Lapland Winter Experience

Great snowshoe hike. Our guide Dorian was friendly and accommodating matching the tour to our wishes. The scenery was magnificent and the hike very enjoyable. We had some great laughs sinking into deep snow and trying to get up again.

It was chaotic. We were informed only 40 minutes in advance of the pick up time. When we got there (whereas it was mentioned the pick up would be done at our hotel), and had rushed the whole time, nobody took care of us, we eventually were given boots by someone who ‘happended”’to be there, and then, after 30minutes, we were taken by a man to a bus and he drove us to a place. I thought we were joining a group of people at a departure point, but I slowly came to the conclusion they had already left for quite some Time and the poor man was trying to find his way through Winter Lapland, on a place near a frozen lake. After having walked for already 20- minutes, he told us we had to go back and we quickly understood he had taken the (opposite) wrong way. We eventually met with the group, an hour later,they were not happy as they had been waiting for an hour in the cold. What was supposed to be a relaxing walk in the wonderful Lapland ended up being stressful and not enjoyable at all. The staff were super nice though, but the whole organisation was chaos. Also, the Trip Advisor add mentioned “campfire with a guide telling us about wilderness survival over a sausage and blueberry juice…”: it never happened and we got confirmed it had never been part of the plan! The guide accidentally had found matches and therefore could lit a fire for the other customers not to freeze while waiting for us… We are extremely disappointed to have paid 117 euros per person for such a poor service, not corresponding to what Trip Advisor had said it was about. We tried discussing the situation with Nordic Travels, but the communication was equally chaotic: they blamed it on us and wouldn’t acknowledge anything they had done was wrong . We would NOT recommend them, go on your own, Ubers are cheap and the hike is extremely easy (except the moment we were accidentally brought in the wrong direction and ended up on a spot “that was not safe”(quoting the man who was with us, doing his best to bring us to the group but evidently not an expert at hiking on frozen lakes).

Erik, Jan and Gaia were the most amazing guides, and the experience was absolutely unbelievable 🙌🏻

Of all the trips we did, this was the BEST! Jane was a fantastic guide, the trip was well organised and care was taken to ensure that everyone had the right equipment to engage in the activity. The views were amazing, I would absolutely do it again, and I would feel confident in booking other trips with Nordic Unique Travels on the basis of this experience.

Haneen from Nordic Unique Travels planned my entire trip for me- I was too busy to do research and she set up my 7 day itinerary from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, with something daily to keep me and my sons interested and hotels that were comfortable and affordable. We had the most friendly people at every step of the way. From gear rental, to transports and guides. Every single person we met was helpful, knowledgeable, and fun. Chris from Greece, Ramiro from Spain, Gabriella, Remy, Fotios, Luka, Eduardo, and so so many more people who took us on tours was incredible kind. We did an amazing afternoon with a Lappish handicraft workshop, learning about local culture from two artists who explained sustainability and culture that brought it all to life for my 8 and 11 year old sons. It was our favorite part, by far. I cannot recommend this company enough, they really went above and beyond for my family.

Trip was for Finland mainly to feel Arctic Circle, visit is memorable & enjoyed whole trip. View of Aurora Borealis, Santa Clause Village, Ice breaker Cruize, Stay in IceHotel Glass Igloo, Ferry trip to Tallin(Estonia)

We had this tour and it exceeded our expectations, here it’s why: The place where we went it is beautiful but having the experience of wearing the snowshoes, having the bbq and learning about the local culture / survival skills made our day complete. Thank you Malcolm for sharing your knowledge and being an amazing guide!

We had 2 fantastic days with Myriam Griecio - we saw Riisintunturi and went for a tour with an Ice breaker. Myriam was welcoming, approachable, flexible and super professionell

Our tour guides were a pair of great gyus, we had a blast on the hike, BBQ also very nice, tasty and cozy. Hike is not too long, good for anyone in any condition. Also the location was very beautiful.

Let’s talk about the highlights because there was some, we really enjoyed the Animal Day with the Husky ride Reindeer sleigh ride, and the Zoo visit we also enjoyed the ice restaurant and Husky night with Northern lights ( which we did see). We are hugely disappointed due to the lack of organization of the tours, it was mostly hurry up and wait, to sight the numerous mistakes would be too distressing to review, besides I did explain these to Michelo who seemed concerned but nothing was done, including a refund which he offered. We are still waiting. Travelers please beware of the Finish barbecue they offer mostly a mass produced precooked sausage you heat up on an open fire with 20 other travelers, okay it was good the first day but every night the same and three times in the same location, seemed like the movie “Groundhog Day”. Overall a really bad organized tour which was poor value for money. Hotel they also booked was poor.

Emily (our tour guide) was great and we had an amazing time snowshoeing and hiking with stunning views.

Beautiful scenery, unique experience. I recommend this tour to anyone who wants to feel what the real arctic atmosphere is like.

We had a great experience today doing hike in the wild forest. Beautiful scenery, and our tour guide Antonela was super kind and nice, she took good care of us.

It was a wonderful experience, I would never forget the great landscape we saw while snowshoeing on the frozen river and forest. Afterwards we made a bonfire and had sausages, marshmellow and berry tea. The guides were super nice too! :) I would so recommend this excursion to anyone and I am definitely coming back to Finland someday with my family to do this again.

I like it when people are on time. The tour started late and we waited in a van for a good 15 minutes. Woukd not recommend it.

We have a amazing experience, the entire team is super attentive, making the experience unforgettable. We did several tours, one better than the other, but be prepared because the cold is intense.

Just wow! Got to try snowshoes (surprisingly easy) as well as no snow shoes (impossibly hard) and met some lovely folk with an absolutely incredible guide by the name of Malcolm Hanks. Malcolm was a natural with the three youngsters on the tour (my 9 year old son thought he was great) and just made the day really special. The barbecue was surprisingly impressive - fish soup, sausages, berry juice and marshmallows all done on the fire (along with corn cobs for my vegetarian son). All round great experience which just made us want to go back as soon as possible.

Had a fantastic trip with Malcolm. He adapted to us really well ...my stepdaughter is very fit and I am less so. I never thought learning some survival skill could be so interesting. Malcolm is ex military and very experienced. He made this a very memorable trip....the forest he took us to was so silent and beautiful. Well worth it....worth asking for Makcolm.

Nice and short hiking into the woods with a lot of snow and amazing views. Our guide Sarka is really helpful and funny, we enjoy our tour a lot. They also make hot tea, salmon soup, and nice sausages.

I and my friend (2 women) booked 5 days winter experience in Pello, Finland. We were very looking forward as the itinerary was written pretty well. We're experienced travelers, very active and want to use every moment to enjoy fully. We paid 1'535 Eur per person, which was basically 383.75 Eur per day per person - 4 full days and 4 nights. 1. Food Quality We got the cheapest option of the food. First lunch was a form of a buffet, cheap quality, we couldn’t really have a normal soft drinks or tea without paying extra. 2 breakfast and 2 lunches in Pello were pretty ok. Lunch not provided last day with the comment that we were supposed to have lunch in Pello but it didn’t take place as we went to Rovaniemi. BBQ sausages, 1 corn and 1 soup were not sufficient food for our days but we understand how BBQ works. 2. Activities Husky ride on the first day took 2 mins and nobody told us about huskies at all. There were supposed to be 100 huskies and their puppies. This was a Husky Farm in Santa Klaus village. We complained and asked for the proper husky ride. We were not sure for almost 24 hours whether we get it but in the end our guide organized it. Husky ride took then 1 hour and this was the best experience for us in Lapland. However, for such price and as there are not that many things to do in Lapland, we expected to have the husky visit and husky ride for a half day. Other activities – snowshoeing and ice fishing were pretty good. However, there was 1 activity planned per day and it took max. 3 hours. There were no other plans to see or to do. As we enjoy fully vacation and want to see and experience as much as we can, we suggested to go to Ice castle, Ice Restaurant, small snow resort in Sweden. Our guide took us there. Reindeer Farm was great. Snowmobiling sleigh ride was great. 3. Alone in Lapland We expected we would spend some time with other people, other tourists who booked the same trip. We spent all days in Lapland on our own. Us two plus our guide. However, there were other people (we met another group with different guide). At least we could have spent BBQs with them. It was pretty boring. 4. Hotels We were supposed to be accommodated in 3 stars hotel. We ended up in low quality hotel in Pello, it was rated as 2 stars hotel according to booking.com. We were accommodated in the camp in Rovaniemi – a cottage with 4 rooms with other people. Our room had 3 double beds (one over the other)! This was too much!! We asked for 3 stars hotel and refused to sleep there. Our guide couldn’t organize it with her boss. We wanted to speak with him and he called us. I was so angry and had to even scream, as he didn’t want to give us 3 stars hotel. It was during our last activity (snowmobiling ride), you can imagine how this was spoiling our time. He called us after circa 1 hour and apologized and gave us 3starts hotel in Rovaniemi. As we had to go back and forth to the camp and our flight was too early, we slept there 3 hours. You can imagine how we were complaining and felt during our stay in Lapland. We would expect for such money a high service and I have to say that I wouldn’t recommend Tourradar to anyone after this experience. There were better activities, longer ones, which could be included in that trip. Lesson learned: We will never book such trip through the agency! Recommendation for Finland Lapland experience: Go on your own, organize a car and hotels and book activities directly with Huskies farms, Reindeer farms and book just some activities through agencies - snowmobiles, 1BBQ, etc. Then you're free to travel more to the North or wherever you want if the place you chose was not the best choice.

We booked this half day snowshoe activity at Nordic Unique Travels. Malk was a brilliant guide, organized a nice walk in the forest and showed a lot of technique about snowshoe hiking. At the end of the hike, we had a very good campfire experience. I highly recommend the trip and Malk as a guide!

We spent 1 extraordinary week in Rovianiemi. We had been well advised by Mégane and the on-site support was perfect. The guides, all very young and of different nationalities were really TOP. We enjoyed the outing in Snowmobile, sled dogs and snowshoeing. On the other hand the sauna evening disappointed us because for lack of accompaniment we could not access the lake. Hotel Aakenus is well located a little bit away. Clean, but very basic from the point of view of installation and food. The early March period was well chosen because temperatures were no longer too cold and snow was still present.

Fanden den Preise relativ hoch, wir sind einen Berg hoch gewandert und haben an einem Aussichtspunkt eine Tasse Tee bekommen. Die Gruppe war sehr groß. Der Transfer hat reibungslos geklappt und alle waren sehr freundlich.

Good value for money French Guide Clémence Very attentive and very pleasant And good organization with home recovery To go to the excursion.

Beautiful experience snowshoeing, with a guide (Diana M.) helpful, kind and competent on the place visited. SUPER experience, recommended!!!

We were completely disappointed by the hike. According to the description, there should be a hike through the forest, past rapids. However, we have seen very little of that. Instead, we went once across a frozen lake, 10 minutes along the edge of the forest and then back the same way across the lake. We got to know almost nothing about Finnish nature. Also the journey did not work well. We were picked up 15 minutes late and then had to wait more than 20 minutes outside the provider's office. Even before the “hiking” really started on site, another 15 minutes passed. The actual time of the hike was less than an hour! We made several trips during our holiday with different providers, all of which were worth their money. But this tour was really just a rip-off.

Notwithstanding the quality of the accompanying staff involved in the various activities, the rest of the organisation clearly leaves something to be desired. We were 11 people including 2 children and this systematic return to the office to pick up other tourists, drop the bags... is sometimes useless. The office is clearly undersized. Tourists hang around and try to find a place to try on wetsuits and shoes amid the packed suitcases. There is clearly an organizational problem, promoting profitability to customer satisfaction.

Too bad to sell 1 snowshoe trip while there is not enough snow, the guide is fine but he can do nothing about it, the agency does not do its job. M

A truly unforgettable experience with fabulous scenery and excellently organised tours. A special compliment for the courtesy, competence and sympathy to the guides Andrea , Nicholas, Hugo and Isoe 'always ready to answer any question. Luca

The day trip to Riisitunturi NP is expensive for a family (it's a shame there is no family discount), but it was the most beautiful trip here in the far north. Our guides Clemence and Miquel were GREAT. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about Lapland. The hike was beautiful, such a magical landscape. Wow. Clemence and Miquel also spoiled us with culinary delights. We would book these two again and again. Thanks again.

We booked an excursion to see the Northern Lights with Nicole. We had a great time sharing a meal around a fire. We are lucky to see many Northern Lights. Thanks again to Nicole for her kindness and spot.😀

Beautiful outing on snowshoes. Walk in the forest framed by our guide Antonela who is adorable, despite the language barrier she knew how to put us at ease.

Great day snowshoeing with a super cool French guide. Étienne allowed us to have a real experience. We caught plenty of eyes, the chosen course was sublime super experience for a first snowshoeing. We had a lot of information and explanations. A real reconnection with nature, thank you for this excursion Étienne 🙂 All closed with a small super friendly BBC.

How much fun we had. We took a nice walk in the woods with Alberto and Daniel, no snowshoes because the snow was not high enough (but there was!) until we reached the top of the hill, where we enjoyed a 360-degree panoramic view of the snowy woods all around us. On return large bonfire by the river and then down of barbecue and cranberry juice. Very good guides who entertained us and told us many anecdotes about Finnish life and local customs and customs.

Notre guide francophone Alizé au top....chouette promenade de 5-6km, belle vue panoramique, bon barbecue et bonne dégustation de thé aux myrtilles...

Many thanks to our guide Raymond for his good humor and kindness. Thanks to him, we had a great time around a barbecue after our snowshoe ride. Special thanks to Ryan, helpful and warm, who carried us on two expeditions with Unique Nordic Travels.

Super expérience. Notre guide Natalia était très agréable. Je conseille cette sortie en pleine nature

Highly recommended experience! We crossed a lake with the snowshoes and then continued walking through the forest, to finish with a barbecue. It has been amazing and much of it is thanks to our guide Telmo who has been attentive at all times and super friendly!