I'll be sharing my experiences in Finland, as well as the itinerary I chose to take (:
I feel that Finland is a rather homely country and it's definitely not as expensive as people make it out to be. I can even see myself living there, should I choose to leave the sunny island of Singapore. They also use Euros, which made things a lot easier since the currency is well-utilised in many other countries. Therefore, amongst the other Scandinavian countries, I feel that Finland is the more economical choice.
Day 1: Helsinki
After landing at about 1.20pm at the airport, we managed to reach our accommodation at about 3+pm. It was more or less dark by that time. Our accommodation was in the Kallio area. On hindsight, it may not be the best area to stay at because there weren't many restaurants around the area and we were lazy to travel far since it was dark very early. Also, the bar and nightlife areas weren't as "hipster" as the other travel websites made it out to be.
We decided to just walk to the K-supermarket nearby and bought groceries for breakfast and dinners over the next few days. Tip: always find an accommodation near a K-supermarket, they're extremely useful!
Travelcard: We bought a travel card for 3 days since we were only in Helsinki for that amount of time. We had to buy the regional pass because we intended to go to Espoo, and the airport was in Vantaa.
Day 2: Helsinki city walk
We chose not to buy the Helsinki pass because we felt that it wasn't worth it (that decision proved to be right). Hence, we went for a free city walk instead.
This was the path we took:
Finlandia Hall (free entrance, place where concerts are held)
National museum (only took photos on the outside)
Rock church (3 euros per person, worth going)
West harbour (don't bother, there was nothing much there)
Helsinki old church (only took photos on the outside)
Strindberg (oldest cafe, can consider having lunch there, about 25-30 euros for mains)
Esplanade park (pretty lightings near Christmas period)
Uspenski cathedral (free entrance)
Presidential palace and city hall (in passing)
Senate square and Helsinki cathedral
We ended our walk at the biggest Christmas market in Helsinki and spent a rather long time there. There are a few things you'll tend to see there!
1. Arts and Crafts - wooden or woolly crafts
2. Food - smoked in general
3. Drinks - you HAVE to try the Gloggi if you're there during Christmas!
Random christmas trees with jar decorations
The inside of the Rock Church
Outside of Uspenski Cathedral
The biggest Christmas market in Helsinki
Blacksmithing at the Christmas market
Day 3: Helsinki - Nuuksio National Park
We travelled all the way to Nuuksio National Park! How to get there: take a train to Espoo from Pasila Bole station, transfer to bus 245 to Haukkalamentie bus stop (warning: it's in the middle of nowhere). The bus stop is 2km from the Haukkalampi starting point.
I took the 4km blue trail (you can see the blue markings on the trees along the way). I think it's a very doable trail for beginners who are doing winter trekking for the first time. It took us a total of 3 hours to complete the whole trail (beginning from the bus stop).
I thoroughly enjoyed the winter trekking experience (it was my first time!), though there are few things to note if you're intending to do trekking during winter:
- Walking on compact snow/ice is extremely slippery even with boots. Try your best to find fresh powder to walk on! You'll get the hang of it as you trek more.
- Do not over-wrap yourself as you will get warmer as you trek.
- Drink water! You will sweat even in winter. In fact, the chances of heat stroke increases because you don't lose heat as easily through sweat.
At the bottom of the trail
Somewhere along the way!
The highest point we went to
Snow all around!
Day 4: Helsinki Zoo - overnight sleeper train
We had a free day and we pretty much covered the places of interest in Helsinki, so we decided to check out the zoo, since creation is one of our greatest passions.
My advice: do not go to the Helsinki zoo in winter. Most animals are either hibernating, or it's too cold for them to be out and hence, they are kept indoors where you can't see them. Also, you do freeze when walking around.
Nevertheless, we did have a good time walking around seeing arctic animals we never could have seen in our tropical island!
Some personal thoughts:
- The enclosures do not have any moats, they are just surrounded by glass doors. It's rather cool because you are closer to the animals.
- The enclosures are rather huge for each animal. They have a lot of natural habitat space to roam around.
- They aren't particularly well-maintained. Glass isn't clean, grass uncut etc. I suppose it creates the "wild" vibe.
My Airbnb host was nice, he allowed us to use his place till we had to leave for the sleeper train so we managed to cook dinner, shower and be fresh before we left!
The sleeper train was rather cramp but quite cool! There's space to put your luggage, albeit not a lot (luggage has to be closed, not opened). For someone with motion sickness, I didn't mind it the movements of the train that much because it's quite stable. I was even able to knock out for a good 7-8 hours! By the time I woke up, we were almost at Rovaniemi! I highly recommend the sleeper trains because they save travel time and one night of accommodation.
Days 5-9: Rovaniemi
I suggest you book safaris for Rovaniemi because it is difficult for first-timers to know how to navigate through the snow and darkness. I booked 2 nights of Aurora Borealis (in case we couldn't see any for one of the nights) and also a snowmobile + reindeer and husky safari.
Review for Aurora hunting with Lapland Welcome
They're extremely professional and they supply you with good thermal overalls, which will save your life, trust me. On the way, they will also explain the scientific knowledge behind the formations of Auroras and provide you with the best setting for your DSLR so that you're able to capture the lights. I had an extremely good experience with them and won't hesitate to recommend them to anyone who wishes to go.
Some tips for aurora hunting:
The sleeper train was rather cramp but quite cool! There's space to put your luggage, albeit not a lot (luggage has to be closed, not opened). For someone with motion sickness, I didn't mind it the movements of the train that much because it's quite stable. I was even able to knock out for a good 7-8 hours! By the time I woke up, we were almost at Rovaniemi! I highly recommend the sleeper trains because they save travel time and one night of accommodation.
So cute!
Poison arrow dart frogs
Look at how close the tiger was!
Pretty pretty snow leopard
We finally had sun that day! It was so gorgeous!
One of my favourite photos of us <3
Days 5-9: Rovaniemi
I suggest you book safaris for Rovaniemi because it is difficult for first-timers to know how to navigate through the snow and darkness. I booked 2 nights of Aurora Borealis (in case we couldn't see any for one of the nights) and also a snowmobile + reindeer and husky safari.
Review for Aurora hunting with Lapland Welcome
They're extremely professional and they supply you with good thermal overalls, which will save your life, trust me. On the way, they will also explain the scientific knowledge behind the formations of Auroras and provide you with the best setting for your DSLR so that you're able to capture the lights. I had an extremely good experience with them and won't hesitate to recommend them to anyone who wishes to go.
Some tips for aurora hunting:
- Bring a proper camera, and by that I mean a DSLR (or at least a semi-pro camera). Forget normal digital cameras or phone cameras or go-pros. They don't let in enough light to capture the pale northern lights.
- Camera settings - Long exposure (at least 20s), set to manual focus and the distance should be infinity
- DO NOT use flash. It is extremely inconsiderate because it will ruin other people's photos. Furthermore, you won't see a thing.
- Please wear gloves. Your hands will freeze while trying to operate the camera. You might also want to bring some extra batteries. My nikon ones lasted me all the way and never died but I heard that other brands don't last as long.
One of the better pictures - only started to get used to it later in the night, but the auroras died down by then ):
Started to make funny shadow pictures
Review for Day B programme by Arctic Snowmobile Park
This is a great overview programme for those who want to experience everything in a day. I felt that it was more worth while compared to the others. But of course, it really depends on whether you prefer reindeer/husky sledding, or snowmobile. Our main default mode of transport was snowmobile so each couple was given one snowmobile to ride. We did a 500m reindeer and 2km husky ride, which was really nice but not nearly as fun because it's rather short. The animals also have their own agenda sometimes, which is fun to watch.
The last bit of the agenda is a free buffet lunch at the Santa Claus Village. I enjoyed the buffet lunch but not the santa claus village because I felt that it was too touristy.
Some things to note:
- It's extremely cold when you ride and the cold wind is just blowing against your face. If you have a llama face mask, bring it. Otherwise, they will provide but it's not as sanitary.
- Wear warmer socks and gloves that day. Your extremities will start to freeze along the way.
- You just need one single-driver supplement per couple. Then you can swap the main driver along the way as you wish, but both MUST bring driving licenses. They're really strict on that.
It's a reindeer!
With the llama masks and helmets on
On the husky sled
Other things we did
Rovaniemi is pretty dead without the Safaris, and you'll need to be careful because many things close on Christmas eve and Christmas day so be prepared to cook your own food, stay in, play in the snow etc. but they had a theatre that was opened on Christmas. We also managed to go and see their science centres (Artikum and Pilke science centre), which weren't too bad.
Recommended Restaurants:
Ravintola Roka Street Bistro - serves good quality casual dining food at affordable prices. Portions are huge. (We had a salmon risotto and pork sandwich)
Nili restaurant - good if you want to try Finnish traditional meats and food, such as bear.
Gorgeous sunrise!
One of my favourite photos of the trip!
It was really difficult to jump in thick clothing
