We are exchange students studying at Novia UAS in Turku. Since we are only living in Finland for a couple of months, we wanted to do all of the Finnish must-do. We always wanted to travel to Lapland, and while studying in Finland: That was our chance! We wanted to discover the landscapes of the north, the Santa Claus village and the magic of the place. We booked the trip at the end of September. Two Germans and two French girls: Setenay, Lea, Alix and Apolline. We planned to take the train from Turku to Oulu on the 5th of November, stay there for two nights and then rent a car to drive to Rovaniemi for three days.
We didn’t know what to expect regarding the snow and the cold. Some said it will be disappointing, because there won’t be snow, and some said there will be 40 centimeters of snow. Afterwards, we were very glad by the amount of snow we could see when we arrived. Actually, on the train we really saw the evolution of the landscape, coming from Turku with rain and arriving in Oulu with snow all around us.
We decided to visit two main north cities: Oulu and Rovaniemi. We choose to book two Airbnbs, because it’s cheaper, you have your freedom and it’s more of a local experience. Both of them were really nice, same for the host.
We spent almost two whole days in Oulu. The city is really cute and cosy and it was really beautiful to see the snow everywhere. We were a bit surprised, because the city is not that big as we thought it would be, and we saw everything in one afternoon. But walking through the city, walking through the snow and walking along the sea – it was amazing and the atmosphere was so calm and unique.
On our way we made a short stop in the city Kemi, because it was half way to Rovaniemi and nice to see as we heard from locals in Turku. As Lea was our only driver, we wanted to take a break anyway. The one and only activity we would have loved to do in Kemi was to visit the ice castle, but it was too expensive so we decided against it. We just walked along the frozen sea, we also found a nice spot to capture some really nice photos of typical red houses.
In Rovaniemi, we did not spend that much time inside the city, we preferred to go discover the landscape and the Santa Claus Village. Also, once we were out at around 8pm and surprisingly there was no one else in the city center. Stores or cafes were all closed on a Friday evening. For us, it was very strange. But that’s probably what everyone was talking about. Finns love to be at home. The most interesting thing about the city is therefore probably the Santa Claus village.
All the activities took place in Rovaniemi; so in the second part of the trip. We choose to go to the Santa Claus Village first because it was the main activity of the trip. We really enjoyed it, it was very cute with the snow, the lights and meeting Santa Claus of course.
Everything in the village is a little bit made up and also the “meeting Santa Claus” thing was very touristic, but anyway amazing, because you can really feel the upcoming atmosphere of Christmas.
Still in the village, obviously we fell in love with the idea to cuddle huskies. It was a bit expensive (30 euros for one-hour cuddling) because it was also a touristic thing inside the village. But the dogs were in a really good health and absolutely happy, running around. So we really enjoyed our time with them. We could also see the staff working with the huskies, which was really nice to see as it is such important for the well-being of the dogs.
Each day we drove a bit out of the city, into the forest, to enjoy the nature and it was one of the most enjoyable things as we could really take in the silent and the beauty of the landscape without any buildings or other people.
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