The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

6 November 28, 2021The Sunday Times

Travel Lapland

FINNISH SANTA TRIPS

FOR THIS WINTER

SPA AND REINDEER

Five nights’ B&B in Finnish Lapland

and Helsinki from £5,900pp,

including a day at a remote forest

spa, chasing the northern lights

on snowmobiles, whistling to

your own husky team and a ride

on a reindeer-pulled sleigh,

plus flights from a choice of

UK airports and private transfers

(blacktomato.com).

COOKING WITH ELVES

A three-night break in the

“Northern Lights Village” in Levi,

Finnish Lapland, from £1,695pp

(£995 per child) includes making

gingerbread cookies with

Santa’s elves, a reindeer

sleigh ride to Father

Christmas’s cabin and

full board in a glass-

roofed northern

lights-viewing

cabin, plus flights

(activitiesabroad.com).

POLAR BEARS AND

SNOWSHOEING

Activities including feeding a

polar bear, a snowshoe safari and

a day trip to the Santa Claus Village

in Rovaniemi are part of a

four-night Arctic wildlife trip

from £1,510pp. Half-board

accommodation is in a two-

bedroom villa in Ranua;

flights and transfers are

included; departing

on December 23

(discover-the-world.

com).

HUSKIES AND IGLOOS

Get some one-on-one

time with Santa in his home

on this two-night half-board stay

at Santa’s Riekonlinna Hotel in

Saariselka, Finnish Lapland, from

£3,356 per family (two adults and

two children). Husky rides, igloo

visits and tobogganing are

included, as are flights from

London or Manchester and

transfers (santaslapland.com).

ELF GAMES

Playing games with the elves at

Santa’s Elves Hideaway is part

of this three-night trip to meet

Santa, along with half-board

accommodation in Levi, Finnish

Lapland, a Christmassy farewell

feast and disco, and optional

husky and reindeer safaris. From

£1,100pp, including flights

departing on December 5

(inghams.co.uk).

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on this two-nig

Tromso, left,

has become

known as

Norway’s

‘Christmas

town’

Finnish Santa

receives half a

million letters

each year

themed hotels Riekonlinna and Santa’s

Hotel Holiday Club (with toboggans,

snowshoes and northern lights-viewing

galleries offered to guests as standard;

santaslapland.com).

In recent years Norway and Iceland

have entered the busy Santa-break

market too. Tromso, Norway’s “Christmas

town”, serves up reindeer sledding,

snow-shoe tours and family-friendly

hotels from £100 a night, and Drobak,

a short bus or a ferry ride from Oslo,

has a free-to-visit Christmas house (where

you can take a snap with Santa) and a

museum of letters to Father Christmas.

Hafnarfjordur, a pretty Christmas-

themed hamlet 20 minutes from

Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, has a

towering fir where children can meet

an Icelandic Father Christmas and taste

the sweet brown Icelandic festive drink,

malt og appelsin.

And in Denmark (where the

controversial belief is that Santa hails

from Greenland), Tivoli Gardens in

Copenhagen has one of the best-reviewed

city-based Santa’s grottos, with

Christmas-light-bedecked rides and

a dancing Santa.

When it comes to the Nordic Santa

wars, in the end it’s children who get the

casting vote. Of the millions of letters

to Santa sent each year, Santa’s

workshop in Drobak receives 25,000

and Swedish Santa 50,000, whereas

Finnish Santa handles half a million

requests each year to his Main Post

Office at Rovaniemi — for, among other

things, Danish Lego.

→Continued from page 5

DMITRY PISTROV, DANIELE ALOISI/ALAMY