First of all, I’d like to start by saying: Yes, there were glass igloos on the Bachelor. No, that is not where I got the idea, nor is it the resort I stayed at. Phew, glad we got that out of the way.
About a year and a half ago while bored at work one painfully long afternoon, I was browsing Pinterest (as one does at work), and I saw them, the beautiful glass igloos lined up in perfect rows under a sky filled with the Northern Lights. As I’m sure many who see this photo on Pinterest do, I thought to myself, “this cannot be a real place.” Down the Google rabbit hole I went. Come to find out, not only is it real, but there are multiple resorts offering these igloos. This was now added to the top of my bucket list.
Okay, now let’s get to the details. The first thing I will tell you, and would like to strongly emphasize is THIS IS NOT A CHEAP TRIP. I’m guessing the cost of a flight from the States to Finland is pretty absurd, so lucky for me London is a great location to fly from.
Ultimately, after months of debate, I chose Golden Crown – Levin Iglut. And it DID NOT disappoint. The resort is about 15 minutes outside of Levi, Finland with hardly anything around it. I stayed in a superior igloo, but premium (with a view of the Levi valley) is available as well, for a price. My Igloo included a double bed, couch, kitchenette, and full bathroom. Some igloo resorts do not include even a shower inside the igloo, so full bathroom and kitchenette was amazing!
The restaurant at Levin Iglut is fairly expensive, but so worth it. Some nights it is a fixed menu, others you can choose a la carte. Either way, I ate the reindeer twice because it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had (sorry, Rudolf and friends).
If you’re not feeling the set menu that day, or just want to save some money on food, there are a couple of supermarkets in Levi. I just stocked up on food (popcorn, cheese, and wine, if we are being honest) at the supermarket and ate in my glorious igloo one night.
Flight: London Heathrow ——> Kittila, Finland via Helsinki. Finnair was essentially the only airline that flew into Kittila when I booked my flight. My round trip flight was £299.
To the Hotel: Taxi from Kittila Airport to Levin Iglut. The drive is about 15 minutes, and I believe it was around €30.
There are a lot of options for activities in and around Levi, however, the “season” begins on 1 December, so many of the activities were not open yet while I was there the last weekend of November. Levin Iglut was very helpful, they provided a list of activities with schedules and they called quite a few places to see if they could get me a spot. I ended up going to a husky farm to go dog sledding and it was incredible. I went through Tundra Huskies and they were great. They even took their snowmobile back out to find the iPhone that an embarrassed American (read: ME), dropped in the snow while out on the dogsled.
For €85 you will get: a ride from Levi to the farm, a 5km sled dog ride (driving or riding), snacks, visits with the (very friendly) dogs, and hand feeding 2 reindeer that live at the farm. It was a great time.
- If you plan on leaving the resort at all, rent a car. Although the one taxi driver who picked me up every time I needed a ride was a nice Finnish man, he was in no hurry. So if you like being on time to things, better to drive yourself.
- Don’t take a white iPhone on the dog sled. If mine wasn’t black, they’d never have found it in the snow. 🙂
- To save some money on the hotel, go before the “season” begins. Just by going before December started, I saved about €100 a night.
- Get those Aurora Apps. I had a few I just downloaded from the app store and they were fairly accurate. Which leads to my final and most important tip…
- DON’T SLEEP THROUGH THE ONE TIME THERE IS AN AURORA. I had been checking my apps religiously, and didn’t think I had a chance of seeing the lights while I was there. The one night I forgot to leave my phone on loud (to hear the aurora notification), it happened, and I slept through it all. Probably one of my biggest failures in life. Oh well, I still caught some photos of the aftermath.
K bye.
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