According to a Trip Advisor survey, Lapland is 2nd most peaceful place on the planet.

Not too surpising really, is it?

 

 

Find out more about this beautiful and peaceful area of Finland

This is a new advert for McDonalds in Finland. People have aparently been consfused, baffled and disgusted by the image and whilst some claim to see fingers, others see teets and some, well, some see male apendages.

What about you?  What do you see? 

 

For less confusing images of Finnish summer, visit the Ruka & Kuusamo blog and travel guide

Esprit are looking for some some elves to help out Santa next winter...

Our guests join us in Santa's Lapland primarily to visit Santa Claus. Elves are only ever seen by our guests as elves, and not in any other capacity. We are looking for fun, lively people to act as these Santa's Helpers'. Full uniform will be provided.

A comprehensive and constant commitment to the Santa story is essential.

There are four main Elf activities:

1. Elves will be expected to assist Santa Claus during family visits and provide the fun and magical experience at all times whilst ensuring that each family's individual visit runs as smoothly as possible.

2. Meeting and greeting guests at the airport. Elves will frolic and play in the arrivals hall to welcome guests to Lapland.

3. Elf sightings - time and rotas permitting elves will participate in sightings'.

4. Elves are responsible for ensuring that Santa's presents are all wrapped and delivered to the Activity Centres.

A fair amount of time will be spent outdoors as well as in Santa's cabin, the present wrapping area and the airport.

Only committed and responsible applicants with previous experience/training in acting will be considered.

As well as the general skills related to your role you will also be required to assist with other physical duties such as moving snow activity equipment, luggage and snow clearing.

Umm, so that would be mostly frolicking, present wrapping and manual labour, then? Sounds...erm...great.

Apply here

If you fancy visiting Lapland without having to frolick and shovel snow, visit the Ruka and Kuusamo Travel Guide

 

Find out more about the northern lights in Lapland

Spend the night in an Igloo near Ruka, Lapland

Imagine spending the night in an igloo, wrapping up against the cold in your hotel made of snow.  you probably wouldn't want to spend a week there but a night spent sleeping in a igloo in Lapland is certainly going to be something to write home about

Sleeping bags and appropriate clothing will make sure taht you will stay warm even in the harshest winter conditions. If you begin to feel uncomfortable at any point of your stay, you have an opportunity to move indoors for the rest of the night. After this arctic night outside you will be served a pelntiful breakfast.

Our iglues are located in Iisakki Village by the lake Rukajärvi only 6 km from Ruka centre and 20 km from centre of Kuusamo. In village´s courtyard there is real atmospehere of countryside: log cabins, country barn, sauna at te lakeside, small Santa Shop and other interesting thins. 

Ruka Safaris

Prices:

A night in the igloo includes bed and breakfast, a warm sleeping bag and the use of snow shoes the evening before.

Adults - 120€

Child - 90€

Book with Ruka Safaris - www.rukasafaris.fi

For more information about Ruka and Kuusamo visit the Ruka and Kuusamo Travel Guide

 

Why You should visit Ruka this winter

Each winter, millions of people from the UK and around the world book holidays to overbuilt, crowded and dirty resorts only to be ripped off and stressed out throughout, what should be, their chance to relax and unwind for a week away from the worries of life.

As I wrote on my expat blog, Notes From Lapland, about life here in Kuusamo, Finland

It’s winter coming up and let me guess, those of you that are planning a skiing holiday, you’re going to the Alps, right? You are going to sit for 3 hours on a flight and then another 3 on a bus, after fighting your way through Geneva airport.  Then you are going to spend a week paying through the nose for poor food and gassy beer in a busy, dirty ski resort.  You are going to be spending 30 minutes and more waiting for each ski lift, fighting the crowds at the mountain restaurants and constantly stopping to let those trains of children zig zag down the mountain in front of you all the while trying to kid yourself that you are out enjoying nature, in the peace and quiet, having a restorative break from it all.

If you’ve already spent the money and booked it, I wont tell you about the beautiful, wide and empty slopes of Ruka, the non existent queues for ski lifts, fresh local produce they use in the restaurants and the friendly helpful staff.  Nor about the children’s adventure ski slope with real reindeer on it and  all the things like visiting the real Santa, going on reindeer sleigh rides, husky sledding, snowmobiling across frozen lakes and snowshoe trekking through the national park, that you can do.

And it's not expensive either.  Inghams are offering week long ski holidays from as little as £265 on their website!  £265, you can't beat that for a week away in a ski resort as amazing as Ruka!  So what are you waiting for? Do you want to fight the crowds on your ski holiday this year, or spend a week in the beauty and tranquillity of Lapland?

More information about Ruka

Go husky dog sledding in Ruka and Kuusamo.

Huskys are active, energetic, dogs whose ancestors come from the very cold and harsh environment of the Arctic.  Husky dogs have unusual eyes, they can be ice-blue, dark blue, amber, or brown. In some individual dogs, one eye may be brown and the other blue (complete heterochromia), or one or both eyes may be “parti-colored,” that is, half brown and half blue (partial heterochromia).

In Ruka and Kuusamo you can go on short 30 minutes sled rides or for a as long as a whole week, going as far as the Russian border and back and sleeping in wilderness cabins along the way.

More information about husky dog sledding in Ruka and Kuusamo

The first cross country ski tracks in Ruka and Kuusamo will open in October.  A 2km long track starting behind the SOKOS hotel in the centre of Kuusamo will open on the 10th October and will be the first ski track in Scandinavia to open.

To celebrate the opening the SOKOS Hotel is offering a package deal for the skiers that want to be the first in Scandinavia to get their skis on this winter.

From EUR 39,01/person/night/in a double room

The package includes accommodation, breakfast, use of guest sauna, fitness room, waxing room and unlimited use of the First Snow Track that begins from the hotel (weather permitting).

Read more...

A second ski track in Ruka, a 2km track by the ski stadium, will open 23rd October at 6pm.  This is a free to use track but will be closed  to the public during the Ruka Nordic Opening from 25.-28 November and for pre training for the competitors. Ruka.fi 

10,000 cubic meters of snow has been stored over the summer for each track and when the snow starts to fall, more tracks will open.  

Ruka and Kuusamo have over 500km of cross country ski tracks, many of which are illuminated for the dark winter months and are dotted with campfires and cafes.  Cross country skiing through the pristine, white wilderness of Ruka and Kuusamo is a magical experience quite like no other.

Not tried cross country skiing before? This video will give you some handy hints and tips to get you started.

More information about Ruka

It may only be August but autumn is well on it's way here in Ruka and Kuusamo now.  We've already had our first nights where the temperature dropped below 0C and the trees are starting to turn from dark green to a lighter, more yellow colour.

As I wrote in my piece about Ruka and Kuusamo for the London Evening Standard Blog earlier this week.

Two nights ago we had the first night of freezing temperatures, -2C. Two days ago the trees started to turn, their green leaves beginning to take on a yellowish tint. Two days ago the illusion of endless summer days was cruelly dashed as the daytime temperatures dropped to around 10C and the first thoughts of winter reared their head. Now all I can think of are those winter days to come.  

More specifically, all I can think about is whether we will simply have a longer more drawn out autumn or if the snow is going to come earler this winter giving us an even longer skiing season than normal!  If we will be able to snowmobile, snowshoe, sledge and ski for more than the usual 200 days of the year?

Oh, I do hope so!

Find out more about the winter season here in Ruka and Kuusamo.

From Ruka & Kuusamo

Newsweek set out to find the answer to one simple question. Which is the best country in the world?  

The answer?  Why, Finland, of course  

Despite the long winter, Finland is a pretty great place to be—the best, actually. It ranked the highest overall and also comes in as the best small country, the best high-income country, and the best country for education. Its students scored first in science and second in both reading and math in the 2006 (the most recent one for which data are available) Program for International Student Assessment, a test of 15-year-olds' education skills by the OECD. Finland's schoolkids enjoy a laid-back and inclusive learning environment where shoes are optional, all teachers have master's degrees, and extra help is the norm: every year about one in three students gets individual time with a tutor.

Newsweek

The Interactive chart

If Finland is the worlds best country, then surely Ruka & Kuusamo must be the worlds best area, no?