Finland and Norway – 7-Day Nordic Christmas Experience Tour

In the Finnish capital, the first real snow is usually coming on Christmas, it will cover the entire city in a pure white atmosphere, and create a Christmas feeling through the Christmas decorations of Aleksanterinkatu. Our first stop will be Helsinki´s cathedral, the most famous white cathedral in Northern Europe. Shortly after we will visit Uspenski Cathedral, on our way to Tuomaan Markkinat (St. Thomas Christmas Market). Feel the true Scandinavian Christmas atmosphere in this lively street market. For lunch, we will enjoy a traditional Finnish Christmas lunch, before we continue to the Sibelius Monument. The Sibelius Park is a park erected to honor Jean Sibelius, a remarkable Finnish composer. For dinner, we will have something not so conventional but certainly tasty: Arctic Seafood Sashimi. Once we are ready, we will begin our trip to Rovaniemi in Santa´s comfortable night train, equipped with double rooms.

  Rovaniemi is the first stop in the Arctic Circle! The area is mysterious and beautiful. In addition to the world's only Santa Claus, there is a magical summer midnight sun and a stunning winter aurora borealis! Santa Claus Village is probably the most exciting place in the world. Santa Claus will listen carefully to your wishes. Are you ready to meet Santa?During your visit to Santa´s Post Office, you can purchase a variety of Christmas cards. Cross the Arctic Circle and get a Certificate.  After meeting Santa, we will visit a snow castle, experience the amazing architecture and ice sculptures and have fun with the high speed sledding in the snow toboggans. Afterwards, we will try a reindeer meat meal, before we go to Santa´s Park! During this visit, we will meet Santa´s elves!  For dinner, we will try Arctic Salmon dinner cooked straight on a fire, following the pure Lappish barbecue style and, once we are full, we will go to an amazing experience in our Aurora Nest! A small mobile house pulled by snowmobiles, in which you will have a chance to see the Northern lights!

  We will begin this most exciting day with a snowmobile ride through the arctic forest. Very close from there, we can find a husky farm where we will enjoy a 10 km Husky ride, a taster of the most traditional means of transportation in the arctic regions. For lunch we will enjoy a sample of the traditional local cuisine, arctic whitefish, and afterwards we will visit a Sámi art workshop. In the workshop we will go through the crafting process used by a Sámi family of artisans, who will show us their techniques and their way of living. In the evening, we will enjoy dinner in a restaurant inside a Snow Castle. And after being stunned by this breathtaking construction, we will be shown our rooms, also in the snow hotel!

In the fourth day of our trip, we will go on a trip! After breakfast we will travel to Norway in search of king crabs. Norway's sea is a paradise for king crab catching all year round, the only difference is winter crab meat is harder! We will embark on a hunting King Crab Cruise and sail into the arctic fjord. The fishermen will dive into the crystal clear Arctic Fjord, hunting underwater crabs and Arctic sea urchins and scallops. Everything we hunt, we will bring it with us for instant cooking, you will be involved in the whole process and enjoy a fresh meal! Later on the day, we will have a traditional dinner: Norwegian deep sea trout dishes, and you will be able to choose where you want to stay for the night, a four-star hotel by the sea or a forest Chalet Hotel.

Today we will explore in depth the Sámi culture. We will travel to Saariselkä, a small but attractive town surrounded by the wilderness. We will visit a Sámi farm and a Sami Museum and, once we know everything about the Sámi, we will enjoy a traditional lunch. After the food, we will climb to the top of Saariselkä´s hill, and enjoy the astonishing views of Lapland from there. To add more history to our day, we will visit the gold rush museum, where we will improve our gold panning skills. For dinner we will eat a delicious arctic char meal, and with our bellies full, we will go on the hunt for Northern Lights. There is nothing better after an exhausting day that a night in a 4-star SPA hotel double room!

Back in Rovaniemi, we will try some more adventurous activities. We will go snowshoeing through a wild forest all the way down to a lake, where we will try some ice fishing! We will prepare a barbecue in the snow where we will have a chance to grill our catch of the day. We will then return to civilization, with a stroll around Rovaniemi´s Christmas Market, where you will find a lot of souvenirs and lovely memories.  For dinner, we will take you to savor the arctic duck and, once you are full, we will go on an exciting Northern lights hunt by snowmobile. You will spend the night in an astonishing Ice Hotel or Forest Chalet, at your own choice.

In the last day of the tour, we will climb to the top of Ounasvaara Hill, from where we will see all Rovaniemi under the beautiful sunrise. We will also visit the Ranua Wildlife Zoo and its 50 different species.  After the lunch, you will have some free time until the evening, when we will fly to Helsinki.