u/Educational-End-5336

My Rough 4-day Itinerary:

Day 1: Fly into Finland, get settled in Airbnb, and get dinner

• Going into this trip I didn’t know much of what to expect. I was traveling with 5 friends and one of them had the idea that we go to Finland and see the Northern Lights. Our first day there we flew in later in the day and got through customs (traveling from Dublin, Ireland) fairly quickly - not always the case with traveling from Ireland lol. For leaving the airport to get to where you are staying I recommend downloading one of the popular Rovaniemi taxi apps (Bolt - airport recommendation, Menevä - fixed pricing, Taksi Rovaniemi - online recommendation). Our uber app was not working for us to get a car home. We stayed at a Airbnb right in the city center of Rovaniemi and it worked perfectly for us. We found that Airbnbs were reasonably priced, was nice to have a bigger place to go back to and warm up, and also nice to have a kitchen.
• My first impression of the city was that it was very beautiful it felt like we were actually in a winter wonderland. There was a big lake next to where we were staying that was so cool to look at and the town was small and quaint which was very fitting for the scenery. When I packed to come here I packed knit gloves, a knit hat (flat nothing on top so you can wear under helmet for winter activities!!), a big puffer (lululemon), black boots (not like special winter boots or anything), and jeans/sweats/leggings. For walking around the city I totally thought this was enough and didn’t think I needed anything extra (was often wearing sweater under jacket and leggings under jeans/sweats). Although we didn’t walk far in city just from one place to the next and everything was very central to where we were staying.
• We also rented winter gear from a company within Finland. They hand delivered it to where we were staying and had a store there where we could pick clothes up as well. This was nice to have for winter excursions, but I personally did not use it much just when we were in the city (although I saw other travelers wearing full gear in city for extra warmth). All of the excursions we did allowed us to use their winter gear as well so I don’t know if this was entirely needed, but it was nice to have since we were worried about how cold it was.

Day 2: Shopping, Snowmobiling, and Dinner in an Igloo

• We started off the day walking around the town and going into little shops which there was many great ones (bought some post cards and ornaments)! Great gifts in general from the Finland shops!
• Then we met at out pickup point to go snowmobiling (booked on Get my Guide) ! I had never done this before so I was nervous but very excited because I knew the view was going to be awesome (all you need is a drivers license to partake) . They gave us winter clothes to wear on top of our regular clothes and drove us to the destination within the snowy woods. When we got there they put everyone into different groups (my group I traveled with was able to stay together of course) and we all got an instructor. We snowmobiled with two people on one mobile and you got to switch off driving mid way through if wanted (solo travelers I believe got one to themselves). They gave you clear instructions and it felt very safe! Also was able to get many pictures as passenger! The views were awesome and I would recommend to anyone!
• We took some time to chill after the excursion and then went to dinner to celebrate a birthday at Gustav Kitchen and Bar. We ate in an igloo (reserved in advance) and it was such good food (I got a cocktail and the steak). A few of my friends got a the steak as well and while small portion sizes it tasted awesome. They were very welcoming at the restaurant and were awesome at celebrating our friends birthday (waitress gave us pub and bar recommendations after)! Going to the pub and bar in the city was also very fun and they had coat checks at the bar when you walked in (very fitting for the climate)

Read the rest here (free - not selling anything):

https://smackeyy.substack.com/p/traveling-to-finland-to-see-the-northern?r=8hypsr