Arctic Treehouse Hotel
Lapp of luxury
Finnish Lapland
Arctic Treehouse Hotel, in Finland’s slice of the Arctic Circle, gives the den of your childhood dreams a slick Scandi makeover. Each cabin’s window wall is like an ever-updating Insta-stream of snow-dusted pines, wispy auroras and the jazzed-up skies of the Midnight Sun. When you’re not cosseted in duvet and furs giving nature the eye, polar expeditions await — wild taste testings, ice swimming, reindeer and husky safaris – followed by fine Finnish dishes of lake-caught perch and reindeer ribs, served indoors or fireside in the snow.
Planes
Fly to Finnish capital Helsinki – direct flights run from London and New York, flights from Asia and Australia usually connect via Doha – then travel on to Rovaniemi airport (a 90-minute flight). The airport is a five-minute drive from the hotel. Private transfers can be arranged for €50 each way and an airport bus service runs to and from the hotel three times a day.
Trains
Take the VR overnight train (www.vr.fi) from Helsinki Central to Rovaniemi rail station (around 11 hours away) to wake to Christmas-card panoramas – choose from cosy private berths or bunk-beds. If travelling by day, you’ll need to change at Oulu or Tampere. Hail a taxi at the train station or hop on Santa’s Express Bus number 8, which stops at the hotel.
Automobiles
Those with sturdy tyres and an even sturdier constitution can attempt the nine-hour drive from Helsinki to the hotel – it’s pretty much a straight drive north on the E75 route. There’s free parking at the hotel.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
If you don’t have a treehouse to call your own, it is tempting to go into sleepover mode, only snuffling out to roast marshmallows and drink wine by the hotel’s secluded fire pits. But, there’s plenty of frosty fun to be had – icebreakers include swimming in frozen lakes, donning a flotation suit and going aurora spotting, riding snowmobiles, or watching the world whizz by from a sled pulled by huskies. Stop by a reindeer farm to pet their surprisingly soft antlers or take a blindfolded taste-test of bear meat, berries and other Finnish delicacies in the forest – or book a fireside dinner in the snow, blindfolds optional… and if you’re feeling especially self sufficient, you can even catch your own dinner through a hole in the ice. The city of Rovaniemi – Santa Claus’s official address – is a 20-minute drive away. When St Nick flies off to make his deliveries, we’re pretty sure he looks back at the city: it was redesigned after World War II by local architect Alvar Aalto and is now shaped like reindeer antlers, so it's best viewed from above if you've packed your drone. Artikum and Pilke museums offer fascinating insight into science and sustainability in the Arctic – but, really you’re here to hand your wishlist to St Nick and the elves at Santa Village, then double up on Christmas cheer at SantaPark, where you can ride magic trains, visit the Ice Queen, earn your elf diploma and decorate festive cookies before meeting the big guy himself. More into natural wonders? Get up close and personal with the Northern Lights on an after-dark plane flight, or spy polar bears in Ranua Wildlife Park.
