We booked a 3 night Santa Experience stay in December 2022, a couple of days before Christmas taking our two boys who were 9 and 6. The flight out with Tui was magical! Party games, the Captain letting Santa test land ion the roof of then plane - the works! The hotel was excellent. Really friendly & helpful staff. The room was amazing, built in clothes dryer, sauna, underfloor heating in the room. We were full board, and the food was excellent throughout our stay. Drinks a little expensive but not ridiculous. The meet santa package at the Ice Hotel was phenomenal, something that all of us will never forget. Expensive - yes!!n The same as a fortnight in the Caribbean but it was worth every single penny. We will definitely go again.
A wonderful, cozy hotel in the middle of a forrest, next to Akaslompolo lake. Nothing much around, which adds to the charm - ski tracks right next door to most of the rooms/apartments. Short walk to breakfast and the pool/sauna is an added bonus, even though all rooms/apartments have saunas. Fireplace in the apartment is lovely and adds to the coziness. Breakfast is plentiful and despite very large groups, there is a calm about the place (unlike the hectic and noisy Sirkantahti in Sirka/Levi). Alpine skiing is a short bus journey away. Kittila irport is about 1.5 hours away. Staff are wonderful and despite some rooms/kitchens in need of modernisation, it's a really comfortable place to stay. Much nicer than the Sirkantahti iin Levi (part of the same Laplands Hotel chain). WiFi is excellent throughout and there is an amazing smoked fish shop next to hotel reception.…
The cozy wooden lodge had everything we needed. The sauna was great and a perfect way to warm up after a day outside. The staff was able to answer every questions we had and offered everything we asked for. The area in total was magical. It is very close to the lake where you have a perfect chance to see polar lights. Price and service
Not a hotel as it is spread out into different buildings. Rooms are not sound proof so you will need ear plugs. Food was dreadful. Hot choice wasn't. It was barely lukewarm. All staff were very friendly and helpful. Location is perfect and the scenery was amazing
The hotel is in a good position, ten minutes walk to the local village but take a kick sled for a fun trip down. At -25C make sure you take ski gloves and a knock face cover, my eyes started to freeze by the time I got to the shops. The walk to the frozen lake is about 10 mins also and worth the trip. The northern lights were brilliant and apparently the best they’ve had for a while. The food was excellent, don’t believe the other reviews. There is plenty for all and the breakfast has a lot of choice the salt cured salmon was my favourite but if you like cereal, toast or cooked breakfast you’ll be happy. The rooms were clean and the sauna was great, the rooms were always warm. We went with TUI and I have to say the reps were useless. When we go back I will book everything individually as it’s easy to get around on the ski buses and you can book excursions easily. I would suggest the reindeer excursion if you’re going to book one, it was a great experience on Christmas Eve through the forest it was Magical. The Christmas Day party was ok, this was heard at Y1 ski resort, the food was fine and the bar easy to get to (you pay for the drinks but they were slightly cheaper than the hotel). The party starts at 7.30ish and with little children it’s too late, we shared a taxi back with a couple who had a baby, €20 on Christmas Day I didn’t think was too bad. This was our first trip to Finland and Lapland, we will be back. The hotel is nice and well placed, however I think we will try the Saaga hotel next, a short stop there and conversations around what it’s like convinced us that would be our next hotel.…
Hmmm. This is a challenging review to write because there’s four different elements to this holiday: the hotel itself, TUI as a tour operator, the Snow Village as the “main event” and Lapland generally. I’ll break them out. The hotel; very well maintained generally, although the toilets are covered in graffiti (!). Outside areas are safely maintained. We stayed in a log cabin which was a magical setting, however the sauna didn’t work and there is absolutely zero soundproofing. If you want to feel like you’re living with your next door neighbours then this is the accommodation for you! The food is absolutely awful. Barely any choice and just French fries for children. TUI as a tour operator; not bad. The staff work hard to entertain and accommodate, but there’s practically no excursions available this year which made for some very frustrated customers (we had a husky ride pre booked through an external provider but TUI push their own excursions so much and so to let everyone down upon arrival is pretty dire. The Snow Village was pretty excellent, we loved the taster sessions and we also loved the authenticity of Santa. Lapland itself is, of course, the star of the show. It’s beauty is astonishing and I do think that more than made up for any of the hotel’s failings. Would we book the Snow Elf again? No. The food isn’t good enough and the state of the toilets really shocked me. …
We stayed in the Yllas log cabins for our Lapland 3 night trip but got to use this hotel for our meals. Food actually tasted better than it looked was disappointed as not much variety for the children other than chips or hot dog sausages! Breakfast was actually really nice tho. Drinks very expensive at the bar
Check in at the hotel was swift and the gentleman on reception was very friendly. He gave us directions to our room which were fairly vague and the room numbers are not clearly signposted so we had a bit of a time trying to find where we were staying. Brrrr! I should also state, that being plus size (uk 20/22) and my husband being a bigger build also, we were worried about them having a snowsuit to fit us, but I can assure you not to worry they have a massive range of sizes and do cater for small to larger people. We were provided with a snowsuit, wool socks and boots. These need to be given back the night before you leave. Our apartment was basic but spacious. It was on 2 levels, twin room, bathroom, kitchen/living room on the lower floor then a twin room and toilet on the upper floor. We were full board but there are sufficient items provided should you want to go self catering. Hair dryer and towels are provided. The beds were surprisingly comfy. Initially the apartment seemed clean, but after a while we noticed the bathroom floor had not been swept or mopped, especially behind the toilet. A few dead spiders dotted around but that can be forgiven. Chocolate wrappers in the downstairs bedside table and the dishwasher wasn't emptied from the prrvious guests. No heating was on when we arrived so had to report to Reception and the lady sorted it out straight away. Apparently the fuses in the box had tripped out and the temperature wasn't set. But grateful it was dealt with quickly, the apartment was nice and toasty after that especially upstairs. The food was a buffet style selection, it was ok. Nothing to rave about but sufficient and had food suitable for everyone. Such as chips, nuggets, spag bol, lasagne, meat, fish, potatoes, salad etc. Free water. While the swimming pool at the hotel was ok, I personally feel that the photo advertising it was heavily photoshopped. It was smaller than I had expected and by the time you had 4 or 5 families in there it was full and so we left after about 40 mins. Plus the water was absolutely freezing. There is also no life guard on duty for the pool. The pool is open every day but only from 3pm. Reception ordered us a taxi for a day trip that we had booked independently (not through tui) to a reindeer safari - (villa Vaamila) i would definitely suggest going here, very enjoyable and heidi was super good with the kids and extremely knowledgeable about all her reindeer. I feel that the hotel staff were friendly and happy. We didn't really have much to do with the tui reps, our welcome talk on our coach wasn't the best and we felt we were not given all the info we would have liked. However the elf (fizzy) on the way back to the airport was very happy and friendly and took the time to speak to each individual guest about their stay. I have attached photos of the upstairs twin room (we pushed the beds together) very basic, could have done with a bedside table lol. But was nice enough. Also attached a photo of a view looking towards the restaurant area.…
I really like to leave balanced reviews and am hoping this will help people. We stayed at the snow elf hotel in Yllas on a 3 night adventure with Tui from Dec 4th to 7th. There was lots we absolutely loved and some things that simply was not great and that you should look out for when booking. THE HOTEL … see the pictures attached. We had a two bedroom apartment with a sauna and it was a good size, clean and we thought it was great. We stayed in block F but understand there is a variety of accommodation options. Lots of free to use sledges around the hotel site which we loved. FOOD We had a full board option. Food was really not great unfortunately. If you have ever stayed in a youth hostel, it was that quality of food. All buffet and although there was always something to eat, the kids struggled a bit and the food was often sitting there for long periods. You could eat almost all day though and I guess that was a positive. Excursions We didn’t book any before going and luckily ( I say that) managed to book on the Husky trip while we were there, it was lucky though as everything was sold out. The Trip to see Santa and taster sessions that were included was just OK. The Santa aspect was underwhelming, just Santa in a shed basically. The husky taster lasted about two minutes but the snowmobile was about 15 mins and was good fun. We booked the longer husky experience which lasted just over an hour in total with a husky sled ride through some breathtaking countryside for about 20 mins of that hour and got to meet the husky’s for the rest of that time. THIS EXPERIENCE COST US £480 for the four of us, yea £480!!!!!! All of the Tui experiences are booked through Lapland Safaris and are much cheaper when booked directly through them. Please see the image attached which shows the total cost and Tui’s cut which almost doubled the price for us 4 (two adults and two kids). Lapland safaris organise the buses and No Tui reps accompany on the trips. You need to book this in advance of going though, this will save you a lot of money!! LAPLAND The snow and countryside was incredible and breathtaking. It was truly awesome and we loved it! Behind the snow elf hotel there was a huge frozen Lake which was incredible to see. CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA Really poor and not very Christmassy at all. The food is largely the same as the hotel and not great. There is a pantomime and I felt sorry for the entertainers because there were actually decent but the setting is not suitable for this. They get everyone outside, in -12 weather for a ‘big surprise’ at the end that amount to about five fireworks going off. Let down to be honest! THE TRIP Two of the four days of the trip are taken up by a long time travelling. It’s a hectic four days! Flights didn’t seem very festive and we had hoped for more. On the flight out the kids were giving a Christmas pack (colouring stuff) and that was it. Disappointing !! Cost This isn’t a cheap experience and I felt there could be some low cost changes for tui to make this a much better experience. Lots of simple things like the carols around the camp fire, no enthusiasm and there was a band practicing right behind the site which made it all redundant.…
A perfect holiday in Lapland with 6 adults and 4 children ages 9,7,5,2. The accommodation was amazing, my two daughters and families had a two bedroom apartment each complete with dishwasher, sauna, underfloor heating etc. My husband and I had a log cabin with a sauna, which felt very authentic. From collecting our snow suits and boots to arriving at the hotel and going on the excursions, the organisation by TUI was brilliant. The trip to the Snow Village, the trial husky ride, prosecco in the ice hotel and the sleigh ride visit to Santa's House was amazing. Our highlight though was the extra excursion (not included in the price) to have a husky ride. We didn't realise you had to drive the sleigh yourself but it was a lot of fun with amazing snowy scenery. The hotel itself was good, right next to a large frozen lake and altough some people were moaning about the food, we all thought our full board experience was good, there was always something to suit us all. All in all an experience of a lifetime!…
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