NEWKID 26,191 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Ok...we had a shit time there... My mum had wanted to take the kids for years, so around 5 years ago she booked the kids and us a day visit, flight from Exeter airport early morning,all day in the site...then flight back... Flight in the morning was delayed due to too much snow for landing....we finally got on the plane at around midday and was promised they would delay flights back...bullshit...we were raced around this park which was basically a frozen car park, driven to see Santa on a snow mobile..possibly the worst Santa ever, thick manc accent and the worst false beard ever... saw the reindeer...walked over and some girl shouts...dont touch they bite...got pulled on a sled by some huskeys around a 200m track.... Eventually herded through the trusty gift shop (over priced tat the kids believe they want) and onto the coach to the airport... I can honestly say I've been to better Christmas parks/Santas grotto"s in garden centres..... My mum was gutted and I was gutted for her, she saved to treat the kids and it was f***ing awful.... I had nothing to do with the booking etc, but I now know there are some beautiful places to go to and from a few mates accounts it is the magical experience we expected.....we were bitten bad though by a terrible British tour company who ripped us off .. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NEWKID 26,191 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Looking at booking Iceland for March with the mrs, long weekend trip.... Definitely setting up a Norway fishing trip next year too..... Wont be heading back to lap land though... The worst thing is the kids dont believe in Santa now....I'm still trying to convince my 12 year old but senior school.has spoilt her... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stoney100 1,179 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 11 minutes ago, NEWKID said: Ok...we had a shit time there... My mum had wanted to take the kids for years, so around 5 years ago she booked the kids and us a day visit, flight from Exeter airport early morning,all day in the site...then flight back... Flight in the morning was delayed due to too much snow for landing....we finally got on the plane at around midday and was promised they would delay flights back...bullshit...we were raced around this park which was basically a frozen car park, driven to see Santa on a snow mobile..possibly the worst Santa ever, thick manc accent and the worst false beard ever... saw the reindeer...walked over and some girl shouts...dont touch they bite...got pulled on a sled by some huskeys around a 200m track.... Eventually herded through the trusty gift shop (over priced tat the kids believe they want) and onto the coach to the airport... I can honestly say I've been to better Christmas parks/Santas grotto"s in garden centres..... My mum was gutted and I was gutted for her, she saved to treat the kids and it was f***ing awful.... I had nothing to do with the booking etc, but I now know there are some beautiful places to go to and from a few mates accounts it is the magical experience we expected.....we were bitten bad though by a terrible British tour company who ripped us off .. I’ve heard similar from a few mate.....I’d honestly recommend just booking a hotel in a northern Scandinavian town and go there......it will be Christmassy, there will be snow/reindeer and the northern lights but without the tourists 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stoney100 1,179 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 28 minutes ago, sid g said: bit like parts of scotland .. Yeah but that’s full of Scots lol Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meece 1,957 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 4 hours ago, vfr400boy said: Anyone taken kids to lapland? Misses wants to do it next year is it as good as it looks ? Research before you commit ! 4 hours ago, W. Katchum said: I can hardly book myself a take away you Fcuking elf Na seriously I wouldn’t know where to start, I’ll let the wife have a good look into it it might be a good idea to start to find out. 3 hours ago, Chid said: Have you tried getting off one flight and making it to another while you've got kids with you ... There's not a feckin chance id get one flight straight to Lapland and wouldn't care how much cheaper it would be to fly Elsewhere first lol 55 minutes ago, NEWKID said: Ok...we had a shit time there... My mum had wanted to take the kids for years, so around 5 years ago she booked the kids and us a day visit, flight from Exeter airport early morning,all day in the site...then flight back... Flight in the morning was delayed due to too much snow for landing....we finally got on the plane at around midday and was promised they would delay flights back...bullshit...we were raced around this park which was basically a frozen car park, driven to see Santa on a snow mobile..possibly the worst Santa ever, thick manc accent and the worst false beard ever... saw the reindeer...walked over and some girl shouts...dont touch they bite...got pulled on a sled by some huskeys around a 200m track.... Eventually herded through the trusty gift shop (over priced tat the kids believe they want) and onto the coach to the airport... I can honestly say I've been to better Christmas parks/Santas grotto"s in garden centres..... My mum was gutted and I was gutted for her, she saved to treat the kids and it was f***ing awful.... I had nothing to do with the booking etc, but I now know there are some beautiful places to go to and from a few mates accounts it is the magical experience we expected.....we were bitten bad though by a terrible British tour company who ripped us off .. And your Proposing going on a journey with kids that you know nothing about. Not so clever when you get there and it's totally substandard as described by newkid above. 3 hours ago, bell said: Make sure you go the right part.....think last year some of it didn’t have any snow.........long way to go with the kids to get off the plane and there’s no snow......no snow = no Christmas activities.... Always remember piss poor preparation = piss poor performance. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vfr400boy 3,120 Posted December 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 1 hour ago, NEWKID said: Ok...we had a shit time there... My mum had wanted to take the kids for years, so around 5 years ago she booked the kids and us a day visit, flight from Exeter airport early morning,all day in the site...then flight back... Flight in the morning was delayed due to too much snow for landing....we finally got on the plane at around midday and was promised they would delay flights back...bullshit...we were raced around this park which was basically a frozen car park, driven to see Santa on a snow mobile..possibly the worst Santa ever, thick manc accent and the worst false beard ever... saw the reindeer...walked over and some girl shouts...dont touch they bite...got pulled on a sled by some huskeys around a 200m track.... Eventually herded through the trusty gift shop (over priced tat the kids believe they want) and onto the coach to the airport... I can honestly say I've been to better Christmas parks/Santas grotto"s in garden centres..... My mum was gutted and I was gutted for her, she saved to treat the kids and it was f***ing awful.... I had nothing to do with the booking etc, but I now know there are some beautiful places to go to and from a few mates accounts it is the magical experience we expected.....we were bitten bad though by a terrible British tour company who ripped us off .. That's what worries me knowing where to go and the best park to go to I know am going to get ripped off etc but dont mind as much if it's all decent and kids love it, I want them to see the real Santa ( with a real beard) and remember it for ever etc Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lurcherman 887 12,679 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Wanna go here next year Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meece 1,957 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 This all sounds like something Mick the landlord of the queen Vic, (Eastenders) has secretly dreamt up to surprise everyone for a super Christmas treat to show everyone how they do it. And they end up sitting on the hard shoulder of the motorway with a puncture and if and when they get there the accommodation has been overbooked. The reindeer are all grumpy and Santa is passed up with a false beard. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TOMO 24,876 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 we went 2008.....and our experience was brilliant....we went for 4 days 3 nights....flew straight there on a pacage....had a log cabin in the woods the cabin even had a sauna ...it really was stunning ...proper log cabin....did activitys everyday .....I mushed a team of sled dogs with the mrs and kid in the sled....next day we went for a slay ride pulled by raindeer ..another day went to santas workshop.....loads of activitys there.....also had cross country ski's ....honestly cant say enough good things about it... it cost us around £1500 total...... however my mrs looked last year and it was around 4 grand or something......so she found a cheaper way........ fly to talin in Estonia .....talin is opposite Helsinki across the sea....it costs feck all to fly to talin.....there is ferrys all day across to Helsinki.....so catch the ferry to Helsinki pretty cheap as well......then the train from Helsinki up to the towns in northern finland....its an overnight train they call the santa train aparantly the atmosphere on board is brilliant ...the kids love it by all accounts.... the lucky thing is you can fly to talin in the morning....and the santa train don't leave till the evening so you have plenty of time to get the ferry across and get to the station without the need for a hotel for the night....unlees of course you fancy checking out tallin 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stoney100 1,179 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 This is a map of where the lights are around the whole artic circle......you can see Northern Europe has the thickest part of it and from abisko to ivalo is right in the middle of it...... If the weathers clear your pretty much guaranteed to see them if you stay for at least 3 nights......one good option might be to fly to Stockholm for the skansen Christmas market.......it’s basically Lapland in a nice city, the kids won’t know any difference and the whole of Stockholm is something else at Christmas time tbh......will cost a few quid but nothing like what you would pay to go Lapland and find it’s not what you expected......can even fly up to kiruna from Stockholm for a few nights and take the artic train over to abisko as that’s a really nice trip through some amazing countryside really want to go back now lol Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meece 1,957 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 (edited) 35 minutes ago, Stoney100 said: This is a map of where the lights are around the whole artic circle......you can see Northern Europe has the thickest part of it and from abisko to ivalo is right in the middle of it...... If the weathers clear your pretty much guaranteed to see them if you stay for at least 3 nights......one good option might be to fly to Stockholm for the skansen Christmas market.......it’s basically Lapland in a nice city, the kids won’t know any difference and the whole of Stockholm is something else at Christmas time tbh......will cost a few quid but nothing like what you would pay to go Lapland and find it’s not what you expected......can even fly up to kiruna from Stockholm for a few nights and take the artic train over to abisko as that’s a really nice trip through some amazing countryside really want to go back now lol It's the wrong sort of snow on the lines, so we went to margit instead. https://images.app.goo.gl/MNJpABsjTq9UGcPJ8 Edited December 18, 2019 by Meece Quote Link to post Share on other sites
keepdiggin 9,219 Posted December 19, 2019 Report Share Posted December 19, 2019 One of them sled dogs over a grey??? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vfr400boy 3,120 Posted December 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2019 8 hours ago, TOMO said: we went 2008.....and our experience was brilliant....we went for 4 days 3 nights....flew straight there on a pacage....had a log cabin in the woods the cabin even had a sauna ...it really was stunning ...proper log cabin....did activitys everyday .....I mushed a team of sled dogs with the mrs and kid in the sled....next day we went for a slay ride pulled by raindeer ..another day went to santas workshop.....loads of activitys there.....also had cross country ski's ....honestly cant say enough good things about it... it cost us around £1500 total...... however my mrs looked last year and it was around 4 grand or something......so she found a cheaper way........ fly to talin in Estonia .....talin is opposite Helsinki across the sea....it costs feck all to fly to talin.....there is ferrys all day across to Helsinki.....so catch the ferry to Helsinki pretty cheap as well......then the train from Helsinki up to the towns in northern finland....its an overnight train they call the santa train aparantly the atmosphere on board is brilliant ...the kids love it by all accounts.... the lucky thing is you can fly to talin in the morning....and the santa train don't leave till the evening so you have plenty of time to get the ferry across and get to the station without the need for a hotel for the night....unlees of course you fancy checking out whi Who was the company you used ? And were you stay etc what was the food n beer like? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TOMO 24,876 Posted December 19, 2019 Report Share Posted December 19, 2019 1 hour ago, vfr400boy said: Who was the company you used ? And were you stay etc what was the food n beer like? we stayed in the town/village....called Ylas.....(spelling).....because we were in a cabin it was self catering....the cabin was in the woods....and it was about 500 yrd to the hotel that you go to for all your activitys.......some people who stayed in the hotel had half or full board.....but I have no idea what the food was like.......im not really a drinker so cant comment apart from its bloody expensive ... the mrs thinks it was Thomas cook who we booked with....but neither of us is 100% sure on that.....its 11 year ago......we flew to a city called kittila (spelling) then there was a coach to take us to Ylas.....the first thing they do when you get to your resort is kit you out with a suit and snow boots.....the suit is like what you would wear in a cold store ... like I say we had a fabulas time and I couldn't recommend it enough....... the mrs recons book early....ei now for next year......and the same if you do it the long way like I suggested.....if you do the flight to Estonia ...ferry ...and train you will save a couple of grand.....just book your cabin or hotel separate and the activitys .....things like the sled dogs ...or raindeer rides we did were just half a day ...which was enough.....but being in to dogs like most of us on here I wished I did the sled dogs for the full day.....or I belive there is an overnight thing were you camp out..with them....bit much maybe for the mrs and kid but I would have loved that....both those half day trips after the ride on the sled ..you went back to there camps they had a big fire in a fire pit and you sat round drinking hot berry juice and chatting ...... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDHUNTING 1,817 Posted December 19, 2019 Report Share Posted December 19, 2019 14 hours ago, Chid said: Have you tried getting off one flight and making it to another while you've got kids with you ... There's not a feckin chance id get one flight straight to Lapland and wouldn't care how much cheaper it would be to fly Elsewhere first lol Second that spent two days in Madrid after missing connecting flight to save about £100 after a bright idea from my at the time travel agent girlfriend. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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