We posed some questions to Nick, his wife Helen and 10-year old twins Hannah & Sophia to find out more about their exciting winter holiday.
Why did you choose the Northern Lights Adventure for your family holiday?
Nick & Helen: We like to make the most of the kids Christmas holiday break and have always wanted to do a winter-snow holiday with friends, so the Northern Lights Adventure seemed perfect. We’re not a skiing family nor are our friends, so were looking for a good alternative to enjoy some great winter activities and introduce our daughters to more snow than they could ever imagine!
What’s special about Finland?
Nick & Helen: We chose to travel over the New Year. At this time of year, the scenery is absolutely stunning. The pine and spruce forests were laden with snow; it truly was a winter wonderland. The Hossa area is quite sparsely populated, but there are tiny settlements dotted around and their Christmas decorations add to the warm ‘Christmassy’ feel of the whole holiday.
Hannah: So, it’s really hard to answer because everywhere I looked, there was really beautiful scenery and the activities were really good fun.
Sophia: The snow – there was soooooo much SNOW!
What were your holiday highlights?
Nick & Helen: We loved ‘living’ in the beautiful forest and seeing our daughters learning wilderness skills from the brilliant guides. Snowshoeing through the forest trails to a frozen lake and cross-country skiing were both highlights. Although the igloo building was exhausting it was good fun!
Sophia: I really enjoyed the tobogganing. That was great fun. Plus, my mum and dad would pull us from the house to the main restaurant and activity centre every day!
Hannah: The cross-country skiing was the best – especially when we skied across an enormous frozen lake. When I think of that, it really makes me want to go again. The ice-fishing was really exciting too, although we didn’t catch anything.
There are so many winter activities (snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, tobogganing, husky sledding) included in the itinerary what was your favourite?
Nick & Helen: Snowshoeing. We were able to venture off-piste and explore areas that we wouldn’t be able to access on any other activity.
Sophia: I really liked the cross-country skiing. The snow was really thick, and the trees kept blowing their snow into the air. It was all so beautiful. It was really hard work and I kept falling over, but it got easier with practice.
Hannah: Hmmm – I really can’t decide. The igloo building was amazing, and the finished home looked brilliant. It was actually a double igloo with a tunnel linking them both together. It was very hard work building them and it took two days, but it was lovely drinking hot chocolate inside it afterwards.
We also built a huge snow castle – this was only built by my sister and our two friends that we travelled with. We had loads of fun playing in it.
How did you build an igloo?
Hannah: First, we marked out two big circles of snow and then began to pile up two massive mounds of snow. We used big snow shovels to help us. When the mounds were taller than me, we patted them down hard so that they could freeze overnight. The next day we had to cut lots of sticks of wood, so they were about as long as a ruler, and hammered them into the snow mounds. Then we began to hollow the snow mounds out – we knew when to stop when we hit the inside ends of the wooden sticks.
Did you see the Northern Lights?
Nick & Helen: There’s only a small chance of seeing them and because we weren’t expecting to see them (nor was it the reason for us to go on this holiday) we weren’t disappointed to not have seen them.
Did you see any wildlife?
Hannah & Sophia: Yes, we saw lots of reindeer, although not wild ones. We went to visit a reindeer farm and helped feed them. They like to eat carrots and lichen.
What did you like about the accommodation?
Nick & Helen: It was a modern Scandinavian house set in the forest. It couldn’t have been better. It was clean and incredibly warm with great facilities like WiFi to keep the girls happy after activities, a private sauna and a full kitchen. It was really comfortable with plenty of room for everyone.
Hannah & Sophia: It was really, really nice and cosy. We had the whole of the upstairs to ourselves and our mum and dad stayed downstairs. Our favourite thing about the accommodation was the sauna, which was all to ourselves.
What was the food like?
Nick & Helen: The staff at the centre couldn’t have done more for us. The food was always plentiful and pitched perfectly for families. Meals were hot-pots, casseroles, stews, pasta-bakes, burgers, sausages, soups, jacket potatoes, fish pie. Always very filling and warming. One of our friends son’s has very specific and quite complicated dietary needs, and the staff went out of their way to ensure he had all the right food and was able to enjoy his meal times as well.
Hannah & Sophia: The food was delicious. Every morning I had cereal, then Finnish eggs with bread and fruit juice. Lunches were always soups and for tea there was always something different. When we went snowshoeing, we took a packed lunch with us and we cooked sausages and toasted our sandwiches over a campfire.
How did you keep warm?
Nick & Helen: Despite continued minus temperatures, keeping warm wasn’t an issue. The activities were all quite physically intense and we had brought plenty of thermal socks, leggings and vests, and the thermal snowsuits and boots provided at the centre were incredible! If anything, there were occasions when we were too warm during the activities. The accommodation was very well insulated, so we were never cold inside. We had a drying cupboard to place any wet clothing in, and the private sauna was the perfect way to warm up at the end of each day.
Hannah: We took thermal leggings and vests to wear and were given big thermal snowsuits when we arrived. Because we were doing lots of activities each day, we were always keeping ourselves warm and I was never cold.
Do you have any tips for travelling with kids to Finland?
Nick & Helen: There is no need to worry about getting cold – the clothing provided is excellent and the accommodation is cosy and warm. We suggest packing some fun family board and card games and take biscuits, savoury snacks and sweets to eat whilst out participating in the activities. Definitely take marshmallows to toast over camp fires! Be prepared to get ‘stuck in’ and embrace all activities – they really are great fun!
Would you recommend Finland to your friends?
Nick & Helen: Absolutely. We travelled with a family of friends. It’s the perfect alternative to the skiing holiday. It’s adventurous, it’s active and is set in a beautiful area. It’s not gimmicky in any way. The Finnish wilderness guides are extremely knowledgeable and highly experienced. It’s a holiday for the whole family to enjoy a range of adventurous winter activities. We had a brilliant time together as a family whilst spending time with our friends.
Hannah: Definitely. All the activities were really good. Everyone got to try them out and have more goes if they really liked them and the whole holiday was really good fun.
Sophia: The guides were very good and always looked after us – they were also really good fun to be with and even organised for us all to have a New Year’s party at their homes, where they showed us traditional New Year games and fortune telling.
Explore all our winter holidays to Finland, or for more information contact a member of our friendly team.
