Customer Review

The holiday itself was absolutely fantastic. The staff were so helpful, nothing was too much trouble for them and they were all so friendly and knowledgeable. Having a guide who did a session on photography so that you had advice on camera settings, etc was so beneficial and helped to make sure that we all got some great shots of the Aurora. We enjoyed all the activities and also having some free time every day to spend as you pleased. The food was excellent always and choices meant that there was something for everyone. Also having hot drinks available from 7pm to 1am was great, especially when you got back late from a viewing. Our latest night out was until 2am!! To sum up - this made the top item on my bucket-list, one that I will never forget; it was all I imagined and so much more. We were lucky to see the Aurora three nights out of five, the middle night being totally mind-blowing, being outside in the forest watching the stars, a fantastic light show and sitting around a log fire. A night to remember forever. We have already passed on your details to several other people and hope that they will come to the Wilderness Hotel and enjoy the hospitality and Aurora as much as we did. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

We had a great time in Luosto. The hotel is superb, your team on the ground are very professional and friendly, as are the guides. We were lucky enough to get a brief display of Northern Lights on our first evening, followed by a faint one the next night. But I'm so glad that I booked the extra nights, because we saw a spectacular hour and a half display, including an active dancing curtain, on our very last night.

Just want to let you know what an absolutely fantastic time we had in Lappeasuando – we couldn’t have wished for a better holiday. Our hosts were such friendly, fun and knowledgeable people, passionate about their location and lifestyle, and we came home really feeling we had made friends. I can’t recommend this holiday enough, and I shall certainly sit down to do a travel review this weekend. The big decision now will be do we go back next year or try maybe Norway? It’s going to be a big decision!

This was an excellent and memorable holiday! It's hard to think of anything that could have improved our experience. Our days and evenings were completely filled with new and exciting activities, the hotel was cosy, the food was delicious, and we saw the Aurora on two nights out of four. Sanna and Santtu looked after us very well, and were very flexible in arranging activities and mealtimes to suit everyone. We were lucky to share the trip with a great group of like-minded guests, and it was a pleasure to chat to them around a blazing fire over a cup of hot berry juice. Particularly special was snowmobiling through the starlit forest at midnight, as it was unlike anything we'd done before! Being propelled through a sunlit forest by enthusiatic huskies was equally thrilling!

Husky sledding - brilliant to be able to interact with the dogs; harnessing them up and attaching them to the sled at the start, and putting them back into their enclosures at the end. I enjoyed all the activities!

The whole holiday was very well organised from my initial contact with The Aurora Zone right up until we touched back down in the UK. The information provided in advance was very helpful and I always received a prompt and polite reply to e-mails and phone calls. It was great to be met at the airport and Emma provided the right amount of information and was very friendly and approachable. Favourite activity: If I had to pick it would probably be the two day husky safari, but everything was really good. Least favourite: Stopping for tea and coffee on the night of the snowshoeing, because our hands got absolutely frozen! The snowshoeing itself was fun though.

Everything was really well done; our guides and welcome staff were all great. Husky dog ride I think was everyone's favourite. Great that we got to run our own dogs. Least enjoyable activity :

What more can I say? Everything was excellent from booking to leaving Abisko. Apart from the Aurora itself, I loved the husky sledging. The dogs were wonderful.

All we can say is wow, what a fantastic experience the whole holiday was!!! The whole family at the hotel were so friendly and eager to make sure you had a great time, the food was excellent. The activities were brilliant, things we'd never done before and seeing the Aurora was the icing on the cake. The hotel was in an idyllic setting and the snow was so beautiful, all sparkly. Everything was perfect!!

This was the best holiday that my wife and I have ever been on as can be evidenced by the gradings given (in our online questionnaire). It is impossible to differentiate between the activities since all were absolutely great and combined together extremely well to provide the backbone of the holiday. 

The husky rides were just fantastic. Even better when we got to hold the husky puppys. There wasn't anything that I didn't enjoy, or (would) change. 

Our first winter holiday. We had a great time and were lucky enough to see the Northern Lights twice. Most enjoyable activity was snowmobiling for me, dog sled for my husband and jointly snowshoe walking. Dinner in the ice restaurant was most unexpected and great fun with the Northern Lights coming out to play at the same time. Cold weather clothing etc was excellent. They had thought of everything including head torches. 

The whole experience was excellent, despite the cold and seeing the Northern Lights was an added bonus. Most enjoyable activity (was) husky dog sledging because it was well organised, explained well and great fun.

The hotel, staff and guides were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The guides had a lot of patience! We were an accident prone group, but they laughed with us and became friends! The food there was lovely. The rooms warm and comfortable. The surrounds breathtaking. Travelling on my own I was worried in the beginning how it would be. However there was a lot of support from The Aurora Zone and from the lodge and guides. I was included and encouraged in activities to a point where I was glad of a few hours in the afternoon to relax on my own! This has been one of the best experiences travelling I have had and I would recommend this trip to everyone who would like to see the beauty of Sweden, the Northern Lights and has a taste for adventure! Most enjoyable activity was husky sledding. The dogs love their job and the guide loves the dogs. To drive five huskies was amazing and well worth doing. The time between flights from Stockholm and Kiruna was short so when the flight out of London was delayed one hour this left 10 mins to run between terminals. On telling the company about the possibility of a missed connection they were very supportive. However even with the outbound from Kiruna leaving on time and running between terminals in Stockholm I got the flight with five mins to spare.

I thought the food was wonderful - thank you to Lena and her team for such a fabulous spread every day. I especially liked having the opportunity to try some local specialties such as moose stew and reindeer, traditional Swedish meatballs and salads (and lingonberries!). We were very fortunate to have two nights of Northern Lights sightings and knowledgeable guides with us both times to explain the phenomenon and to show us what to look for. Since there is no guarantee of seeing them, that was really the icing on the cake of an amazing trip. Out of the organised activities, my favourite was the daytime snowmobiling excursion - I had never been on a snowmobile before but I loved it and will definitely be seeking out further opportunities to do more of it! This was my favourite activity as you could really get out into the wilderness - we went up a hill in the middle of the day to take in some amazing views and still got to experience the peace and silence of the forest when we took a break in the middle of the day for a picnic lunch. I enjoyed all of the activities - I found the guides (both from the Polar Nights Guest House and the activity operators) very knowledgeable, personable and a pleasure to spend time with. This was the best holiday that I have ever had! It was a really unforgettable experience and I would really like to thank Nigel and Lena for their warm welcome - as well as the other guides Doris and Jonaton. They really made all the trip extra special and I am definitely keen to make a return visit! I loved the remoteness of this location and the absolute silence that you could experience in the forest - or even around the guest house in the early mornings / evenings. The outdoor hot tub and sauna were absolute winners as well. All around fabulous trip - I am so glad that I went.

It was a really wonderful trip. Fantastically nice people. Most enjoyable activity: Aurora spotting.

Fantastic holiday! The Abisko Mountain Lodge's atmosphere was like a home from home. Everyone, from the drivers and lodge owners and staff to the activity guides were friendly and knowledgeable. With the activities going from the base, you were in the wilderness within minutes. Icing on the cake were sightings of the Aurora on three nights out of four. Most enjoyable : This is a tough one - all activities were enjoyable. The most magical was sitting on a chairlift in -22 degrees swinging under the clear star-filled night sky alight with the Aurora Borealis. Least enjoyable : Coming home! Do I need to say why?

All the staff and instructors at Abisko were extremely helpful and friendly. The pre trip information was excellent and helped us to go with the right equipment and the right expectations of what was going to happen. Most enjoyable was seeing the Northern Lights - main purpose for going. Enjoyed it all!

Great trip, some fantastic views of the Aurora , if bitterly cold. Of the four nights viewing the Aurora we saw two very good displays and two weaker ones but were visible. 

Our trip to Luosto was just FANTASIC! The holiday reps were great and the activity crew just brilliant! If we had the money we would be going next year or later this year. 

We saw an amazing Northern Lights show!

Husky sledges were totally different to anything else we had done (and we had the Northern Lights out in the wilderness). Snowshoeing - it was very hard work; Improvements: It was about right.

We really find it difficult to fault this holiday as so much of it was so good and all the arrangements went without a hitch. The hotel, staff, food and guides really were excellent. Seeing the lights - we were so lucky to get a wonderful display on our final evening. Also the husky ride was amazing and very special as it was something I have always wanted to do. 

The 'reindeer herding day' was probably the most enjoyable - fascinating to hear and learn about and see 'in the flesh' reindeer herding, ice fishing (drilled holes and nets), generally to learn about the way of life in that part of the world, and on top of all that to be driving through the true wilderness on the snowmobiles. The guide was hugely knowledgeable, perfect English, infinitely capable (creating fires and sumptuous meals out in the wild) and cheerfully patient with our questions and incompetencies (the slower snowmobile drivers!). It would be invidious to describe any activity as the 'least' enjoyable, since everything we did was enormous fun, if sometimes fairly challenging. The first day snowmobiling, the husky sledging and the nightly trips out to 'hunt' the lights were all brilliant. To then have 'free' access to snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and sauna in our free time was simply icing (no pun intended) on our appetising cake! The hotel is picturesque, supremely comfortable and beautifully warm, and the food was really excellent - a wide variety of delicious food at all meals, coffee and tea on tap at all times, and a more than adequately stocked bar especially the rum,brandy, etc spiked hot drinks! The organisation of the activities themselves was faultless and the guides were enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable. The equipment (snowmobiles, husky sledges, shoes, skis, Arctic weather gear) was all of very high quality. To have then had, on our last night, what Marrku our local resident photographer guide rated as one of the top three Auroral displays in his whole life simply left us breathless. I will tell every friend of ours who might be interested to go 'lights hunting' to go to Nellim - it was brilliant (and would have been even if we had not seen the Aurora at all!).

We enjoyed all of it, but especially the husky sledging. There wasn't anything we didn't enjoy. Keep it the same. We found the mix of activities and down time just right, as was the group size. Your rep was excellent, always around, and very helpful without being 'in your face', and the local guides were very knowledgeable and friendly.

It was a fabulous holiday. The rep was great; everything worked smoothly; the activities were great, and the pace of the holiday was perfect. Luckily, the weather was perfect, and we saw the Northern Lights every night, including one amazing red, green and blue sighting. One of our best holidays ever. I liked the husky trip best. The weather was sunny and cold and the snow looked magical. I liked all the activities. I was hopeless at the cross-country skiing, but I still enjoyed it. Superb value for money I thought.

Excellent trip. We both enjoyed ourselves and the services that you provided.

It was the holiday of a lifetime! The activities were very well organised and the fantastic display of Lights on the Friday just topped it off perfectly. Most enjoyable activity: Hard to say - they were all brilliant but really loved the husky ride.

We had a full and lovely holiday, with a fantastic finish! We were able to take part in a lot of activities, from husky dog sledding, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, reindeer farm experience, ice fishing, tobogganing and the odd Aurora hunting! Each activity was led by guides and instructors and we were given guidance before each activity. We would never have thought, that in just a few days, we could pack so much into them. We did so much yet were able to relax and enjoy our surroundings. Our guides enhanced the experiences with their local knowledge and stories.  Every member of staff that we met were helpful and helped us to have the best experiences possible. We were also lucky enough to see the most incredible display of the Northern Lights. This was so much more than we could have wished for, you had to be there to believe it! Lots of 'oohing' and 'aahing', cookies and berry juice around a warming fire and we finally returned back to our hotel about 12.30am all clutching our cameras full of the most amazing pictures. Everyone sat in the bar talking about their experiences. We would recommend this holiday to anyone. You do need to have a certain level of fitness, but you don't need to be a gym bunny! The whole experience was tiring but it was a satisfied tiredness and we had the most amazing holiday of a lifetime. Thanks to all the staff at the Wilderness Hotel and all the instructors/guides....you helped it to go really smoothly.

Thank you so much we had an amazing holiday! We had a great range of activities to do during the day and then the search often by snowmobilies in the evening was fab. Everything we could possibly need was included and thank goodness for the Arctic suits! We feel exceptionally lucky to have witnessed such a display of the Northern Lights it really was spectacular and worth every penny. From our rep Peter, to the guides (Finlands answer to Lara Croft - Noora!) who really made our experience and the other hotel staff we were made to feel so welcome and nothing was too much trouble. The food was great, proper homemade meals after a day in the cold was fantastic. We cannot praise the hotel enough, I will definitely be recommending it to friends. Thank you also for making the booking process so easy.