Scandinavia 2019 Day 9: Rovaniemi, Finland
DAY 9: 4 DEC 2019
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| Santa Claus Village at night |
It's our last day in Rovaniemi and we will be spending our day at Santa Claus Village!
We only had 5 hours of daylight when we were there, so we planned our journeysuch that we arrived at the village at 1000.
The most common way to get to Santa Claus Village is to take the Santa Express Bus.
The timetables can be found online.
Our closest bus stop was the railway station and the pick up point was on the right
of the main building.
We bought return bus tickets and each ticket costs 6.60 euros.
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| Santa's Express bus |
This park is catered more to families with young children so we skipped this.
Artic Treehouse hotel was located at this stop too and we caught a glimpse of the
lovely treehouses!
They were built inside the foresty area and the rooms have a floor to ceiling window
which is great for catching northern lights or sunrise!
However, all these came with a hefty price as it costs at least S$1,000 for the basic room.
The entire bus ride took less than 30 minutes and Santa Claus Village
was not too crowded when we arrived.
We headed to the tourist information counter to get a map of the village.
There were many attractions available, with most of them requiring an entrance fee.
There were retail and souvenir shops too and they were a good place to hide from the cold!
Crossing the arctic circle is a must at the village!
The line is very prominent at the village and you will definitely not miss it.
The both of us took turns to hop across the line!
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| Article Circle Crossing |
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| Entrance to Reindeer Sleigh Rides |
Initially, I thought Husky Park was the only operator at the village for short sled rides.
However, as we headed towards husky areas, I spotted Bearhill Husky a distance
away from Husky Park.
In the end, we went with Bearhill Husky as their compound was open to the public
unlike Husky Park.
We signed up for a 2km ride at 40 euros each.
There are longer rides available so do your research before heading down and compare prices
from other operators online.
Some tours allow you to control the sled too (:
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| Huskies waiting to set off |
Our ride lasted for 15 minutes as the huskies were fast at pulling our sled.
It was really thrilling to ride on a husky sled!However, we were thankful that we didn't meet with any accidents as
one of the sleds after us had an accident and the rides halted for 30 minutes.
After the ride, we played with the huskies at the area on the sides of the tracks.
This was the other reason why we decided not to go with Husky Park as we had to pay
10 euros just to interact with the huskies.
Most of them were Alaskan huskies which are tinier as compared to the Siberian huskies
I met in Bangkok.
They were so friendly and playful!
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| Santa's Salmon Place |
The restaurant was small but cozy!
I loved the fact that they grilled our salmons on the open fire in the middle of the restaurant.
We got to see how the grilling worked and the smell was so good!
We each had the Salmon set (22 euros) and it kept us really full for the rest of the day.
You can choose to share the sets with a group too as there is no minimum order.
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| Salmons grilled over the open fire |
Our next agenda at Santa Claus Village was to write and mail out postcards to
our family and friends.
Before that, we shopped around the souvenir stores at the main building for cheaper postcards
because we were mailing out about 30 postcards (most were my mum's) and
the amount we pay for stamps will be costly.
We spent 41 euros for the stamps...
Once we were ready, we headed to Santa Claus Post Office.
As expected, it was bustling with people!
There were clocks which countdown to Christmas all around the post office.
The staff were dressed as Santa's elves too!
There was a corner with mail slots for every country and we spotted Singapore (:
The post office sold a wide variety of postcards (ranging for 1 to 5 euros) and
other Santa Claus merchandises.
We decided to buy the husky postcards at the post office as they were the nicest and cutest so far!
There were different designs for the stamps and most of them were of the same price.
After paying for the postcards and stamps, we sat at a table to write our messages on the postcards.
There were pens placed at every table so you do not need to panic if you have forgotten to bring one.
Almost all the tables were filled and everyone was diligently writing on their postcards.
When you are done, just head to the mailbox to mail out your postcards!
There is an option to receive the postcards on Christmas day.
It took at least 2 weeks for the postcards to reach our friends and family.
Another main attraction at the village was visiting Santa!
However, the queue was insane when we wanted to visit :/
So, we gave up on visiting Santa and continued to explore the area.
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| Snowman World |
However, the season has not started when we were there
and the first day of opening was the coming Sunday.
I was a little disappointed when I found out about it while planning our trip here.
But it's okay!
We had a lovely time at the village despite that (:
The sun started to set at 1530 and the village started to light up in different colours!
Soon after, we took the Santa's Express bus to the city centre.
The bus stop which we alighted was only a distance away from Macdonalds.
So, even though we were still full from our lunch, we decided to head in
to have an early dinner.
This outlet used to be the Northernmost Macdonalds in the world.
Another reason why we wanted to have Macdonalds was to get the postcards...haha!
The postcards were northern lights based and they were free!
We bought 2 meals and shamelessly asked for 5 postcards.
The counter staff was really nice and she gave me the postcards!
And that's it for day 9!
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Click here for our Day 10 adventures
or retrace our steps here for our Day 8 adventures!
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