Girl feeding reindeer in snow (Jessica Lynn)
Instead of shopping online for the latest sale on Black Friday last year, my family of five, plus my mom who was visiting us, hopped an early-morning flight from Brussels Charleroi Airport to Rovaniemi, Finland, a city in the north region of Lapland. One of the coolest things about living in Europe is getting a taste of places most people only dream of visiting. I was nervous that “just a weekend” wouldn’t be long enough for a place like Finland, but it ended up being the perfect amount of time.
As we descended into Rovaniemi, I swear our entire Ryanair flight said, “Oh, wow!” at the same time. The entire area—from the tips of the evergreens to the airport’s runway was covered in a blanket of snow. It was magical.
Fueled with coffee, hot chocolate, and seat warmers in our rental van, we made a mad dash — at a very slow, safe speed while driving on ice for the first time — over to the highly anticipated SantaPark, a Christmas-themed amusement park underground and inside a cave.
We made the most of our time at SantaPark. We crossed over the underground Arctic circle, met Santa Claus, decorated gingerbread cookies with Mrs. Claus, learned the secrets of the trade at an Elf Academy, rode some rides, met an ice princess and capped the adventure off with a fun Elf performance. The entire thing was cute and charming, and best of all: the kids loved it.
While staying in a glass “igloo” is a popular accommodation in Rovaniemi, we booked an Airbnb next to a frozen lake about 30-45 minutes north of Rovaniemi. We wanted the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights, along with a place where we could relax and enjoy rural Finland. Not only did we unwind at our home-away-from-home and enjoy the authentic Finish sauna attached to the house, but the tranquility and beauty surrounding us was something out of a fairytale.
We made s’mores outside (we brought graham crackers and marshmallows with us), walked and played across the frozen lake. The kids made snow angels and had snowball fights, drank hot chocolate and we even saw local roaming reindeer near our place.
We visited Lapland to see the Northern lights and downloaded two highly recommended apps (My Aurora Forecast & Alerts and Aurora Forecast) that send alerts when the conditions are optimal to see the lights. Unfortunately, we had very high cloud coverage over our weekend. Nonetheless, whenever we’d get an alert, even at 3 a.m., we’d suit up (pull on all our warm gear), head to our dock on the lake and tilt our eyes towards the north.
Lo and behold, one night the clouds blew away and we caught a glimpse of the aurora borealis. While our eyes saw a gray, hazy-like wave in the sky, our phone caught some green/blue undertones. Was it the dancing lights we’ve seen in photos and videos? Nope, but it was there!
Keep an eye out next week for part two where you can read all about our time at Santa Claus Village and our reindeer sleigh ride.
For more of Jessica’s travels with her family, check out her blog where you can find “everything from travel guides fit for families, tips on navigating military life, meals our family actually eats (aka kid-approved food!), and so much more:” www.jessicalynnwrites.com.
