A Family Outing!!

Thursday 26th July 2007

After starting the day in the same manner as most of the other days (home cooked breakfast etc.. and getting up later each day), myself and Tim, my friend and neighbour proceeded to assemble the storage chests that we had purchased the previous day and after finishing up, both of our families headed off together to hire some bikes so we could have a cycle around the village (pic of kids with their bikes). We took the short cut from our cabin through to the next street and within a couple of minutes had arrived at the Snow Fun Safaris lodge where we proceeded to hire bikes for us all. The guy on duty at Snow Fun was extremely helpful and gave us some great advice on the best bikes to have for what we wanted to do and also gave us loads of information of things to do when we return in the winter. He had loads of time for us and our daft questions and even taught the kids their first few words of Finnish.

Once we had got going, we cycled around the area and explored how far everything was for when we return in the winter. We took a look at Santas House up at Lapp Village, the Poro Reindeer Restaurant (although both closed through the summer) and also cycled up and looked at some of the new developments of cabins that are being offered to the Brits as well as a property that was of interest to a friend called Simon the Kiwi (from New Zealand) who many of you may have corresponded with on trip advisor. All in all, after cycling around for a couple of hours we headed back to our cabins so the kids could play whilst the adults went for their daily sauna and shower before heading off out for the evening.

If I haven't already mentioned in my ramblings, we all by this time were getting very relaxed to the Finnish Environment of fresh clean air with little to no noise pollution and have never felt so relaxed in our lives. The Lapland bug was getting to us all and the thought of spending several months a year there was starting to become very appealing. We are all awaiting those elusive 6 numbers on a Saturday and Wednesday night so we can make our dream a reality.

That's all for today folks and don't forget to check back soon as Friday 27th was a really great day out for us all and could possibly be interesting to many.

He marched them up to the top of the hill!!

Tuesday 24th July 2007

Today we got up and after our normal routine of a home made breakfast in our cabin we made our way up to the ski centre to familiarise ourselves with it ready for our winter trip. As the day started a little overcast, we feared that we might be in for a little more rain so decided to wrap up suitably before heading out. After the short drive to the almost deserted ski centre car park, we left our car and walked towards the ski hire shop/cafe. After having a quick peer through the window of the shop/cafe and looking over the fairly impressive foundations for its extension, the decision was made to climb the fell.

We started pretty much right in line with the hire/shop cafe as the slope in front of us looked rather grassy and manageable. How wrong could we be? What started out fairly easy soon became a rather arduous climb as the ground soon turned out to be rather rocky and uneven and it wasn't until about two hours later that we all arrived at the summit somewhat sweaty and with the sun beating down on us brightly from the sky (so our thoughts for the whether were wrong today!! What a day we were having!!). Before moving on from this subject, I really must mention my mom, wife and girls who had all managed the climb to the top as well. Whilst I managed the exercise quite comfortably, it must have seemed never ending for my 5 and 8 year old daughters, my wife who was grandma sitting most of the way and my 72 year old mother. One thing's for certain, I won't be doing that when i'm 72. As for my daughters, they closely flanked me most the way, one attached to each arm and really enjoyed the exploring experience. Here's a couple of photos of the tribe taken at the top of Yllas fell with a few red faces from the strenuous exercise and the burning sun.

Following a wander round the top of the fell and a short rest and some refreshments, we started our return journey down the fell and finally after a 31/2 hour round trip, we were back at the car feeling hungry and exhausted. We jumped straight in (with the temperature clock reading 27 degress) and headed straight for Jullis for yet another late lunch. Helen my wife was that hungry now that she demolished a whole Jullis burger and fries to herself. Not bad for someone who weighs about 8stone ringing wet!!

For those of you who are heading out to Akaslompolo this winter, I wholly encourage you to try a Jullis burger and fries and you'll see what i mean!!

Finally, after a well earned lunch, we retired to our cabin for a siesta in readiness for the arrival of our friends later that evening.

That's all for today folks, don't forget to come back soon!!

Our first sight of rain!!!

Monday 23rd July 2007

When I woke this morning to our first sight of rain, I thought for a minute I was back in the UK!!

So, after eating our home cooked breakfast, we decided rather than go somewhere and get soaking wet, instead to head out in the car to go and visit one of the nearby areas. We decided on Kolari and as we had a small list of things to get for our cabin, we thought that this was probably as good an opportunity as any to spend walking around the shops and looking. The journey was 38km and took us just 37 minutes (probably speeding a little) and we had a good look around the shops, purchased a few things including a new kettle and then decided to go and head for Sweden or Sverige as the road signs read. It was surprising that just about 3-4 minutes later that we were crossing the bridge and halfway across we were into Sweden. About 20-30 minutes later, we were arriving in the pleasant little town of Pajala and by now we had left the rain behind and the sun was shining. It was mid afternoon now and we decided to try a local cafe for lunch and had some great pizzas and chips. Upon leaving the cafe, the sky had somewhat darkened and the rain that we had left behind was now on the verge of catching us up. The rather dark pic shows the owl statue in Pajala (I think this must be some sort of symbol for the town) and the dark skies were about the darkest we saw it get at anytime during our stay.

Shortly after our late lunch, we headed back to Akaslompolo and the supermarket to replenish the stocks before finally returning to our cabin for a sauna and to watch a dvd with the kids. With my eldest daugher being a keen dancer, this was about the 3rd time we had watched Grease in as many days!!!

That's all for today folks, please check back soon, there's really so much more still to tell!!!

Day Two

Sunday 22nd August 2007


Today we got up a little later and once we had eaten breakfast in the cabin, I took a couple of photos of our Lapland home (see pic) before we decided to venture out into the nearby woods and walk around Lake Akaslompolo. The experience was quite rewarding as the weather was pleasant and the whole perimeter of the lake (or the boggy bits anyhow) was nicely laid with duckboards so there was no danger of losing your legs in the mire. My youngest daughter Hannah thorougly enjoyed this experience leading the way and marching ahead of the rest of us and really taking after her favourite cartoon character Dora the Explorer. About halfway around the lake we passed the little beach area and then climbed the watch tower to look over the lake before finally proceeding through a little more of the wooded area and back onto the road. Once out on the road, we had a quick look at the Yllashumina Hotel and Karaoke bar before heading down the road past the school and on to the Post Office where we stopped off for a coffe and cake and the kids had an Ice Cream.

After a leisurely afternoon at the cabin, we headed over to the Pipola Restaurant http://www.yllaksenkaivohuone.com/ where we joined our neighbours for our evening meal on their last night before they headed off to stay in Rovaniemi in preparation for their flight home. I enjoyed fresh salmon, Helen my wife had Peppered Steak and the kids tucked into Mashed Potato, Chips and Sausage and we all sat at a long table that had an excellent window view of the lake. The meals were all excellent and while the adults chatted away after finishing, the kids headed off outside to play by the lake. Over the next few postings, I will talk more about the Pipola Restaurant but must say that everytime we ate there, the food and service was first class and we are all thoroughly looking forward to returning there in December for our New Years Eve meal where we will enjoy watching the firework display on the lake.

Finally, after a few drinks and desserts, we headed back to our cabin to watch a dvd before retiring for the night.

That's all for today folks, don't forget to check back soon!!!

Our First Full Day!

Saturday 21st July 2007

After retiring to bed around 12.30am, I found that I was that hyped up that I couldn't really sleep. I closed my eyes and dozed for a while and then took a quick look at my watch as the light was quite bright through the curtains, It was 2am. After a few more times of doing the same, I decided to get up and take a walk (3.45am) while the wife and kids stayed in bed. Firstly i walked down the lane from our cabin in the general direction of the two restaurants, Jullis and Pipola and towards the supermarket. Upon reaching the end of the lane, I had a great view of Lake Akaslompolo and decided to walk down to the waters edge. On route, I took a few pics to show how light it was at this time of morning (pic taken at 4.18am) and have included one of these as shown. Next I reached the Pipola Bar/Restaurant, and it appeared that it was turning out time (4am) as there were many people staggering back to their houses/cabins and hotels as well as a couple of taxis coming and going to take people home. Next stop was the supermarket where I checked the opening times so later we could stock up on supplies and the clock outside said the temperature was 5 degrees. After a few minutes I decided to head back and continued passed our lane and down towards the Destination Lapland office (again to check opening times) and the Akas Hotel (Snow Elf). Finally, after about an hour or so of fresh air, I returned to our cabin and back to bed where I stayed until about7.30am.

Once the family was up and about, we visited the supermarket to stock up on supplies and spent the rest of the day exploring the local area, taking a few more pics like the one here of a roaming reindeer and looking at the Souvenir Shops, Ski Shop and Post Office before stopping off at Jullis at about 3pm in the afternoon http://www.jullis.com/ for our first local meal of a specialist Jullis Burger and Chips (with hindsight, I really should have taken a photo of one of these as they're really for those with a Hearty appetite!! Enough said, I scoffed the lot!!) . Following this, we took a short walk and then returned to our cabin for the day to familiarise ourselves with it, take a sauna and enjoy its surroundings.

Please check back for details on day two of our summer vacation in Lapland.

We're back safely!!!

After our two week vacation in Lapland, I'm now going to get back down to business and write about all the things I said would on my return. Firstly, i'm going to spend the next couple of weeks running through the things we got upto on a day to day basis and then will expand on all the good bits and provide as much details as possible. Again, any feedback or questions would make this whole process so much more interesting and fun so if you want to know anything, please get in touch.

Friday 20th July - Journey and arrival

Having travelled down to an Heathrow Hotel on Thursday 19th, we got up all fresh in preparation for our depature time of 10.30am for our flight to Helsinki. Heathrow was somewhat busy but it helped pass the time and before we knew it we were boarding ready to go. Once on board, we seemed to be taxiing on the runway for an eternity before the captain announced that all northbound flights had been suspended due to the severe thunder storms. Maybe some of you will remember the amount of rain that came down that day! After some 1 hr and 40 mins delay, we were on on our way and although it was rather turbulent for a while, we were soon arriving in Helsinki. Luckily, due to the forward planning of Finnair, our connecting flight was also delayed so we were able to board right away on arrival in Helsinki and after another 40 minutes delay on the runway we were heading for Rovaniemi.

By the time we arrived in Rovaniemi and picked up our rental car, it was 8.30 in the evening local time but the 3 hour drive in pleasant sunshine was a welcome change to all the rain depression we had been suffering from back home. Once we had got out of the ever so slightly built up area of Rovaniemi, we were onto the open road up to Akaslompolo in the north. The journey was awesome through the unspoilt countryside with the company of another car every now and again but more often the company of a reindeer. Finally at around 11.30pm, we arrived at our cabin and was welcomed by our neighbours who we had spoken to many times previously but had never met until then. Many thanks to them for making us so welcome after a fairly long day in getting there!!

After about an hour of chatting etc, we retired to our cabin at around 12.30am (now Saturday 21st July) in broad daylight!!! For those of you who have never experienced Lapland in the summertime then it's really something to behold!!! With the midnight sun and all, the next two weeks were spent in daylight with it never once getting dark. The closest it actually came to getting anywhere near was on one of the two days when we had rain but otherwise, it was light all of the time.

As I want to detail as much of the vacation as possible, I will wrap up there for today and tomorrow will post more details about our first full day Saturday 21st July and will post the first pictures too.

Any questions folks, please drop me a line!

2 days to go! It's getting closer

It's now only two days until our departure for Lapland. By this time tomorrow we should have arrived at our hotel in london for the night and then early on Friday morning will embark on our departure to first of all Helsinki and then onto Rovaniemi before taking a steady drive up to Yllas.

As I have received some good positive feedback to these ramblings, I will be checking out a few items for people who have got in touch. Some of the things i'll be reporting back on in a couple of weeks time are Winter and Summer activities, Family friendly hotels, facilities provided in the hotels, thermal suit hire, santa trips and their availability, cost of food and drink and even checking out the condition and location of a cabin as a proposed investment for Simon from New Zealand. Furthermore, I will be posting photos and reviews on restaurants and places to visit.

As time is in short supply, I will conclude there for now and will post again on my return.

Thanks for reading!!

Just 11 more days!

With just 11 days to go until our summer departure, I today have retrieved the suitcase from the loft so we can begin our final preparations. The girls are getting excited now and we've heard today that our friends who purchased a cabin at the same time as us are also travelling to the region for a week whilst we're there too, so it'll be a good old jolly up for all.

Moving forward, I have been receiving great feedback to this blog and have started a list of things to check out for both summer and wintertime and will be posting my findings on here on return. Don't forget folks if there's anything you want to know, let me know and i'll look into it for you.

Time has been a little short recently so I haven't been posting much and also really need some feedback and questions to answer so that I can keep the momentum going. That's at least until I have some reviews etc.. to post on my return.

Finally, I'd like to thank KiwiSimon for getting in touch all the way from New Zealand and for all the questions you have asked. It's been a pleasure to answer them!!

That's all for now folks but please keep in touch and keep checking back for more updates.

Just 22 days to go!!!

Tomorrow we will hit another milestone with just 3 weeks till our day of departure. Having missed yesterday out, I thought that I better try and write something on my page today as I want the readers who have taken the trouble to read my notes so far, to keep returning especially for the main event the holiday itself.

As I have mentioned before, the summertime in Lapland is a little unknown to us, so for now i'm going to return to discussing some of the winter activities available in the resort of Akaslompolo, Yllas where our log cabin is located. Firstly, I must mention that I have also been replying to a few queries people have posted about the region on some of the Lapland discussion forums and I wish to cover some of the points they have raised.

I will start with some details for people wishing to travel independently to the region as most people opt for tour operator packages. I will start with flights to the region firstly, and say that these can be purchased through companies such as Finnair, Inghams, Ski Flights Direct, Monarch and Blue 1 and usually range between about £175 and £300 per person dependent on the route that you want and where you wish to arrive. Now I wish to mention cabin rentals, hotels and availability. In the resort of Yllas, there are a couple of hotels and many cabins to choose from and we even rent our own cabin out through agents in the resort. For those of you that may be interested, please email me at info@chooselapland.com

It is located just 500 metres from shops and ski bus and and has two bedrooms plus an extra loft bedroom (that for some reason in Finland they don't class as a bedroom) and it sleeps 6 people. It is fully furnished with everything that you need for a self catering break and also has a sauna and log burner (with a plentiful supply of logs) so that you can make the perfect fire for the family to sit around on those cold winter nights. Bookings start on a sunday and are for 7 nights and prices range between 960 and 1500 euros (including linen) for the week. With many tour operators charging close on a £1000 per person with little or no reduction for children, for a 3 night 4 day trip , i'm sure you'll agree that in comparison, our accommodation for around £1000 maximum (split between 6 people) and for 7 nights, represents great value for money. Also, all of the things you can do on an organised tour such as snowmobiles, husky dog sleigh rides, reindeer sleigh rides, skiing, snowboarding etc. etc.. are bookable locally and you'll receive a lot better value for money than buying these through the tour operators. For more information on the resort and our cabin, please visit our website at www.chooselapland.com

Finally, i'll wrap up by saying that this isn't going to be an ongoing sales pitch to get visitors and enquiries for my cabin and it will be the one and only mention I make of it being available, unless someone specifically asks me to post details on here about it in the future.

Over the next few postings, I will talk more about my family and what we are each looking forward to doing when in resort unless I think of something else to write in the meantime or until someone asks me to cover something specific.

That's all folks and please keep reading!

Return to Lapland

After two consecutive days of incomprehensible ramblings and the fact that i've finally found time to think about what to write, I am today going to return to the subject of Lapland and continue the theme of what this blog was intended to be about.

My subject matter for today is about the purchase process from start to finish and how I see that our experience has differed from so many of the horror stories that i've heard and read about people and their overseas property investments. Firtsly, when I started looking for a property, I was advised to allow approximately 15-20% in addition to the purchase price to take care of all the incidentals such as solicitors fees, currency fluctuations, taxes in the country of purchase etc etc... and from some friends and acquaintances who I know have purchased have heard the real costs to be much higher in several instances. Try to imagine for a moment the possible increase in cost of a property on sale for approximately 200,000 Euros, i'm sure you can see that another 30 -40,000 Euros would for some people be the difference between making the decision to purchase and not.

Moving on, I am now going to detail the process for our purchase, firstly, we agreed a sale price for the cabin that was just short of 200,000 Euros including a sum for the furniture pack. We then sent an initial deposit to the seller of 2500 Euros and this secured the purchase for us (Our bank charge for this payment was £14 GBP). Next we appointed a Finnish Solicitor based in London in the UK who looked over our contract and mortgage (provided by Nordea Bank in Finland) and advised us accordingly. As we did this in conjunction with a friend, this cost us approximately £1320 GBP (It is probably fair to say that if we had acted entirely on our own then this would probably have been double). Next we had to pay a couple of small charges to Nordea Bank for arranging the mortgage loan but these amounted to no more than 200 Euros. Once the contract had been agreed, we had to make one large transfer payment (the balance of the monies not covered by the mortgage) to the seller and we did this through a currency conversion company in the UK and for getting the funds to them instantly, our UK bank charge for this was £25 GBP. Finally, the last stage of the process was to pay the property tax in Finland (a grand total of 1.6% of the property price, excluding the cost of the furniture pack) this cost us another 2824 Euros.

After calculating the costs of all the above, I would estimate that in addition to the purchase price of 189,000 Euros, we actually paid an additional 5000 Euros for taking care of all the incidentals. After the advice we had received prior to purchase, the fact that our incidentals only came to around an extra 3% suggests to me that we got a great deal by purchasing in Finland as opposed to making a purchase in one of the more popular european destinations. That's not to say that Finland or Lapland in particular is for everyone!

Purcahse Partners

Before finishing up, I want to make a few mentions of the partners used in the purchasing process as they were all of great assistance and support to us. They are all most definitely worthy of a mention as they played vital roles in making the purchase process run smoothly for us and they proved that the Finns can be trusted in these matters. Furthermore, they also enhanced their reputation with us that Finland is the least corrupt country in the world.

http://www.gmrlaw.com/ For Finnish legal advice (Practice based in London)

http://www.nordea.fi/ Bank for arranging mortgages in Finland (Best online banking facility around)

http://www.worldwidecurrencies.com/ For international currency conversions (great rates and service)

Finally, if there is anything specific that anyone wants to know about purchasing in Finland or about purchasing in any other destinations for that matter (we have many partners who can help find your dream investment) please get in touch and i'll try and help. For more information on our cabin check out the following site http://www.chooselapland.com

What's this all about?

Today's posting could be seen as a digression from the norm, but what is the norm? After starting this blog as a countdown to my summer vacation and to discuss our somewhat strange purchase of a log cabin in Lapland, I soon decided that this alone simply wasn't enough so progressed on to talking about flights and the region and any other rubbish I could think of. Now as i'm running out of things to write about (only 5 days in), as no one is commenting or leaving me any questions to answer or research, I understand my real reason for starting this, the pursuit of world domination!!! With that said, I hope George Dubya and the Russians ain't reading this as before long i'll be on the axis of evil list or being chased around the North Pole by some Russian Mafia. Wishful thinking I say, I still don't know if anyone anywhere is reading this so if you are, here's my message to you "Please leave a message".

Now after the above paragraph of random nonsense, i've thought of something to write about, the resort of Yllas where our cabin is located. Yllas lies approximately 35km north east of Kolari in Northern Finland and the area comprises of several fells (including Yllas fell, at 718m one of the highest fells in Lapland) and two Lappish villages. On the Northern side of Yllas fell lies the village of Akaslompolo where our cabin is located and on the Southern side is the village of Yllasjarvi. The area as a whole is a popular destination for tourists (especially Finns and Germans), its Skiing tradition dates back to the 1930's and it benefits from around 350km of cross country skiing tracks. Furthermore, the regions skiing facilites received a huge boost last year with the announcement of a new investment of 16million euros for a new ticketing system, gondola ski lifts, restaurant facilities and much more. For more information, read details here http://www.abovethearctic.com/YllasInvestmentProgram2006.php

Finally, I would welcome the opportunity of delivering these ramblings to a wider audience so would love to hear from anyone else promoting vacation destinations of a non conventional kind and would be glad to exchange links with them. If you're interested and reading, please get in touch and I can feature you in my future notes.

That's all for now folks, please check back soon!

Another Milestone

Today we have reached another milestone in that it's now only 4 weeks until we depart northbound. The kids are getting excited about the prospect too and it's probably due in a small way to the excited parents factor that's now rubbing off on them. We are all heading for a journey and vacation unknown to us (but we'll make the most of it) as usually our summer vacation is to a destination of notoriously sunnier climes with swimming pool, bar and plenty of things to do. However, i'm sure there's still plenty to do in Lapland this time of year and we're looking forward to investigating.

Although we have no planned itinerary for our trip, I do find the thought of driving to Sweden (approximately 1 hour away), Norway and the Russian border quite appealing. Also, a trip to the Arktikum Museum http://www.arktikum.fi/ in Rovaniemi to research the way of life, culture and history of the Lapland region also features as a possibility that must be considered.

As the amount of time I have available to write this today is in short supply, I will end it here and try and think of some more ramblings for the forthcoming days.

Don't forget folks, any comments, feedback or questions that you have, please send them as they might stop the well of my thoughts and ramblings from drying up.

Finally, I have just cheked on the Yllas website http://www.yllas.fi/ and the temperature today is 15 degrees celsius so it's starting to warm up nicely and hopefully by the time we arrive in four weeks time that it will be well into the 20's.

only 29 now!!!!

After viewing some of the blogs on this site, it appears that I may be addressing readers in the good old USA. If this is the case, let me start by saying that I am a UK citizen and for those of you who don't know, Lapland is located in the Euro zone, above the arctic circle and covers terrain in four countries Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia although Finnish Lapland (where our property is located) is the one and only home of good old Santa Claus.

As mentioned yesterday, today I am going to talk a little about flights to the region as this can be somewhat tricky and in today's competitive world of low cost air travel, Lapland is one of the remaining regions to which air travel can be considered comparatively expensive.

Summertime

In the summertime, the choices for our travel routes have been quite limited but we are lead to believe that this will change in the future but how soon we do not know. Ideally, we would have chosen to fly direct into Kittila airport (approximately 45km from our property) but flights are somewhat limited so instead we have had to arrange flights from the UK to Helsinki and then onto Rovaniemi which is the gateway to the arctic circle and then we have a 2-21/2 hour drive northward to our property. However, the thought of driving on open quiet roads through beautiful green countryside really does pain me!! (Please excuse my warped sense of humour, it doesn't pain me really and I can't wait for the day to arrive).

Wintertime

Flights in the winter have been easier to come by due to the amount of Brits that head out to the region on Santa Trips or for Ski/Snowboarding vacations. I have now booked ours for the last few days in December and into early January and have been able to get flights directly to Kittila with one of the tour operators who specialise in offering ski vacations. Prices are still comparatively high, but the convenience of flying into Kittila when there is several feet of snow on the ground is worth every penny.

That's all for today folks but if any of you have anything specific that you want to know about the region then please leave me a comment and if I don't know the answer then i'll find it out for you and post it on here in the near future.

Please check back again soon for more updates.

only 30 days to go!

Today I'm going to ramble about the purchasing process and the reasons for our bizarre overseas holiday investment purchase.

After considering purchasing an overseas property for several years and looking at all the favourite destinations like France, Spain, The Canary Islands, Portugal, Bulgaria, India etc.... It was a relatively simple decision to purchase in Lapland. Not only is Finland the least corrupt country in the world but the purchasing process is simple (The contract was 1 sheet of A4 paper) and we didn't even need a solicitor, although we did employ the services of one just for peace of mind. Furthermore, the rental yield is good, Nordea Bank who organised our mortgage are superb and everything else has gone perfectly.

Tomorrow I will talk about organising the flights in winter and summer, car hire and anything else I think of in the meantime so please check back soon for updates

31 days and counting

It's been almost a year since our families bizarre purchase of a Log Cabin in Finnish Lapland and now just 31 days until we visit our investment for the first time.

After visiting the Luosto region with my family in December 2005, we fell in love with the place and all of its snow and following a close friends visit to the resort of Yllas in February 2006 (in search of a cabin to buy) and his decision to go ahead, I asked for details as the idea was somewhat appealing to my family and I. After discussing the matter with my wife, we soon decided that the idea was for us and we decided to buy in the same area as our friends. After getting the purchases agreed, we both completed in August 2006 and the rest his history.

For those of you who don't know anything about the region, here's a little for you. Lapland is a great place for holidays all year round. In the winter from about mid November onwards it is a magical winter wonderland covered in snow and the long standing home of Santa Claus. It is a wonderful place for adults and children of all ages and a safe environment where you and they can experience activities such as husky dog sleigh rides, reindeer sleigh rides, toboganning, snowmobiles, ice fishing, skiing (Nordic or downhill), snowboarding and of course santa trips or if you like you can just play in the snow. Furthermore, you may get even get to see the amazing Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) if you're lucky!! Be aware though, the temperature can fall very low with the lowest ever recorded being -45 degrees so remember to pack those thermals and make sure you're protected.

Usually, around May time, the snow will melt and the greenery of Lapland's countryside will emerge. Days will be long and by mid June you will get the midnight sun. Again there are a host of things to do including fishing, trekking, cycling, canoeing and much more. The resort of Levi is just 50km away so you could even go and play midnight golf.

In summing up the first of my of ramblings, I will return to write more about the summertime in Lapland after my visit in July. I feel the section is a little short at the moment and that i'm not doing it justice because I am yet to have experienced this time of year for myself.

That's all for now folks. Please check back soon for more updates and ramblings.