Planning A Trip To Rovaniemi, Finland

A year ago I was scrolling through Pinterest looking at Christmas destinations. I came across Rovaniemi, Finland. Rovaniemi is a stunning winter wonderland that Santa calls his hometown. I immediately knew this was a place I wanted to take my kids. My children are 8,6, and 3 and I knew this might be our last year to seize the opportunity while the magic of Christmas is still alive and well for all three. I knew it was a far-fetched bucket list trip seeing we live in Florida but I still approached my husband about going. To my pleasure and surprise, he said yes!  So here we are planning a trip to Rovaniemi, Finland with kids. We hope we can share tips that will help you plan your trip to Rovaniemi, Finland.

Post Trip Tips: We are now back from our trip and I would like to share additional tips we learned while we were there. Look out for the post-trip tips for this information.

My Little Elves

During our planning, we have received help from some elves of our own ;). Visit Rovaniemi has been a huge help. They are sponsoring some of our activities while we are in Rovaniemi, Finland (I will indicate which ones in the paragraphs below). Their representative and website have been a huge help in planning the variety of activities we will participate in while in Rovaniemi.  

General Planning Questions

How Early Do I Need To Start Planning My Trip?

If you plan on visiting in December like we are, I highly suggest you start planning a year out. I began my planning approximately 6 months out and I was surprised at how many of the hotels were already booked up. So I definitely say the earlier the better.

Do we need special visas, vaccines, or drivers license?

No. Additional vaccines and visas are not required to visit Rovaniemi, Finland. American driver’s license are accepted for rental cars in Finland.

How many days do I need in Rovaniemi?

Of course this question is going to depend on what activities you want to accomplish while in Rovaniemi. We spent 3 days traveling to and from Rovaniemi. Therefore we had 5 days to schedule activities. This was a good amount of time to get in everything we wanted to see. I think planning a week in Rovaniemi is a perfect amount of time. If I had the time I would have loved to stay longer and visit some of the neighboring cities.

How Do I Get To Rovaniemi?

What is the most affordable way to get to Rovaniemi?

While there are going to be many factors that play into the answer to this question we found Norweigan to be the cheapest airline to get us from Florida, USA to Rovaniemi. It is important to note that there may not be any direct flights to Rovaniemi from the United States. We have 2 layovers on the way over and we land in Helsinki. On the way home we will leave Rovaniemi and we will have one layover.

While many of the major airlines in the US fly to Finland (I did a lot of experimenting on different routes with leaving from different airports), none of them even came close to the price we got with Norweigan. With that being said, we also opted for the base layer price. This means that we have to pay for any luggage we plan to check (we are doing carry-ons only-wish me luck) and we also do not receive food on the flight.

Post-Trip Tip: As mentioned above we purchased the base layer price. The base layer price allows you to bring on one small carry on and a personal item. Norweigan will send you the size and weight requirements for these bags prior to the trip. Pay close attention to these. In all my years of travel I have never had my personal item weighed. They are not joking when they say the combined weight of the two bags cannot be more than 10kg. We had to throw out a couple of items because one of our pairing was over.

In addition to the luggage requirements, there is no food or drink included in this price. We underestimated how this would work out. We thought we would have time between flights to grab a bite to eat but unfortunately with customs, going back through security, and planes being late we were unable to grab food. This means we ended up spending quite a bit of money on food and drinks on the plane.

If I had to rebook I think I would still choose the base price ticket. While we had additional expenses we didn’t plan for, we still made out cheaper than if we would have bought the higher-level ticket.

Overnight Train-Santa Claus Express Questions

While the price is pretty comparable, when deciding between taking a plane or train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi we opted for the train. We felt like it would add to the magic of our trip to be able to arrive in town by train.

How Do I Book Tickets For The Train?

The official site for the VR trains is found here. I had heard that children travel for free but I wasn’t sure how to book that online. I found it a little difficult to navigate their website. Children are in fact free. Here is what their website has to say:

“Children aged 10 and younger travel free of charge on night trains with a parent in the same sleeping compartment if a berth is not booked for the child. You must inform VR if a child will travel with you when buying your tickets. Children under the age of 4 do not need tickets. Get your tickets permitting children aged 4 to 10 to travel free of charge from ticket offices or by phone from VR Customer Care.“

I contacted VR through their phone number: +358 9 2319 2902 and the customer service representative was very helpful. We opted for one berth for the five of us. I’ll let you know how that goes :/

Post-Trip Tip: While you are in extremely tight quarters one berth is doable for 2 adults and 3 small children. If comfort is what you are looking for I would opt for 2 berths. Check out our post on Traveling on the Santa Claus for more tips for riding the Santa Claus Express.

Where Do We Catch The Santa Claus Express? Does it leave from the airport?

To take the Santa Claus Express you need to take the I or P train from the airport to the Central Train Station. You can catch the Santa Claus Express Train from here. The I and P trains run every 15-20 minutes. The journey takes approximately 35 minutes. Adults cost 4.60 euros and children cost 2.30 euros.

Are there day trains available from Helsinki to Rovaniemi if you happen to miss the night train?

Yes, there are day trains available that travel from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.

Rental Car-Do we need one?

According to our contact with Visit Rovaniemi, if you are staying in the city center it is likely a rental car may not be necessary. However, a good determining factor for deciding whether to rent a car or not will definitely depend on the activities you look to participate in while in Rovaniemi.

Rovaniemi is quite a compact city and everything is more or less within walking distance. Santa Village is accessible by taxi or with Bus 8 (timetables, routes, and ticket prices can be found at Visit Rovaniemi). There are also plenty of places to park with a rental car. Many of the excursion/safaris will provide transportation to and from the city center. If you are planning any day trips from Rovaniemi to other locations then you might want a rental car.

Another tip we were given by a fellow blogger was to get a rental car to hunt the Northern Lights. We have a rental car scheduled for 3 nights in case we want to sightsee outside of Rovaniemi as well as to try and see the Northern Lights.

Post-trip tip: We ended up picking up our rental car a day early and we were happy to have it. While there are options for transportation outside of a rental, we found it so nice to be able to go whenever we wanted without having to contact someone or wait in the cold. After visiting, my recommendation would be to get a rental car. Both Santa Village and Santa Park are located outside the city and we found that riding the bus or taxi adds up quickly when you have 5 people in your family.

Accommodations

Where should I stay? City center or Santa Village?

From my research, it appears the majority of the accommodation options are located in the city center. While there are accommodations available in Santa Village from what I read the majority of the restaurants and stores are located in the city center. Visit Rovaniemi has a great page detailing all the different options for accommodations in both the city center and Santa Village.

We ended up booking an Airbnb in the city center. Since we did not start planning our trip until August, most of the hotel accommodations were already booked up.

Post-trip tip: While I can’t speak to staying in Santa Village since we stayed in the city, after visiting Rovaniemi I would still recommend staying in the city. While Santa’s Village is magical and it will give you the full experience, I think price and convenience wise the city makes the most sense. Most of the restaurants & stores are located in the city center.

Can You See The Northern Lights In Rovaniemi?

The easy answer is yes. The honest answer is hopefully. Seeing the Northern Lights in Rovaniemi is definitely possible, you just have to remember that the conditions have to be right for it to occur. The season for seeing the Northern lights lasts from April to August. In order for you to see the magical lights you will need a clear night sky and a location free from light pollution.

Do you have a particular website you use to see the Northern Lights predictions?

We always used this website – http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-forecast/. It seemed to have the most accurate predictions although you really never know.

You mentioned little shelters where you could start a fire and sit and watch for the northern lights.  What are those called and how do you find them-just drive around?

These are called lavuu. To find a few you can google “lavuu”. These are typically found alongside lakeshores. They often have a stack of firewood available for you to use for free. You just pack out what you bring in as far as the trash goes. The ones lakeside are best for seeing the lights since they have a pretty wide-open view. It might be helpful to scout out a few during the day to find them easily after dark.

Post-trip tip: While I will cover this more extensively in future articles it is important to remember that conditions have to be just right for the Northern Lights to make their appearance. This is why many people including myself would recommend that you don’t do a tour group for the Northern Lights. The weather plays a big part in whether the Northern Lights will appear and therefore you may end up paying just to take a walk in the woods. Be sure to check my article on Things To Do In Rovaniemi With Kids for more information on what we did to attempt to see the Northern Lights.

What Is There To Do In Rovaniemi In The Winter?

We all know that Rovaniemi, Finland is the epitome of family-friendly-I mean the big guy himself lives there. Visit Rovaniemi has a great list of activities for all seasons. There are so many activities to choose from that your family is sure to find the perfect fit to fulfill your Rovaniemi bucket list. Be sure to check out our post-trip article entitled, 10 Things To Do In Rovaniemi With Kids for more helpful tips.

Sponsored Activities

Our family decided to participate in a variety of activities and some of them will be hosted by Visit Rovaniemi. We will have a guided experience in Santa Claus Village, a visit to Snowman World, and tickets for the Rovaniemi Culture Pass. The culture pass provides us the opportunity to explore Artikum, Korundi House of Culture, and Science Center Pilke. We are so excited about each of these experiences and even more excited to share the details of each with you when we return. **While these activities are sponsored, we will provide our honest opinion and details about each in an upcoming post. In this post you can read about all of the activities in Santa Claus Village.

Other Activities On Our Bucket List

Husky Tour

We also booked two excursions on our own. Another activity on our bucket list was to take a husky tour. We had several people refer us to Bearhill Husky. Unfortunately by the time we began to book our tour this provider was already booked up. Thankfully we found a great alternative with Husky & Yoga Nature. Our booking experience was so positive that I know we are going to have a great time spending the day with Aksana and her family. We booked the family husky home & 10 km sled ride.

My only tip for booking Husky rides is to ask questions before booking. Each provider is different and they run their establishments differently. Some of the tour companies I looked into put all the children in a sled with the guide. Some tours allow the children to be in the sled with you with a guide driving. Finally, some allow the children to be in the sled with one of the parents driving. Depending on what you are looking for you can find the best fit for your family.

Family Winter Fun

Our other self-booked excursion is with Happy Fox Oy and it is a 4 hour Family Winter Fun tour. During this tour we will visit a local family in Rovaniemi. The tour will allow us to experience the joy of winter by playing in the snow, snowshoeing, skiing, ice fishing, and take a ride on a snowmobile-pulled sled at the Happy Fox farm by the Ounasjoki river.

We are so excited to participate in each of these family-friendly activities while in Rovaniemi, Finland. We look forward to sharing with you through both our blog and vlog when we return. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to be notified once we post our new articles and vlogs.

Post-trip tip: Check out our other Rovaniemi articles and our Youtube videos to learn more details on the excursions mentioned above.

What Winter Clothes For Kids Should I Get?

This is a question I have been asked since returning and a question I had myself when planning our trip so I thought I would address it here. I will be specifically discussing what we dressed our kids in when we visited in the winter.

One thing I learned was layering is very important. When we visited the temperature was right at 0 degrees Celcius or 30 degrees Fahrenheit. So for most people that’s pretty tame winter conditions but for us Floridians that means bundle up 🙂

Base Layer For Kids

The base layer will be the layer that will sit against your child’s skin. You want to be sure it is made of good moisture-wicking material so they don’t end up wet and cold.

There are two brands I can suggest (because I have used them) for a base layer for kids. The first recommendation is for 32 degrees kids heat base layer set. I used these for my two oldest kids. While they look super light they did a great job keeping them warm. They have a great selection of colors as well.

For my little guy who was 3 at the time I bought Lands End base layer long underwear. These are super soft and there have been several times that my guy has used them for pajamas.

Mid-Layer For Kids

The mid-layer is important in insulating by keeping your body heat in. In my opinion, the best mid-layer for kids is a nice fleece. For my oldest two we used a Northface jacket shell which had the fleece as a zip-in option. This is the girls Northface Triclimate waterproof jacket and boys’ Northface Triclimate similar to what we used. We’ve also used Columbia fleece jacket for boys and this Columbia fleece jacket for girls before and liked them.

For my little guy we had a one-piece fleece suit that included a hood on it similar to this Columbia one. We bought ours used so it’s no longer available but the one I just posted is very similar so you can get the idea.

Top Layer

As mentioned above for the older two we used the Northface shells over top of the fleece jackets. For little guy we had a Patagonia one-piece snowsuit that I purchased. It was similar to this Burton Uni-sex Gore-tex one piece. While this purchase was pricey I knew it was important for my little guy to stay nice and warm!

Snow Pants

For my oldest two we bought typical ski bibs similar to these. I think the ski bib and jacket combo is the best for any child who is potty trained and older. It is so much easier for them to go to the bathroom with this on versus the one-piece snowsuit.

The one-piece Patagonia snowsuit I had did have snaps down the legs for bathroom or diaper change and that definitely would be a feature I would look for if I had to purchase again.

Snow Hat & Gloves

You’ll want to top off your winter clothes for kids with a warm snow hat & gloves. There are many options out there when it comes to these two pieces of clothing. Of course comfort and preference are going to be the most important when choosing these for your children.

Ready, Set, Fun

To say we are excited about this trip is an extreme understatement. A lot of planning has gone into preparing for our trip to Rovaniemi, Finland. We hope this post will help you in planning your family-friendly trip to Rovaniemi. Please leave us a comment below and let us know any questions you have encountered while planning for your trip to Rovaniemi. Remember to sign up for our newsletter and join us over on Instagram where we look to share our adventures in Rovaniemi, Finland.

Be sure to also check out our Should We Visit Santa Park? post and 10 Things To Do In Rovaniemi With Kids post for more great tips on Rovaniemi, Finland. Stay Peachy!