Lapland

[santa]

Has anyone taken their children to Lapland to see Santa and other iterating excursions? We would like to take out children and stay in a nice hotel. We would rather not go on a package tour.
Any feedback or recommendations?

[archives]

Has anyone taken their children to Lapland to see Santa and other iterating excursions? We would like to take out children and stay in a nice hotel. We would rather not go on a package tour.
Any feedback or recommendations?

there was a detailed discussion on this last winter, check the archives

[Not Canterbury Travel]

All I can suggest is that you AVOID Canterbury Travel like the plague.  They used to be excellent but became victims of their own success and now overbook tours (multiple coach loads passing one another on the road, skipping elements of the trip to make way for others etc.).  In a  number of cases, the magic of Christmas came to an end for children because of the poor management of Canterbury Travel Staff.  They have a number of different websites, so check the tour operator, not just the website. 

[Easy]

For the sake of simplicity, let's assume you are now talking of Lapland as Rovaniemi, Finland.

Just fly to Helsinki, then hop into another flight to Rovaniemi or take the overnight train. Sleeping compartments are pretty good. Then rent a car at Rovaniemi [you can also rent a car in Helsinki and load into the train so no need to drive all the way, it's at least 1000km. In the Finnish winter, that's a long drive]. There aren't that many roads around Rovaniemi so you have to try pretty hard to get lost.

If you rent a car, make sure you know how to cope with the darkness, snow, reindeer and the cold - last time I was out there the temperatures were between -30 and -35 but I have been told that was a bit unusual. Santa's village is not that far from Rovaniemi (it's exactly at the arctic circle so you get to tick that off from your to do list, too). There's also the Santa Park which may be a bit too much of a ran down tourist trap - at least that's the way it used to be.

Not much else to see or do there (skiing might be an option - but the decent hills are still a bit further North except for Syote [add an umlaut or two] - and then there are the husky/reindeer/snowmobile rides/safaris) so you probably don't want to plan to stay a whole week.

Lapland in general is pretty big and empty area - not unlike Australian outback. Distances are long, services poor and the scenery not that inspiring. It changes once you get to Norway when things get mountaneous but be prepared for long distances and a lot of lonely miles. With kids, especially if they are not used to the cold weather, you may want to keep it rather simple.

[You mean]

Lap land. The place lap dancers come from - right?