As you may or may not know yet, I went to the North of Sweden for my final year of studies. At the beginning of December, we had a great idea with some of my friends to go exploring Finnish Lapland. We decided to make our way to Rovaniemi, the official home village of Santa Claus. It sounded just right to go along with the Christmas magic of December. Watch out Santa, we are on our way to pay you a little visit 🔜!
To give you a bit of history, Rovaniemi is the capital of Finnish Lapland. After the Winter War and the bombing of Russia over Finland, the city was basically destructed. It was then rebuilt with the financial support of the USA – and the wife of President Roosevelt came to Rovaniemi to inaugurate a little cottage on the Arctic Circle (well 100m away in fact). More and more tourists came to Rovaniemi notably to see this cottage – and throughout the year Santa Claus village was built. There is argumentation about the true location of the home of Santa Clause – but Rovaniemi is the official one.
DAY 1 | UMEÅ – KEMINMAA
We left Umeå in the early afternoon (but for that period, it was already super dark). We took the car and made our way to our very nice little cottage located in the South of Finnish Lapland!
DAY 2 | ROVANIEMI
We woke up around 8 that morning and I felt like it was 4am because of the dark outside! There are only 3 hours of daylight at this period of the year. But we discovered the beautiful landscapes of Finnish Lapland while making our way to Rovaniemi with the sunrise. Next Stop : Santa Claus village.
We arrived in the village in the late morning – there we had a great chance to meet Santa twice! Just be aware that the « Christmas House » is not the official Santa House which is a bit further in the village. The official Santa House is, in fact, the office of Santa, where after making a line in very nice decor, you will have the great opportunity to meet Santa personally! Of course, you are not allowed to take pictures. You will have only the possibility to buy your picture taken by the staff (30 euros for the big printed….). But anyway, it’s still very magic!
All around the village, there are a lot of gift shops with typical Finnish souvenirs. I can tell that it is not super expensive as I thought it would due to the location. Perfect for your last minute Christmas gifts.
Another point of interest of this village is its location on the Arctic Circle that you will be able to cross (and you can even buy your certification of crossing the Arctic Circle).
There are also some activities in the village such as Santa’s reindeers sledding (I’m not a huge fan of these animals activities) or visiting an igloo. You will have to pay for all of this of course – even though the entrance of the village is free of charge, everything once there has a price.
There are some incredible accommodation and little restaurant and cafés that you can definitively check out – but of course, it’s really costly.
As the afternoon was running, we decided to go to the pretty museum Artikum in the city of Rovaniemi. This museum deals with the Arctic, climate change, auroras etc… it’s one of the best in Lapland. If you have some spare time for your trip to Rovaniemi, it’s really a thing to do.
We were not very lucky because there was no aurora that weekend. The sky was very cloudy. But if you are lucky, the Northern Lights can offer you an incredible show.
Then we made our way home to our little cottage because the sauna was waiting for us!
DAY 3 | KEMINMAA – LULEÅ – UMEÅ
We decided to sleep a bit that morning since we were tired of the previous day.
We had a nice brunch at our cottage before taking the road all the way back home.
The first stop we made was at Tornio, to see some original churches.
At the same time, we found a very nice spot to admire the sunset/sunrise! It was amazing.
Then we stopped at the church city of Luleå, Gammelstad. There was a Christmas market that day, which was cute. It was super cold outside. We also had the opportunity to hear some Christmas songs in the church.
Then, it was time to reach Umeå and return the car.
This weekend getaway was magic! Finnish Lapland is something you must see in your life under the snow. We all felt like children visiting Santa – and somehow I guess we found during this weekend our childhood innocence back.
OFF THE ROAD 