Visit Lapland with Santa's Lapland: Where to stay -

This Christmas we were incredibly lucky to be invited to Lapland courtesy of Santa’s Lapland to enjoy one of their magical stays. For those who haven’t heard of Santa’s Lapland, they are a tour operator offering magical trips to Saariselka, more than 200km above the Arctic Circle. No other tour operator goes this far North which makes it such a unique experience and whether you choose the 2 or 3 night adventure, you’re guaranteed all of the magic of your Search for Santa day – something I will share more of later.

Booking your stay is so easy and I love that Santa’s Lapland do everything for you, you literally just need to pack your bags and turn up! From meeting you at the airport to transferring you to the hotel, every single part of the stay is planned to perfection which means you don’t need to worry about co-ordinating activities, arranging expensive transfers or hiring a car to get about. Once you’ve decided whether to choose the 2 or 3 night stay, you can pick from a choice of 5 hotels here in Saariselka with ours being Santa’s Holiday Club.

A popular choice with families, Santa’s Holiday Club is based in a central position on the resort and offers a choice of family rooms, suites and apartments as well as half board dining with an extensive hot and cold breakfast and an excellent 3-course buffet style evening meal. It also has a fun indoor pool with slides, chutes, jacuzzis, a sauna, steam rom and a gorgeous spa with massages and beauty treatments for the grown-ups! You’ll also find a hotel boutique in the entrance selling souvenirs, clothing, snacks and drinks. In short, it has everything you could possibly need here in the resort.

With us visiting with three children we booked one of the Holiday Club Villa’s which are located just a short walk from the main hotel. Obviously this means that you have to walk to and from the hotel for meal times and should you use the pool but actually it became one of the children’s favourite parts of the day with us pulling them in sledges, taking cut throughs through hidden slopes and racing against each other. Everything feels so much more magical in Lapland!

The Holiday Club Villas offer various different apartments sleeping from 2 to 8 people. We stayed in Apartment Style D which sleep 4-6 people, have two bedrooms, a large bathroom with separate toilet, fully fitted kitchen, living area with a pull out bed and that all important Finnish sauna. They also have a balcony area with a private outdoor space to enjoy those starry night skies.

The apartment was lovely and spacious, spotlessly clean and most importantly, toasty warm! Obviously the weather is very cold here in Lapland and so coming back to a warm apartment each night was so appreciated. In the main living area is an open plan kitchen, dining room and living area which was stylishly decorated as well as being extremely practical for a family stay.

Each apartment comes with a television but to be honest our stay was so jam packed with excitement and adventure that we were coming home, having a sauna and going straight to bed! In the living room the sofa pulls out to a double bed with extra bedding located in one of the bedroom wardrobes. With other seating options we left the sofa bed out each night but should you wish to make it back into a sofa each day it only took a few minutes.

In the kitchen you’ll find a microwave, oven and hob, coffee machine, dishwasher, a full size fridge freezer and ample cooking and dining utensils. Again, we were so busy during the day that we only used the kitchen for snacks but should we have wanted to cook more there was ample space to do so.

In the first bedroom you’ll find twin beds and a wardrobe which the girls were quick to claim. The beds were ready made, lovely and comfortable and all towels were provided during our stay. We also had these beautiful huskies waiting on our arrival which was a lovely touch and a precious keepsake to remember a magical trip.

In the second bedroom you’ll find two connected twin beds and a large wardrobe to one side where you can find spare bedding, blankets and towels. As you all know I suffer with insomnia and so the truth test of a bed is whether I sleep or not as we travel but here, combined with the exhaustion of every day, I was asleep by 10pm and slept for 8 hours solid completely undisturbed.

The bathroom was extremely spacious with a walk in shower, toilet, sink and dressing area as well as a washer dryer which came in so useful. As a parent, finding a washing machine in our accommodation is always such a bonus and with retrospect I would have packed far less knowing I could have washed and dried our clothes and travelled far lighter.

The children’s absolute favourite thing about the apartment, as is always the case in our stays in Finland, was our own private sauna. After a day in the cold there is nothing better than coming home, spending half an hour in the sauna just relaxing and chatting about our day, before climbing into bed and drifting into the best sleep ever. I love that although in Finland home saunas are standard practice, to us as tourists this feels like such a luxury!

The most practical addition to the apartments are the drying cupboards where you can put your snowboots, snowsuits and all of your layers at the end of the day, turn up the heat, switch on the timer and know that by morning your clothes will be warm and dry and ready to go again.

We can’t fault Santa’s Holiday Club for the accommodation, the hotel facilities, the restaurant and the magical touches to really make sure that every part of your Lapland holiday is a memory to treasure. Watch this space for more about our Santa’s Lapland stay.