Epic Travel → Europe → Finland → Kakslauttenen

Location: Finnish Lapland

Time Required: 3 – 5 days

Red Tape/Notes: For more details on the various accommodation options and the resort itself, visit the Kakslauttenen website.

What’s Nearby?: Horseback Riding, Reindeer Sleigh Ride, Dog Sledding, Snowmobiling, Nordic Skiing

Kakslauttenen is the resort with the adorable and picturesque igloos you’ve probably seen pictures of. The igloos are designed to allow their occupants to view the Northern Lights from the comfort of their cozy little beds. Since the Northern Lights are unpredictable, there’s no guarantee you’re going to see anything at all, much less during whatever period of time you spend in your igloo. However, the igloos are super cute, and it’s an experience just staying in them, so I think it’s worth it regardless. You can also visit Santa’s Home, which is inside the resort. If you want to see Santa, book an appointment in advance. He’s a busy guy.

The resort is divided into two villages – the East Village and the West Village. The East Village was the original property, and it has a more organic feel, with the igloos set on a wooded hillside up a trail, and the larger cabins along trails by a river; the restaurant and long is a cozy conglomeration of partial levels and interesting wings, like it grew with the village.  The newer West Village feels more like a planned complex, with the igloos laid out in a grid on flat ground and the cabins laid out in similar fashion, making them easy to find and access; the restaurant, reception area, and bar were all clearly designed to accommodate larger crowds. Interestingly enough, the East and West Village serve the same food (you have two options every day), though not necessarily on the same day, and when we were there, the East Village chef was much better than the West Village chef. We got to do a head to head comparison because we had the exact same meal at both places on successive days.

I think it terms of atmosphere the East Village was probably a better fit for us, but we loved our little Gold Digger’s cabin (which is in the West Village) – the fact that you have to hike across a snowy field to get there (and thus have to make this hike at least twice a day to get to breakfast and dinner) was part of the joy. The resort has sledges (aka sleds) which are used to transport luggage – we usually borrowed one of these and used it to transport ourselves. One of you gets to sit on the sledge and the other runs behind it until it picks up enough speed that the runner can jump onto the skis on the back. It probably took us 20 minutes to get from our cabin to the restaurant.

We never really felt bored, because the property was large enough that you could hike around and explore during any downtime, and there were always sleds outside the reception area/restaurant so you could grab one and go find some hills to sled down. I’m not sure we would have wanted to stay there more than the five days we did, though – we were running out of ways to entertain ourselves.

Epic Travel → Europe → Finland → Kakslauttenen