NORTHERN LIGHTS 2023: HELSINKI - TROMSØ

Arrival in Helsinki. You will be met at Helsinki airport and transferred to your hotel. Check-in at the hotel from 2:00 p.m. Free afternoon.
Helsinki is situated along several peninsulas and islands along the Gulf of Finland. Today, the Helsinki metropolitan area has a total population of over 1 million, with hyper-modern suburbs spread over 764 square kilometres. Most of the city's main attractions are located in the historic city center within easy walking distance of your centrally located hotel.

During a comprehensive guided tour, you'll see Helsinki's wonderful white neoclassical cathedral topped with its iconic green dome, nearby Senate Square, and just a few hundred meters away, the Finnish Orthodox Cathedral with an ornate exterior and lavish interior. indoor decoration. A contrast is the modern Rock Church, 1969 built in solid rock and fascinating with its simple Nordic design. In the afternoon we go by tram to the Design Museum, which shows the development of legendary Nordic design.
In the evening, you will board the Finish Railways Santa Claus Express overnight train heading north to Rovaniemi in Lapland (910 km). On the way north, the train passes through countless lakes and forests.

After a 13-hour overnight train journey, in the morning you arrive in Rovaniemi, the informal capital of Finnish Lapland, which is the arctic part of the country, situated on the Arctic Circle. Rovaniemi is today the gateway to Lapland. The city was almost razed to the ground by the German army in 1944. The famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto led its reconstruction, introducing an unusual street layout. From the air, the design was designed to mimic the shape of reindeer antlers.
We start exploring Lapland with a visit to the elegant Arktikum Museum, which shows all aspects of life in the Arctic region: the people, the culture, the nature, the wildlife.
In the afternoon, visit the legendary Santa Claus village, located a few kilometers from the city, exactly on the Arctic Circle. Here Santa Claus has his official residence visited by tourists from all over the world every winter. There are many attractions such as reindeer, huskies. You will have the whole afternoon to explore the area.
In the evening, after a dinner of local culinary specialties, we leave the city to chase the Northern Lights.

On a five-hour bus journey with a stop for lunch en route through Lapland, he traverses a scene of a never-ending winter miracle. The snow-laden trees offer a fascinating landscape the Lapland Tundra.
The northernmost regions of Finland and Sweden are called Lapland. This arctic region is well known for its polar phenomena such as the midnight sun and polar night, but also for its cold, wintry weather, along with its relative abundance of conifers such as pines and firs. Lapland has been associated with Christmas in some countries since 1927, when the Finnish radio host Markus Rautio said that Santa Claus lived on Korvatunturi, a mountain in the region. Rovaniemi later claimed to be the "official hometown" of Santa Claus and developed the Santa Claus Village attraction to encourage tourism.

apland is home to the indigenous people called Sami. The Sami used to live as nomads and reindeer herders. The Sami are Finno-Ugric speaking people who inhabit the northern region of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Murmansk region, Russia. The Sami have traditionally pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best known means of subsistence is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. For traditional, environmental, cultural and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for the Sami in some regions of the Nordic countries.
Tonight, we have the second chance to chase the Northern Lights, this time just outside of Kiruna.

Kiruna is the northernmost city in Sweden. The city was originally built in 1890 to serve the Kiruna iron ore mine. It is now home to LKAB, a state-owned mining company, one of the pillars of Swedish industry.
In the morning we visit a husky camp and a short exciting husky sled ride through the snow covered countryside.
In the afternoon, we visit the Snow Hotel, which was the first and largest hotel made of ice and snow. A guided tour of the spectacular frozen structure ends at the ice bar, where even the glasses are made of ice.
In case we have not been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights the previous two nights, we will have another opportunity, the third, to hunt the Northern Lights.

The “Malmbanan” (Iron Ore Railway) was built to transport iron ore to the ports of Lulea and Narvik. In 1899 the line to Lulea was opened, and from 1903 it was also in operation all the way to Narvik in Norway (called "Ofoten Railway" from the Narvik border).
In the morning, you will travel by train 180 km from Kiruna to Narvik. The trip takes 3 hours, passing Abisko at Lake Torneträsk and Rombaksfjord, with beautiful views of the fjord as the train winds along the fjord to Narvik, which is a port city on the Atlantic coast.
Narvik developed as a year-round ice-free port for the Swedish iron ore mines of Kiruna and Gällivare. The history of modern Narvik begins in the 1870s, when the Swedish government began to understand the potential of the iron ore mines in Kiruna, Sweden. Obtaining iron ore from Kiruna had a major problem, as there was no suitable Swedish port. The nearest Swedish port, Luleå, had limitations. It was covered in ice all winter, is far from Kiruna, and only allows medium-sized cargo ships to enter. Narvik offered an ice-free harbor thanks to the warm Gulf Stream. During World War II, Narvik was heavily bombed by the German army. Parts of the sunken German submarine can still be seen today in the fjord when traveling by train to Narvik.
In the afternoon, visit the local history museum showing the development of Narvik and its railway.
At night, you have the fourth chance to chase the Northern Lights! We will go up the hill by cable car to have an amazing view of the city and the fjord, and with luck we will also be able to see the Northern Lights.

Enjoy a leisurely morning before continuing the 4-hour bus journey north to Tromsø, which follows part of the Norwegian coastline.

Optional: Night nature excursion to chase the Northern Lights. Price: 150 euros per person.

Tromsø is the largest Norwegian city north of the Arctic Circle and the northernmost point of our tour. It received the nickname "Paris of the North" due to its colorful houses and cultural life. The city center is located on a small mountainous island, connected to the mainland by a thin bridge.
Today, we explore downtown and visit the famous Arctic Cathedral (Ishavscatedralen), which was designed by Jan Ingwe Howig to evoke the shape of a Sami tent, as well as the frost of a glacier. At the Polar Museum you can learn about the Norwegian polar explorers Fridjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen.
Optional: Night nature excursion to chase the Northern Lights. Price: 150 euros per person.

Transfer to the airport and departure.

Optional: Extend your trip with a flight to Oslo, an overnight stay, and more sightseeing in the Norwegian capital Oslo.