Days 1 & 2: Home to Saariselkä

We had so much fun in Saariselkä last year that, when we were looking at winter trips for 2024, we decided it was our first choice of Lapland destination. I managed to find relatively cheap flights to Ivalo via Helsinki and they were even at quite reasonable times, so we didn't have to get up too early this morning.

Our alarms went off at 5am and we started the drive down to Heathrow. The roads were clear at that time of the morning but the airport was surprisingly busy; it felt more like a summer bank holiday than a Saturday in January, at least in Terminal 3. Not everyone was off to cold destinations; the people in front of us on the airport bus were going on a Carribean cruise.

Our flight to Helsinki was due to take off at 10.20. It ended up being slightly delayed until 10.45 but we almost four hours between connections in Helsinki, so that didn't cause us any problems. The plane itself was huge, more what you'd expect for a transatlantic journey than a European flight. It was ten seats wide with two aisles and we were sitting in row 55. It wasn't a full flight so we ended up with three seats to ourselves and plenty of space. The seats had screens, so I was able to watch a couple of episodes of the Moomins during the flight, definitely getting me in the mood for a trip to Finland

The screens also meant we had a view of what we were flying over via the plane cameras. Unfortunately, it was a very cloudy day and so we didn't get much of a view until we started getting close to Helsinki.

We definitely got a good view of the plane coming in to land on the runway.

Helsinki looked cold and covered in snow. The pilot confirmed that the temperature outside was -7! The temperature in the airport was nice and warm though. We had plenty of time to explore and visit the airport Moomins shop.

I was surprised to find that there were still Christmas displays up in the airport too.

We got through passport control without any incident and found somewhere to get some food, followed by coffee. Our flight to Ivalo departed fairly promptly at 19.15, with just a short delay while the place was de-iced. This was a much smaller plane, with only two seats on either side of the single aisle, and it was probably only about half full. The flight time to Ivalo was just over two hours, making it not much shorter than our initial flight time from London to Helsinki. Finland really is a very long country!

When we landed in Ivalo it was cold and dark.

Minus 16, to be precise!

I was extremely relieved to see our suitcases coming round on the baggage carousel, having accidentally managed to drop my luggage receipt somewhere in Helsinki. We stepped out of the airport and straight onto the airport bus, which was even emptier than the flight; there were only two other people in addition to us. The benefit of coming back to somewhere we'd been before was that we knew which stop to tell the bus driver we wanted to get off and also how to recognise it when we got there.

The bus journey from Ivalo to Saariselkä took around 20 minutes, so before too long we were getting off near the supermarket and petrol station in the centre of town. I'd messaged the owner of the apartment we were staying at for instructions a couple of days ago, so we knew we had to go to his office in the building by the supermarket, open the door with a code and pick up an envelope which would contain our keys. Everything worked like clockwork and all that remained was a short walk to the apartment itself.

Once we got inside, everything looked very familiar. We have a kitchen area...

...with sofa and dining table too...

...as well as a separate bedroom. The only downside of the bedroom was that we had to start by making our own beds!

We had a lie-in the next morning, to make up for the early start the day before. The great thing about being in Lapland this time of year is that it doesn't start getting light until around 10am anyway, so there's no need to get up super early  

Once we did get outside we could see how much snow was on top of the cabin we were staying in.

It's harder to make out in the photos than in real life, but I think there could be a foot of snow on there in places!

The area around the cabin is really pretty...

...and there's a lamppost with some incredible icicles on it.

We set off down the main road to walk into the centre of Saariselkä.

In the distance we could see one of the fells behind the town where people come to do downhill skiing.

It was lovely to be walking in the snow again.

And there was so much of it, everywhere.

We passed the parking area for snow mobiles...

...and soon came to the village church.

Everything looked very familiar as we made our way through Saariselkä...

...though we did spot Santa's office, which I'm not sure we noticed last year.

Perhaps because we knew where we were going this year, walking round the village felt like quite a short walk.

We decided to branch off down a different path and see where we ended up.

There were some lovely views as we walked, although as it was around midday we couldn't decide whether we were looking at sunrise or sunset.

We were following a cleared path alongside a main road and realised that the road signs were given in two languages.

The first name on the signs is the Finnish one. Having looked it up, it seems like the second name is in Northern Sami.

Our new route took us to what looked like the local fire station.

From here we were able to follow a smaller path into the woods.

We were walking on almost fresh snow, which was quite hard work at times.

There were lots of beautiful trees though.

We'd been walking for a while when we caught sight of something interesting behind a fence.

We seemed to have found an enclosure of reindeer!

There was one reindeer with really big antlers.

Definitely wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him!

There were a couple of others without antlers, who were a bit friendlier.

This one was exceptionally friendly.

Probably hoping for some food  

It was a really cool place to just stumble across

Once we'd finished admiring the reindeer, we set off back through the woods towards Saariselkä.

We went to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies, then headed back to the cabin for a cosy afternoon indoors. I think it's going to be a fun week