Lapland for the Polar Night, + Austria and France

[offshore171]

We have been planning a winter trip to Lapland in Northern Finland for a number of years, and I managed to find some award flights for the whole family from Tokyo to Helsinki, and return award flights from Paris back to Singapore.

With that, a trip was born.

Travelling party is a family of 2 adults 2 kids, and the travel was in Dec 2024-Jan 2025

The "polar night" is the period at high latitudes during which the sun does not rise at all.

It varies by Latitude, but In our part of Lapland, it goes from about the 12th of December until around 2nd January. You get about 5 hours of dawn/dusk, which is absolutely mesmerising.

The soft arctic lighting produces the most amazing hues. A sample:

 

[offshore171]

As a bonus, we got to fly the polar route to Europe on this trip

JAL resumed the polar route for some destinations a couple of years back, to avoid Russian airspace.




Threading the needle between US and Russia

 

[I love to travel]

My elderly mum was lamenting the other day she wishes she could have gone to Lapland. This TR will be a small consolation prize. Thanks for the effort.

 

[Justinf]

Absolute bucket list stuff this for me.
Hopefully next year
Looking forward to this.

 

[offshore171]

Starting at the beginning, we departed out of Sydney.

The outbound flights were:

Syd - HND (Tokyo) as a paid fare
2 nights layover in Tokyo
HND - HEL on JAL Awards
1 night layover in Helsinki
HEL-KTT (Kittila in Lapland) Finnair paid fare

So Qantas out of Sydney was a bit of a trainwreck.

They started announcing that QF59 was delayed 3h. This blew out further to 4h40mins

It's a flight that even when running on time gets you into Tokyo pretty late, but with this delay we arrived into Haneda incredibly late at around 1230am

Fortunately, JP immigration was a bit more automated than last year.


Happily we had booked the Villa Fontaine, which is connected to the airport. At 1am it was a relief to be able to get to our room without having to travel downtown.

We booked a Japanese Style "family room" which had a western queen bed, plus two futons for the kids. A nice touch at the Villa Fontaine is that they provide PJ's, so if you're just having a layover, you dont even have to unpack.

Next day we made our way into downtown Tokyo for some wandering around and stretch the legs before the next onward flight to Europe.

 

[offshore171]

For the next flight, Narita early AM departure was very smooth and quick through immigration and security

JL47 pushed back just 8 minutes late and, incredibly, they made an apology over the PA!


View of the terminal from the Villa Fontaine


Economy meal, way better than QF


Villa Fontaine reception

 

[offshore171]

As we flew over the polar ice cap, a very angry and loud announcement comes over the PA.


It was to the effect of "A passenger has been caught smoking in the toilets. We remind you this is a criminal matter and any such conduct will be referred to law enforcement"

The flight was otherwise really good. JAL Dreamliners have fewer seats, so they are more comfortable.

Pretty much everything was better than the previous Qantas A330 flight. The cabin air quality, the seats, entertainment, meals, the on-time performance..

 

[offshore171]

We arrive at Helsinki late afternoon of the same day, and check in to the Airport Hilton.

Our flight to Lapland is early the next day

 

[offshore171]

Next morning and it's back to the terminal for the <2hr flight up to the Arctic circle.

The destination airport is Kittila, which services the resort villages of Levi and Yllas.

It would be the last time we see the sun* for a week or so




Getting darker as we head north



Drifting sports cars on frozen lakes is a thing up here. Ad at the luggage belts in Kittila

 

[ols]

Absolute bucket list stuff this for me.
Hopefully next year
Looking forward to this.

Will be in Lapland in March

 

[offshore171]

We then get a short taxi ride from the airport into the village of Levi.

It's around -4C

So why Lapland?

It's one of western Europe's last true wildernesses. There's something special about the soft Arctic light against the landscapes.

There's activities such as skiing (both downhill and cross country), reindeer and husky sleds through ancient forests and across frozen lakes. Quite serene. It's also one of the best places in the world for sighting the northern lights.



Our digs for the next week or so consists of a 3 bedroom chalet from Levin Alppitalot

Very nice, would recommend

Comfortable living in Levi - Levi Alpine Chalets

Over 50 Alpine Chalets are welcoming various group sizes to stay in best spot in Levi. Choose suitable holiday home according to your needs.

www.levinalppitalot.fi

It's only steps away from the village centre, and right across from the ski lifts

The cabin has a full kitchen and its own sauna

 

[offshore171]

Hunting the northern lights at midnight. You can walk about 10 minutes away from the village to get clear of the street lights and then find very dark skies.

There's also a designated viewing area on a frozen lake just across from the tourist info centre. They deliberately keep this area dark without streetlights to maximise the night sky visibility





There's an app to alert you when they are visible

‎Aurora Alert Realtime

‎Aurora Alert Realtime is a fast and reliable Aurora Alert system. You will get alert when Northern Lights are visible. Own professional-level cameras and lenses ensure high-quality images which are processed with a highly developed algorithm. The images are updated automatically once a minute…

apps.apple.com

 

[offshore171]

Next day we decide to have a ski.

Right at the base of the hill is Zero Point. This location has cafes, ski hire, ticketing, shops and so on. We hired some skis and then headed out for our first time skiing in the Arctic circle.

It's -13C and the snow is nice and dry.




I mentioned earlier about how we weren't expecting to see the sun for a few days, due to the Polar Night being in effect at this latitude.

Of course I didn't factor in elevation. At the top of the mountain, obviously the horizon is much further away, and you can indeed see the sun skim the horizon. This picture taken at "high" noon.

Just an awesome and surreal experience.


After a day exploring some of the mountain, we return to the cabin, before heading to a local bar&grill for dinner. Local beer - Karhu (meaning Bear)

 

[offshore171]

The next day entails a visit to a nearby reindeer farm

Reindeer agriculture is, and always has been a big part of the economy of the local indigenous Sami people up here.

We take a tour with about a dozen people, which takes us about 20 minutes away, where we meet a Sami lady who introduces us to some of her herd.

We load up, 2 per sled, for a reindeer sledge ride through the woods. -17C today!

After the ride, we get to hand feed them. They are not dangerous animals per se, but we are warned the main risk is getting an accidental antler in the eye when feeding, They get pretty excited by the food.

Moonrise at the reindeer farm


Next we go inside for a hot drink and our host tells us a bit about how the local reindeer farming works.

Unlike cattle or sheep, these are completely indigenous creatures, and are an innate part of the local ecosystem.

This means that every summer for 6 months, all of the reindeer farms are able to release their entire herds to roam freely in the forests of northern Finland. They will forage off the land during this time. Some will travel up to 100km away from their farm.

All are tagged, and incredibly at the end of the summer there is this huge muster, and the farmers all manage to herd and sort their animals back to home base.

A small number are lost to bears and wolves, but the government compensates for such losses (since the predators are themselves protected species).

 

[offshore171]

As our cabin has a fully equipped kitchen, we checked out the supermarket in the village and grabbed some supplies for a home cooked dinner!

Next morning it's -23C!

Should we go skiing? Of course!

Once you're up on the mountain, away from the village, it is a completely surreal experience at -23C in the twilight of the polar night.

It actually felt like we were skiing on one of the ice moons of Jupiter

 

[offshore171]

From the top of the mountain looking at the midday colours, and a plane out of Kittila airport emerges from the cloud deck below us

I've uploaded this one in 4k. Zoom in and spot the plane



Just on the temperature thing, we struck a particularly cold week, albeit with no wind and mostly clear skies.

More typically, daily maximums are in the minus single digits

Here's this week's forecast from 28th January for comparison.

 

[offshore171]

Can dogs smile? No visit to lapland is complete without a husky mushing experience.

We arrive at the husky park and it's super cold, -26. The dogs are already rigged up in their harnesses, literally jumping with excitement.

There's several sleds ready to go. We take off through the woods and then across a frozen lake. These guys are fast, and yes, they are smiling from ear to ear like they were born to do it.

The host tells us they get "lazy" when it's warmer, around 0 degrees. They get most enthusiastic when it's really cold like today.

A great experience. They also have a few reindeer here and some arctic foxes.