In this video, we’ll be sharing 10 things you should know before
visiting Finland. Tips such as using transport to get around the country,
or whether driving yourself in the snow is a good idea, things to keep in mind when booking
its more unique accommodation options, and how to easily beat its cold climate.
These tips are all based on our previous holiday, where we visited Helsinki,
the capital in the south, Rovaniemi, the popular town for Santa Claus and winter activities,
and Kakslauttanen, a famous glass igloo and log cabin resort, for a countryside
snowy getaway. Check out our main Finland vlog for what we got up to while we were.
So first, let’s discuss some options arriving into
Finland and then getting around the country itself.
Now, most international flights will land into Helsinki, at the very south end of the
country. Being the capital, it’s a great base to start, with cathedrals, museums, and parks.
Helsinki also has a great domestic setup for flights, with numerous routes then
heading north towards Lapland, for the more open countryside holiday. For our trip,
we used the Rovaniemi and Ivalo Airport, which were both only then
a 30 minute drive to all the major hot spots, after a quick 90 minute flight.
It is worth mentioning that if you only want to experience Lapland,
there are some routes that will take you straight there,
so it’s worth checking your local airport. But flight times will be more limited than
landing straight into Helsinki. And just as a by the by, we found FinnAir to be excellent on
every flight we took so I’d definitely recommend them if you have the choice.
As an alternative If you do start in Helsinki, its good to know, that the bottom half of
Finland is covered really well by train, but this becomes less of an option the further
north into Lapland you go. As one example, there’s a direct train route to Rovaniemi
that takes between 8 and 12 hours, and can either booked as a normal seat or an overnight cabin.
For travel then around Lapland, buses would be the easiest option and I’ve linked a couple of
companies in the description below and pinned comment. Onnibus seems to be the budget option,
but since we didn’t use them I can’t comment on their reliability.
It is worth noting that although this video isn’t sponsored by JEE Travels as
the previous video was, they’d be another easy option, as their packages all include private
transfers from A to B and again I’ve linked them in the description and pinned comment.
Outside of taking a ride on a reindeer, the last option would be renting a car and driving around
yourself. Specifically talking about the Winter season, I would only recommend this if you’re
comfortable driving in snowy conditions. If, you have experience driving in lots of snow
in a country like England, for example, then you’ll probably be fine here, given that the
roads are better taken care of and the cars are more likely to be built for these conditions.
If you’re still on the fence though, just be aware that there are some extra hurdles when driving
here. You’re often driving with little light, given that the sun only pops up for a few hours,
when cars overtake or trucks pass, they tend to blur your vision for a decent amount of time,
there will be ice at some point that you’ll need to deal with, and in Lapland, you should
always keep alert for deer running out into the road. If anyone has driven abroad in Finland,
please do let me know how you found it in the comments, as I’d be interested to hear.
In terms of when to visit Finland, the country can generally be broken
down into North and South, so feel free to pause now for an overview.
But if you’re looking for the winter wonderland we had,
Lapland is usually snowy from November to April and Helsinki from late December to March.
A high peak for hotel prices is the week we visited, which was around Christmas and New
Year. This is a busy time as people obviously want to meet Santa while he still suffers a
hangover. The key here though, is that meeting Father Christmas is a year round activity so my
overall suggestion for a Winter holiday, would be February or March. The days are longer so you
have more light for activities, the snow is still abundant, there’s a better chance of seeing the
Northern Lights and Santa will still be there to greet you, whether its Christmas or Valentines.
That makes June to August the best months for quote a Summer holiday.
After visiting in the winter, I am now really curious to visit again
during this time to experience what would undoubtedly be another side of Finland.
Next, accommodation. In our previous vlog, I wasn’t able to feature the Helsinki hotel we
stayed in, which was a shame as we really loved it and I’d recommend this hotel if
you want to be super central. The room was cozy, it had a heated floor in the bathroom,
the staff were great, the breakfast was enjoyable, both by serving good food,
but also the dining room itself, looking out onto the harbour. Big recommendation
all round and prices start from around €160 for 2 adults with breakfast.
Also, on our last night, as we had an early flight back to London,
we stayed on the Helsinki Airport grounds itself, so a 10 minute walk from baggage claim,
starting around €130. So if you were considering a connecting flight either
domestically or back to your home country as we did, I’ll link this one below also,
which all support the channel at no extra cost to you so thank you in advance.
The glass igloo was a bucket list type of accommodation for me, and an enjoyable night,
even though we didn’t get to see the Northern Lights. But,
it is worth saying that if we had of experienced hours of light activity whilst laying in bed,
it would probably rank as one of THE best hotel experiences I’d ever had.
So be prepared that you will be paying for THAT POTENTIAL and prices do reflect this,
with the igloos starting in the late €500s per night. This is for 2 adults,
and includes breakfast and dinner which were both buffet and were ok.
Although this resort was the first to create the glass igloos for tourists,
there are countless similar resorts all over Lapland. The one we stayed in was their small one,
but there are larger ones you can book here too. There’s also super luxury ones,
such as this one in Levi, which is a popular resort town 2 hours
north of Rovaniemi and gets the best review scores I’ve found.
Also, just to note, all of these igloos around the country, do sell out, so book
early if this is something you are specifically interested in and want to book the holiday around.
The log cabins we stayed in start at a similar price. In the end,
we much preferred these over the igloos as it was larger,
felt more cozy and the built in sauna was lovely. Public saunas are usually single sex so for us,
having our own private sauna was the best way to enjoy the heat together. Overall, I’d say,
although the igloos are a unique novelty that get better with the Northern Lights,
these cabins will always deliver so I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind when choosing.
Just an extra point concerning costs. In general, we did find Finland to be
on the more expensive side. And we found that prices could vary massively across the country.
For example, the starting price for a husky experience at the Santa Claus
Village was €40 per adult compared to being 4 times greater at our hotel 2 days later.
To be clear though, this isn’t a like for like comparison. The €40 version was a 10 minute ride,
next to the busy Santa Claus Village and the €160 version is a 1 hour ride and in a much more open,
peaceful, countryside location. But my point is, maybe you only want the 10 minute version, so just
check your activity options ahead of time, and not just being stuck with what’s in front of you.
Our trip was broken down into 3 sections with 2 nights at each:
Helsinki, Rovaniemi and Kakslauttanen. This breaks down nicely into city, snowy town
with lots of wintery activities and then snow filled countryside with built in relaxation.
I think this itinerary works really well but if you wanted more relaxation time,
I’d just add an extra night in either or both of Rovaniemi and Kakslauttanen or just spend
all your time in Lapland so you aren’t moving around as much. Again if you haven’t seen it,
do check out our full Finland vlog which will show you how we spent our time here.
It’s hard to judge Helsinki properly as a destination,
since we were only there on Christmas Eve when the shops and museums we’d normally be visiting,
were all closed. But, since it’s a fairly small capital,
I reckon a full day here would be sufficient, but please comment below to share your experiences.
One area I couldn’t cover as much as I wanted to in that video, was our Helsinki day trip
to Tallinn, Estonia which, if you have the time, I wanted to put this on your radar.
Tallinn is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe that we
probably never would have seen, and provided a great contrast to everything else we did.
We were also really impressed with the Ferry journey and port experience in
itself. Now maybe it’s because we just had zero expectations, but what we actually got
was closer to a mini cruise liner, with restaurants, shops, bars, and viewing
platforms. I’ve linked both the tour guided trip we took below, along with ferry company itself.
So depending on how much you enjoy shopping for clothes, this is either the fun section or the
not fun but still incredibly necessary section. What to wear for a Winter Finland holiday when
you’re looking at -10 to -15 degrees. First of all, don’t worry too much if you
aren’t warm enough when you’re here. Both Helsinki and Rovaniemi had loads of clothes shops where you
could buy the right gear if you were missing something. They almost certainly would be
more expensive than buying them back home, but my point us, you do have a backup. Also, its good to
know that lots of the activities we did provide you with extra clothes as part of the package.
So, having said all that, the number one general tip is layering. With a base,
mid and outer layer working best. This spread here represents all my layers,
which I would mix and match from, but sometimes double up if the activity called for it.
Again, some of these items will be linked in the description and pinned comment.
Starting like a cat burglar, we begin with the base layer – thermal leggings,
and a long sleeved shirt. For these, merino wool is the most recommended;
It’s sweat absorbing, quick dry, odour resistant and is a naturally insulating
and breathable fabric. It will cost more but is worth it and is what Chiaki had.
Outside of Merino Wool, synthetic or blended base layers such as viscose or polyester are also a
good option and that’s what I was using. For those who live in a country where this is relevant,
we found the Decathlon store to be the best mix of both value and quality and
most of our stuff was from here, but other outdoor activity stores would be great.
Next, you have the mid layer which keeps the heat in. For the upper mid layer,
you want something like a fleece, wool top or insulated puffer jacket. Because I’m a wuss,
I was sometimes wearing all three but it also depends on how good each item is on its own.
For the lower mid, I was just using these Uniqlo trousers with an inside
fleece that I typically wear in England. The outer layer needs to protect you from
the elements, so either a waterproof hiking jacket like this one, a big down or puffer coat,
or ski jacket; Something that would be good against the rain,
wind or snow. You can get down jackets that are also water resistant like Chiaki
has here and that would be ideal. But again, I already owned a great puffer coat as well
as a thin water proof jacket so I just put them on top of each other when necessary.
For the bottom outer layer, I just wore waterproof trousers,
which are especially helpful if you sit down or get wet.
Oh and jeans by the way are an absolute no-no so just leave them at home.
Other obvious items such as gloves and scarves are maybe even more important
as your head needs to be kept warm. For more than a decade,
I’ve sworn by these 180 ear warmers, which pull tight around your ears and reduce cold airflow.
I also found these amazing gloves on Amazon that let me still use my
phone for filming. They do have the option to expose your finger
tips but it was still so cold I ended up mostly keeping my fingers inside.
Finally, make sure to wear a warm pair of snow boots or hiking boots
as you may be walking in deep snow and you do not want cold,
wet feet. Wool socks are great again, and for the reindeer ride, I used these tow warmers
which really helped and are an easy cheap purchase which can make all the difference.
Do check out the pinned comment and description for all links mentioned
in this video, as they’ll act as a helpful resource for you.
If you’ve found any of this useful, please do leave a thumbs up as it really helps us, and let
us know your thoughts below. What are your biggest take aways from this video and Finland in general?
Unless something comes up, the next video I’ll be working on is
Canada so expect radio silence for a while, as its going to be a big one.
So, until the next one, thanks for watching Suitcase Monkey.