Mrs Makrie is keen for us (myself, herself, Jr. aged 7) to go to Lapland for next Christmas, and has quite a wish list…

She would like a Santa visit, to go sled dogging, to (try to) see the northern lights, to stay a night in an igloo or an ice hotel, and for the main hotel of the break to be darn nice with good food for all the meals (I’d say lunch optional, but have no idea what goes…).

Can anybody provide a recommendation or advice? It would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Sled dogging? 😀

(Still time to edit that…)

We went with Canterbury Travel and had a great time. You have plenty of time to save for it too 😉

Oops! 😳 I’ll work on the terminology!

Canterbury travel look good, thanks!

7 is the perfect age to do it.

All I’d say is, don’t be tempted to do it cheaply as a day trip.

Also bear in mind that at Christmas time – shortest day and all that – there is very little usable daylight.

And it also gets bloody cold. -28 when we were there and the locals thought it was chilly.

My only other tip is don’t take a child who is scared of Father Christmas. To a place with no daylight. And arctic temperatures. And cheap crap food. For the day. 🙄

(In my wife’s defence, the older one loved it, and the little one now talks fondly of the day that will forever be etched in my mind as the “Most Expensive and Unpleasant Day of my Life”)

Duly noted!

On the bright side, it’s quite special to have combined your most expensive day and your most unpleasant day in one…

The Santa Train at Aviemore or Boness probably better. Everything bar santa sounds great tho.

😥

To my great credit, I have never, despite the provocation at times, used the phrase “I told you so”!

The other “special” part of the day was that it was the really hard winter of 2008(?). Flights back were delayed as the only UK airport still open and able to receive flights was East Midlands, where we had flown from. By the time we had cleared customs, it was early the next morning and that was LittleMissMC’s birthday, which cheered her up. Also, after a day in -28, scraping ice off the car at East Midlands in -6 and only 3 inches of snow didn’t even require a coat!

We went this xmas just gone with Nordic experience having researched it for endless hours. They were absolutely fantastic .

We went to the nellim wilderness hotel which I’ve just seen has won the Lapland destination of the year award. Can’t recommend them enough.

Thanks squealer, their options look great!

We did a day trip from Glasgow about 9 yrs ago, just after MIL passed away, me, mrs, daughter, 12, son, 4 and FIL. Was a stunning day and wonderful memories but not worth the 3k it cost the FIL..

It’s open all year round. Enter the Rovaniemi 150 and go in Feb Half term instead…..that’s my plan. 😉

We went a few years ago with Inghams (ski people). 7 day trip, log cabin in the grounds of a hotel. Self catering but with access to hotel at a small cost.

£2k for 5 inc flights. Under no circumstances do the Lapland in 2-3 days (or less!!). Will cost the same and you spend most of it travelling. You’ll be surprised the distances you have to travel by road.

I’v ejust got back from a great trip through northern Norway and Sweden.
10 days, tromso, northern lights, boat trips, Abisko mountain station, then Jakkisjavi ( Spelling well off) for three days of ice hotel, husky dogs, snowmobiles.

Great fun.

That ice hotel does the huskys, and snowmobiles on site as well as sleeping in a ice room, (warm rooms also available)

I’ll look at Inghams, thanks – it hadn’t crossed my mind that they might do anything other than ski!

Was that self organised, killer, or did you book through someone – sounds fantastic!