When visiting Rovaniemi in Finland, I highly recommend you enlist the services of Safartica tours for their helpful service and amazing adventures.
My friend had done quite a lot of research prior to arriving in the Lapland area of Finalnd to make sure we made the most of our 3 day trip there. We were keen to see huskies, ride with reindeers, go on snowmobiles, visit the various Santa attractions and get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. In most of her research, she came across reviews of a company called Lapland Safaris. There were many recommendations on websites such as Tripadvisor etc. and it seemed they were a good one to go with so she started to email them about the 2 year old boy we had travelling with us to best accommodate him.
When we arrived at our accommodation at Ounasvaaran Pirtit in Rovianiemi, we found a wealth of brochures to give us more information. One of the first ones I pulled out was Safartica and I started to browse to get a better idea of what they were offering. I read out loud the brochure as we compared it with the information that my friend had from her research.
It turned out that the timing; the pricing and the offerings in the packages were a little better for our group so we called them on Skype to check if we could have a baby with us and confirm details. The man on the phone was helpful, kind and very patient with my terrible line on Skype. We decided to book and as we had booked a few he would give us a 5% discount – and with high prices for some of these tours, every euro counts.
We went on the Northern Lights safari on our first night and the Husky Park and snowmobiles tour on our second day. We had planned to go to the Huskies on our third day but we found out from our guide there would be no skiing on that day as the weather was to be -26, again! It through a spanner in our plans as they only ran tours on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. He said actually, there was a special tour running on the Monday that he was running for a couple and we could move to the group! How amazing.
The Northern Lights was a wonderful experience. We were provided with extremely warm clothing from the company and well briefed on our adventure. The group was a nice size and we travelled to an area in 2 separate vehicles. We got a clearing on the sky that night after a foggy day and our experienced guide new to stop earlier than our planned cabin so we could get a chance to see them – and we did! They were amazing. Well done to our guide Aleksi. We then drove into the forest and trekked through the snow in snow shoes, very novel. We had a wood cabin with fire that we could spend time in or we could go out in the snow shoes and trek around. We were made a traditional Finnish light meal and told about the stars. It was such an end to end experience with the highlight of course being the lights in the night sky but also the hospitality, the atmosphere and the service.
We also went on the snowmobile and husky tour. We again had Aleksi and he was clever to make arrangements with us to keep our equipment and he picked us up and dropped us off, door to door. We had a good rapport and the process was all very easy. They were also wonderful to help as it turned out the sled option for our 2 year old traveller might be very uncomfortable. They arranged for a driver to take one of the parents with him one way, and the other can ho with him on the return journey, this meant that both parents got a ride at the snowmobile! So accommodating. We had a fantastic snowmobile ride that brought us to the Husky Park. We took a ride in a sled drawn by the huskies and got to get up close and personal with them. We had some snacks and a talk by the fire to warm up before heading back to the town on snowmobiles.
Our guide Aleksi was knowledgeable, helpful and caring. He made an extra effort to make sure all in our groups needs were met and ensured our comfort and enjoyment at all times. The whole team at Safartica were really genuine and made our experience so easy and pleasant.
I highly recommend this tour company and hope to come back to Rovaniemi in the future to experience more great adventures in this beautiful region.
Lovelly Travels 