During a comprehensive guided sightseeing tour, you see the marvel-white neoclassical Helsinki Cathedral, topped with its iconic green dome, the nearby Senate Square, and only few hundred meters away the Finnish Orthodox cathedral with an ornate exterior & lavish interior decoration. A contrast is the modern Rock Church, 1969 built into solid rock, and fascinating by its simple Nordic design, and the new Oodi Library, an excellent example of Finnish modern design, which we will visit after lunch.

In the afternoon, we will take an Intercity train from Helsinki to Oulu, in northern Finland, where we will have dinner and overnight stay.

After breakfast at the hotel, we will take a bus excursion to Rovaniemi, the informal capital of Finnish Lapland, in the Arctic region of the country, located within the Arctic Circle.

After the German army attacked in 1944, Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who directed its reconstruction, planned the layout of its streets so that, viewed from the air, their layout would mimic the shape of reindeer antlers.

Upon arrival, we will take a short husky-drawn sleigh ride and then have lunch in Santa Claus Village.

Since 1927, when a Finnish radio announcer named Markus Rautio announced that Santa Claus lived on Korvatunturi, a mountain in the region, Lapland has been associated with Christmas in many countries. However, it was Rovaniemi that claimed to be Santa's "official hometown" and developed the Santa Claus Village attraction to promote tourism.

We'll take a tour to explore this area, full of attractions, from shops to restaurants.

We'll also take a short reindeer sleigh ride.

Next, we'll visit the elegant Arktikum Museum, where we'll discover all aspects of life in this Arctic region: the culture and people, as well as the nature and wildlife that inhabit it.

Finally, we'll board the bus again for the drive to Tornio, approximately two hours away.

Along the way, we'll have our first opportunity to see the Northern Lights on our nature trip.

Dinner en route before arriving at our hotel in Tornio.

A one-hour drive takes you to Ranua Arctic Wildlife Park which specializes in arctic and northern animal species, with a history of almost 40 years. The animals’ spacious enclosures are in the middle of the northern coniferous forest, which is also the natural environment for most of the species living in the park.

Ranua Wildlife Park is home to Finland’s only polar bear and 50 other arctic and northern animal species, a total of about 150 individual animals. A guided tour will show you polar bear, brown bear, wolf, lynx, wolverine, reindeer, moose, arctic fox, eagle, owl, beaver and much more.

After lunch, we'll return to our hotel in Tornio, enjoying dinner en route. We'll have another opportunity to see the Northern Lights.

Overnight in Tornio.

On a five-hour drive by bus with a lunch stop on the way through Lapland, we pass through a scenery of an endless winter miracle. Trees overloaded with snow, offer a fascinating scenery in the wilderness of Lapland’s Tundra.

Tonight, we will have the 3rd chance watching the Northern Lights, this time in the outskirts of Kiruna where our hotel is located.

Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden. The city was originally built in the 1890s to serve the Kiruna Iron Mine. Now it is home of LKAB, a state-owned mining company, one of the pillars of Sweden’s Industry.

In the Morning, we visit the stunning wooden church in the city centre and continue to the open-air Sami Museum in nearby village Jukkasjärvi where we are introduced by local Sami people to their culture and history.

Lapland is the home of the indigenous people named Sami. The Sami used to live as nomads and reindeer herders. The Sami are Finno-Ugric-speaking people inhabiting the northern region of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is seminomadic reindeer herding. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved for only Sámi in some regions of the Nordic countries.

In the afternoon, we visit the Snow Hotel which was the first and largest hotel made of ice and snow. A guided tour to the spectacular frozen structure ends in the ice bar, where even the glasses are made of ice.

Tonight, we will have the th chance watching the Northern Lights, again in the outskirts of Kiruna where our hotel is located.

For transportation of the iron ore to the harbours of Lulea and Narvik, the “Malmbanan” (Iron Ore Railway) was constructed. By 1899, the line to Lulea was inaugurated, and from 1903, all the way to Narvik in Norway (called “Ofoten Railway” from the border to Narvik) was operating as well.

In the Morning, you will take a train on the 169 km long section from Kiruna to Narvik. The journey takes 3 hours, passing Abisko at Lake Torneträsk and Rombaksfjord, with gorgeous views on the Fjord while the train meanders along the fjord to down to Narvik, which is a harbour city at the Atlantic coast.

Narvik was developed as an all-year ice-free port for the Swedish Kiruna and Gällivare iron mines. The history of modern Narvik begins in the 1870s, when the Swedish government began to understand the potential of the iron ore mines in Kiruna, Sweden. Obtaining iron ore from Kiruna had one significant problem in that there was no suitable Swedish port. The nearest Swedish port, Luleå, had limitations. It was covered with ice all winter, it is far from Kiruna, and it allows only medium-sized bulk freight vessels. Narvik offered a port which is ice-free thanks to the warm Gulf Stream. During WW2 Narvik was heavily bombed by the German
army. Still today you can see a parts of the sunken German submarine in the Fjord when traveling by train to Narvik.

In the afternoon we will vistir the Narvik Museum, that tells the story of the construction of the Ofotbanen railway and operation, and the development of Narvik city through more than 100 years.

In the evening, a cable car takes us up to Narvikfjellet Mountain from where a great view on the city and the fjord is – and hopefully we will have the 5th chance watching the Northern Lights. Let’s cross fingers!

Enjoy a leisurely morning visiting this small town until it's time to continue your trip in the afternoon on a 2-hour flight north to Norway's capital, Oslo.

Upon arrival we will take a sightseeing tour of the city, on foot and by tram, to visit the Opera, Fort Akker, City Hall, the Nobel Peace Center, the Royal Palace, Parliament, the main shopping street, and the Cathedral.

Oslo, Norway's vibrant capital, is situated between scenic fjords.

We will have time to continue enjoying it until the time of our flight.

With check-out of the hotel at 12:00 our tour through the 3 Northern European countries will come to end.

We wish you a happy flight back home!