Lapland for the Polar Night, + Austria and France

[offshore171]

The Christmas eve dinner at the hotel is just sublime.

Gifts are handed out to all of the guests, and then we are served the below menu

A live pianist and harp player perform beautiful music, and out the windows we have a beautiful snowy village. A white christmas experience to remember

 

[offshore171]

Boxing day arrives and we have the best conditions the alps have experienced for the xmas-new year period in many years. Lots of fresh snow. Cracking weather. Happy travellers enjoying their winter break.






Another activity that Seefeld is particularly known for is telemark ski touring. This involves putting special grips on the base of your skis, then spending a few hours working your way up the mountain. Once you have summited, the grippy layer is peeled off and you make a very satisfying descent back to the village.

"Earn your turns" is their mantra. Here they are, almost at the top.

 

[RB]

Excellent Seefeld photos. Such a contrast in seasons to when we were there in June 2019

 

[offshore171]

Excellent Seefeld photos. Such a contrast in seasons to when we were there in June 2019

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Wow! The ice rink (on the right) is almost unrecognisable.

 

[craven morehead]

Excellent Seefeld photos. Such a contrast in seasons to when we were there in June 2019

View attachment 431164

Beautiful, clear photo. The place looks stunning

 

[offshore171]

Our xmas week in Seefeld comes to a close and it's time to continue our journey.

The next destination is Strasbourg in France, but it's a bit far to travel in a day, so we break up the trip with a night in Zurich. It's roughly halfway.

We get a local train out of Seefeld down the valley to Innsbruck. The famous ski jump is visible from the platform.



From there we pick up a long distance train to Zurich. For this one, we had seat reservations and just as well. It was a saturday - a big changeover day for accomodation places. The train is incredibly packed. We had to kick people out of our reserved seats.

This train passes through St Anton - one of the biggest ski resorts in Europe.

I mentioned to the family that I thought it might get chaotic when the train pulled up at St Anton.

Changeover day, busiest week of the season (xmas). Sure enough, they were 6 deep at the platform. Most of them with lots of luggage, ski gear, and even dogs! Hardly any with a seat reservation.

Bear in mind the train was already chockers, with people standing in the aisles.

Incredibly, quite a few more squeezed on, and the train carried on to Zurich.

 

[Traveln]

What sort of clothing/cold weather gear were you packing for this trip? I’d like to do something like this but would have no experience on what is the right clothing to take.

We have been to the Lappish Arctic for the last 4 years. Saariselka also has similar offerings as Levi. It's an amazing place. Uniqlo (Japanese department store around Australia) has everything you would need for clothing. The snow gear shops would also be able to help you. Wearing layers, starting with a thermal top and bottom as the base, you can then add a jumper and a good coat - also from Uniqlo. Make sure you have good snow boots, beanie and good socks & gloves. When you go indoors, it's very warm and these layers can be peeled off as required. This should see you through those minus temps. It's an incredible area and Northern lights are amazing if you are there at the right time - end Feb/March.

 

[offshore171]

We have been to the Lappish Arctic for the last 4 years. Saariselka also has similar offerings as Levi

Yes as it happens I have been to Saariselka some years ago, but not in the winter. We stayed at the glass igloo place in Autumn, and saw the northern lights on a few different nights. What an experience.

Accommodation - Kakslauttanen

Kakslauttanen offers many unforgettable types of lodging in the Finnish Lapland. From glass igloos to luxurious log cabins, we have it all. Welcome!

www.kakslauttanen.fi

It's an amazing part of the world.

 

[offshore171]

Zurich was just a one night stopover to break up the trip.

It can be an expensive place, but fortunately I had enough Marriott points to book a reward room at the Zurich Marriott, which is about a 10 minute walk from the Bahnhof. Only had to pay the city taxes, so it cost about 10 francs. I'll take that over a heart stopping Swiss hotel bill

Hotel is a solid chain offering, quite well located.

For our one night in Switzerland, we booked a well known fondue restaurant, Adler's Swiss Chuchi, which is in the middle of the old town.

We've been to this place before and it always seems to have a huge line outside. Tonight was no exception.

Dinner consists of various swiss specialties, include cheese and oil fondue dishes.

 

[Traveln]

Yes as it happens I have been to Saariselka some years ago, but not in the winter. We stayed at the glass igloo place in Autumn, and saw the northern lights on a few different nights. What an experience.

Accommodation - Kakslauttanen

Kakslauttanen offers many unforgettable types of lodging in the Finnish Lapland. From glass igloos to luxurious log cabins, we have it all. Welcome!

www.kakslauttanen.fi

It's an amazing part of the world.

Yes we've experienced the glass igloos as well - in winter. We were also invited to see inside the ice hotel next door before the guests arrived. Incredible iceworks. Not sure I would sleep in there though. Agree it's just an incredible experience wherever you are up there. I also loved the JAL flyover the arctic en route to Japan. We flew ex Reykjavik to Tokyo.

 

[LizzieC]

What a fabulous trip! Really want to visit Lapland. Would you say it was expensive?

 

[Traveln]

The first experience of my Arctic adventures was with cruise company Hurtigruten - check out their 'Follow the Northern Lights' itinerary. It's showing currently at AUD$9085 pp. It starts in Norway and ends in Finland - which is where you will see these magic places, including a visit to Santa's village and Santa We also got a great deal with Qantas at the time - a round-the-world airfare business class (code sharing with Finnair & JAL), which allowed us a visit to Iceland and Japan on the return. Offshore171 trip also sounds really good.

 

[offshore171]

What a fabulous trip! Really want to visit Lapland. Would you say it was expensive?

Finland is considered less expensive than its nordic neighbours like Norway and Sweden. It wasn't the cheapest destination but certainly not wildly expensive either.

The apartment was huge for the price (3 bedrooms, sauna, kitchen, living room etc) and having a kitchen meant we could self cater breakfast and some evenings too. There is a supermarket in the village.

The winter sport activities were a lot cheaper than say Switzerland or North America. Airfares up and back from Helsinki also fairly reasonable.