The trip cost us about 13K each which covers return flights, accommodation, transportation and 2 meals a day. It was a steal as the accommodation that they booked for us was more than satisfactory. We were chauffeured everywhere and the halal meals were also much appreciated as they were very hard to come by in the Nordic countries.
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| Aurora in Tromso, out side our lodge |
We visited 3 countries. We landed in Tromso, Norway. We spent 3 nights there and we even managed to see our first aurora on the first night from our accommodation. We also did a lot of souvenir shopping in Tromso. We joined a fjord cruise and did a bit of fishing. Eddy even manage to catch a trout. The snow during the cruise was rather brutal but overall, we enjoyed Tromso so much.
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| Aurora in Kiruna |
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We left Tromso and proceed to Kiruna Sweden. The drive seems to take us forever but it was very scenic. We spent 1 night in Kiruna. We managed to catch just a glimpse of aurora as the sky was so clear. I did record a timelapse of aurora using our DJI camera from our room.
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| Aurora in Levi |
Then we moved on to Levi, Finland. We stayed for 1 night at a hotel near a ski resort. We were glad that Finland has bidet in their hotels and public toilets. They served very nice breakfast too. We were also introduced to public sauna. We were tempted but did not partake. In Levi, the sky was so clear however, we only manage to catch a glimpse of the aurora. They moved very quickly that night.
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| Aurora in Rovaniemi |
From Levi, we then head to Rovaniemi where we spent 2 nights at a lodge near Santa Village. This was sort of our main event as the chance for aurora sightings were much higher in the Lapland. True enough, we manage to catch the most dramatic one on our last night in Rova. The light show lasted for more almost an hour. We almost got frost bite as it was -20 degree at night.
Rova was a bit more special because our private lodge was equipped with a sauna. We enjoyed it so much. Probably much more than we enjoy Santa Village.
Personally, I think Santa Village was too commercialized. I dont have the heart to do the reindeer ride or the husky ride. We spent most of our time in Santa Village shopping for some souvenir, browsing the many shops and drinking coffees and hot chocolate. We left Rova and made our way down south to Helsinki. We stopped at Jeyvaskyla for a night before continuing to Helsinki Airport.
This is a summarized version of the whole trip as I am currently not in the mood to write but I just need to do it as I am going on another holiday next week. Other places we visited were the Elves Village and the Ice Hotel. In Tromso, we also went on a cable car but I think we chose the timing wrong as there were no aurora to be seen. Another highlight for me was grocery shopping. When the accommodation did not come with breakfast, we were given an allowance to shop for our breakfast. That was so much fun.
In short, it was a laid back holiday for me. We were used to packed itinerary so this was a nice changed of pace for us. It made me rethink of my next holiday. I am thinking of taking my parents to NZ. I could apply what I learned in this holiday when preparing itinerary for NZ. It has to be laid back, chill and no rush. Just 1 big ticket item per day. May Allah ease.