Father Christmas Lapland Magic 4 day trip to Lapland

Wilderness Hotel Nellim

Cozy, rustic family run Wilderness Hotel Nellim offers adventures with quality in authentic surrounding of Lake Inari in Northern most part of Lapland.

Day 1 in Lapland

Depart Heathrow at 10.20 on Finnair scheduled flight(s) via Helsinki to Ivalo. On arrival your Lapp guide takes you by private coach to Nellim by Lake Inari, the ancestral burial ground of the Sami people whose spirits are auspicious for making your dreams come true.  At the hotel make straight for your room, apartment or cottage where your thermal clothing will be ready, so you can play in the snow straight away before a warming berry juice and buffet supper.

DAY 2 in Lapland

After breakfast it’s time to meet Christopher’s pack of  huskies, whose kennels in the forest are just a short walk from the hotel and whose excited barking slowly magnifies as you approach them through the trees. Grown-ups mush in pairs with their own team whilst children ride behind your guide in a special sled.  As the dogs pull you along a snow-carpeted trail the silence is broken only by the whooshing sound of slicing sleigh runners. Stop en-route for a warming berry juice by an open fire.  Lunch back at the hotel.

In the afternoon, it's party time on the frozen lake with tobogganing, ice fishing, snow shoeing and cross country skiing.  Concurrently, each family travels individually by snowmobile sleigh to meet Father Christmas at a secret place in the forest known only to your guide.  Once discovered, a friendly elf takes you inside and children make known their wishes which Santa and the Sami spirits of Inari will try and make come true.  In the evening children bake cookies and help decorate a Christmas tree, before the flickering light from the windows of Nellim's Kota beckons you across the snow covered old schoolyard for a traditional Sami buffet served in front of a blazing fire.

DAY 3 in Lapland

After breakfast it’s time for a family wilderness adventure safari by snowmobile, following your guide along a trail amongst the the pine and spruce bordering the rock-fringed shoreline of Lake Inari with grown ups paired together and children wrapped up under warm reindeer skins in a specailly built sleigh.
After crossing a mix of tundra, ice sheet and forest floor, lunch is cooked over hot wood embers from an open fire in a clearing, before leaving along a fresh trail leading back to the hotel.  We will also meet reindeer and have the opportunity to feed them.
Time for children to re-charge their batteries before a traditional Sami Christmas buffet supper.  Later you hear the voices of Nellim school's children calling in the wind amongst the trees and find they have told Santa where you are and that he's riding in his sleigh outside to meet you.  He attends to make earlier wishes come true and deliver a small present to everyone, grown ups and children alike.   

DAY 4 in Lapland

After breakfast, time at leisure for last minute tobogganing and snow shoeing at the Lake’s shore before transferring to Ivalo for Finnair scheduled flight(s) to Heathrow where you arrive at 17.10 local time.