Adventure round World ✈ : Finland 2016 (Rovaniemi & Levi)

Welcome to the home of Santa (Rovaniemi)! As a first time traveler to a winter country, Finland was definitely a wonderful & memorable experience! You might wonder what is it that we did in Finland, how much we've spent for the trip etc..

Below will be elaborated details of the trip (;

Before that, here's just a short summary!!

Flight

Return flight from LON - ROV (Route that Sam & I took)

$400 per pax

Return flight from SIN - ROV (Route our parents took)

$1300 per pax

Accommodation (7th to 15th April)

7 to 9 April (3Days 2Nights)

- Cozy Suite on Artic (Airbnb Accommodation near to ROV Airport, the whole apartment)

- $287 for 2 nights for 4 pax

9 to 13 April (5Days 4Nights)

- Hotel K5 (At Levi, within walking distance to Levi Ski Resort & Tourist Office)

- $852 for 1Room, 4nights, 4pax

13 to 14 April (2Days 1Night)

- Levin Iglut (Igloo !!)

- $1396 for 2Igloo, 4pax (1Igloo - $698 per night)

14 to 15 April (1Night)

- Santa Claus Holiday Village (Near Airport, Offers free Shuttle service to and fro airport)

- 99Euro for 1Room, 4pax ($155)

Total paid for per couple = $1345 per couple (9Days 8Nights in FINLAND!!)

Expenses

Basically, we exchanged $2000SGD to use at Finland for both of us, and is left with approximately $700SGD when we came to an end of the trip.

Tour VS DIY plans

From the above estimated costs, it can be derived that each pax spent a total of less than $1500 for accommodation + expenses in Finland!

Before the trip, we were actually looking at tours available in Finland to catch the Aurora Borealis. And we actually found one which cost around $1500SGD. The downside to taking this tour is that for the duration of 6days, it will be spent in Rovaniemi only, and without the freedom to choose your own accommodation(which we were able to so through DIY).

At the end of the day, DIY-ing for the trip is definitely more worth it than just grabbing that tour in Finland!

Have a look at the tour packages from the link below and compare it with the one we DIY-ed!
http://www.laplandwelcome.fi/images/holiday-packages/Lapland_Welcome_-_Northern_Lights_snowmobile_safari.pdf

http://www.laplandwelcome.fi/images/holiday-packages/multi-activity-weeks/Adventure-Winter-Adventure-Week-in-Lapland/LW%20Winter%20Adventure%20Week%20in%20Rovaniemi.pdf

DIY Finland 2016

Day 1
05.45PM	Arrival at Rovaniemi Airport
	Upon arrival, use the telephone available at Airport Exit to dial for a Cab
	Check into Cozy Suite on Arctic (Airbnb Apartment)
	Explore the surrounding of Apartment
Note that there is a supermarket across the road from the Apartment (we bought microwaveable dinner, fruits, groceries from the store for our dinner and next day breakfast)*
Day 2
Before 10AM	Breakfast
	Depart from Apartment to Santa Claus Village (Take a stroll)
10:00AM	Visit Santa Claus Main Post Office, write a handwritten postcard and send back home.
	Talk a walk across the Arctic Circle
	Lunch at Reindeer Café Restaurant Sirmakko
	Take a ride on Reindeer
	Visit Husky Farm, enjoy a ride with the huskies & try their hot sauce in a cosy cottage
02:00PM to 03:00PM	Depart from Santa Claus Village to Rovaniemi city centre (Take a bus, from the bus stop behind tourist info)
	Explore around Rovaniemi City Centre (Remember to look for local SIM card)
	Dinner at Chinese Restaurant
	Dial for a cab back to Apartment
*Note Reindeer ride – 28 Euros per pax, Husky Farm Visit – 28 Euros per pax Bus to Rovaniemi City Centre – less than 5 Euros per pax
Day 3
	Breakfast
11:00AM	Depart from Apartment to Levi (Via Cab @ around 320 euros) *Note that there is actually a bus from Rovaniemi Train station to Levi @ less than 35euros per pax
	Arrive and Check into Hotel K5
	Explore the city centre of Levi (Just 10 to 15 minutes walk from Hotel K5)
	Lunch at Levi city centre
	Ride on the cable car up the Levi Ski Hill
	Visit their Snow Dome, enjoy a drink in the beautifully sculptured dome (*note snow dome is only built during winter seasons)
	Visit the Levi Supermarket, grab dinner there and some snacks
	Back to Hotel
Day 4
	Breakfast at Hotel
	Visit Levi Tourist Office
	Take a snow mobile tour to Luvattumaa, Ice Gallery Alternatively, take a cab to Luvattumaa and enjoy your day there.
	Back to Hotel K5
	Dinner at K5 Bistro
*Note Snow Mobile Tour – 99 Euros per pax/ 2 person per snow mobile Alternatively, cab – less than 30 Euros to Luvattumaa Entrance fee to Ice Gallery – 12 Euros per pax
Day 5
	Breakfast at Hotel
	Spend a day at Levi Spa Hotel, Water World
	Lunch at the Café inside Water World
	Rest and relax
*Note Entrance fee to Spa Water World – 22 Euros per pax
Day 6
	Breakfast at Hotel
	Rest and Relax
	Lunch at Café Soma
	Shop around Levi City Centre
	Dinner at King’s Crab House
Day 7
	Breakfast at Hotel
	Shop for groceries to bring to Igloo at Levi Supermarket
	Final Gift shopping at Levi
	Lunch at Levi City Centre
	Depart from Hotel K5 to Levin Iglut (Via Cab)
	Have fun at Igloo!
Day 8
	Breakfast in the Igloo
	Rest and Relax in Igloo
	Cab back to Hotel K5
	Lunch at K5 Bistro
	Take a bus back to Rovaniemi (Bus is right at Levi Spa Hotel)
	From Rovaniemi dropoff point, take a cab to Santa Claus Holiday Village
	Check into Santa Claus Holiday Village
	Get drinks and food at Petrol Kiosk across the Holiday Village (*Their pizza there is good!)

Flight

How much those the flight cost from SINGAPORE to Rovaniemi?

Well, the route I took for myself looks like that:

SIN - LON - HEL - ROV

(Singapore to London to Helsinki to Rovaniemi)

From Singapore to London, I took British Airways.

Return flight from SIN - LON - SIN was $1181.20.

Then from London to Rovaniemi (With a transit in Helsinki)

Return flight from LON - HEL - ROV - HEL - LON was 403GBP for 2pax.

~ $794.11 for 2 pax

~ less than $400 for 1 pax

On the other hand, our parents took straight from SIN to ROV, and this is how the cost of their flight looks:

SIN - HEL cost $1999 for 2pax

HEL - ROV cost 394Euros ($614) for 2pax.

Total = $2613 for 2 pax, $1306 for 1 pax

I guess the flight from SIN to ROV can be lesser than $1300 if we had booked the flight from SIN to ROV straight, instead of booking them separately (initially we thought that we'll stop over at HEL for a few days..well...).

Finally, after so much of the monetary details, its time to talk about how we spent our days in Finland!

Day 1

Finally arrived at Rovaniemi, Finland, Santa's Official Home Airport!

A picture taken just right outside of the Airport!

Upon arrival at Rovaniemi Airport, we exit the airport in anticipation of grabbing a cab to our Airbnb Accommodation which is less than 15minutes away from the airport. However, a point to note here is that there are practically no taxi waiting outside of the airport. We soon came to realization that we have to call for taxi in order to get one.

Luckily and conveniently, we found out that just at the exit of the airport, there is a phone with taxi number to dial. We immediately call for a taxi and off we go for our Airbnb accommodation!

Just right outside of our accommodation!

As we arrive at our Airbnb, Cozy Suite on Arctic, we found out that in order to get into the house, we have to unlock a code to retrieve the keys! Lucky for us, we ask our kind local taxi driver to help us dial for the owner as we did not receive any code. First experience with an airbnb accommodation, and it wasn't too bad since the owner just stays right beside this house and came out to offer us some help with the door. Also, she provided us with some information on how to get to the nearest mart and the Santa Claus Village!

The view around our accommodation.

This is the stairs just right by the side of our accommodation. Conveniently located across this road, is where the local mart is!

We went by there to get some microwaveable dinner and drinks!

Day 2

It's day 2, the day to Santa Claus Village!

Before that, we saw snow falling from the sky and its Playtime!

Happily using what we found outside of the accommodation to play on this snowy grounds!

Look at our parents enjoying this winter time!(:

After awhile of playing, we finally start making our way to Santa Claus Village! Anyway, it opens at 10Am (timing varies according to different time of the year), so there's no point making our way too early there!