Ice Floating In Forest Lake With Aurora Borealis

Communication was terrible. We were sent to a construction site for pick up and then the tour operator was disingenuous. However our guide Liza was fabulous and made up for the awful tour operator.

It was a fun experience and although it was too cloudy to see northern lights we had fun anyway. One thing to note, the location is next to a residential neighborhood of cabins and if the neighbors are on their property with their lights on (which they were) the light pollution affects how dark it can be. Also their voices, although not loud, carried to our space. Our host Gigi was excellent. He explained the process and helped us know what to expect every step of the way. We would give him 5 out of 5 stars!

It was not what i expected, the instructions was not very clear about how long we were going in for how to get out of the water with the float, whether you can wear gloves under the suit as it was very cold and hands were hurting. We did it at night so could not see anything. So unless you want to do polar plunge it was not worth doing the ice float

The experience was really cool. Might want to market less on the Northern lights because it is unlikely to see per the guide and based on what I have seen. Price also dropped by 50 US dollars by booking closer to the date. Little frustrating

Exciting activity, was not very much interested as weather was bad during the day and no chances of northern lights, but floating in lake was exciting as it is bit challenging to float on your back and make sure hand gloves are used for a comfortable float.

Amazing! We were a group of 4 not really expecting much from this but this experience was probably our favorite part of Rovaniemi. We traveled during some of their coldest temperatures and surprisingly were not cold during our float. The suits kept us dry/warm, the people kept us informed/feeling safe, and just before we were packing up to leave from our cookies/juice, the auroras appeared and they took their time to explain and allowed us to experience this magical event. If you have any doubts, please don’t and book this tour!

It was a great experience, Hernan and Deep were our guides, they really explained everything and it was basically just 2 of us for this activity along with them. The journey to the activity was also filled with explanations of the activity, stories of Rovaniemi and people and culture. We did the float for around 25-30 minutes, it is actually cold and floating on that river in pitch darkness is something I would say is very relaxing but still not for all, actually gets cold even within that huge rubber jacket. But we enjoyed it a lot, it was such a calming experience. They took nice photos as well for us while we were in the water. Post the activity, we had some juice and biscuits and continued our conversation with them till we got dropped off back at hotel. I recommend this activity to all if you have time. But I feel, during winters, maybe doing this during day time would be better, unless you are lucky to have the northern lights as well appearing during the float.

Carlos, Madea, and David were phenomenal! They were so knowledgeable and friendly. The ice floating was an awesome experience. Even though we did not see the northern lights because it was cloudy, it was still so worth it. The experience of floating on the lake was amazing and it was so fun to eat gingerbread and have a hot drink with our guides. Highly recommend, it was easily the best experience of Finland!

It was awsome! We were able to see the northern lights for the first time in this trip. Highly recommended!

We were glad that we did this experience. We had a really clear night and saw millions of stars but it was a bit early for aurora (we did see it later that evening!) The suits were fine - didn’t smell and didn’t leak. The organisation could have been better. Pick up time changed 3 times and we were even asked to make our own way into Rovaniemi centre at one point, even though we’d paid for pick up included. The guide didn’t speak to us at all so we had no idea where we were heading or what to expect when we got there. Transfer time took over an hour even though the lake was 20 minutes from where we were staying as we were picked up first and driven back into town. Overall it was good to have done it but I’d perhaps look for a different company.

The tour was canceled an hour before it was supposed to start. After requesting a refund I still haven't received a refund. It's been over a month now.

This was a really cool activity to do, I do wish there were some things we know before we signed up. We were staying at Vaattunki resort which is a little out of town. Our meet time was 6:15. We drove to city office of Safartika (stopping at Santa village for a pickup) and then had to wait about 30 mins for a bus to arrive to take us and the other 27 people booked on the trip. Apparently this trip is sold out every day. We left office at 7:30 for our 30 min ride to the lake. We were then split into two groups. We were in the first group who changed and floated. Getting in and out of the lake is a little precarious as there is only 1 guide suited for the float. We had about 6 children in our group and it is quite a scary feeling getting in the cold dark water. One of the kids panicked and started splashing and kicking around. As you cannot really move your head left to right without really lifting your head, I imagine the parent of this child would have also panicked. We floated for about 30 mins and at that point I would’ve been happy to leave, however we had to then wait in the tepee for the next group to go through the whole experience. We finally got back after dropping many off along the way at 11:30pm. This is a good experience but could be streamlined by Safartika. Northern lights were visible through iPhone this night but you couldn’t really be able to see from the water as it’s too hard to keep your head up. It’s also hard to get photos. One woman in our group gave the camera to the guide and we airdropped after the event.

A MUST DO! and our guide was fun and provided an exceptional experience! The lights on this particular night were AMAZING and our guide extended the tour so we didnt miss a moment!

THE BEST GUIDE - IRENA😍 lovely woman with amazing knowledge! She took us for Ice Floating, she showed us everything and made our dreams come true! It was so special to spend time with her and we will never forget it. Her involvement and and character was so charming, she was so open to our questions (we had A LOT)🤪 We really loved her and that trip!

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the complete disorganization of the tour. Two days before the tour, I was informed of an arbitrary schedule change, only for it to be reverted to the original time later. This should have been an early indication of the lack of coordination. Upon arriving at the meeting point, the area was overcrowded and chaotic, making it impossible to navigate or find assistance. There was no staff available to provide clear guidance, let alone respond kindly to inquiries. Eventually, a young man rushed us to a small 5x5 meter cabin packed with 20 people attempting to change in an incredibly cramped space. The so-called “guide” neither offered assistance nor explained what was going to happen. We were left to fend for ourselves, moving between the facilities and the water without any support. My mother was given a wetsuit that was already wet, which soaked her socks and thermal clothing before the activity even began. When she requested a different suit, the overcrowding made the situation unbearable, triggering claustrophobia and preventing her from completing the experience. The lack of organization was evident in every aspect: overbooked groups, poorly trained staff, and a complete absence of customer service. The facilities were inadequate, with just one restroom for an excessive number of people. The area where we were supposed to float was overcrowded, causing constant collisions with others. Back in the “dressing room,” there was no one available to assist with removing the wetsuit. Later, we were offered a small cup of hot sugary juice in another overcrowded space, where it was impossible to even sit down. The entire experience was unpleasant due to the poor equipment, excessive number of participants, and lack of service. I would neither recommend your tours nor book with your company again. In contrast, we recently participated in several tours with Arctic Circle, which provided a vastly superior experience. Their staff prioritizes customer care, uses high-quality equipment, offers spacious facilities, and handles everything professionally. I hope this reaches your customer service team. This was a complete organizational disaster, and we were deeply dissatisfied with every aspect of the tour

I wouldn’t put this on the top of my to do list. From all the experiences we had - this was our least favorite. We all enjoyed the floating in the water and the company is great - however compared to all the other incredible things available to do - this for us wasn’t a highlight. We did have a great laugh however in the outfits and floating about like bloated seals😬🤪

The experience of ice floating is amazing and highly recommended. The company we went to Nordic Unique travels is very bad. The activity was supposed to be at 7:30pm, they changed the time once to 5:30pm, then they changed it again to 7:30pm. On the day the tour guide called us at 6 asking where we were, saying the tour is at 5:30pm. We reached and showed her the message, she was understanding but the company didn’t do anything and they told us just go anyways you don’t need much time there which is not true. Thanks to guide she was flexible enough and gave us 15 minutes extra to complete the experience.

“I can still smell that suit if I think about it” says my friend a day after our float. Our experience wasn’t positive at all. The actual employees working were very nice and very hard working and I’m sure just operating with what they’re given….but the entire experience was rushed, felt like there were too many people and wasn’t even remotely relaxing. Three of our five suits leaked ice cold water inside which was not fun. All five of the suits were so smelly from previous users that they stunk so bad we had to wash our clothes and shower after to get the musty mildew smell off of us. One of them had black duct tape on it in multiple places. The person who oversaw our float used a flashlight the whole time so it was never actually dark, as he just used the flashlight to keep an eye on all of us. The other guests were so loud and joking around that it was never quiet. We laid in the water about 6 minutes before we got out and said “welp, that was awful”. It has the potential to be really really neat….IF they limit the amount of people to less than we had there (there was maybe 25 people floating at once), and they have to figure out a way to clean the suits after every use, because they’re gross.

We loved the experience, it was something completely different that we could never do at home. Only negative takeaway was that we had another nationality in our group, which was the same as our tour guide, so she spent most of the time talking with them, and barely acknowledged us. Was a little frustrating at times when trying to sort out some of the gear etc. but otherwise, it as fantastic.

The guide was helpful and friendly with all our questions. First time doing ice floating, it was fun but a bit confusing on how to move around in the water. Great activity, we managed to view aurora during our activity.

Our experience was amazing.. our tour guide Lea was outstanding she had all the knowledge of the tour, she helped us out from start to end. We even got a chance to watch the nothern lights.

Ice float was unique and a cool experience! I’d read other reviews recommending gloves and warm clothes under the dry suit but our guide suggested going down to the base layer and not wearing gloves. I wore gloves and the base layer - hands were ok but body was a bit cold. Apparently some of the suits have holes and the water gets in and soaks your clothes so you want to have something dry to get into he said!! Our guide Pau barely spoke and we did the drive in silence. Took about 30 mins to get there. He spent half the time we were there chatting to the other guides or on his phone. He would help with zipping the suit etc if asked though. We saw what we thought were the lights while floating but was told it was car light. When we got out and had our phones back we looked through the lens at more whispy lights and yes they were Aurora!! It’s a good experience and the floating feels very cool! Sadly we had a lot of cloud and a very noisy group which ruined the serenity but still very enjoyable

I joined the ice floating activity with Nordic Unique Travel in late November 2023. It was a deeply unpleasant experience, because (1) WATER LEAK in the suit; (2) Unprofessional behavior from the tour guides and assistants; (3) No rescue plan. After sharing my experiences on Google Review and Trip Advisor, I received a prompt response from Nordic Unique Travels. They expressed their gratitude for my feedback and apologized for their mistakes. They informed me that they had taken steps to rectify their workflow, enhance the quality of their tours, and improve the overall tour experience. Here are the specific actions they've taken: 1. They have issued warnings to the tour guides about the mistakes and unprofessional behavior and reinforced the guide training. 2. They have added a rescue worker (not a tour guide) to the ice-floating tour starting from December 7, 2023. 3. They have improved the workflow and SOP of the ice-floating tour, limiting the number of participants each time to ensure a smoother experience. This also allows tour guides and assistants to better observe and care for each participant. This new practice has been implemented starting from December 7, 2023. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Nordic Unique Travels genuinely value customer feedback. They not only acknowledged my experience but also took concrete steps to improve their services. Often, businesses may take advantage of a single customer's experience without making significant improvements. However, Nordic Unique Travels have shown a commitment to enhancing their offerings, demonstrating their desire to provide a better tour experience for their customers.

The experience was incredible, the suits are super confortable. Viktor is the best host and photographer!

Absolutely incredible trip! Our guide Gerry was amazing and so so helpful, would definitely recommend!

Amazing time with our guide Jerry! We saw the northern lights which were spectacular and he kept us entertained! Thoroughly recommend

Floating on an iced lake was a unique experience, even though you might be freezing. The best part was the Nothern Lights that came to sky. It was definitely a once in a life time experience and 100% worth it. Our guide was top-rating with all the telling-stories and helped us have the time of our lives. Thank you Matthias!

A nice experience. Not for people with disabilities. A great guide, very helpful and with a lot of patience, warm person. Great to watch the stars at night over a beautiful clean sky.

We had such a lovely time doing this activity! Thanks very much to our tour guide Chris (from Greece!) for being so attentive to our needs and taking extra time to helps us see Auroras!

Great experience and our guide Ana was really lovely and took great care of us. Although we didnt het to see the lights it was great fun. Would recommend a good pair of gloves to wear under the suit as this was the only part of me that got really cold.

Absolute blast. Very relaxing but also fun. Wish the Aurora was out when we did it, woulda made it even better. I highly recommend to adults and other couples

Fantastic floating experience in a frozen lake, with guide Edoardo who was punctual, informative & helpful. He explained everything in English as we were group of mixed people. He was showing all his efforts to help us in every-way specially with photos & videos. Thanks to you Edo for making our evening memorable with lots of photos & videos. Kudos:)

My suit had a hole in it, so as soon as I got in the water my clothes were soaked with freezing cold ice water. I had to sit in them for another couple of hours until we got home. I told the guide but he didn't care, he just hung the suit back up for the next person to use. Same thing happened to another person in our group and their suit was also hung back up, ready for the next person to have the exact same terrible experience. The guide seemed really annoyed with everything and didn't tell us where to go or what to do. We paid a lot of money to be there and it wasn't fun at all. Save your time and money and go somewhere else.

We really enjoyed the ice floating experience and our guide Alizeh P was really amazing and very helpful. We had a very good time because she was so friendly and made the experience more fun.

Surreal floating in an ice lake, an amazing difference experience and was nice to warm up with some hot berry juice and gingerbread after.

We were picked up promptly from the resort at 8pm by Telmo who was very knowledgeable about the lights. On the way there we stopped briefly as we did spot the lights, the view was then better when we got to the lake. They were only there for about 15 minutes so we were very lucky! We then got in the suits and in the lake, which was very shallow. The suits can be a little claustrophobic as they are very tight on the head and cover the mouth. The view of the stars was amazing and so was the gingerbread and hot juice afterwards. Thanks Telmo and team!

Amazingly experience and good customer service provided by Claudia and Elena. It is something different and interesting. Although we didn't see any northern lights but we have a clear sky of stars and beautiful milky way. No regrets!

What an experience!!! Huge THANK YOU to Thelmon, our guide, for making this experience super wonderful. He came and picked us up on time, very punctual, explained to us what we are going to do, he has even stopped the car so we can see Aurora before the destination. The experience itself its so fun, the costumes kept us warm while we were in the water but after 20 minutes we started to feel a bit cold. We were extremely lucky and we saw the Northern lights 🌌. I fully recommend this experience from Nordic unique travels . All the staff were super friendly and happy to help with absolutely anything, but Thelmon, our guide has been a star ! Thank you Thelmon for all the pictures that you have taken for us and for the romanian song that played at the end of our tour #horalaromani 🌌🤗

We had a great experience in the ice floating. We had a very good tour guide named Antonella. She does great job and do us to spend very good time there!! I think that she is one of the reasons that this experience was so good!

If you are looking for something totally different and completely random, then go for this! We went with Pepe and he was so much fun! He looked after us so well and couldn’t help us enough. The suits they provide are completely waterproof and insulated so have no fear, like we did! 😂 We sadly didn’t see any of the Northern Lights, but plenty of stars. Even just relaxing while floating in complete darkness & silence was good enough for me! Would recommend! *if you suffer from motion sickness, bring tablets. the floating can affect you in weird ways!*

We had booked the Experience of Ice Floating and watching the Northern Lights along with our pick up and drops to and frow the airport through Haneen at Nordic Unique Travels (NUT). It was a beautiful experience from the time we landed at the airport as they had arranged a lovely big van as we were 2 families with luggage. We all got to see snow for the first time and our driver meryem was very sweet n greeted us all. We were taken to their office in the city center where we were given Snow shoes full suit and gloves. It was -5 degrees and we had prepared ourselves for that weather. All our pick ups and drops were very well coordinated and the experience of Floating on the ice water Lake looking at the stars above was a life time experience. Though we were not so lucky that nite to get a spectacular view of the Northern Lights as there was slight rain. The next night at Apukka Resorts we got to see amazing views of the sky and northern Lights . The NUT is an awesome agency to deal with and I totally recommend them.

Christian our Colombian guide was amazing! Made us feel very welcome and explained everything in great detail.

Great experience. So glad we did it! We had an excellent guide Christian the Colombian! (Looks like a younger Lewis Hamilton!) who was fab and looked after us so well!

Excellent trip guided by Chris from Colombo. Chris was Friendly and good fun. We thoroughly enjoyed our dip into the lake and floating amongst the ice followed by some warm blueberry punch in the log cabin Thank you Chris! Excellent service

Our guides, Antonella, Francesco and Jaime were really nice! They took photos of us and maintained an amazing environment. Even though we couldn’t see northen lights, the experience was still very weird and different from anything else I’ve ever done!

Alaina, our guide was very nice. She took pictures for us using our own camera. Although the aurora was very light we did have fun in this once in a lifetime experience. I would reccommend.

We experienced something unique, floating on the water watching the northern lights. Everything was great, after the ice floating we enjoyed hot tea and cookies together with our guide Antonela, that helped us to make this perfect! Grazie!

Antonela!!! A really sweet leader, even just three hours activities but she helped us as possible as she could ❤️😁we really enjoyed it thank you

We loved this experience. A must do in Rovaniemi. Antonella and Juli (apologies if I have not spelled your names right guys) were the most lovely and welcoming hosts. So nice and caring. Thank you!! We got the additional bonus of catching the Northen Lights just before getting into our suits ... memorable :)