Magical Lapland Day Trip

From the minute we arrived at Gatwick airport it was superb, at the Thomson Airways check in desk, we were greeted with a sign saying "search for Santa starts here" and a nice man in a very festive jumper directed us to the desk. The crew on the flight were amazing, all wearing Christmas hats and telling jokes and singing carols over the speakers, even the pilot joined in!

The flight to Enontekio in Finland was about 3 hours and this went by very quickly with colouring competitions, singing, breakfast etc. On arrival at the airport the staff greeted us with out brand new snow suits, luckily my son and I had our own snow boots, this helped us get through the airport a lot quicker to our snowmobile sleigh waiting outside. We were taken through snowy forests and over frozen lakes to Santa's village which took about 20 minutes and was truly breathtaking. On arrival we were met by friendly staff who asked my son if he'd like to Santa straight away. We were directed to a tea tree lit snowy pathway which we followed and was greeted by an Elf. They took us to a super log cabin and the door opened and Santa greeted us and said to my son "Deion I have been waiting for you, come inside!"

His face was a picture and Santa spent time with him asking him questions, we never felt rushed and took photos. The expression on his little face made it so worthwhile! After Santa we then had around 7 hours to enjoy the village. There were great facilities there and very clean restaurant and toilets, the staff were all so helpful. My son and I went on husky rides, reindeer rides, visited the ice castle, snowmobile safaris, sledging, tobogganing, all unlimited. I had expected to pay for our lunch, however this was all included and the food was superb, pasta bolognaise, home made soups, jacket potatoes, crepes, hot berry juice and coffee. You could go up as many times as you liked!

When we arrived at lunchtime the sun was just going down, the place is lit by tea tree lights, fair lights and old fashioned gas lamps, making it very special. It was -5 when we went and I have to admit we didn't feel cold once. The suits are superb, you only need to provide hats, gloves and scarfs yourself. When it was time to leave we got transferred back to the airport by coach, the airport is small but very cosy and has a little gift shop. You could visit Lapland without spending a penny! On the flight home the crew were still in high spirits and we were served with a Christmas Turkey dinner, the perfect end to a magical day! I would certainly go again and recommend this to anyone with children aged 4 upwards.