Arctic Circle ~ Unparalleled Aurora ~ Pure Independent Travel + Public Transport Guide - Finland, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin

📍 Helsinki · 👁 4020 reads · ❤️ 5 likes

Northern Europe, a place I came to by accident, but truly unexpectedly stunning!

Originally planned to go to Iceland, but gave up due to weather, car rental, itinerary, and various other reasons. Still wanted to see inside the Arctic Circle, and after much deliberation among the four Nordic countries, I settled on Finland. The reason for choosing Finland was simple: I wanted to see the Northern Lights, experience a fairy-tale world, and try dog sledding with Huskies... So, let's depart during the Spring Festival.

Finland is a Schengen country, so of course I needed to apply for a Schengen visa. The decision to travel was a bit late, especially for the peak winter season, so flight and hotel prices had gone up a bit. The visa process also required numerous emails and phone calls to chase it up, and it was only issued a week before departure. (Cover face little bee) More on the visa later. First, let's talk about the itinerary. With the Spring Festival holiday plus annual leave, I had a total of 15 days — haha, quite nice. I couldn't just go to Finland, so after various research, routes, and reasons, I finally decided on Finland - France - Netherlands - Germany, a combination of Nordic and continental Europe. Many friends ask why not stay all in the Nordic countries — Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, plus Iceland. The only reason is that I didn't want to freeze in the snow and ice all the time, and in winter the scenery is mostly the same — a vast white blanket of snow. Iceland is indeed fun, but it's worth a separate trip.

DATE ITINERARY

Day 1: Beijing - Helsinki (flight)

Day 2: Helsinki

Day 3: Helsinki - Ivalo (flight)

Day 4: Ivalo

Day 5: Ivalo - Inari (bus)

Day 6: Inari - Ivalo - Helsinki (flight)

Day 7: Helsinki - Paris (flight)

Day 8: Paris

Day 9: Paris - Amsterdam (high-speed train)

Day 10: Amsterdam

Day 11: Amsterdam

Day 12: Amsterdam - Berlin (high-speed train)

Day 13: Berlin

Day 14: Berlin

Day 15: Berlin - Beijing (flight)

To apply for a Schengen visa, you need to submit flight and hotel booking confirmations. After planning the route, I quickly booked all flights, trains, and hotels on Ctrip — five flights and two European rail tickets. Booking flights required some time spent browsing online, until 4 a.m. on Saturday. Persistence paid off, and I finally got relatively suitable tickets, with Air China for the round trip and Finnair; the outbound was direct, and the return had a layover in Frankfurt. After preparing the materials, I submitted them in person. I used an agent on Ctrip for convenience, but it's better to do the Schengen visa yourself — the agent didn't really help much. I prepared a lot of documents, but the visa center didn't take all of them. For proof of assets, they only took the bank card statement, and none of the others. Still, it's good to have everything. Regarding the visa processing time, Finland's was a bit slow, especially in Beijing and especially during peak season. It took me a month, so applying two months in advance is safer. For those in a hurry, you can email the embassy; calling is useless.

Going to Finland requires thorough preparation, given the tens of degrees below zero (cover face little bee)

1) Down jacket: must be windproof and waterproof, very important. Finland has strong winds and frequent snow. Ordinary down jackets get wet and become very cold.

2) Shoes: waterproof boots with fur lining inside. Waterproof is crucial, as you'll mostly be walking in snow in the Arctic Circle.

3) Pants: preferably waterproof as well. If you plan to play in the snow a lot, wearing snow pants is better.

4) Hat, scarf, gloves, thick socks: these are essential. Ideally, they should be waterproof and windproof. Gloves should not be finger gloves; you'll get cold. If you're sensitive to cold, bring two hats and two pairs of gloves. Gsousnow snow boots and ski pants are good value for money, especially the snow boots which are very warm (thumbs up little bee)

5) Camera and tripod: tripod is a must for photographing the Northern Lights, and also convenient for selfies. The heavier and more stable the tripod, the better the results. For shooting the Northern Lights, a wide-angle lens with a large aperture is best. Set up your camera in advance, otherwise, like me, you'll be fiddling with the settings and almost miss the big shots.

6) Other items: umbrella, power bank, spare camera batteries. If you have many electronic devices, bring an extra power bank; they drain quickly in low temperatures. Hand warmers, belly warmers, and back warmers — I brought a lot but didn't use any of them. The only somewhat useful ones were hand warmers placed inside gloves.

7) Currency exchange and bank cards

Really, you don't need to bring much cash. Almost everywhere in Europe accepts cards, even buses. Many merchants don't accept 500 euro notes, so be careful when exchanging money at the bank, otherwise it's troublesome. If you only have 500 euro notes, go to a large supermarket in Europe to break them. Most merchants in Europe do not accept UnionPay cards, except luxury stores. Prepare a VISA or Mastercard in advance, and make sure it's a chip card — magnetic stripe cards are inconvenient. I recommend a Mastercard multi-currency card for better exchange rates.

8) Download a few apps: Google Maps for local bus routes (self-drivers can ignore); Aurora for Northern Lights forecasts with alerts — it's quite accurate. Other aurora forecast apps can be skipped, especially Chinese ones; they're useless and give false alarms.

Haha, enough rambling. Back to the main story: Big Bear, let's go~~ (sun)

At 2:30 p.m., we set foot on Finnish soil. It wasn't as cold as imagined; what we felt more was the warmth of the Finnish people and our own excitement.

Helsinki was a transit point on this trip, so I booked a hotel near the airport for easy transfers. After landing, we took the free airport shuttle from Platform 21 to the Scandic Aviapolis hotel — a quick 10-minute ride. The hotel room was small but clean, and the breakfast was good. Big Bear was very satisfied with this hotel I booked — economical and with a free airport bus. A 10-minute walk brought us to a large shopping mall with several restaurants, including a steak house (I think that was the name). The food was decent, with generous side dishes. I ordered mashed potatoes, and they gave me a whole big potato (choking me!) (sweat little ant). Big Bear ordered a vegetable salad, which I thought tasted better. After dinner, we went straight back to the hotel to rest and adjust to the time difference, so we could enjoy the next day. Haha, the hotel had CCTV-4, which was nice — after that, we didn't watch any Chinese channels for the rest of the trip.

Due to jet lag, we woke up early. After breakfast, we took the airport bus to the airport, then transferred to the metro to go to the city center. The airport bus runs on a schedule, every 20 minutes, which is convenient, though not very punctual, especially in the morning. At the metro station, there were ticket machines offering single tickets and day passes, valid for all public transport (metro, bus, etc.). We bought a day pass for Helsinki city center. The metro station had route maps, but we couldn't understand them, so we asked the metro staff for help. In general, the red-marked area on the map was valid, and anything outside required an extra ticket. Also, note that the ticket machines don't give change for cash; you can pay by card, but only chip cards (VISA or Mastercard).

Honestly, there isn't much to do in Helsinki. We just wandered around. The Central Railway Station was nice, very European style. We visited the Bad Bad Boy sculpture, the harbor, Helsinki Cathedral, Stockmann, etc. At noon, we had seafood rice at a Spanish restaurant called Maya Bar & Grill — it was delicious. At around 4 p.m., I wanted to do some shopping at Louis Vuitton, but it was already closed... Sigh, I didn't research enough. If you want to go to LV, I suggest going when it opens at 10 a.m.

The next morning, we took a 7 a.m. flight to Ivalo. As soon as we landed, the biting cold wind slapped our faces. The thermometer showed -37°C. It was really cold! Especially with snow-covered mountains everywhere, it felt even colder, but it was beautiful. The thick snow crunched under our feet as if singing, and the wind blew snow off the trees, making it hard to tell if it was snowing — truly a fairy-tale world. Exiting the airport, 50 meters to the left, there is an airport bus marked "Ilmari Slant ky" that goes to various hotels in Ivalo, Inari, etc. It's not free — 10 euros to Ivalo, 27 euros to Inari. You can check the schedule on the airport bus website; it usually departs 20 minutes after flight arrival. Even if the flight is delayed, they will wait. You can also book tickets online, but it's best to confirm by phone or email.

We stayed at the Ivalo Hotel for two nights. Originally, I wanted to book three nights at the Inari Hotel, but it was already full when I booked late. Based on reviews, I chose the Ivalo Hotel. I'm glad we did; if we had stayed three nights at the Inari Hotel, we might not have had many exciting stories. The Ivalo Hotel is run by French people, and there were few Chinese guests. When we were there, a large French group happened to be there — maybe a tour group or a company team-building event — around a hundred people! It was quite lively, and we even got to enjoy a performance for free (proud little bee). The Ivalo Hotel has its own club offering most Nordic activities. You must book husky sledding in advance; it's very popular. When we booked, the two-hour husky slots were already full, so we booked a one-hour slot. That was enough time. A Hong Kong couple said they booked a two-hour husky ride but gave up after ten minutes because they were too cold due to insufficient gear. So, make sure to keep warm and wear everything you can. Besides husky sledding, we also booked skiing. Big Bear was too scared to ski — his lack of coordination made him afraid of injuring himself. Haha, but how could we not ski in the Arctic Circle?

Our skiing was originally scheduled for 11 a.m., but the club informed us it was delayed to 12 p.m. because it was too cold outside. Indeed, skiing at -37°C requires more than just courage. For an hour, we wandered around. Behind the hotel was a river called the Ivalo River, which flows into Lake Inari. The river was covered with thick snow, making it indistinguishable. This is where we would ski. To the left of the hotel entrance, a 10-minute walk led to a supermarket where Big Bear and I bought some fruit and drinks. It was a small supermarket but well-stocked; a larger one was further ahead.

At 12 p.m., we eagerly waited at the club. The staff saw that our gear was already thick enough (awkward little bee) and didn't give us their suits. In fact, once you start skiing, you sweat a lot, especially in cross-country skiing. In China, most people ski with wide boards — a type of alpine skiing. In the Nordic countries, they have a unique style called cross-country skiing, using thin skis, usually over tens of kilometers on relatively flat terrain. At Ivalo, it's all cross-country skiing. If you want alpine skiing, you can go to Levi or Saariselkä. After putting on the skis, we started with learning to walk, then turns, slopes... It was much more fun than expected, and we ended up skiing for three consecutive days, haha.

Husky sledding was the most fun activity, no contest. Before doing it, make sure to bundle up well. I wore thermal underwear, a sweater, a down jacket, wool pants, ski pants, and then the club's overalls on top. I was so stuffed I could barely move. I wore two pairs of socks, a wool hat, and the down jacket hood — enough to make us look like bears. Six people per group, two per sled — one sitting in the sled, the other standing behind to drive. The instructor explained the driving basics: it's like riding a bicycle — don't fight it, go with the direction of the sled. The huskies were eager to go, and off we went. Ivalo's huskies were so fun; they took us through the forest on a narrow path wide enough for one sled, with towering trees on both sides and occasional ups and downs. The downhill parts were incredibly thrilling. The dogs were excited, charging forward, and they farted and pooped along the way — the dog poop was really smelly, nearly choking me (dizzy little bee).

Our three days and two nights in Ivalo were a blast. Even as adults, Big Bear and I were like kids playing with the snow sled — pulling it up, sliding down, pulling it up again, sliding down again, and filming ourselves with the tripod, having a great time (bad smile little bee). Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate; the clouds were too thick, and we didn't see the Northern Lights on either night (poor cry little bee).

The restaurant at Ivalo was really good. They had a buffet, but it looked average, so we ordered à la carte. That was a wise decision. I highly recommend the salmon potato chowder and the pan-fried whitefish. The reindeer meat was a novelty, but a bit gamey, not my cup of tea.

Day 5: We left Ivalo and headed to Lake Inari... Sorry for being long-winded. Take a break; the next section continues.

Travel journal directory:

1. Big Bear's travel

2. My itinerary

3. Booking, preparation, departure

4. Finland ~ Strolling through a fairy-tale kingdom and meeting Lady Aurora

5. Ivalo, Inari ~ Where Big Bear is reluctant to leave

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