Customer Review

Snowy ride of a lifetime, dog sledding, ice climbing, reindeer feeding, ICEHOTEL and breathtaking Auroras for three nights. 

We just wanted to let you know how very impressed we all were with all the arrangements and clothing for our recent four days at the Muotka Wilderness Lodge. Everything went very smoothly and was well and safely organised—though heaven knows what an energetic tour must be like! We arrived around 11.30pm to find a delicious soup available and things were just as good and better than we dared hope for all four days and we even saw the Aurora on our last night – at minus 27C. Our guide Mantuu was superb and always interesting and knowledgeable whilst all the background info you provided was first rate. Many thanks

AMAZING...... We had the most fantastic time at Harriniva!!!! From the moment we arrived to the moment we left. Staff were pleasant, friendly & attentive. The hotel & surroundings were lovely. The food was good & fresh & plenty of it. Driving the snow mobile was a fantastic experience, husky dog sledging great, reindeer sleigh ride brilliant. Mark, our first guide, explained how to control snowmobiles with a touch of humour included. Any worries were instantly dispelled. Sara was our guide for the husky dogs & reindeer rides. A fountain of knowledge! Our group of eight, of various ages, worked well together and laughs were certainly had. We even managed to see the lights....... Thanks to Sara's endurance. She drove the minibus at night and kept going to give us the best chance. What an experience!! Would we recommend this trip ........ YES. Thanks, Aurora Zone for an amazing holiday, Carol & Graham March 2014

This holiday lives up to the description on the website and in reality, it exceeded all expectations! Communication with Aurora Zone and their organisation is easy, relaxed friendly and above all, knowledgeable and efficient. The Wilderness Hotel is entirely suited for purpose, being warm, comfortable, well organised having very pleasant, helpful staff. The food was limited, but excellent choice sufficient for all tastes, being unpretentious, of good quality, wholesome and warming - exactly what is needed. The activites are brilliant! The guides have a relaxed and efficient approach and we never once felt as though we were being herded. We were afforded the opportunity to do things which we couldn't do at home - husky dog sledding, snowmobiling, snowshoe walking, ice hole fishing and at all times, being well supported and feeling safe and secure. We were lucky enough to be part of a group which gelled really well together - helped in part again by the relaxed professionalism of the leaders/guides. We all really had a great time. Having seen a weather forecast before we began our holiday, we resigned ourselves to not seeing the Northern Lights. We spent the second Aurora Camp round the campfire on the lake having a good laugh in the falling snow. We gave up, thinking that there was no way we would see the lights, so we went home and to bed. We were awakened a little later by cries of 'Aurora!'. We hurriedly threw on clothing and ran down to the Lake where we were treated to a spectacular display - wonderful!!!! Our journey home was delayed due to the weather and we missed our connecting flight in Helsinki. Finnair booked us into a very nice hotel for dinner and breakfast with courtesy and no fuss. All in all a wonderful experience and worth every penny. John & Lesley Cauldwell - March 2014

Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say we had an absolutely amazing time in Finland. The reps over there (Karen and Graham) were amazingly helpful and very nice. We loved all the activities (particularly ice fishing!), plus the food was great. Sadly we didn't see the Northern Lights (silly clouds!), but there is always next year! Thanks again - it truly was the holiday of a lifetime.

We got back home last night at 10.00.p.m. after five excellent days. The connections and transfers went really well and the location was perfect. Excellent walks around the village and the hotel and beautiful scenery with nearby lakes as well (not that you can miss a lake in Finland!!!) We had snow the first night we were there which made the scenery very beautiful and we saw the Northern Lights twice, so we were very, very lucky. The Hotel was warm, friendly and comfortable and the food (Table d’hôte menu) was excellent as was the choice at breakfast time. Nothing was too much trouble. Our Guides, Pascal and Sallie (Not sure how you spell their names) were absolutely wonderful. Full of information and very caring about the whole group. We were looked after extremely well. A very big thank you to them. The Trips were well organised and very informative. The Walking with Huskies was fun - they took us for a walk! The Aurora Kota was very informative and interesting and a beautiful location and the Reindeer visit was again, very, very informative - such a different way of life and very hard. The Aurora hike was hard because of the slight snow fall which made the walk a little more difficult but again, interesting and good exercise - just a shame that night was windy and cloudy. Hey ho.....just one of those things. The Amethyst Mine was very informative and fun to find our own...and we did........!! In short Amy, an excellent holiday that I would recommend to our friends and family and very well organised from the office and on location. Many thanks, Kind Regards, Chris Pearson

The snowshoe walk at night in the woods - it was magical with the trees glistening as though covered in diamond chips. I had no idea it would be so wonderful so it was an unexpected treat. But I also really loved the trip to the reindeer farm too. It was so nice to learn about and experience something of the local culture.

We've just got back from four nights in Inari and it was fabulous. Between the excellent range of activities on offer to the comfortable accommodation and delicious food and, of course, seeing the Northern Lights on two out of three hunts we had the best holiday ever. Our guide, Marku, was brilliant. His local knowledge was great and he was happy to answer all of our questions. He also gave up his own time on the night hunts so we could watch the lights. When we went snowshoeing they made a brief appearance as we were headed back to the minibus but he was quite happy to stop and let us watch them. On the snowmobile hunt we witnessed an amazing display for over an hour and a half. He only suggested we leave when people were starting to feel cold. I cannot praise his professionalism and dedication enough. There really was something for everyone and it was all pitched at the right level. We have memories to last us a lifetime, or until our next Aurora hunting holiday!

Olti our guide was great! She really made the activities fun and we had a lot of laughs as a group on our days out! Most enjoyable activity was cross-country skiing as it was new for us all and involved a lot of falling over!

(Our guides) photography and local knowledge were fantastic, and he managed to find us the Northern Lights in what was an otherwise cloudy week, well done :) Katrina our rep and the hotel staff were very friendly and helpful at all times.

Just a quick contact to say we had a brilliant week at Nellim last week! We saw the Aurora on three consecutive nights!!! Truly awesome!! The snow activities were fantastic! We had a lovely group of people. Ben and the guides were excellent! The hotel was perfect and the food was superb!! Just a wonderful week!!

Everyone I encountered connected to this trip was great - even the other travellers! Most Enjoyable Activity? All of them - probably the dog sleds were the most exhilarating. The noise and excitement of having 50 dog wanting to get going seemed scary but the people that run the tour really put a lot of care into their work and can see how great they are with their dogs. Fascinating to find out about the competitions. Keep it just the way it is!