The short version: Stay for the day, stay somewhere else overnight. Santa Claus Holiday Village in Rovaniemi, Lapland, is built around the home of the official Father Christmas, sits right on the Arctic Circle, and gives you snow, a free Santa meeting, reindeer, huskies, a webcam your grandparents can wave at you on, and a properly magical setting that the kids will love. The official apartment we stayed in was big, clean, well-appointed and warm, with a sauna in the bathroom. So why not a clear stay? Because almost everything closes at 5 or 6pm even when it’s heaving, there’s little to do in the evenings (including getting food), the Father Christmas experience in the main building is a factory queue (the one at Santa Park down the road is far better), the retail offering reads more like a service station than a destination, and the on-site light pollution kills any chance of seeing the aurora. The neighbouring properties on the same site (Nova Skyland, Glass Resort) and ones a short drive away (Apukka) look like better places to sleep. Come for the day, do the attractions, then leave. Visited 27 to 29 November 2025 as a family.
Quick facts
| Location | On the Arctic Circle, just north of Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland |
| Resort type | Themed holiday village built around the official home of Father Christmas, with a mix of official accommodation (apartments, family lodges, two-person lodges) and on-site third-party operators (Nova Skyland hotel, Glass Resort) |
| Best for | Families with children visiting Lapland who want to meet Father Christmas, see reindeer and huskies, play in the snow, and post Arctic Circle postcards back to family at home. Best treated as a day-trip destination rather than an overnight base |
| Father Christmas | Free of charge in the main Santa Claus Office building (timed entry ticket required). Well-themed queue, but the meeting itself is a factory experience of roughly thirty seconds, with photographs sold at the end and no personal filming or photography permitted. The paid alternative at nearby Santa Park is materially better quality |
| Other on-site attractions | Santa Claus Reindeer Village (meet reindeer, reindeer sleigh rides), Santa’s Pets (separate operator, family attraction), Husky Park (meet and greet plus husky sleigh adventures), Arctic Circle Snowmobile Park (mini snowmobile track for younger kids), Snowman World (under construction on our visit, opening soon) |
| Accommodation tried | Official Holiday Village apartment in the apartment buildings up the hill from the main reception. Spacious entrance with storage, large bathroom with sauna, sofa bed for the children in the lounge, kitchenette (hob, microwave, kettle, coffee maker, dishwasher), master bedroom with sliding door for privacy, full-height windows, two external doors (one back to outside) |
| Other accommodation on site | Official: family lodges with shared breakfast at their own restaurant; two-person lodges; suite-level rooms with breakfast at the Three Elves Restaurant in the main reception. Third-party on the same site: Nova Skyland hotel, Glass Resort glass-roofed igloo-style stays |
| Breakfast | Three Elves Restaurant for suite and apartment guests. Pastries, donuts, cookies, fruit, cheese, cold meats, salad, bread and toast, jams and butter, cereal (no Sugar Puffs, chocolate-filled cereal available), juice machine with three flavours and water, coffee machine, hot options including eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, porridge, pancakes, vegetables, Frankfurt-style sausages and beef meatballs. Seating less generous than the size of the venue suggests but never a problem in practice |
| Dining on-site | Santa’s Pizzas and Burgers (closes early for dine-in, takeaway later), Golden Bowl dim sum (open later than most, until 8pm, food good, decor very service-station), various other outlets in and around the main plaza, all closing early |
| Retail | Santa Claus Gift House (large building, mixed-quality concession-stand offering, the Moomin shop was a highlight), Santa Claus Shop in the main plaza, a few higher-end retailers, all closing early. The post office is busy and good fun for sending Arctic Circle postcards home; closes at 6pm |
| Webcam | Located by the big Christmas tree in the main plaza. You can ask family back home to log in, see you, and you can wave at each other. We used it twice with grandparents and the kids loved it |
| Light pollution | Heavy. On-site lights stay on through the night. With curtains closed in the apartment, it looked like daylight outside. Materially affects the case for staying overnight if you wanted to see the aurora from your room |
| Trip type | Family of four (two adults, two children), two-night stay, late November (snow on the ground, full winter conditions) |
| Verdict | Conditional: stay for the day, stay elsewhere for the night |
The video
What is Santa Claus Holiday Village, exactly?
Santa Claus Holiday Village sits on the Arctic Circle just north of Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland. The site is built around the main Santa Claus Office, where the official Father Christmas receives visitors all year round, and grew outwards from there into a destination with accommodation, restaurants, retail, and a cluster of family attractions like reindeer rides, husky adventures and a small snowmobile park for younger guests. It started life, essentially, as a service station on the Arctic Circle line that kept getting bigger, and that history shows in a few places (more on that later).
A wrinkle worth getting clear before you book: the “village” you’re visiting is not run by a single operator. Santa Claus Holiday Village owns and operates the official lodges and apartments and the Three Elves Restaurant. But other accommodation on the same physical site, like Nova Skyland and Glass Resort, are run by separate companies. Some of the attractions are also run by third parties under their own branding. This matters because you’ll often hear it spoken about as if it’s one resort, and it isn’t. I’ll flag where this distinction matters as we go.
Meeting Father Christmas at the main building
The headline feature, and the reason most families come, is meeting the official Father Christmas. He receives guests inside the big main Santa Claus Office building you’ll see across the central plaza. Entry is free of charge. There’s a timed-ticket system to manage flow, so you’ll pick up a ticket and come back at your allocated time. The queue itself is well themed, but even with timed entry you’re in for a wait.
The meeting itself, honestly, isn’t the best. It’s a factory operation. You’re shuffled into a large queueing space, eventually shoved in front of Father Christmas, he says a few words, you get a snap, and you’re moved along. Thirty seconds at best. Photography and filming are not permitted, and at the end you can buy a print of the official photo. Free is free, and the queueing experience and the theming around it are charming enough. But quality-wise, the paid alternative at Santa Park, a separate attraction a short drive down the road, is materially better. If meeting Santa is the centrepiece of your trip, do both and treat the Holiday Village version as the bonus.
The Arctic Circle line, the webcam, and the post office
The Arctic Circle line runs across the main plaza, marked clearly enough that you can stand on it. Next to it is a tall signpost with directions and distances to points of interest around the world, which is the kind of low-effort photo opportunity that earns its keep. The webcam pointed at the central plaza is wonderful. We used it twice. You ask family at home to log in, then wave to them from in front of the big Christmas tree. The kids loved it. I genuinely wish more destinations did this, it’s a low-tech way of connecting home with where you’re at, and it works.
The post office is the other on-site institution worth your time. It’s busy from open to close. Adults and children buy postcards, get them stamped with the official Arctic Circle / Father Christmas marks, and send them back to friends and family. It’s a sweet ritual and the kids really got into it. One small frustration: the post office closed at 6pm sharp, and they shout out the closing time twenty minutes before they shut even when the place is heaving. We made it; just.
Accommodation, the apartment, and a tour
The official accommodation comes in three flavours: suite-level rooms with breakfast at the Three Elves Restaurant in the main reception building, family lodges and two-person lodges with their own breakfast venue, and apartments in three blocks set away up the hill. We stayed in one of the apartments. They’re a short walk from the main plaza, not so far that it’s a slog, but far enough that you’ll notice when carrying tired children back at night.
The apartment itself was a real plus point. You come in through an entrance area with storage either side and into a properly large bathroom: backlit mirror, plastic cups (haven’t seen those in years), a squeegee, an overhead and a handheld shower, and a sauna. A proper sauna, in the bathroom of the apartment. Very Finland. There’s also a ladder, the purpose of which we never figured out. Robes are provided including kids’ sizes, which is a nice touch. The lounge has a sofa bed made up for the children with sweets laid out on the TV, a chandelier above, full-height windows that are genuinely huge, a kitchenette with hob, microwave, coffee maker, kettle and dishwasher, and a balcony with seating and a small Christmas tree. The balcony glass had frosted over by the time we were on it. The master bedroom is behind a sliding door for privacy and has its own external door to outside, so the apartment can be entered from two sides. Quirky, but spacious, clean, warm, and properly equipped.
Other accommodation on the same site comes from third-party operators: Nova Skyland (hotel) and Glass Resort (the glass-roofed igloo-style rooms you’ll have seen in Lapland photos) both look like genuinely cool stays in their own right. There’s also Apukka a short drive up the road. If I came back, I’d be looking at one of those rather than booking the apartment again, not because the apartment was bad, but because the rest of the overnight proposition at Santa Claus Holiday Village (food after 6pm, light pollution, nothing to do in the evenings) doesn’t earn its keep. More on that below.
Breakfast at the Three Elves Restaurant
Apartment and suite guests take breakfast at the Three Elves Restaurant in the main reception building. (Lodge guests have their own breakfast venues, including Santa Claus Cuisine for the deluxe lodges.) The buffet covers what you’d expect for a wintry Lapland hotel: a strong pastry section with cakes, muffins, donuts and cookies, a fruit selection, cheese, dried meats, salad, breads and waffles with a toaster, jams, preserves and butter, cereal with chocolate-filled options though no Sugar Puffs for the kids, a juice machine with three flavours plus water, and a coffee machine. Hot side: eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, porridge, pancakes, vegetables, Frankfurt-style sausages, and beef meatballs. Plenty of variety, sensible quality. Seating felt slightly tight for the size of the venue, but we never had a problem finding a table.
Dining beyond breakfast: the early-closing problem
The single biggest weakness of Santa Claus Holiday Village as an overnight base is what happens (or rather, doesn’t happen) after 5 or 6pm. Most outlets close. Even when the place is busy. We had perfectly decent food at Santa’s Pizzas and Burgers, but the dine-in operation closes early and only the takeaway runs slightly later. Golden Bowl dim sum was one of the few options open past 6pm and closed at 8pm. The food was good, the decor very motorway service station. I’d still recommend it for a quick bite if you’re hungry and short of options, but it tells you what you need to know about evening dining on-site: thin.
If you’re staying overnight, plan to drive into Rovaniemi for dinner, or book one of the lodges that includes an evening meal arrangement. Don’t assume you’ll wander out of your apartment at 7pm and find something open in the plaza. You won’t.
Retail: the Santa Claus Gift House and the rest
The biggest retail venue is the Santa Claus Gift House, a large building that started life as the original service station that kicked the whole site off. It now houses a plethora of concession stands. The quality is mixed. It was busy and people were enjoying it, but the offering is closer to airport souvenir than destination shopping. The Moomin shop was a genuine highlight. We’re Moomin fans in this family and it’s a properly nice concession. After that, the offering tails off. The kids picked up a few bits and bobs, but I wouldn’t call it a must-do.
There are a few higher-end retailers on the site as well, and the standalone Santa Claus Shop in the main plaza carries the official Father Christmas branding. Same caveat as everything else: closes early, sometimes earlier than you’d expect for a busy day, so plan your shopping around mid-afternoon rather than after dinner.
The attractions: reindeer, huskies, Snowmobile Park, Santa’s Pets, Snowman World
The cluster of family attractions is the real reason to come for a day. The Santa Claus Reindeer Village runs meet-and-greets with reindeer and offers reindeer sleigh rides, plus has its own restaurant. Right next to it is Santa’s Pets, a separate operator running a family-friendly animal attraction with a wider range of animals and activities. Florence reviewed Santa’s Pets in detail on her own channel, Let’s Flo. Link below.
The Husky Park sits at the far end of the main strip and offers meet-and-greets plus full husky sleigh adventures. The huskies were properly lively and the noise as you approach is part of the experience. We didn’t manage to book a husky adventure on this trip, which is the one regret of the visit. I can’t recommend the experience because I haven’t done it, but it’s the thing I’d most want to do if we came back. The Arctic Circle Snowmobile Park is a mini snowmobile track aimed more at younger guests than adults, like a go-kart track with miniature snowmobiles, and very popular through the day. It’s a decent way to introduce kids to the idea of snowmobiling if you’re not planning to book a proper adult snowmobile expedition through one of the Rovaniemi operators.
Snowman World, a significant indoor and outdoor complex including a restaurant, cafe, ice attractions and more, was still being constructed during our visit. They were digging huge mounds of snow throughout our stay. By the time you read this it should be open, and from the scale of the build it looks well worth a visit.
The webcam, the Arctic Circle line crossing, the signpost, and the playground in the main plaza round out the casual things to do without paying for an attraction. The playground is rammed with kids in the middle of the day; come at the edges if you want quieter time.
Light pollution and the aurora question
One of the reasons most British families come to Lapland is to see the Northern Lights. Santa Claus Holiday Village is the wrong place to do that. The amount of light pollution on the site is horrendous. The on-site lights stay on through the night, all of them, even when the village is empty. With our apartment curtains closed it looked like daylight outside. If your priority is the aurora, you want to be staying somewhere dark, ideally a property explicitly marketed as having an aurora-viewing setup (glass-roofed rooms, dark site, wake-up service if the aurora is forecast). Glass Resort on the same site is set up for that, and properties like Apukka up the road are too. The Holiday Village’s official accommodation, sat in the middle of the lit-up village, is not.
Pros and cons after a two-night stay
Pros. Free Father Christmas meeting on-site (even if the experience itself is factory-paced). Genuinely magical snowy setting, especially for kids. The Arctic Circle line, the signpost, and the webcam are charming low-effort touches. The post office is a lovely ritual. The official apartment is big, clean, warm and properly equipped, with a sauna in the bathroom. Reindeer, husky and Santa’s Pets attractions all clustered on-site, plus Snowman World now coming online. Florence loved it, Bertie loved it, we loved them loving it. As a day-trip destination from a Rovaniemi base, it’s hard to beat.
Cons. Most outlets close at 5 or 6pm even when busy. Almost nothing to do in the evenings, including getting food. Father Christmas in the main building is a factory experience (the Santa Park version down the road is far better). The big Gift House retail offering reads more like a motorway service station than a destination. It’s not clearly defined to guests which accommodation, attractions and restaurants are run by the official operator versus third parties. Heavy light pollution from on-site lighting kills any chance of seeing the aurora from your room. Walking on snow and ice between the apartment buildings and the main plaza is hard work with tired kids.
Who is this hotel for?
Santa Claus Holiday Village is for families with young children visiting Lapland who want to meet the official Father Christmas, see reindeer and huskies, post Arctic Circle postcards home, play in the snow, and have their kids leave with a properly magical memory of the trip. As a day trip from a Rovaniemi base, it’s a strong pick. Plan to arrive mid-morning, do the Santa office, the post office, the webcam, the playground, lunch at one of the on-site outlets, then the reindeer and huskies in the afternoon, then leave before 5pm when things start shutting.
It’s not for families looking for an aurora-priority stay (the light pollution rules that out). It’s not for guests who want a destination-quality dining and shopping offering after 6pm. It’s not for travellers who want a single operator running a single resort experience. And it’s not for adults travelling without children, where the centre of gravity of the offering won’t justify the trip. If you want an overnight base in Lapland, look at Glass Resort on the same site, Nova Skyland, Apukka a short drive up the road, or one of the dark-site aurora-focused properties further out.
Frequently asked questions
The verdict: stay or stay away?
This one splits cleanly. The day-trip experience at Santa Claus Holiday Village is good: a free meeting with the official Father Christmas, a magical snowy setting, reindeer, huskies, a webcam to wave at family back home, the Arctic Circle line, a post office with proper Arctic Circle postmarks, and a cluster of paid family attractions all in one place. The kids loved every minute of it, and we loved them loving it.
The overnight proposition is the weaker half. The official apartment we stayed in was big, clean, warm and well-equipped, with a proper sauna in the bathroom, no complaints there. But around it, the rest of the overnight offer doesn’t earn its keep: most outlets shut at 5 or 6pm even when busy, food after that is thin, the Gift House retail reads more like a motorway service station than a destination, and the on-site light pollution makes seeing the aurora from your room a non-starter. Other accommodation on the same site (Glass Resort, Nova Skyland) and ones a short drive up the road (Apukka) look like better overnight bases.
The verdict is conditional. Stay for the day. Stay somewhere else for the night. Come here, do the attractions, soak in the magic, then leave before everything shuts. If we came back to Lapland, that’s exactly how we’d structure the trip: book somewhere else as the overnight base, and visit Santa Claus Holiday Village as a day out. The day experience earns the trip; the overnight experience doesn’t.
Full video transcript
Auto-generated from the YouTube video and lightly cleaned. Timestamps preserved.
00:00 Welcome to Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland. This is The Resort Report. I’m going to give you a quick guide of this whole village, including the apartment, the restaurants, the shops, and so much more.
00:16 First off, we’re going to head to the big man himself, Father Christmas Santa Claus, who has his house in this big building here. You enter through these doors here. It gets a little bit busy and there is a timing system. You need to get a ticket and you’re allocated a time to come back. The queue system is long, it’s well themed, but you are going to be in for quite a wait despite having a timed entry. And there are no photographs or filming when in with Father Christmas. I’m using footage here from the Father Christmas at Santa Park, and you can watch my daughter’s video on that attraction here.
01:00 Everything centres around this main plaza area outside the Santa Claus shop there. You’ve got this great big tree there. The webcam is off that taller point there, which lots of people enjoy. We’ve got a long row of shops and some food outlets in there. Two shops in here, and as I say, the main Santa Claus attraction, another shop. And then off into the distance there’s a number of attractions as well as more restaurants. You can see Santa’s pizzas and burgers just there.
01:48 Off into this direction we have more retail, the Father Christmas post office, and the main reception area for Santa Claus Village, and some more restaurants as well.
02:04 The webcam is very cool. You can see me there waving at you. We’ve used this twice with both sets of grandparents, asking them to log in and have a look at us, and we’ve been waving at them. Really fun feature. I almost wish more locations around the world had this feature. It’s a really good way of connecting home with where you’re at on holiday. Really fun. Love it.
02:32 As well as that webcam and the Arctic Circle line, you have this wonderful signpost with lots of points of interest around the world.
02:40 The post office was a very busy shop indeed, full of adults and children alike getting postcards, getting stamps, and then sending them back to friends and family across the world. It closed surprisingly early at 6pm, but we loved sending our postcards back to family.
03:06 Let me show you the different accommodation that’s available here at Santa Claus Village. Now, the official accommodation has these villa-type properties just here. The reception building is there as well. We’re actually staying way up here in these apartment buildings up here. Now on-site as well there are some other accommodation offerings provided by other people. You have this property here which is the Nova Skyland hotel. And then we have, up here, the Glass Resort. Both of them look really cool indeed. It looks like there might even be some more just over here as well, although I haven’t got that far. The official ones are here, here and here. And then two third parties operating on the same central site as well.
04:14 So here we have the main bulk of the accommodation options for Santa Claus Village. You can see those little lodges there. There are two-person ones and then larger family ones. And then there is the restaurant that those guests dine in for breakfast, right next to the bus stop here for Santa Claus Village. The apartments are a walk away and are situated in three separate blocks.
04:41 So let me give you a quick tour of an apartment. Now, here at Santa Claus Village, you come into this entrance area where you’ve got some storage here and there. I’ll take you into the bathroom first. It’s a great size with that back-lit mirror. We’ve got plastic cups, which I haven’t seen in absolutely ages. We have a squeegee and a sauna in here. How good is that? Very Finland. You’ve got that overhead as well as that handheld, and a ladder for reasons unknown. Here in this storage unit, really good to see these fantastic robes, including some robes for the kids. A really nice touch. There is a balcony, which I can take you out to. A bit chilly out here, but has a Christmas tree and some seating and a view, if it wasn’t frozen. That glass is frozen now because it is chilly out there.
05:50 Some seating area here with some sweeties on the TV. This beautiful chandelier above this sofa bed made out for the two children. We have this kitchenette with cooking top, microwave, coffee maker, kettle. A lot of the cutlery and crockery are in that dishwasher. Housekeeping must have struggled to get it sorted for us. We’ve got these huge windows. I mean, really really big windows. And then we’re into the master bedroom, which has this sliding door for some privacy. A weird kind of space there. No idea what that is for. And that is another external door. So that goes back outside so you can enter your room from two sides. And that is one of the apartment rooms here at Santa Claus Village, Rovaniemi, Finland.
06:44 If you are staying in the suite, your breakfast is going to be in the Three Elves Restaurant, which is in the main reception building. This is just for the suites. If you’re staying in the other lodge types, they have their own breakfast locations, including Santa Court Claus Cuisine for the deluxe lodges. Let me show you what we’ve got. A selection of pastries, cakes, muffins, lovely donuts, cookies, your fruit selection. We have some cheese, dried meats, salad, and then moving on to a bread selection, some waffles, including some toasting bread with that toasting machine. Here we have some jams, preserves, butter, cereal. No Sugar Puffs I’m afraid, but they do have these chocolate-filled little bits and bobs here. Juice is dispensed out of a little machine over here, but let me show you the coffee machine first.
07:50 Here is the juice machine where you have a selection of three juices and water. On to hot options. We have some eggs there for you, some porridge (nearly lost the spoon there), some bacon, some scrambled egg (thank you sir, very kind of you), and then pancakes. Some vegetables just there. Then moving on to some Frankfurt-style sausages and some beef meatballs. Seating: there’s not as much seating as you might expect for a location of this size, but we had no problem sitting down and enjoying our breakfast here at Santa Claus Village.
08:46 There are a few food options here on the village. I’m showing you Santa’s Pizzas and Burgers just now, which we enjoyed. It is an outlet that does close for dining in early, although takeaway is open later on. Golden Bowl dim sum is one of the few places open later in the day, although it still closes pretty early at 8pm. The food was good, although the decor was very service station. Would I recommend it? I would actually, if you wanted a quick bite to eat.
09:24 Let me now take you into the Santa Claus Gift House. It is the bulk of the retail outlets here. There’s a plethora of concession stands in the building that used to be the service station where this whole story started. I’ve got to say, the quality in here was mixed. It was busy. People were enjoying it. I particularly liked the Moomin shop. I’m a big fan of Moomins, but after that, I can’t say I was too impressed with the offering. Certainly worth checking out and having a mooch around with the children. My children got a few bits and bobs, but it shouldn’t be a must-do for your trip to Santa Claus Village.
10:22 There are a few high-end retailers on site as well, although as with many things here, they do close early. So the Santa Claus shop there, same branding, different Father Christmas experience. And then the main reception here with the Three Elves Restaurant open for lunch, dinner, and for us in the apartments, our breakfast. There is a decent-sized playground here. I’ve come super early in the morning, but later on in the day it is rammed with children enjoying this play equipment.
11:04 On top of the retail and Father Christmas, there are a number of other attractions here in front of us. We have the Santa Claus Reindeer Village. There’s also a restaurant here. You can meet the reindeer and you can even go on a reindeer sleigh ride here as well. Then we have Santa’s Pets. If you want to see a more in-depth review of this, check out my daughter’s channel. And then we have the Husky experience. Something we haven’t been able to do, which would have been really cool. Huskies here at Santa Claus Village. We’ve just missed out on Snowman World. It’s still being constructed, but looks really cool. It’s a significant complex, and they’ve been digging huge mounds of snow throughout our stay. There’s a restaurant, cafe, and more in there. It looks very cool and you’ll love it if you manage to get in there on your visit.
12:13 There’s lots of activities and animals at Santa’s Pets. Check out the full review on Flo’s channel. Here we have the Arctic Circle Snowmobile Park, more suitable for young ones than adults. It’s almost like a go-kart track where they go around on the mini snowmobiles. Very popular during the day. A really good activity if you’re not out going on a proper snowmobile expedition. At the very end of the main strip we have the Husky Park. You can do meet and greet here. There is a restaurant cafe and you can even go on Husky adventures as well. You can just hear them, I think. That’s really cool. I like that a lot. It’s the only activity that we’ve not been able to do while here that would have been really special, and whilst I can’t recommend it because I haven’t done it, I’d certainly want to check it out if I was here again.
13:18 So it is time for that stay or stay away rating for Santa Claus Village. But before we get to that, I want to give you some pros and cons of coming here and visiting. Firstly, starting with the cons, everything closes really early, like 5 or 6, even when it’s rammed. You know, we were in the post office, heaving, and they shout out “we’re closing in 20 minutes”, and that’s it. And there’s very little to do in the evenings past that time, including getting food.
13:55 Now, in terms of the quality of the shops and a lot of the other bits and bobs, it becomes a little bit clearer when you realise that essentially Santa Claus Village is a motorway service station where things have just got out of hand and they’ve just started investing in building out an attraction. And yeah, that really does show throughout some of the shops and bits and bobs. I’m not saying that’s all the case, but for the food that we’ve been able to have on resort and a lot of the shopping experience, it’s been like that. Father Christmas in the main building is not the best. It is a bit of a factory. You’re in a huge queue and then you’re shoved in front of him, he says a few words, snap snap, off you go. And it is, you know, 30 seconds at best. Far, far better at Santa Park just down the road.
15:04 Now, it’s not clearly defined which parts of all of this (there’s some reindeer at the reindeer park, let me turn around because you’ll want to see this. Look at that. Magical. Magical indeed. How cool is that? Especially while I’m telling you about things that could be better). Yes, so it’s not clearly defined which attractions, which accommodation, which restaurants etc. are part of the main kind of deal, the main resort. I think there’s a lot of third-party operators here as well as Santa Claus Village resort. There’s a lot of light pollution, like horrendous amounts of light pollution here. You know, our curtains closed at night, it looks like it’s day outside, not because of the sunlight, but because of all the lights that just stay on all the time. Which is a real shame. Something that they should definitely work on. Really really need to work on that.
16:08 Don’t come when there isn’t snow. I mean, this snow has been really good, especially for the kids. But the downside to that is walking in snow and ice is really hard. I mean, if I slip on my bottom while I’m giving you this little diatribe of views, you can laugh at me. I’ll give you permission. Anyway, on to the good stuff. That Father Christmas that I said isn’t the best, is complimentary, and you get to go in. The queue system to get to him is very well themed, and yeah, it’s complimentary. You can buy a photograph at the end and you’re not allowed to take your own photographs, but yeah, that is a nice touch. The snow, as I said, is lovely here. Really love the snow. And then the accommodation, that I’m just walking towards now, it’s big, it’s clean, it’s well-appointed, and it’s lovely and warm. And the most important thing about our visit here is the kids have absolutely loved it and we’ve loved them loving it as well. So yeah, really really good time for the kids. Fantastic, I would say.
17:18 And so when it comes to that stay or stay away rating, I would recommend coming here. But I’d recommend coming here for the day. The accommodation is fine, but you get far better resort facilities nearby. Even in the ones that are just behind me, Nova Skyland there, Glass Resort there, the glass igloos, whatever they’re called, and Apukka up the road. I would stay somewhere else next time and then just come here and do some of the attractions here for a day or an afternoon. And so this has been The Resort Report. Let me know what you think in the comments below. And thank you for tuning in to this wintry edition of The Resort Report.