vicjayhay wrote:

I am thinking about looking into either a day trip or overnight stay for next year with my boys.

I wouldn't recommend just going for a day. There's too much to see and do and it makes for a long day. I went for a week and could have stayed for a second! If you want to save money, look for short ski holidays in Northern Finland rather than anything to do with Santa or Lapland. You'll find it far cheaper. There was 5 of us (3 adults and 2 children) and it actually worked out cheaper, including a hire car to go for a week in a log cabin than for the day! Thomson and Monarch both do trips up there. There are lots of specialist companies as well such as Inghams. I went with Crystal Ski. They did stop Lapland for a time but have started again. it's a magical place to visit, I'll be back at some stage as we didn't see the Northern Lights. It was too warm for it to occur while we were there, even though the warmerst day was around -10c!! We got the hire car to travel around and do the huskies etc when we wanted and spend a whole morning or afternoon riding around rather than just 15 minutes or so that you get if you do the day trip. It's really worth staying for longer and planning it so you can do everything at your own pace and for as long as you want. Riding through the wilderness on the ski-doo's with Raindear walking past is a unique experience.

There's an 18 page topic here Lapland with lots of useful information. I posted some photos on page 18.

Darren