Lapland

inspector_monkfish

sturll wrote: »

I was going to take my kids to Lapland but it ended up being something like £600 each for 1 day. I can't justify paying that.

But i suppose you could blag your kids, get an Easy Jet flight to Geneva and then a bus up to the Alps. The place will be blanketed in snow and you are bound to find a Santas grotto somewhere. Kids will never know your not in Lap Land. But you'll have to stay one step ahead of the game, make sure you go past a dog home or something - bound to be the odd husky in there.

Kids happy, you're happy, wifes even happier since you saved about a grand.

yep, just got quoted £3,200 for a 3 day trip :mad:
i'm sure its fantastic, but as you say - difficult to justify

youngest daughter has had a pretty [EMAIL="!!!!py"]!!!!py[/EMAIL] year so far, in and out of hospital, and gotta go back in next month, so though it might be nice for her (and all of us), but not at those prices....

might check out disney paris at christmas time
did it many years ago when we just had 1 kid, and was quite magical, and certainly not that expensive!


or i might just check out the Alps as you suggest !!
how do you make a St Bernards look like a Husky though

inspector_monkfish

Incapuppy wrote: »

Did you check out TA? I am currently on there and searching for 'day trip' on the Lapland forum yielded 89+ pages of results.

i'll have a look thanks

breezeway

sorry wrong post

poe.tuesday

I personally think that the one day trips to lapland are not value for money or any fun, the flight there is at least 3 hours then you have about an hour getting your gear on and with the time difference it's lunch time before you have actually done anything

I would always recommend you go for a min of 3 nights, companies such as cantabury etc do an all inc package where you get your sbow gear and all little trips included however, I would check out reviews of such trips as I have read that you can be queing for some time just for a 5 min reindeer ride

I think that you should check out inghams, they do week long stays and shorter stays however the prices are simular for both durations, you can also book all the other activies such as husky rides etc with inghams and they are very reasonably priced

a 3 night santa break with inghams cost from about £600 each, this includes clothing, a meeting with santa etc and then you can book excussions with them - the only thing with the short breaks is that they go on the 16th dec so I don't know if this would suit you?

the other option is to go for a week - you could go there for 1 week over christmas for all 4 of you for about £2600 and then you would also do your excussions from there, here's an example of the excussions prices:
mini reindeer (15 min trip) adults £28 - kids £22
super reindeer (over 30 mins trip) adults £44 - kids £26
mine husky - adults £36 - kids £23
super husky - adults £66 - kids £41
santas secret home adults £41 - kids £37
snowmoble (sharing) adults £50 - kids (either on the back or in a pod) £13

so if you did the shorter breaks with inghams, the cost would be about £2500 then add the trips such as the mini husky, mini reindeer and snowmobile (you would not need the secret home as you get a santa trip included - your cost would be about £350 for the trips giving you a total of £2850 plus money for food (if going self catering) and I would say you can do it for about £3000 and that's for 3 nights (4 days) - or you can spend more than that on your day trip

I would also suggest that if you are looking at going for a week at christmas that you get is sorted now as Crystal have pulled out of lapland for the weeklong stays so that only leaves inghams and neilsen so there will be a shortage for popular weeks this year I think

the other companies to look for shorter stays are people like crystal, first choice, emagine etc

good luck and do yoru research as some companies do not have good reps, also think about where you are going to go to, snow is not assured but if you do as north as possible then you are more likely to get snow, places like ruka, salla, rov etc are all south, look at resorts such as yllas, levi, pallas and my fav, saaraselka

inspector_monkfish

poe.tuesday wrote: »

I personally think that the one day trips to lapland are not value for money or any fun, the flight there is at least 3 hours then you have about an hour getting your gear on and with the time difference it's lunch time before you have actually done anything

I would always recommend you go for a min of 3 nights, companies such as cantabury etc do an all inc package where you get your sbow gear and all little trips included however, I would check out reviews of such trips as I have read that you can be queing for some time just for a 5 min reindeer ride

I think that you should check out inghams, they do week long stays and shorter stays however the prices are simular for both durations, you can also book all the other activies such as husky rides etc with inghams and they are very reasonably priced

a 3 night santa break with inghams cost from about £600 each, this includes clothing, a meeting with santa etc and then you can book excussions with them - the only thing with the short breaks is that they go on the 16th dec so I don't know if this would suit you?

the other option is to go for a week - you could go there for 1 week over christmas for all 4 of you for about £2600 and then you would also do your excussions from there, here's an example of the excussions prices:
mini reindeer (15 min trip) adults £28 - kids £22
super reindeer (over 30 mins trip) adults £44 - kids £26
mine husky - adults £36 - kids £23
super husky - adults £66 - kids £41
santas secret home adults £41 - kids £37
snowmoble (sharing) adults £50 - kids (either on the back or in a pod) £13

so if you did the shorter breaks with inghams, the cost would be about £2500 then add the trips such as the mini husky, mini reindeer and snowmobile (you would not need the secret home as you get a santa trip included - your cost would be about £350 for the trips giving you a total of £2850 plus money for food (if going self catering) and I would say you can do it for about £3000 and that's for 3 nights (4 days) - or you can spend more than that on your day trip

I would also suggest that if you are looking at going for a week at christmas that you get is sorted now as Crystal have pulled out of lapland for the weeklong stays so that only leaves inghams and neilsen so there will be a shortage for popular weeks this year I think

the other companies to look for shorter stays are people like crystal, first choice, emagine etc

good luck and do yoru research as some companies do not have good reps, also think about where you are going to go to, snow is not assured but if you do as north as possible then you are more likely to get snow, places like ruka, salla, rov etc are all south, look at resorts such as yllas, levi, pallas and my fav, saaraselka

thanks so much for the very helpful info
i'm still struggling to justify the cost for such a short break though :eek:
i'm sure its fantastic, but all over so soon !

poe.tuesday

so go for a week, if you can take your children out of school then you can go there in Jan and the whole santa thing still is all there and you will pay half that for jan

I would never go for less than a week as it has so much to offer, I have been there 5 times in the past 18 months and only twice have I paid full book price, all the others were last min deals where I have paid £600 for all 4 of us to go for a week - it maybe something you want to look into

inspector_monkfish

poe.tuesday wrote: »

so go for a week, if you can take your children out of school then you can go there in Jan and the whole santa thing still is all there and you will pay half that for jan

I would never go for less than a week as it has so much to offer, I have been there 5 times in the past 18 months and only twice have I paid full book price, all the others were last min deals where I have paid £600 for all 4 of us to go for a week - it maybe something you want to look into

thats not a bad idea, thanks for the tip

don't mind taking kids out of school, but mrs monkfish works in a school, so our holidays are governed by that unfortunately

last minute could be the way forward....
so, is santa still there after christmas, doing his thing for the kids?

FluffyFiFi

We went to Lapland through a lastminute.com deal and spent a week in Levi. Have to say that it was one of the best times we have ever had. I have always preferred the sun but Lapland was magical and a week was just the right amount of time. The hardest thing to get used to, apart from the cold, was the weird light and the short days - we had about 4 hours of daylight. The husky trip was excellent, but the reindeer sleigh was my favourite.

poe.tuesday

yes, the santa thing is still there after christmas but I am not sure if it carries on until feb half term - you will also find the feb half term is as expensive if not more expensive than christmas/new year as it's also great for skiing - last christmas there were some deals about so maybe you should wait until nearer the time )(start looking at inghams etc for the offers 6 to 8 weeks before departure)

we are also tied to school hols due to OH job but we have still got deals otherwise you are going to have to pay in excess of 2k during school hols

poe.tuesday

this may seem expensive but what you get for your money in comparison to the majority of santa breaks is good - it looks a really lovely short santa break and the dates would be good, going on the 19th dec for 4 nights

http://www.activitiesabroad.com/2-5-797-Santa_at_Savalen