Hello
I am considering booking a trip with Esprit Holidays to the holiday club in Saariselka for 2 nights.
Does anyone have experience of this particular trip?
Would you recommend the hotel or doesw Esprit do a better one ion the area?
I am unsure whether Saariselka is the best option over Rovaniemi (too comercialised??)
If anyone can help i REALLY would apprechiate it as I am really not sure which is the best option.
Thankyou
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Hi
We did the 3 night trip to the Holiday Club at Saariselka with Esprit over christmas and I thought it was fantastic. I would recommend going for the extra night if you can as time seems so short when you are over there. With a 2 night stay you would only really be getting one full day there.
The activities were very well organised and as promised there was never any queueing. It was not commercialised at all - when you go off snow mobiling you are literally off through the forest. I chose Saariselka over Roviniemi for this reason. The Santa experience itself was very well done - again, no queuing - just a snow mobile ride through the forest to his cabin. When you go in Santa is actually reading your childs letter - very magical.
The holiday club was ideal for us. The pool is fantastic and filled in any little spare time that we had. Even the adults succumbed to the temptation to get in. I also highly recommend the toboggan run in the village - we had a lot of laughs there. Don%26#39;t succumb to the temptation to think that as it%26#39;s dark you have to stay in the hotel when there are no organised activities. We went out each night after dinner and were tobogganing at midnight on christmas night. The rooms are fine although not luxurious but we were really only in them to sleep so it didn%26#39;t matter.
All in all it was a great trip and I highly recommend it. Enjoy!
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I agree and the four days was not enough, book longer if you can.
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Saariselka is a great location, as others have said the toboggon run is excellent either to just use the floodlit bit at the bottom , walk up for a wonderful view and hot choc or even get the ski bus / taxi up!
There is a good Supermarket, some nice resteraunts and safari offices but it still feels small and uncommercialised.
However, if you only go for 2 nights you really won%26#39;t get time to enjoy it. If you possibly, possibly can go for 3 or more nights.
Have a look at Emagine if you get the chance, I could not recommend them more highly! They also use the Holiday Club and other Saariselka hotels and when I booked mine I could get 4 nights with them for the same price as 3 with Esprit.
One other advantage that I was advised about Saariselka is that it%26#39;s further North than Rov and hasn%26#39;t had the problems of lack of snow that other resorts have had.
Good luck with your plans and have a wonderful trip!
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Thankyou for all your help. I decided to take the plunge and book a 3 night package with Esprit on 7th December.
If I could ask do you have any tips that may be useful to us with regards to clothing, food and the added extras that you can book (do you think its better to book before you go or book when you get there - I like the look of the reindeer ride)
Any tips on any subject would be gratefully received as I want to try and get everything right.
Thanks
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We did the 3 day jobbie on Xmas eve to Boxing day with Esprit - staying at Holidya Club Saariselka.
All of the accomodation Esprit / Anyone have is motel / Travel Inn / poor hotel standard. Don%26#39;t expect anything much - but the holiday club is (I was told) the best. Our kids loved the pool (best feature) but the rest was poor - I%26#39;ve just posted a review on The Holiday Club which should be up there in a day or two.
J
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Can I ask if you booked any additional excursions?
If so which was the best, and did you book before or after?
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We did a 4 day trip over Xmas 2006 with Esprit staying at the Holiday Club in Saariselka and had a wonderful time. Would recommend going there as it is so far North so will definitely have snow and not at all commercialised which is what it is all about. We felt as if we were in another World as it was so quiet - especially at night. You really can believe the magic!!!
Whilst the food is basic it is filling, the hotel is very old fashioned and Finnish not one of your modern hotels. We only had time to sleep in the room and change our clothes so don%26#39;t worry about that.
Esprit do supply good boots, suits, socks, gloves and hats and you could take more than 1 pair if you needed to. We took far to much in the way of hats, socks and clothes. Nobody dresses up at night - they didn%26#39;t dress up much Xmas night either but we did otherwise it wouldn%26#39;t have felt like Xmas. Take a few pairs of gloves to go under the mittens they give you as they get wet when you take them off. We also used the pool and it was fab. Mind you, we only had time to go once as we were on the go the whole time. The day starts quite early - 8.30 to 9 as not many daylight hours. You will be knackered by the evening believe me. Keep putting all the clobber on wears you out but it is great fun.
Enjoy
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Glad you%26#39;ve made the decision - you%26#39;ll have a wonderful time!
One thing we thought we%26#39;d never wear, but in fact we were SO glad we had, were balaclavas. We bought our own silk ones but in fact they turned out to be provided with our safari gear too (check with Esprit). Even though it was so mild we did end up wearing them a lot and they made a huge difference!
The other thing is if you do intend to come down the full toboggon run I would reccommend goggles as there was a lot of ice spray (because we were using our feet to slow us down!)
I didn%26#39;t think the gloves provided were terribly comfortable and really appreciated our own ones.
As it%26#39;s dark so early and everyone looks the same on the toboggon slopes it%26#39;s a good idea to take glo sticks. We were the only ones who had them and they were really useful!
We took a bottle of squash for the kids and some wine for us. The supermarket was great so didn%26#39;t really need any extra food.
If they say it%26#39;s a good night for seeing the Northern lights, you could go to the Riekonlinna hotel as they have a special darkened viewing room on the second floor with a big picture window. OOh, can I come with you???!!!!!
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Thanks for all the info. can someone let me know if it is best to book the optional extras beforehand or whilst in the resort?
Also how many layers of clothing is advisable for children?
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sorry cannot advise on the area or trips, but in regard to the kids clothes, here is a link I got from this site before which i found really helpful.
http://www.lapland.fruitbandit.com/
if you can find them icebreaker thermals are great, and you will get them in childrens sizes, just not easy to come by.
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