Finland & Norway Trip Day 4 - Ounasvaara Lakituvat & Kakslauttanen

From Santa Claus Village, we went to a nearby K-Supermarket and bought some foodstuffs for our dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. I always enjoy going to local supermarkets to see the variety and brands of groceries that are available. It is already close to evening after our groceries shopping, so we decided to head straight to the place that we are staying for the night. Instead of staying at Santa Claus Hotel or Santa Claus Holiday Village, we choose to stay at Ounasvaara Lakituvat, a chalet near the Ounasvaara ski resort. It is much cheaper to stay at the chalet and rent a car to move around in Rovaniemi. In this way, our plans in Rovaniemi can be more flexible as we do not need to rely on the local transportation conditions. It is also fairly easy to drive in Rovaniemi.

We took some time to locate the chalet, and immediately did not regret our choice. At a very reasonable price, we got a double storey chalet with a spacious living room, kitchen, rooms to accommodate at least 6 person, 2 large bathrooms and a private sauna. Unfortunately, we were not too sure how to use the sauna and the lights doesn't seems to be working, so we did not utilise it.

We spent some fun time cooking our own dinner in the kitchen which is well equipped. We also took the opportunity to wash some clothes as the there is a washing machine in the bathroom.

Since we were in Northern Finland already, we were a little excited as the kp is high that night. We hoped that the skies will clear soon so that we were be able to see the Northern Lights in this capital of Lapland. After checking the weather forecast, we went for a nap, and woke up close to midnight to check the sky. Unfortunately it was still cloudy, but we decided to try our luck and drove out to Arktikum, a famous museum in Rovaniemi and a good spot (according to various websites) to see the aurora.

Arktikum at night

We were not lucky as the clouds were really thick, so we went back to our dreamland after this little adventure out.

After a simple breakfast the next morning, we set out to drive (aimlessly) around Rovaniemi just to take a look at the town, before going to a K-Supermarket to buy some bread so that we can it eat along the way later to Kakslauttanen. We also stopped to re-fuel the car, then 2 of us got off at the bus terminal together with all our luggage, while the other 2 returned the car at the train station, which is just a street across, and walked to the bus terminal to wait for our bus to Kakslauttanen.

Rovaniemi in the morning - view from Ounasvaara Lakituvat

Rovaniemi bus terminal

We bought our tickets at the counter, and since we had some time, I ordered a reindeer soup at the food store in the bus terminal to try, as the reindeer meat is a very common dish in the region. My friend ordered a pizza to share, and the pizza is surprising as good as those from restaurants.

The bus, which is equipped with wifi and individual charger, set off punctually and we reached our destination, Kakslauttanen, after a ~3.5 hours bus ride.

There is only 1 "attraction" in Kakslauttanen - the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, more famously known as the glass igloo resort. The bus drops us at the main road close to the resort, and we walked about 5-8 mins (as we were dragging our luggage in the uneven road) to reach the resort.

Up Next: Finland & Norway Trip Day 5 Part 1 - Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort
Previous: Finland & Norway Trip Day 3 - Santa Claus Express to Rovaniemi & Santa Claus Village