Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast, meet your guide in the lobby for a walking tour throughout the city. 

We’ll explore all the highlights of Helsinki from the open-air market to Senate Square, Rock Church, Parliament, and the Market Square. Get to know the destination and learn about the quirkiest traits of Finnish people.

Lunch on own.

After lunch, visit the Helsinki Christmas Market. 

From December 1 to 21, Senate Square hosts the capital’s Christmas market in the shadow of Helsinki Cathedral. More than 100 stalls offer homemade gifts, Christmas decorations and local food. Santa Claus pays a visit every day.

Optional evening activity: If you want to ask like a real Finn, enjoy a trip to sauna tonight. Kuusijärvi is a hugely popular year-round recreational center just north of Helsinki in the city of Vantaa. 

Kuusijärvi offers both electric public saunas, as well as the classic Finnish smoke sauna experience. Right outside the saunas, you can dip your toes into Lake Kuusijärvi. Kuusijärvi also has a restaurant and café serving burgers, salads, soups, and refreshments.

Overnight: Lapland Hotels Bulevardi

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast, we’ll visit the Helsinki Winter Garden. 

Although open year-round, the glasshouses of the Winter Garden are a popular winter destination. During the Christmas and New Year period, the gardens are fully decorated with flowers such as azaleas, amaryllises, and hyacinths.

Afternoon at Christmas Market.

Dinner and evening at leisure.

Overnight: Lapland Hotels Bulevardi

Meals: Breakfast

Enjoy your full day at leisure to explore some of Helsinki many art galleries, cute boutiques, and lovely cafes.

If you haven’t had enough, head back to the Christmas Market for final purchases and holiday cheer.

Tonight, we’ll depart on the Santa Claus Express to Rovaniemi. 

Snuggle down into your private two-bunk sleeping cabin and wake up the next morning to the snowy landscape of Finnish Lapland.

The journey is about 885 kilometers and takes eight to 10 hours depending on the scheduled stops. Each sleeper car has a shared bathroom, but the cabins are kitted out with their own sink, fresh linens, power outlets, and a window. Sure, it's dark when you board the train, but the thrill of waking up to see the sunrise over snow-covered pine trees while hurtling towards the Arctic Circle is truly unique.

Overnight: Santa Claus Express 

Meals: Breakfast,

Morning arrival in Rovaniemi, Finland, and transfer to your hotel, The Artic Treehouse.

The Arctic Treehouse Hotel provides a unique blend of luxury comfort in the heart of Arctic nature, local Lappish traditions, and modern Scandinavian design. In contrast to the meticulously designed accommodation and nest-like coziness, the panoramic views from the windows provide impressive spectacles of the forest and Arctic skies: the Northern Lights and Midnight Sun can be admired from the comfort of your bed. 

The hotel has an exceptional restaurant serving culinary delights prepared in stylish surroundings using Arctic ingredients.

Welcome to the Arctic Circle; unforgettable accommodation experiences await you!

Afternoon and evening at leisure. 

Complimentary activities at the hotel are: Toboggans, kick sleds, snowshoes, ski shoes and fat bikes.

Overnight: Arctic Treehouse

Meals: Breakfast 

After breakfast, head out to Santa Claus Village.  Rovaniemi is the official hometown of Santa Claus in Lapland.

Just eight kilometers north of Rovaniemi city (either take Highway 4 towards Ivalo or hop on the local #8 bus labelled "Santa Express"), this festive holiday village is where you'll find all things Christmas and Kris Kringle related. The Main Post Office has a direct mail route to Santa himself, Mrs. Claus bakes traditional gingerbread cookies and tells stories about Lapland at her Christmas Cottage, and Santa explains how he and his jovial elves prepare for Christmas each year in his work chambers.

This is also where you can take a photo (and get a certificate) of yourself stepping over the Arctic Circle, with a painted sign marking the circle of latitude that runs 66°33'45.9" north of the Equator.

In the evening meet with your guide for a Northern Lights Safari to find the best views of the Aurora Borealis while enjoying hot drinks and cookies. 

Dinner and evening at leisure. 

Overnight: Arctic Treehouse

Meals: Breakfast,  

After breakfast, head out to Santa Claus Village.  Rovaniemi is the official hometown of Santa Claus in Lapland.

Just eight kilometers north of Rovaniemi city (either take Highway 4 towards Ivalo or hop on the local #8 bus labelled "Santa Express"), this festive holiday village is where you'll find all things Christmas and Kris Kringle related. The Main Post Office has a direct mail route to Santa himself, Mrs. Claus bakes traditional gingerbread cookies and tells stories about Lapland at her Christmas Cottage, and Santa explains how he and his jovial elves prepare for Christmas each year in his work chambers.

This is also where you can take a photo (and get a certificate) of yourself stepping over the Arctic Circle, with a painted sign marking the circle of latitude that runs 66°33'45.9" north of the Equator.

In the evening meet with your guide for a Northern Lights Safari to find the best views of the Aurora Borealis while enjoying hot drinks and cookies. 

Dinner and evening at leisure. 

Overnight: Arctic Treehouse

Meals: Breakfast, dinner

After breakfast, choose one of the optional activities below or spend the day at leisure.

Finnish Snow Sauna. Prepare to be awed: This sauna is made entirely of snow and ice, offering a unique bathing experience that contrasts thick, hot steam with icy snow walls. If this combination doesn’t appeal, the Arctic Snow Hotel also has more traditional log-built sauna buildings, complete with hot tubs. All sauna bookings include a chance to try cold water dipping.

Or 

Ice swimming (or winter swimming) in Lapland is something many Rovaniemi people find refreshing and healthy. Ice swimming is an experience normally combined with sauna – the combination of hot and cold in your body is amazing and it’s good for your health. Swimming in a hole in the ice really does you the world of good.

Group Dinner – Let’s celebrate our unforgettable trip together.

Overnight: Arctic Treehouse

Meals: Breakfast 

After breakfast, your driver will meet you in the lobby of the hotel to take you to the airport for your international flight back to the USA.

Safe travels.

                                            Thank you for traveling with Limitless Planet!