Tips for visiting Lapland. When we went to Rovaniemi the home of Santa Claus with the boys, they were aged ten and six we visited during the Winter season. Our intention was to visit when they were aged seven and three. Although the pandemic had other ideas and we eventually managed it after four years of planning a trip to Lapland with kids. One of my biggest concerns was how the boys would cope with the cold temperatures. When we visited just before Christmas, we were lucky as temperatures ranged between -6 and -18 degrees. But I know friends that have visited at a similar time and with weather conditions of -35 degrees. However, I did pack for minus thirty five degrees and you can read all about in our Lapland packing list.
Outside of the temperature, I was worried that it would be too overwhelming for them. That we wouldn’t be able to do the things we wanted to do while visiting Santa’s Lapland. What if they got bored? And what if the once-in-a-lifetime experience that we had spent four years planning wouldn’t turn out to be as much fun as I’d hoped. When you place so much emphasis on a holiday it has a lot of expectations to live up to. We had the best time visiting the arctic circle on our Lapland holidays and the official hometown of Santa Claus.
Visiting Lapland with Kids
I’m writing this post to give you some tips for Lapland. As all of my fears were unfounded. I hope this blog post will give you some confidence for your once-in-a-lifetime trip. If there are any questions you have that are not answered then please reach out to me in the comments below and I will come back to you. If you are looking for more detail on the best places and best things to do then these are are detailed in other blog posts. Our Lapland Holiday – 6 nights in Rovaniemi. Our entire itinerary is designed to inspire you to be able to build your own Lapland trip. And 21 Things to do in Lapland in Winter including lots of outdoor activities and additional activities you may want to add to your trip.
SNOW
Do not underestimate the power of snow. Living in the UK the boys have not been exposed to big volumes of snow before. This meant that the boys were quite happy playing in the snow. Especially Harry who is six is absolutely obsessed with sledging out of all the winter activities we tried including cross-country skiing, reindeer sledding and ice fishing.
Thankfully where we stayed and we could hire sledges for €5 and he would would’ve happily have had one the whole time we were there. We may have gone out to do some amazing things on our trip. But the one thing he always asked to do each day was go sledging. Even when went Santa Claus Village the sledding was the highlight for him.
Top Tips for Lapland One – Build some time into your days to allow for the simple playing in the snow. And allow extra time between activities to ensure lots of sledging time.
The Cold
For the majority of our trip, the boys did not moan about the cold once. I did pack some hand warmers as a fallback and we had lots of warm clothes. But we only use them when we stayed in the Ice Hotel for a little bit of additional body heat. I brought extra gloves so that we could double up. Putting a thin pair on first with ski gloves over the top but they didn’t like it. Although it was good to have them a full back plan and it really worked for the adults.
We packed so that the boys always had a base layer, mid layer and then their snow gear. As we were not on a package tour and instead building our own Lapland trip in Winter. We did not have thermal suits which come as standard on many of the tour operators deals. This did not hinder us in anyway. The only thing I would say is that we probably took far too much for six nights but I would rather that than the children be cold.
For the adults then you may want to consider an insulated pocket for mobile phones to keep the battery life as good as possible.
Tips for Lapland Two – Pack for really low temperatures and hopefully you will get lucky like we did. Also don’t for get the lip balm and plenty of moisturiser.
Snacks for the kids
Although we built our own trip, we did not hire a car. This meant that we were dependant on taxis. Knowing this in advance and also knowing that in the cold the boys would likely need constant feeding. I brought some snacks with us from home. Things that I knew would travel well and not get to squashed. And since we are now out of the EU things that we are legally allowed to bring into the country.
This meant I did not have to worry about stocking up at breakfast. We did notice in the hotel we were staying in –Santasport that the bananas flew out of the door every morning. This could be because the hotel has used extensively by the Tui package deals where obviously snacks are at a premium!
Tips for Lapland with Kids Three – It is a good idea to pack extra snacks in your luggage
Book in some downtime
When you have been out exploring in the cold it can be quite exhausting and the children will not be used to it. We are a very active family and I tend to pull together really packed itineraries for our holidays. However, I purposely left big gaps in our Lapland itinerary. This was to make sure that the boys could have enough downtime between activities.
I am glad that I did as they tended to nap a bit during the day which is very unusual for them. And to be honest the adults also welcomed a little bit of downtime.
Top Tips for Lapland Four – Make sure there is enough time to chill out built into your plans
Don’t forget to bring some entertainment
Because daylight hours are so limited in Finland, especially in the Winter. Make sure you pack some small travel games or something to keep the children entertained around the things that you’re doing. We purposely chose our hotel because it had a swimming pool and a soft play area which gave them something to do in the mid to late afternoon when we were not outside.
Tips for Lapland Five – Pack some entertainment for the children when not out and about doing activities.
Double up on essentials
I do mention this in our Lapland packing list but it is so important that I am going to mention it here as well. Make sure you take two pairs of ski gloves, two snoods and two hats for the children. Although I had read this elsewhere when planning our own trip to Lapland. I thought this might of been a bit of an overkill on the basis for that only there for six nights.
However, these are the items of clothing that get wet when they’re playing in the snow. So it is very useful to have a second dry option that you can swap out. Especially the snoods if you end up with very cold weather. As your breath through them will turn to ice.
Also if you are planning on going dog sledding, which was the top thing on our bucket list then do not forget your goggles. We used them on the husky rides across a frozen lake so it is worth picking up a cheap pair. As it would have been a very different experience without them. Yet this was the only time we needed them. Although we did not suffer with bad weather during our stay.
Tips for Lapland with Kids Six – Make sure you pack doubles of gloves, snoods and hats for the kids
Have a dry run of getting all the layers on
Now this is entirely dependant on when you tell your children they are going to Lapland as to whether you can do this or not. We didn’t do this and I wish we had.
As on our first morning when got ready to go our it caused a bit a havoc and frustration with Charlie. I think is because he didn’t really know what to expect or what to do. And I think we could have avoided this by having a bit of a dry run and sitting expectations earlier by putting everything on together at home first. This way he would have known what to do, expect and how it felt and how hot you get before you go outside!
Top Tips for Lapland Seven – Have a dry run round of putting on all different clothing layers, a base layer, middle layer and the snow kit. Including ski socks and snow boots.
Divide out clothing between hold baggage
I tend to do this anyway when we travel as we have been known to loose the odd suitcase. But when travelling to somewhere like Lapland I think it is even more important. Since you really do need certain items of clothing. Not having a car with us also meant we couldn’t go out easily to buy anything should a bag go missing. With the weather being so cold it would really have a detrimental effect on our holiday. For this reason we also took a pair of under layers in our hand luggage along with ski socks and an extra jumper.
For this reason it is really important to try and divide individual piles of clothes between multiple suitcases. Hold luggage was included with our flights so we took four bags and divided everyones stuff into four. Afterall I would hope if you lost luggage you wouldn’t lose it all. Although we did meet a couple during our stay who had lost both their cases.
Tips for Lapland Eight – Split out your luggage between suitcases to guard against loosing luggage and wear your good snow boots.
Keep the magic alive
This tip is for those people who also subscribe to elf on the shelf. Our elves called Elfie (original!) and Chocolate came with us to Lapland.
Each morning they would present little photos to the boys of the things that we had planned for that day. The boys really enjoyed waking up to find out what we had planned for the day. And it also meant it helped with deciding what the elves should do each night. If you are planning on taking your elves with you on holiday to Lapland or anywhere else then this post may also be useful – Taking Elf on Shelf on Vacation.
Lapland with Kids Tip Nine – Keep the magic alive and think of inventive ways to let them know about each days activities. And bring your elves with you!
What types of food can you expect?
I was a little bit worried about eating out in Finland. On our previous experience when we went to Levi Ski Resort for the Levi World Cup involved a lot of Lappish food.
Harry is particularly fussy and so I did have some concerns. However, I was surprised to find that there is plenty of pizza, pasta, burger and chicken nugget options available especially in the city center. In fact there was a lot of fast food options. Although if you are looking for more traditional Lappish cuisine then we did find these sorts of set menus were not customisable for children.
Tips for Lapland Ten – There are plenty of fast food restaurants serving child friendly meal options although you may struggle with set menus.
Hopefully these Lapland with kids tips will help you when planning your trip to Lapland with kids. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to drop a comment below, and I will come back to you. If you are planning your own trip then I hope you have a wonderful time. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I hope you manage to see the aurora borealis.
Have you visited the capital of Finnish Lapland? What are your top tips for a visit to Lapland?
Related blog posts
If you have found this Tips for Visiting Lapland with Kids blog post useful then you may also be interested in the following blog posts if planning a trip to Northern Lapland
- Santa Park – Everything you need to know before visiting – This post tells you everything that the website doesn’t. Including our favourite bits, the time you will need there and what to expect. We also had a private meeting arranged for our visit Santa Claus.
- Why not try our a visit to Snowman World and if you only have time for one which one do you choose Santa Park or Santa Claus Village?
- We decided that we would build out our own Christmas Lapland trip on the basis that none of the package deals worked for what we wanted to achieve. If you are thinking of doing the same then Rovaniemi on a budget may help.
- Lapland packing list includes the fun things – not your usual clothing list (although there is some of that too) but includes all the other things you do not want to forget.
- Our night in a glass igloo and activities at Apukka Resort.
- What you should look for when booking to go husky sledding – our experience of a Husky Safari
- Picking which reindeer safaris are best for you or a trip to reindeer farms – Picking a Reindeer Sleigh Ride.
- If Finnish Lapland is too far then have you considered visiting Father Christmas in Lapland UK, we went on Christmas Eve.
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One Response
Lapland has been tempting me for a couple of years now – even more so after reading this. My kids love simple things like playing in snow but they would also love visiting the home of Santa!