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Skip navigation! Story from Travel. As in, Arctic Circle north. Hear us out. The BeastFromTheEast came and went, leaving behind a slushy mess, dashed promises of a day off work, and ruined shoes we're not a practical bunch. Imagine the magic of that moment when we all woke up to dry, settled snow — but minus the chaos. Lapland, the northernmost region of Finland, sits inside the Arctic Circle. Its wild landscape of hills and forest is frosted with a metre or more of snow from November right through until May. It's built for the stuff. The Polar Night — when the sun hovers below the horizon for 24 hours and does not rise — lasts for around five weeks between December and January. So, actually, it makes sense to hold out your visit until this time of year, to get in a few more hours of daylight. Temperatures can drop to degrees Celsius but during our trip in February, it hovered around -2 most days. The air is clean the cleanest in Europe. Also, did we mention there were huskies…? Warning: The following includes descriptions of rape, sexual assault and abuse that some readers may find distressing. Early on Thursday morning last week,. Talking about money benefits all of us — and we need to do it more. Join the conversation with Worth More, our guide to better finances, from naviga.

Why You Should Visit Finland Before The Snow Melts

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What better way to get in the Christmas spirit than an incredible trip to Lapland? We have been in travel for over 6 years. Consumer: Santas Lapland Inghams Lapland. Announcer: You are listening to The Travel Podcast. Travel Podcast, today's most exciting travel destinations, brought to you by people with a real passion for travel. Great holiday ideas, real reviews, practical advice, and all the best deals in one single podcast. The Travel Podcast. Now here is your host, Steve Witt. Steve: Welcome to The Travel Podcast where we aim to inspire you with some brilliant news, views and behind the scenes look at some of the most amazing destinations in the world. I'm Steve Witt, co-founder of one of the U. As always, I'm joined by our travel experts who all live and breathe, every single day, travel and most importantly, they are super passionate about travel. Steve: Today we also have two very special guests joining us on the panel. So first off we're over to Ben. Hi, Ben. Ben: Yeah, I do. I absolutely love it. So absolutely love it. Love traveling and love arranging travel as well. It's great. Steve: Which is brilliant because Ben has been to Lapland a number of times already. So he's here as one of our experts, as a consumer as well as someone who actually sells Lapland. Ben: Yeah. Amazing trips which I'll share a little bit more about shortly. But brilliant, brilliant. Steve: Fantastic. Also, from within the travel industry, because who better to talk about Lapland itself than the people who send thousands and thousands of people away to Lapland every single year, so today we are joined by Julie from Hotelplan, Inghams and Santa's Lapland. Hi, Julie. Steve: You are very welcome. For anyone who's not come across yourself or your brand before, can you give us just a little insight, if that's okay? Julie: Yeah. So Inghams has been going for 85 years, so we're not a new company, we've been going for a long time. One of our products within the Inghams brand that we do is Lapland, whether it be Lapland as a destination or using Santa's Breaks. Santa's Lapland is a little bit newer but is a massive part of our portfolio as well, and with Santa's Lapland we specialize, as it says on the tin, about Santa and holidays in December to one specific destination. Steve: Brilliant. Thank you. So we're going to be talking more about this, which is possibly the weirdest podcast we've done so far, I think, because while recording this, the sun is bursting through the window, it's a glorious day and we're here talking about Christmas, in effect. Steve: So a couple of things. Why is now a good time to be talking about the winter and Christmas? Julie: So I think now is the time to be planning in advance. It's always this time of the year, yeah, people are thinking of summer holidays, quite often people have already got what they're doing for the next few months planned already, and moving into winter, particularly snowy winter, whether it be ski or Lapland or the likes, then it's just a great time to have something planned for in the next seven or eight months, and I think now is when you do start seeing a peak and a flurry of people looking further ahead than just the next couple of months. Steve: I'd probably add to that, obviously things are very strange at the moment out there in the world so people are planning good things to look forward to, aren't they, and especially for the kids and everything. So great time to be looking at exciting things ahead. Jules: There's also a great deposit options so people can pay off their holidays in a lot longer time, meaning that it doesn't seem quite so expensive when you spread the cost over a few months rather than just a week before, for example. Steve: Very true. Obviously kids are around a lot more at the moment so there's a big focus on kids and entertaining them. So now is a great time to be talking about it. Steve: Now, there could be a lot of people who probably, a little bit like me when I first learnt about Lapland, I didn't realize it wasn't a country. So, Ben, you've been there. Where is there because Lapland doesn't technically exist on a map, does it? Ben: No, it doesn't. So you do have a Swedish and Finnish Lapland. When I went, I went to the Finnish Lapland, so quite far north. There are a number of destinations you can go to in Finland which all encompass Lapland, but I went to Saariselka which is a little bit further up north in Finland, which is great because it's just It's not a country or a specific place to go to, it covers Sweden and Finland. So I'm guessing it's pretty much a winter destination or is it incredibly seasonal, it's just going there for Christmas or before Christmas, after Christmas? What do you typically do? Ben: You tend to find obviously before Christmas is the whole Santa experience. You want to go there, you want to have that whole experience with the children. But you've also got skiing as well and also the Northern Lights. It's an absolutely fantastic destination to go and see the Northern Lights. Just after Christmas, into January and February is a really good time for the Northern Lights trips as well. So, no, it's not just about the Santa experience before Christmas, there's a lot of other things you can do as well. Steve: Now obviously we are going to be talking about Santa and one of the great things I guess about going to Lapland is you do get to go and see the real Santa, don't you? Julie: Oh, my God, you so do! There is no other \[inaudible \] other than the real Santa. It's the most unexpected, magical thing that you can do, if you're an adult or a child, and I know that Ben would agree with me on this. As an adult, your childhood is rekindled, and I've been without children. I do get some odd looks, I have to say! But when I've been without children, it is just the most magical thing. You go on a sleigh, you walk into this log cabin, and just to see the real Santa sitting there with your letter in his hand about everything that you said you want is just incredible. He's not necessarily in that Coca-Cola red suit because he's Finnish Santa. He is Santa. He's in his workshop. So it is quite different but it's very, very special. Steve: I can tell, just by listening to you now, Julie, you are actually smiling talking about Santa and going to Lapland aren't you? Steve: That's the magic of talking about Lapland, isn't it? Jules, most people can't see you right now, we can. Describe yourself right now please. Jules: I'm sporting my beautiful Santa hat with a little pompom on the end. I also have my beard, getting in the mood. Even though it's very hot outside, I'm still looking very Santa-y. More elf-like actually, due to my height probably. Julie: So I am sitting with my reindeer antlers on my head at the moment. They're red and they are reindeer antlers, all the way originally from Santa's Lapland. Steve: This is the effect Lapland has on everyone, isn't it? It's that magical thing everybody wants to do before it's too late because you need to go Lapland, especially for Santa, before the magic goes, don't you? Julie: I think, as a family, there are optimum times for children. I think no matter whether we say as an adult, you are still going to get that magic and you are still going to get that excitement, you absolutely will, but if you're taking children, a lot of people want to take them before they don't necessarily believe anymore. Although children of all ages can go, my personal opinion is probably younger than four can be verging. Four upwards is a great age, and then it depends on the age of your children and how they are. But usually between four and 11 is probably the best time to actually catch them. Seven, eight, nine is perfect, before they get to the bigger schools and start having other doubts sewn in their mind. But it is perfect because they would be able to take part in so many of the activities. Ben, you've been with different people so you've got the first-hand experience of that with children, more than me. When I went, my lad was eight. The age range you've mentioned is perfect, but eight just seemed to be the perfect age for him. Still, obviously, totally believes in Father Christmas. I believed in Father Christmas as soon as I come back from there and saw it all. It was brilliant. I probably enjoyed it more than he did although he absolutely loved it. But eight was a really good age. My lad's now 13, 14, and every year he asks, 'Can we go back to Lapland? So it left a lasting impression on him. It was really good. Ben: It's like no other trip you'll ever go on, Lapland. Even right at the very start, when you get to the airport and when you get on the plane, it's just like no other holiday or no other trip you get on. The magic's there straight away. All the stewards and stewardesses on the plane are all dressed up and you're singing carols on the plane. So it's just an amazing experience start to finish. Julie: Yeah, it is. I think also, as far as the kids side of things and the ages go, it almost buys you a bit more time. If they are on the cusp, it just buys it a little bit. I don't care what anybody says, it doesn't matter how old you are, you will never, ever lose that magic of it. Steve: Go back to basics I guess. What sort of time of year, if we just focus on Santa to start with, when do you start going to go and see Santa, what time of year? Julie: So December really is Santa. It can be the very last weekend of November but really it's December is your main month that you would go to, and that would take you right up until Christmas day and beyond that. Anything post Christmas is about Lapland as a destination instead. So Santa is December. Julie: From my point of view, we do two, three, four night breaks. It depends entirely on what you're actually looking to do when you're there. There are some that are a little bit more inclusive than others. You can go on day breaks as well. It's not something that I have in my program, mine is just two, three, four night breaks. Julie: With the Santa's Lapland program, just to give an idea, it's a little bit better than going for a day because you've got more time to do things, you can add in more excursions. It just makes it a little bit more special. As Ben said, with the plane ride and everything, you get on the plane, they're all dressed up, they're all singing carols. Julie: You arrive into Lapland, the elves are running around. The first night you can just really get into the atmosphere of the town that you're staying in, and the towns are just not commercialized whatsoever. They are really lovely, proper traditional Finnish Lapland towns. Toboggans are around, you can grab them, you can go tobogganing. You can just go for walks through the village. Then the next day is when you have your whole Santa day. Julie: So to do it over a complete period of time where you've got two or three days, you can have it structured so that everything's included so you know where you've got to be at what time and you can add in other things. Julie: If you want to go for something like our Inghams break, which is usually a three or a four night break, it's again a little bit more DIY's probably the wrong word but it's a bit more independently arranged. So you will always get your Santa day included at the exclusive Santa park but then you can add on trips to the Northern Lights. You can go skiing for a day if you want to. You can go and ride the huskies. You can do so many more activities than just seeing Santa. So it is a whole experience. Julie: Whereas if you go on a day trip, which suits some people, but for me, if you go on a day trip, you're just cramming everything in, as much as you can into one day without breathing space. Whereas if you've got a couple of nights there, or three nights, you can add in so much more to make it a whole experience, not just only about Santa. Steve: Okay. So we'll talk more about some of the activities in a minute. Just to give an overview of what is possible, so obviously you guys focus more on the multiple nights. Lauren, obviously you've dealt with a lot of people who go away just for day trips as well as multiple nights. What's the main differences, would you say, with a day trip, or what type of person looks to go away on a day trip? Lauren: Yeah, definitely. The kind of people that we normally had go on a day trip were the families who literally did only have a weekend or literally a day to go and do it. It normally tended to be families with older children, just because on the day trips you're outside the majority of the day unless you're going in to see lunch or to see Santa. So with younger children it wasn't really too ideal to be spending a whole day outside in the cold because it does get super cold over there. Jules: I would say as well, some of the customers that we had come back from day trips, on a positive side, said that it was very surreal. So they woke their kids up in the morning, 'Oh, come on. We're going to go and see Santa now. Then they get all encompassed in the whole day, and then they're back in their own beds at the end of the day. Jules: So a lot of customers that go on the day trips, obviously they're cheaper in value, as it is only a day, and can be a lot more cost-effective for some families, but they said it was just a really surreal experience as it was all over in one day. But, yeah, definitely for the older children, because younger ones still need naps as well and they're going to miss out on some parts of the day trip. Steve: Cool. Let's just talk about a day trip and then we'll go on to talk about multi-night trips. So what would a typical day look like if you did do a day trip? Ben: Sorry. So it's going to be an early start for you, early start in the morning to get to your departure airport. The flights are normally around two, two and three quarters, three hours, around that length of time. As I say, it's brilliant from as soon as you get in the airport, on the plane, all singing the carols. So you get that whole experience. Ben: You then land at the airport. Obviously you don't have any luggage you need to get, so you're then off to go and pick up your thermal suits and boots to keep you nice and warm. Obviously, as Lauren mentioned before, it can get bitterly cold so you're provided with thermal suits and boots. You're then taken off to do your whole Santa experience. Ben: There's a lot of other activities that go along with it as well. You don't just go there, go and see Santa, come back, on the plane and back home. There's lots of other activities as well. So there are things like reindeer rides, mini skidoos for the children, all these types of things. So it's a really, really full-on day, but an amazing day. You will be back home quite late in the evening. Ben: We get really good feedback on the day trips. Really, really good feedback. As Jules and Lauren mentioned, I think it's more of a time thing for a lot of people. They can't necessarily always go for two nights, three nights, although three nights is absolutely amazing, but they can't always do that. So it just means they're getting that authentic Santa experience really. Jules: Sorry. Just to add to Ben, I was just going to say, you have your breakfast and your dinner on the plane on a day trip. So that obviously buys you some time once you're in the resort. In December, there's only four hours of daylight up there. Whereas the excursions would be maybe longer on the longer breaks, and it's just a condensed version on a day trip, maybe only 10, 15 minutes for an excursion as opposed to the longer ones that Santa's Lapland and Inghams provide. Steve: So let's say you're on a multi-night, two, three night break. I'm guessing you get longer to do everything, it's not quite such a rushed experience. You get to have meals in your accommodation in various places. So the whole thing is just a more relaxed experience, I guess, that's the first thing. Is that fair to say? Ben: It is, yeah. The times that I've done, I've done the two night trips, and it just lets you get used to your surroundings and everything, explore the town. So it is a lot more relaxed. When you arrive and you pick up your thermals and you're shown to your hotel or your accommodation, you've then got free time to go and explore the local town. Tobogganing, you can go off and do tobogganing. Saariselka I think has got one of the longest toboggan runs in Europe, I believe. I think it's like a couple of kilometers long if you want to do the whole thing, which I wouldn't recommend when it's that cold. But just a lot more \[inaudible \]. Ben: You can fit in longer experiences as well. I did a Northern Lights snowmobile trip and also an extended \[inaudible \] safari trip as well. So you can fit them extended experiences in as well. Steve: These things, they're all just magical experiences, aren't they? I love going skiing and I love all the snow. It's fantastic when it snows in the U. But I would imagine, not having been, but going to Lapland, having snow in the best Christmas-y place in the world has to be a magical experience. Julie: I ski as well, and I've skied a lot of different places around Europe and what-have-you, but it just is so different. The snow, it kind of sparkles like diamonds, is the only way that I can describe it. It's so soft. You can't make a snowball because it's so dry. You try and make a snowball and you just end up throwing dust at people because it's just Julie: The sky It doesn't necessarily start rising until about February. It is just amazing. Julie: So as a destination, even regardless of the Santa part, it is just magical anyway. You get up in the morning, it might be 10 o'clock in the morning, but it's still dark. So that's weird to get your head around anyway. Then as it begins to get a little bit of daylight, you just get this haze and this glow. If you're really lucky you might get it snowing whilst you're there. The season just gone, we've just had some amazing snow. It's one of the best snow seasons for a long while. Julie: But then you're going out, you're doing your daily activity. You're going to see Santa, you're doing all these other excursions, and then before you know it, it's dark again, but you haven't really noticed it. Some people think, 'Oh, crikey, being in the dark all that time might actually be a little bit depressing in some ways,' but being in somewhere like Lapland, it just isn't, you just don't really notice. You just get on with it, and it is just a fantastic part of that. Julie: Then as Ben said earlier, you've got the other excursions you can do. So you can go out on a snowmobile and go and try and find the Northern Lights. Now we all know Northern Lights is never ever guaranteed but you can go in search of them, and to do that on a snowmobile or a sleigh ride or whatever it is that you're doing it on, huskies or something, and if you're really lucky you can see those. Again, it might only be six o'clock at night but it's pitch black and already the Aurora Borealis is coming to life and it's just quite fantastic. Ben: We did that. As I was saying before, we did the snowmobile safari to see the Northern Lights, and we did see them luckily enough. It's just the most magical experience ever. They take you off into the middle of nowhere basically on the snowmobiles, and to see the Northern Lights It gets dark. There's no light pollution so it's unbelievably dark, and if you're into stargazing, it's an amazing place to do that as well. The biggest thing people regret is not learning how to use their cameras or their phones to take pictures of the Northern Lights because unless you've got the right settings, you can't very often capture them on camera. I was really lucky. When I did the same excursion, one of the ladies that guided us on the snowmobile, she knew exactly how to set my camera settings so I got some really fantastic pictures of it, but otherwise you've just got to keep it in your memory. It's definitely a worthwhile tip: learn your camera before you go! Steve: So I'm picturing obviously snow-covered landscape, woods, lots of trees. Not your typical ski resorts, I'm guessing. No big mountains. You can ski but it's not Val d'Isere type ski resorts. I think with ski in Lapland, it depends on the resort that you go to because every resort is very different. Within our Inghams program, Inghams is a big ski company as well as a Lapland company. So Lapland forms part of our ski program as well as the Santa Breaks, and we go to a resort called Levi which is probably one of the larger areas that you would go to. Julie: We always think of skiing in Levi as fantastic for beginners or for families that don't want to just ski. So you can do some skiing, there are areas around you that you can ski. There are mountains, and they're good skiing, and on the trips I've done in the past, some of the groups that I've taken have skied and they've had a great afternoon on it, but it's not something that would satisfy the keen skier that likes to do hundreds of kilometers every day and put on their ski tracks, et cetera. But it does give you the opportunity to learn it, to experience it, to enjoy it, but equally doing other things around it. Julie: We find that sometimes you get a group of people that go and one or two want to ski and one or two don't necessarily want to ski, so it's perfect for that because there is so much other things in the resort. Steve: Okay, brilliant. So question for Lauren to start with, and Julie I'll come to you in a minute to ask you more about the Inghams product. There are lots of different Lapland products available. They're all great. We get great feedback on all of them, ranging from day trips to multi-nights, all different price brackets, and different experiences. They're all great experiences, but what would you say are the main differences between, for example, say, the lower budget ones and the slightly more expensive ones? Lauren: In terms of it, it definitely comes down to the activities that are included. You've got some that, as you said, the lower ones will have your standard activities, like going to see Santa and maybe doing like a taster reindeer sleigh ride. But I know in Santa's Lapland you've got things where you do ice fishing, you've got the mini skidoo rides, and you can go and see reindeers and go to the bar and things like that. Lauren: So it all comes down to in terms of what activities a family is looking for, and also it is in terms of budget as well. So, Julie, I was actually going to ask you about the difference in the two. You're right, there are the two programs within the Santa's Lapland program. It's the same resort of Saariselka. Saariselka is set way up into the Arctic Circle, so it's quite northern. You fly into the resort of Ivalo and then it's a 30 minute transfer from Ivalo right through to Saariselka. So it's quick and it's easy to actually get there. Julie: When you arrive, if you're going on the Magic product, or the Magic program, which is the one that I've done twice, this is where you stay in the resort of Saariselka, and you'll understand what I mean when I come onto the Aurora program. The resort of Saariselka is a little village. There's a few little shops but it's not commercialized in any way, shape or form. But you've got a mix of different hotels that you can stay down in the resort and then you've also got log cabins, which I think you want to talk about a little bit later anyway. But you've got log cabins that you can stay in, or Christmas cabins as we call them. Or you've got a mix of hotels. Julie: Then on that Magic program, the first evening you will just do it how you do whatever you want to do. You'll always have your meal when you get there, you'll have your evening meal. The next day, you go to an exclusive Santa's village, which is where the real Father Christmas is, but there's a whole host of different things that you get included. Julie: So, as you just said You can do ice fishing and you can play ice hockey. There's lots of things to do. You get lots of little huts around that you can go in and get warm drinks. You get lunch provided. You also get your husky rides included in the Santa's Lapland in the Magic program, and that's so much fun because you literally drive the huskies yourself which can be quite nerveracking to begin with. Once you get the hang of it, it's great and the dogs just absolutely love it. Then you go and have your private meeting with Santa, and that's all included. Julie: Then eventually it's sort of a rolling transfer. So you get given a set departure time to go to the village but you can come back whenever you want to come back on that specific day. Then the evening, you get back fairly late and you have your dinner and you go. So it's really centered around the one main day. You do get all your thermal clothing included. Julie: Now the difference between that and the Aurora, within the Aurora, you stay in the Star Arctic Hotel, which we have access to fairly much exclusively, definitely from the U. This is set just above Saariselka, and it's set on a fell. It's just one hotel that's up there. So you are a little bit There's igloos that you can stay in there. There's the suites with the glass roofs. You've got more chance of seeing the Northern Lights just from your accommodation because of where you're situated. Julie: As Ben said earlier about the toboggan run, the toboggan run starts from the Star Arctic and you can actually ski from that area as well. So there's a cable car \[inaudible \] that you can go up and down on to ski around that area. But it's just great accommodation. Julie: The Aurora program itself will include a wilderness dinner on the night you arrive. So you've got something different, and you'll go to an area where you have a dinner out in the wilderness, out in the forest, in an igloo. It kick starts the holiday off straight way. Then you'll have your day doing all the Santa bits. Julie: Then on the last morning before you actually come home, if you're there for three nights, you'll have a day to do what other excursions or things that you want to do, but on the morning before you come home, there's an added excursion where it will take you to a reindeer farm and you get a chance to meet the reindeer, do a little track on a reindeer sleigh and go around as well. Julie: So the Aurora does have a little bit more included. The accommodation is set on a fell, way above anything else. Other than that, you get to see the Santa. Whereas the Magic is more centered down in the resort, everything you've got around you, and you just haven't quite so many excursions included. If that helps. Steve: That's amazing. Question from me. My only experience of seeing Santa is probably at the local shopping center, queuing up, big queue in the tacky little grotto, and then you just, production line, go and sit on Santa's knee. This was last year. You get some sweets and off you go again. That probably sounds so wrong actually, doesn't it? Ben: No, it's not like that at all, no. As Julie was explaining then, when we did the trip we did, you go to the Arctic Circle it's called. So there's all your excursions, all your different activities all within this area. It's set over quite a big area. So you can go do your reindeer sleigh ride, you do your husky ride there, and then you go for your private family meeting with Santa. You're not there with 10, 15, 20 other people all in big queues, all just getting shuffled in and out. You do go off, your own private family meeting and you get time, you do get time to spend a little bit time with Santa. Ben: The elves, I've got to give the elves a shout out as well because they're absolutely brilliant. The enthusiasm and just the way When you go off, you go off to search for Santa through the woods on the back of your sleigh, your sleigh ride. You get pulled by a snowmobile off into the woods to go and find Santa. When you find him in the little log cabin, you've got all the elves there. They all greet you, and then you go into the cabin to see Santa. As I say, I was more excited than my lad. I was like a little kid. It's just brilliant. It's completely different to the experience that you get in the U. It's an unbelievable experience. Julie: Before you actually go, you get given a pack of information which includes a sheet that the kids can write their letter to Santa on, and we call them magic tickets, in case there's any little ears around. Basically, when you walk into that log cabin, it's all very nicely done, but when you walk into that log cabin, Father Christmas is sitting there with your letter. It's really well done. Then Father Christmas will read that letter with you and say, 'Have you been good? It adds to the extra magic. Ben: Sorry, Julie. It's brilliant the way they do that. It's absolutely amazing. In fact, I missed that bit, I don't know why because when Santa started reading my lad's letter, it was just believable, his face, and when he started reading mine, my face was even better. It's amazing the way they do that, really good. Jules: Also, you know in the shopping centers you often get fobbed off with some rubbish piece of tat? I think in Lapland, you get a hand wooden carved toy by the elves? Julie: It depends. On ours, well, this year they were giving out little huskies, but they were fluffy huskies. Then another year it might be reindeers. So you do get different ones. I guess each year may vary. It depends on how busy Father Christmas has been in his workshop with his elves really as to what he wants to make that year. So let's talk about what do you need to take with you because it sounds like a very cold place to be going. Do you need to buy all your ski gear and everything? Ben: When we went, as I say, when I took my lad, we go skiing, so we took all our ski gear, all these thermals, loads of different layers, all the stuff. So when we first got there, we had all this I had about six or seven layers on, so did my lad. We had all our ski gear on, and then you put the thermal suits on that you're provided with and I was overheating after about five minutes, even being out in the cold. Ben: Having said that, you do need to take plenty of layers. I think that's the big thing, taking lots of layers. The thermals that you're provided are absolutely brilliant. The mitts that they give were you just I put the mitts on and I thought, 'These aren't going to do anything, these mitts. My hands were absolutely boiling in there. But I would always take another set of gloves anyway, a decent pair of gloves, and a decent hat that covers your ears, and then something for your neck as well. But the thing for me is layers, take plenty of thin layers. That's what I would recommend to take. Julie: Yeah, I agree. Even if you're going out for a walk in the evenings, you just chuck your thermals on and you just live in them. The boots that they provide for you as well, they're really warm. So you don't really need to worry too much about having loads and loads of ski gear unless you're planning on skiing. The clothing that's provided I wouldn't say is the most flattering of gear. It may be a little bit big. My advice is take a belt that you can put on the outside of your garment to hold it up a little bit sometimes, but it is warm and you tend to find that everybody's wearing the same outfit as you. Who knew? But it definitely is warm. Julie: Personally, I prefer to take my own ski gloves, and I prefer to take my own hat. Then they give you the thermal socks but again, if you've got your own ski socks. So things that are absolutely going to touch you, that you feel more comfortable wearing your own on, absolutely fine, but other than that, the actual suits For me, one pair of thermal leggings underneath the suit absolutely fine with a couple of thinner layers on the top and then you're good to go really. Julie: It's more round the face as much as anything because sometimes the face itself can get really cold. Bear in mind, sometimes it might only be minus six or seven and other times it might be minus 25 or So you kind of need to be a little bit prepared for both types of cold but I just found it's the face. So to have a scarf or one of those snoods that you can bring up around your face just in case you do get cold because if you are walking or doing things and standing around, that's when you can get a little bit colder. Julie: No matter what program you're on, and no matter whether you're there for a day or longer, there's always little places you can go and warm up and get hot drinks and cookies and pancakes and things as well. And fires. There's also fires everywhere. I don't mean just random fires, they are proper But log fires that you can just have a little bit of a toasty warm at as well. Ben: Sorry, Steve. I was going to say, there's quite a good way to do that. When you're doing your activities, there's a little gap between the two different areas. So they take you through on a little sledge. So when you're waiting for the sledge to come around and turn up, like Julie's just said, they have nice fires there so you can all sit round the fire Jules: I'd say it all depends on what type of experience that you've booked. If, like a Santa's Lapland, it's all-inclusive, in terms of your food and your drink and they also have snacks, then I would say you just need a few euros, is the currency they use there, for the gift shops, maybe a little gift for grandma or something on the way home. Jules: If you've booked something that perhaps is a bed and breakfast, then obviously you're going to need to think about your meals and your drinks on top of that. You need to consider, when you're looking at the different packages on offer, and where the base price might be a little bit cheaper, you've just got to make sure you're comparing apples and apples and that you're getting exactly what it is, value for money. Julie: In the Santa's Lapland, where the Magic goes during the day, the only thing you can actually buy there is when you go into the ice bar and you want to buy a hot chocolate or a rum or a schnapps, or whatever it is you want to buy, and they do take cards there, so you don't even necessarily need it. But the one thing they do also advise is, depending on how cold it actually is, those card machines may or may not work. So it's always worth having a few euros in your pocket just in case. Julie: In the Arctic Circle center that we have, we don't have gift shops because it just takes it away from it. In the Inghams one, there is a gift shop and you can buy some little things, but back in Saariselka or any of the resorts, there's always the odd little shop that you can buy some really nice things from, but it's not really tat, it's nice things that you can buy that you want to take home with you. But, yeah, you're right, you don't really need a lot of money outside of that, to be honest. Steve: So, couple of quick questions then before we wrap up. I guess if you're on a two or three night trip, you're going to be staying somewhere. Is it just one place you stay, is there a choice of different locations to stay in? Lauren: There's a choice of different locations you can choose to stay in. Especially with Santa's Lapland in Saariselka, there is a range of different hotels to suit everyone's budget. I know one of the hotels Julie, you might have to correct me, but they've got an indoor swimming pool that you can go and use as well, so there's a bit more facility-wise. If you're actually doing a three night or a two night and you've got a little bit more time, you can use the facilities there in your spare time. So, again, that would carry down to the kind of family. Lauren: Then you've also got the log cabins which are also a good option as well. You can do it in a large group if you're traveling with different families, or you can as well share with other families which I think, Ben, you said you did as well. I \[inaudible \] but also I stayed in a hotel \[inaudible \] went and stayed in a Christmas cabin as well. The Christmas cabins, they're brilliant. You get your cabin girls who work in there and they look after everything for you. They do your cooking, keep the cabin clean for you. It's like a real authentic experience in a log cabin. Ben: Having said that, when we stayed in a hotel as well it was brilliant. We only stayed in the entry level hotel at Saariselka, \[inaudible \] I think it was called. The rooms were brilliant. They're just traditional, Finnish style. What I would say is, you don't spend a massive amount of time in your room so I don't think there's any need to I think it was the holiday club you mentioned before with the pool. That's brilliant and everything but we just found we didn't get enough time to do any of that, but there is a huge range of different hotels. We loved the Christmas cabins. They were brilliant. Julie: The Christmas cabins always sell really early as well because you get bigger families that want to go in multi-generational, or groups of friends. I think with those cabins, they are all different sizes. You can get them that sleep four people and you can get them that sleep 12 to 15 people. All different room sizes. In each cabin as well there's a sauna, so you've got your own private sauna. Julie: What's so nice is that you can go to the supermarket if you want to stock it up with just a few little trimmings and then when you get back after having had a day or an evening out or whatever, or you've been for a walk in the forest, you can actually just get back, get straight into your pajamas and you can just chill out. Whereas in a hotel, they're fantastic and you're right, some of them have got swimming pools and other facilities there, but you've got to get dressed to go down for dinner, you can't really walk down in your pajamas. So there is fors and against. Julie: I think if there's just a small family of you, hotels are perfect. If there's a big group of you, the cabins are perfect. It just depends on the availability at the time when you book, which is Steve: So final questions then, Lauren and Jules maybe. You've dealt with a lot of people who've booked Lapland holidays in the past. Any questions that they ask which we haven't covered today? Jules: I was going to ask you, Julie, about tipping. I've had some questions before about how they give tips. I guess slipping Santa five euros is going to be inappropriate but, I don't know, some sort of little collection jar for the elves, or other tipping \[inaudible \]? Julie: No. To be honest, there is no tipping in the Arctic Circle itself. You don't really tip. They're there and they are doing what they do, and they're just having fun with you. I think the people that you would tip, if you were going to, if you stayed in a Christmas cabin, it's always nice to give your host a gift of something, or leave them the remainders of the gin that you haven't taken home or something like that. I think something like that. Or in the hotel, if you want to tip the hotel chamber But in the actual excursions and things, no, no tipping is expected. Ben: We did tip our hosts in our Christmas cabin, just because they were absolutely brilliant. They literally couldn't do enough for you. They cook all the meals, all home-cooked from scratch. They were unbelievable, unbelievable. So we did tip them because they really went out their way, so it was good. Julie: I think you need one that's got your winter sports cover, just in case you do go off and do a bit of skiing or something whilst you're there. You might not think you might but you might suddenly decide you want to do something like that. As we know, especially at the moment, insurance is sort of coming into its own although You need to make sure that you're covered for the activities. So just make sure that it does cover you to do things like husky rides, reindeer rides, bit of skiing, tobogganing, things like that really. So winter snow activity cover is pretty essential. Lauren: Julie, I just wanted to ask you a question as well. So my niece and nephew, I've got a three-year-old and a seven-year-old, is there one of your itineraries that you would recommend or would you recommend holding off another year until little one was a bit older to enjoy it, or would you think that we could still take the three-year-old \[inaudible \]? Julie: No, you can still take three-year-olds. I wouldn't recommend you take really tiny babies because there's just no point. The cold, for a start off. But at three, some three-year-olds are better than other three-year-olds. So it depends where they are at three, if they're just come out of two into three or further up. You're in Levi, for example. You're there and you go off and you go on an excursion and you're given a time to go and a time to come back. So you get half a day there to actually do the Santa bit. In there, it's really geared up for smaller children with those. You can make arts and crafts. You can go and make gingerbread men with the elves and things around you. You can go and do little toboggan runs. There's a few huskies around and things like that. So for little children it's brilliant because you're being very much more arty, crafty. It would suit a seven-year-old as well, it would be perfect. Julie: With the Inghams, it's three or four nights. So that way you've got a bit more time to do everything so you don't have to cram everything into one day. So you could have your Santa day on one day and actually the next day you might decide you want to go and do a snowmobile excursion or go and see the huskies, and you can spread it out a little bit more. You can just have a day off and just go and play in the snow and try a build a snowman, if you can get the snow to work for you. Julie: With the Santa's Lapland one, I would say probably the Magic, because there's more different types of accommodation that you can choose, over and above the Aurora. Also, you're in the village so you can go out and you can pull the children on their little toboggans and you can just have a wander round, and you've just got something more to do. Julie: So I would say either the Magic with Santa's Lapland or go for the Inghams Santa Break and stay in somewhere like Levi which is maybe a slightly larger resort giving you a lot more options of the different things you can do and how you do it. Three and seven is a really good time to go because you're getting both the age groups about right then. Yeah, if you can wait until four maybe, but three is not a problem whatsoever, they would still have an amazing time. Steve: Or even if you're 37, Ben! So I think that just about wraps it up for today. I'm going to do a quick recap, guys. Correct me if I miss anything or add in anything extra. Steve: My take on Lapland is it's a magical place to go for kids of any age, young or old, just like you, Ben. It's something which, whether you're going for a day trip or multi-nights, you're going to get something truly unbelievable out of it. Now's definitely the time to go. Don't wait. Get it booked early so that you get the trip you'd like because it's not like a bus service. Once the plane is sold out for these trips, they are literally sold out, aren't they, there's not another one. It's very high demand and low capacity, if you like, because there's a very short window of opportunity. It's not like going to the supermarket and seeing Santa. This is something truly unbelievable and memorable, and it is all about creating memories, isn't it? Julie: Yeah, it certainly is. I think that's what it's all about. It's an experience, it's not just going off However long you go for, whether you go for a day or whether you go for three or four nights, or whether you go after Christmas and just see Lapland, it is about a wonderland experience and it is really, truly magical. Julie: You even get little certificates usually at the end as well. When you come back, you get a certificate to say that you've done the huskies, you've driven the huskies, or you've been on a reindeer ride, and that you've actually met Santa. So it's, again, something nice to finish off with. Steve: And don't think of the price of these trips because yes, they're not the cheapest trips but they are exceptional value for money for what you get as part of the package. It's something that's going to be the holiday you remember for years to come. Once you're there, it's pretty much all included, so exceptional value for what you get, and you can't put a price on memories. Well, thank you very much, Julie, for joining us. Thank you, Ben, for joining us. Steve: If you've got any questions, do post them on our Facebook pages and our websites, we'll come back to you. But in the meantime, if you do like what you heard today, then please do leave us a review on your podcasting application, ideally on iTunes. Leave us a nice five star review, that would be really helpful, and share this with everybody else. We hope you liked this podcast, and if you did, please tell your friends but also take a moment to rate us on iTunes as it helps spread the word. Thanks for listening. Home About Episodes Blog Contact. Lapland: In search of Santa, Northern Lights and magical experiences. Episode 4 — 12th April Coming up in this episode. What is a good age to take children to Lapland? What do we need to pack? How many nights should we go for? When should I look to book? What kind of accommodation should I go for? Plus we cover lots more. Take a listen today. Useful Links. Find out more: Consumer: Lapland Holiday Expert. Steve: So today I'm joined by Lauren and Jules. Hi, guys. Jules: Hi. Lauren: Hi. Ben: Hi, Steve. Are you okay? Hi, everyone. Steve: Ben, you work and love travel as well, don't you? Julie: Hi, Steve. Hi, everybody. Thanks for having me. Julie: Oh, I am. I can't wait for my next trip! Steve: Julie, describe yourself right now please. Steve: So I know this, but what sort of durations are people typically going for? So- Jules: I would say as well, some of the customers that we had come back from day trips, on a positive side, said that it was very surreal. Jules: So You go, Ben. Julie: It really does! Steve: Moving on. Ben, you took your son to see Santa. What's it like? Julie: And before you actually go- Steve: \[crosstalk \] Julie: Sorry. Steve: Go on. Steve: Did you get what you wanted for Christmas, Ben? Ben: I did. I was a very good boy that year! Steve: And- Ben: Sorry, Steve. Steve: So once you're in Lapland, do you need much money to do things? Jules: Okay, thanks. Jules: What type of travel insurance should you get for a Lapland trip? Lauren: That's great. I can just \[inaudible \] of them. Julie: You're welcome. Ben: \[inaudible \] Steve: If you've got any questions, do post them on our Facebook pages and our websites, we'll come back to you. Steve: Thank you all for today. You've been amazing. Like it? Share it with others. Go to Top.

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