Santa Claus Village, Lapland, Finland
4.0 (4.398 reviews) Spent Ranking #8 in Rovaniemi Points of Interest & Landmarks
Great Christmas fun
It’s a long way to go to see Santa but what a trip. Santa’s Village is free to enter with no strong arm tactics to spend. We queued for about 15 minutes to meet the big man, had a good chat with us all, posed for pictures and got a feat family souvenir. That done we roamed the snow capped village (minus 5C on our day). Highlights were playing with huskie puppies (only a small fee) and seeing sled dogs in action; hitting up the post office to send official Santa approved cards home; petting young reindeer. There’s also a live web cam located right on the arctic circle meridian. We waved to friends back home who were watching and called others to wish happy holidays. Easy to get to by either local bus or taxi. Everyone here were so happy.
Address
European Route E75, Rovaniemi 96930 Finland
Mobile
Website
http://www.santaclausvillage.info
Current local date and time now
Sunday, April 28, 2024, 1:58
User Ratings
4.0 based on (4.398 reviews)
Reviews
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4Tyler B 5:00 PM Feb 20, 2023
It's good, it could definitely be better
We stayed in one of the Santa Claus chalets for four nights. It is mostly good, some bad. The first thing to say is that the chalet's are quite compact, but perfectly cosy. They have a sauna which is nice, and the main room is basic but in a modern, clean kinda way, no real complaints there. As an adult, I felt that the village itself was a little too tawdry and commercialised and could've benefitted greatly from being more traditional. We liked the main Santa Office, the Arctic Circle and the Santa Post Office. We didn't visit the Elf House (too expensive) or Mrs Santa Claus house (closed due to staff illness unfortunately), and we didn't bother with the Snowman World, which looked quite pricey for not much of interest. There is a main information point with a mall of souvenir shops and restaurants which is pretty tacky and definitely the downside of the Village. Elsewhere, most of the central restaurants are kinda basic and expensive for what they are. On the outskirts of the village is where you tend to find the more high quality and interesting parts. For example, the Salmon Place (technically just outside of the actual village) is a really good place for a novelty experience combined with good food. The Glass Restaurant and the Nova Skyland Restaurant are worth the extra money from the main restaurants in the Village itself. Overall, I'm glad we based ourselves here rather than in the Rovaniemi city centre, but still feel that a few small tweaks would go a long way.
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3Kattie_me 5:00 PM Feb 6, 2023
How we met Santa
There is nothing special. A lot of shops and cafeterias in the village. Few entertainments, but all of them cost a lot (make sure to ask about all services you would like to have in each place in advance, as there are a lot of additional fees, that are not included in the entrance ticket). An example is Husky Park the entrance is not so expensive, but all you can see are several small dog enclosures with dogs. It is so sad to see dogs inside small cages. If you want to enter inside one of them (with the most friendly dogs), you have to pay separately. And almost the same scenario for all other entertainment. A lot of small Santa "offices" with multiple Santos, and one main building with the "main" Santa. We started with a small office but nevertheless waited in a queue for around an hour. You are not allowed to make photos of Santa by yourself, and only one photo with Santa will cost you 60€. There was an even longer line to Santa in the main building, and we decided not to wait. It is maybe nice to come once and for one day.
