Santa's Lapland

We went in search of Father Christmas. We flew with Jet 2 from Manchester, as this was a chartered plan the seats were allocated for us and are required to check in at the airport. As the plane is mainly all families with younger children many of us were seated separately, many of the families were divided up being seats apart.

On arrival in Ivaho we were met by the Elves who provided the entertainment, which passed the time while we waited for our bags. The transfer to Saariselka is about 25 minutes. Saariselka is a small village, a few souvenir shops, supermarket, ATM machine and a few restaurants. One main high street so can’t really get lost. Some other operators have a longer transfer and this is get further into the National Parks, Saariselka is further north, a small town and closer to a National Park.

There is a choice of accommodation – Holiday Club which has a pool and an ‘Angry Bird’ activity centre. The Tunturi – rooms are based in separate buildings and walk to the main reception area for the bar and restaurant. The Gielas is opposite the Tnturi hotel and the Riekonlinna Hotel is opposite the Gielas in the central square area.

The cabins – are dotted around the resort, they are divided into 2 sections and sold as 2 twins with a bathroom, our cabin had 2 rooms upstairs and there were 2 rooms downstairs and the shower was downstairs for all of us. All meals were taken in the Cabin, similar to chalet catering, excellent food with a Christmas dinner the last night. The cabins offer a great relaxed family atmosphere.

The search for Santa day, you have plenty of activities available to avoid the queues there are Kota’s (large tipee’s) with hot berry juice and free pancakes throughout the day to warm up and lunch is available between 11-3. We saw Father Christmas early and had no queue, also no queue for any of the activities, never really felt that there were many people around. There are 3 main activities, the Husky rides you are given an allocated time and get to change drivers half way. The Reindeer sleigh ride is fairly short and leads you to an igloo with an ice bar, selling hot chocolate and drinks. You have a magical sleigh ride to visit Father Christmas.

You have time for a Northern Lights trip, which can be very cold and the morning before you leave can visit a Husky farm and have another Husky ride. We ended up staying an extra night and were put up in the Tunturi Hotel as the weather was much warmer than usual it snowed the day we left and the planes were unable to land so sat for awhile in the airport but well looked after well.

Was an amazing magical trip and would recommend to any family.