Lapland Holiday - Aurora Village 🇫🇮
If you are planning a Lapland Holiday, look no further. In this quick guide we will explain how to get to Northern Lapland ‑ Finland, where to stay and what there is to do.
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Taken by surprise.
We have visited many cold countries in our lifetime, but Finland was the coldest to date. Ivalo took us by surprise, we had no expectancies on what to do, we thought 5 days would be too long of a stay, but we were wrong. Our main goal was to chill and experience the Aurora lights, but plenty more came with it.
Where to stay?
As it was our first time in Finland, we wanted to experience staying in a glass igloo. We chose to stay at Aurora Village Ivalo, and it surpassed our expectations. This place is super cosy, they offer so many exciting activities, the food is authentic and the staff are always willing to help and organise any excursion when you need it.
How to get there?
If you are planning a Lapland holiday, the first question you might ask, is how to get there? To get to Lapland, you initially have to fly into Helsinki, the capital of Finland. From there you can take a short 1hr 30 minute flight with @feelfinnair to Ivalo. If you decide to stay at Aurora village, the hotel can schedule a shuttle taxi to pick you up from the airport, which costs approximately €15.
If you are staying at the Woodsy hotel, there’s not much point of renting a car as they can organise most of the transport for you.
What to do?
As mentioned, we didn’t expect much but to have a chilled getaway. There are a certain amount of slots available for each activity that the hotel organises. It is recommended to plan what you want to do once you reach the Aurora Village, given if you are there for a short period of time.
Listed below are a few activities we experienced, starting with our favourite:
1. Ice Karting at Aurora Village
This was wild! Controlling these machines on ice is a totally new driving experience. They have more powerful engines than standard go karts, in order to accelerate faster on icy surfaces. You would think that they would slide all over the place, but the studded tires secure the kart to the ground. Of course you still feel the slight spin around corners, which makes it more fun!
We are quite competitive when it comes to action sports, and after 2 laps, we got the full hang of driving these machines. We felt like characters from Super Mario Kart. We'd love to go back one day, just to create a full video this activity.
2. Husky ride in ‑15 degrees
If you are dreaming of a Lapland holiday, this one is for the bucket list. Unfortunately as we left it to last minute, all slots organised by Aurora Village for the husky tour were fully booked for the next 3 days.
However, we found one company on TripAdvisor who organise the tour and transport, this worked for us. To note, well‑being and good care of the huskies are the most important principles in husky farms. They treat and train them well.
Riding the sledge 🛷 was not difficult, one person sits on the sledge and the other controls it, but it is important for the driver to stay alert. The dogs stay focused on the path and enjoy pulling the sledge, however do look back at you in a sense of “what’s going on here” if you brake suddenly. They take short breaks to relax and roll in the snow.
Our phones couldn’t withstand the cold and shutdown on us, but we able to capture a few shots.
3. Snowmobiling (Organised by Aurora Village)
We started of the ride at the entrance of the hotel. Our guide took us on an adventure through the snowy terrains of Ivalo. We crossed fully frozen rivers, tight forest paths and mainland roads. You could see the road signs sticking out of the snow.
These snow mobiles hit high speeds but are fairly easy to control, so you can take time to embrace the scenic views while riding.
As long as you’re wearing the gear they provide you, you won’t get cold. As an extra sense of warmth, the snow mobiles have heated handles, an extra bonus for the key rider.
4. Private sauna and ice pool
Within Aurora Village, next to the frozen river is a private sauna you can book for an hour or 2. Besides the sauna you can find a hole in the river which is referred to as an Avanto.
If you are brave enough, take a dip, it feels refreshing and as if your body has been cleansed from sin. I lasted around 3 seconds but Miho lasted for about 10, shows that my body isn’t that built for the cold.
5. Skiing in Saariselkä
Getting to Saariselkä ski resort from Aurora Village was not too difficult.
There are buses that take you from the centre all the way to the resort for €8. We could of requested a taxi to the village centre, however we decided to take a 45 minute morning stroll through the snow.
This ski resort is secluded. It is the first time we've been to a resort which hasn’t been jam packed with people. They have many slopes from beginner to intermediate. Renting equipment is available and the ski passes are not that expensive.
We spent the whole day there, ate some traditional hot food and slightly got better at snowboarding. Towards 4pm it was literally just us on the slopes. The place closes at 5pm and the bus heading back into the village is scheduled to pick you up on time.
6. Experiencing the Aurora lights
There are experienced tours that go out to find the lights in motion, however it’s never guaranteed to see them. We didn’t get a glimpse of the lights until our last day in Ivalo. We used an app called My Aurora to help track the probability to see the lights in our current location.
With our own eyes we could faintly see the lights, however through the camera lens with an open shutter, they became more evident. It was an amazing experience to see through the lens, hopefully next time we are in the artic region we get to see them dance in clearer weather conditions.
The perfect lapland holiday.
7 days would be perfect, as there are still many more activities we missed out on, but thankful we did the ones we wanted to.
Here’s a short video from the beautiful Aurora Village.
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