Lapland Hotels Riekonlinna

The staff is friendly and helpful. Guests appreciate the varied and quality breakfast. The location is excellent, close to amenities and outdoor activities.

Just returned from 5 days in Saariselka with TUI and wanted to share a few tips that might be helpful. We stayed at The Snowflake Hotel (real name is Riekonlinna) - it's next to The Holiday Club and Tunturi Hotels. Our room was in the main hotel and it was ready when we arrived at 2pm. ❄️ You only need to wear your usual travelling clothes for the plane. I wore jeans and a hoodie. It's warm on the plane. And it's only a short walk from the plane to the airport terminal. ❄️ Turn left as you come out of the hotel and walk down the hill to find the main sledging hill. Here you can grab sledges and take them anywhere in the resort with you. ❄️ It's 50 euros cheaper per adult to book the husky trail blazers experience through the Lapland Safaris shop next to the hotel than it is to book it through TUI. All the paid experiences that TUI offer are available at this shop cheaper than TUI. And they offer more experiences. ❄️ Turn right from the hotel, then cross the road towards the fairy lights and you'll find another hill that can be sledged on. At the bottom of the hill is a stunning cross country walk. ❄️ Turn right from the hotel and walk for 15 mins and you get to the supermarket which is well stocked. Take a sledge to bring your shopping back. ❄️ Take snacks. ❄️ You can drink the tap water. It actually tastes like decent mineral water. ❄️ Download the Aurora app and sign up for text alerts if you want to see the Northern Lights. We didn't get to see them unfortunately but the app will alert you if there's a chance. ❄️ TUI supply you with a snowsuit, boots, 1 pair of socks and 1 pair of mittens. ❄️ For clothing - take a base layer and a mid layer to put underneath the thermal snowsuit that you are supplied with. For example, thermal leggings and top, then a jogging suit. You'll need two pairs of thick woolly socks under your boots. For your head, take a balaclava and a woolly hat. Take gloves (ski gloves are best) ❄️ Food was decent. Even our fussy eaters ate a good breakfast and dinner. The 'gala dinner' on the last night wasn't very well organised though as they told everyone to arrive at 7.30pm so there was a lot of queuing. ❄️ At the hotel you will have a drying cupboard in your room where you can put wet clothes. Ours wasn't very efficient and if gloves etc were soaked it took more than 24 hours to dry them. ❄️ If you go out on your balcony at The Snowflake Hotel, leave the door fully open or make sure someone is in the room. To open the door you push the handle up, to close it you push it down. Our door handle was a little loose and fell down when I was on the balcony, locking me out. ❄️ There's lots of snow in Saariselka at the moment so don't worry about that. Have an amazing time. It's magical ✨️