Winter holiday in Finnish Lapland
| country: | Finland |
| location: | Finnish Lapland |
| departures: | The activities on this trip are tailor made to each individual group's interests and requirements. However, the price shown is based on set departure dates as follows: 04, 11, 18, 25 Jan, 01, 08, 15, 22 Feb, 01, 08, 15, 22, 29 Mar, 05 Apr 2009 |
| price: | From £895 - £935 (8 days) per adult and £625 per child (up to 14yrs) including flights from the UK. Includes transfers, accommodation, half board and thermal clothing. Activities from £27 (1hr) - £395 (overnight husky safari). This trip can also be booked without flights |
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the amazing things you'll be doing
Jeris enjoys a marvelous setting overlooking beautiful Lake Jerisjarvi in Western Lapland.
Its proximity to the Pallas-Ounas National Park makes the hotel an ideal choice for an active holiday in a genuinely unspoilt environment. With a choice of hotel rooms or cabins, an excellent restaurant and a lakeside spa, mixing comfort with your winter adventure couldn’t be easier.
We get consistently excellent feedback from our clients who travel to Jeris. You have a choice of en suite bedrooms and 40 winter cottages all with their own sauna and fireplace.
Accommodation:
The hotel has 27 Scandinavian style bedrooms all of which have a private shower and toilet room as well as a clothes drying cupboard, TV and telephone. The excellent restaurant overlooks the lake and serves traditional Finnish dishes as well as international cuisine.
The bar, with its open fireplace, is the perfect place to relax before dinner or why not wind down in the lakeside spa? The spa is the ideal relaxation area after an active day outdoors. You can lie in one of the two small heated pools while enjoying views of the snow covered lake. After a day in the winter cold you can warm up in an electrically heated sauna or test the real Lappish wood heated smoked sauna. For the really adventurous (some would say mad!), there is a 25-metre illuminated ice pool, which is kept open throughout the winter.
Jeris shares the weekly programme at Harriniva so on some mornings you will be driven 20km to join the activities. We’ve put together activity descriptions below but please don’t hesitate to ask if you need to know more. Our staff will be more than happy to tell you about their adventures doing these exact same activities.
Akaslompolo, Yllas and Lainio Snow Village: A long but fascinating day taking in some of the fabulous scenery and sites of this corner of Lapland. Transport is in a coach or minibus. You will visit Konijanka Animal park, Kellokas Nature Centre and Lainio Snow Village where we have lunch in the remarkable snow and ice restaurant. Approximately 6 hours.
Cross country skiing: You will receive ample tuition before trying a short skiing trip. Guiding, equipment and hot drink included.
Hetta Village and snow castle: Includes a coach transfer to Hetta Village (50kms) for a guided tour of the Nature Centre, a visit to the Snow Castle and lunch in the restaurant. Transfers, guides, Snow Castle entrance fee and lunch all included.
Horse riding in the snow: Suitable for beginners. Your horseback ride takes you into the silent and snowy forest. Magical!
Husky safaris: All our husky safaris include a tour of the Sled Dog Centre where you will learn about the huskies’ lives before setting out on your "mush".
Snow Village and Snow Hotel: Round off your tailor made winter activity holiday in style. We will arrange a taxi transfer from Jeris to Lainio Snow Village. Each year it takes around 1000 truck loads of snow to create the Snow Village. This magnificent complex constructed from ice and snow changes shape every year but the artistry, handicraft and breathaking design always leaves a lasting impression.
The Snow Village covers an area of approximately 7,500 square metres and consists of a restaurant, bar, lobby, hotel rooms and suites. For 2008/09 the plan is to build 20 igloo rooms and 10 ornately decorated suites as well as an ice chapel
An overnight stay in one of the bedrooms or a suite is an unforgettable experience. regardless of the weather outside the temperature inside is always between 0 and -5°C. You wil sleep on specially insulated mattresses (they used to use reindeer skins but they begin to smell after a while!!) and be provided with expedition grade sleeping bags. And, if that is not enough, you can always retreat to the comfort of the warm safety room.
Its proximity to the Pallas-Ounas National Park makes the hotel an ideal choice for an active holiday in a genuinely unspoilt environment. With a choice of hotel rooms or cabins, an excellent restaurant and a lakeside spa, mixing comfort with your winter adventure couldn’t be easier.
We get consistently excellent feedback from our clients who travel to Jeris. You have a choice of en suite bedrooms and 40 winter cottages all with their own sauna and fireplace.
Accommodation:
The hotel has 27 Scandinavian style bedrooms all of which have a private shower and toilet room as well as a clothes drying cupboard, TV and telephone. The excellent restaurant overlooks the lake and serves traditional Finnish dishes as well as international cuisine.
The bar, with its open fireplace, is the perfect place to relax before dinner or why not wind down in the lakeside spa? The spa is the ideal relaxation area after an active day outdoors. You can lie in one of the two small heated pools while enjoying views of the snow covered lake. After a day in the winter cold you can warm up in an electrically heated sauna or test the real Lappish wood heated smoked sauna. For the really adventurous (some would say mad!), there is a 25-metre illuminated ice pool, which is kept open throughout the winter.
activities
Jeris shares the weekly programme at Harriniva so on some mornings you will be driven 20km to join the activities. We’ve put together activity descriptions below but please don’t hesitate to ask if you need to know more. Our staff will be more than happy to tell you about their adventures doing these exact same activities. Akaslompolo, Yllas and Lainio Snow Village: A long but fascinating day taking in some of the fabulous scenery and sites of this corner of Lapland. Transport is in a coach or minibus. You will visit Konijanka Animal park, Kellokas Nature Centre and Lainio Snow Village where we have lunch in the remarkable snow and ice restaurant. Approximately 6 hours.
Cross country skiing: You will receive ample tuition before trying a short skiing trip. Guiding, equipment and hot drink included.
Hetta Village and snow castle: Includes a coach transfer to Hetta Village (50kms) for a guided tour of the Nature Centre, a visit to the Snow Castle and lunch in the restaurant. Transfers, guides, Snow Castle entrance fee and lunch all included.
Horse riding in the snow: Suitable for beginners. Your horseback ride takes you into the silent and snowy forest. Magical!
Husky safaris: All our husky safaris include a tour of the Sled Dog Centre where you will learn about the huskies’ lives before setting out on your "mush".
- 9km husky safari - An introductory 9km safari lasting approximately one hour. Two people share a sled and dog team. Guides, instruction and equipment included.
- 17km husky safari - A 17km safari lasting approximately two hours. Two people share a sled and dog team. Guides, instruction and equipment included.
- 25km husky safari - A 25km safari includes lunch by a campfire out "on the trail". Duration is approximately five hours. One person per sled and dog team. Guides, instruction, lunch and equipment included.
- Two day husky safari - Two days of sheer heaven driving and caring for your own team of huskies. Approximately 25km per day with one person per sled. Guides, instruction, 2 lunches, 1 dinner, overnight in a wilderness cabin and equipment are all included.
- Reindeer Safari (Torassieppi Village) - You will visit Lapland Manor where you will learn about Lappish culture and a year in the life of a reindeer. This is followed by a 3km safari with lunch, coffee and cake served in a warm kota (teepee).
- Reindeer Safari (Liepima Village) - You will visit a local reindeer farm where the herders will tell you about the animals and their importance in Lapp culture. After learning how to lasso a reindeer you start a 10km safari pausing for coffee and cake by an open fire.
- 20km Snowmobile Night Safari - Headlights on full as you enter the snowy forest for a two hour night safari but with any luck it will be the Northern Lights that illuminate your path. Hot drinks will be served around a campfire. In our opinion this is a MUST DO activity.
- 30km Snowmobile Safari - The perfect introduction to the snowy winter landscapes.
- 50km Snowmobile Safari - 3.5 hours of exhilaration and fabulous scenery as you drive over frozen lakes and through snow covered forests. A hot drink around a campfire is included.
- Overnight Snowmobile Safari - It doesn’t get more exciting than this. Speeding across the magical winter scenery of Fell Lapland close to the Pallas-Yllas National Park and travelling between 80 and 100kms per day. The safari includes two campfire lunches, dinner and a night in a wilderness cabin
Snow Village and Snow Hotel: Round off your tailor made winter activity holiday in style. We will arrange a taxi transfer from Jeris to Lainio Snow Village. Each year it takes around 1000 truck loads of snow to create the Snow Village. This magnificent complex constructed from ice and snow changes shape every year but the artistry, handicraft and breathaking design always leaves a lasting impression.
The Snow Village covers an area of approximately 7,500 square metres and consists of a restaurant, bar, lobby, hotel rooms and suites. For 2008/09 the plan is to build 20 igloo rooms and 10 ornately decorated suites as well as an ice chapel
An overnight stay in one of the bedrooms or a suite is an unforgettable experience. regardless of the weather outside the temperature inside is always between 0 and -5°C. You wil sleep on specially insulated mattresses (they used to use reindeer skins but they begin to smell after a while!!) and be provided with expedition grade sleeping bags. And, if that is not enough, you can always retreat to the comfort of the warm safety room.
travellers' tales
The most exciting part of the holiday for me was seeing my daughter enjoying cross-country skiing and becoming very comfortable with it, but this only just beats seeing the Northern lights - twice (more)
how this holiday makes a difference
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Tourism in Finnish Lapland has become the main income source of employment and income replacing traditional industries such as forestry. Development from a period of extractive industry to an industrial society has come about quickly. In 1950 the largest part of Lapland’s inhabitants lived in rural areas and more than half the workforce worked in forestry and agriculture. Today 65 % of the workforce are in the service industry, 22% in processing and 10 % in primary production.
This huge growth in tourism and service provision has been developed in conjunction with a long-term sustainable tourism plan with one of the primary objectives being to maintain nature in its natural state while guaranteeing the traditional way of life. Much of this has been achieved along with membership of EU development programmes, aimed at diversifying sources of livelihood, effective usage of resources and to increase export. Approximately a quarter of Lapland’s 100 000 strong workforce was unemployed in 1997. Promoting entrepreneurship, ongoing re-education of the workforce and development of the educational system to suit the needs of enterprises is continuing. The target is to diversify the sources of livelihood, increase the value of refinement production and develop new enterprises particularly in the area of tourism. National measures as well as EU-programme measures support this objective. We embrace this philosophy, employing local activity providers and using only locally owned hotels. In this manner we help to maintain jobs in an area where unemployment was, until recently, very high. Additionally, the use of local suppliers ensures that the tourism spend filters through to local economies via the tourism multiplier effect. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |