restaurant.
Our first morning started at the Reindeer Farm which was just a few minutes walk from the resort. The farm had been run by this family for hundreds of years, we learnt the history of the Sami people who are the only indigenous people left in Europe. Due to rising costs these farms have had to adapt to changing times, to boost their income they now host these tourist events, we got to meet some of the incredible reindeer , and find out how they are looked after and how much they mean to the livelihood of the Sami people. We then had all afternoon to whatever we wanted , you can pre book the sauna, jacuzzi or maybe you will be brave and give the ice hole a go ( I will come to this later in my blog) . Or maybe like me you just want to be a big kid and mess around in the snow , which is exactly what I did.
In the evening we did a thrilling snowmobile ride out to the snowy wilderness of Finland.
The third day we had the whole day to do what we wanted , so you guessed it, it was another play day in the snow, this time we got the sledges out in action. In the evening we went on a trek by foot in search of the Northern Lights.
Day four, and my last full day here , and we went out on an exhilarating 3 hour snowmobile journey that really took us into the middle of no where , in fact this excursion takes you to the 3 borders, so I got to put my feet in Finland, Sweden & Norway all within a few minutes.
On our first day , word was already getting around about the ice hole on the resort where you could ‘enjoy’ a ice plunge, we booked it … along with a sauna and Jacuzzi to recover. This ice plunge had been in the back of my mind the whole trip and at 9pm on the Tuesday evening it was time, I have never wanted to not do anything so much in all my life …. I even surprised myself… I did it , twice !!
I am sat writing this on the flight home, from what really has been the most amazing trip. I have done things I have never done before, and I have even done things ( the ice plunge ) that I didn’t even want to do.
I came away with Transun on their brand new trip ‘The Snowmobile Voyager’ and I would highly recommend it, there was a really great age range on the trip , from families with teenagers to a lady in in her late 70’s that was doing snow angels.
I didn’t need to worry about the cold at all, yes it was cold, way into the minus temperatures everyday, but the snowsuits and boots that are provided for you really do work and keep you super war, in fact I over estimated how much I would feel the cold and brought too many jumpers.
I have now have a new love of cold destination holidays and wonder where I can go next?
I f you have any questions about my trip or if you would like me to help you with planning this amazing trip of a lifetime please get in touch, and I will be happy to help. I have lots of first hand information and tips I can share with you as well.
