Santa's Hotel Tunturi

Spent two nights in the Gielas building, Location of this hotel is great, it is walking distance to shops, restaurants, and a supermarket. Also close to the walk up to the Aurora hut to view Northern Lights. Rooms were clean but a little dated. smallest flat square pillows, so uncomfortable. Single beds. Disappointed shower over a bath as it can be hard to get into and dangerous getting out. Used the sauna once, which was the best thing in the room and good use of a dryng cabinet. The balcony actually served a good purpose, to put beers out in the snow and also as we were facing the right way early one morning I got the Northern lights. Breakfast had a very limited selection at the buffet. Not good and the restaurant staff were far from friendly or helpful. Fancy one 4 slice toaster for numerous guests all standing around waiting. One male member approached me for "taking something from the buffet to my room" Oh my a glass of milk to have medication with. The embarrassing antics he put was unacceptable. Considering others walked out with food. The dinner we had as a group was just ok, nothing to bang on about. This is your typical 2.5-3* hotel nothing more. Much room for improvement. Hopefully the owner reads the reviews. Unless you have to stay here, perhaps view other hotels in the vicinity first.

This hotel has very large and comfortable rooms. Even included a sauna in the room. The lounge area was very roomy and comfortable. The on downside was that the shower was over the bath. Breakfast was served in an adjoining building and was a let down, the food was often cold and not much variety.

We booked through Santa's Lapland and their team were fabulous. Saariselka was a picture post card place. We booked the 3 night 4 day package, will book 4 night next time. The extra activities we did husky ride and snowmobile search for northern lights on Christmas day unbelievable. Then saw the northern lights later that night.

The rating I have given is purely for the hotel but I will comment on some elements of our experience from the TUI side of our holiday at the end. A few things to bear in mind when reading this: 1. We had researched this hotel before we came so knew what to expect and as a result only booked B&B. This is a 3* hotel remember regardless of what it costs. 2. We travel a lot and stay in a huge variety of places ranging from 3* B&B to 5* Hotels so have balanced expectations. 3. It was -30c when we were in Lapland. 4. We flew on a 6am Gatwick flight in mid December 24. 5. Family of 4 with 6 & 8 year olds. Hotel facilities: Pretty basic, the hotel is split into a number of buildings the food being served in the ‘Main’ reception building other buildings were about 400m from one another you need to be careful walking a scan be slippery. We were in Gielas building it was ok, typical Europe 3* hotel corridors a bit battered carpets stained lifts quite small. Had a few drinks in the bar €4 for a soft drink €9 for a beer. Staff very friendly. Room: Very very basic but clean, beds comfy walls a bit battered. Our room was warm we had a family room with a balcony which was quite cramped for 4 people but we weren’t in it for long. Didn’t use the sauna. The bathroom seemed to have been renovated and was a bit odd with a tin bath not attached to the wall so water fell down the sides onto the wet room style floor when having a shower. This meant the floor was very wet. Towels not changed i our 3 day stay but tissues etc topped up. Clothes drying machine in room worked well. Free safe kettle cups and glasses all cleaned. Food: I was expecting it to be bad and it didn’t disappoint! We only had breakfast and the choice isn’t great, it’s extremely busy and they run out of things fast. The kids enjoyed the chocolate spread though. The most annoying thing was the two stupid little toasters that allow about 100 people toast 4 slices of bread at once. Ridiculous. I have also never had scrambled egg you can cut into slices, read into that what you will! No fresh orange juice the whole time we were there. Staff friendly and did their best but seems to not be enough of them. The ‘Gala’ dinner we had was a bit of a joke food wise very salty, not enough of it and it was cold. TUI: Flight good but 30 mins late lots of people to meet you and show where to go on arrival. Took ages to get the warm weather gear (lots of waiting around on the coaches for the other coach to be ready) was about 3 1/2 hours from landing to getting in our rooms despite only being a 24 minute coach ride from airport to hotels and the luggage coming out quickly. You do end up carrying a lot of stuff. We had 4 suitcases hand luggage and then two huge sacks of warm weather gear. Very difficult to manage with children in -30c. The most annoying thing was the stupid ’welcome meeting’ which they get you all off the coach for basically stick you in a big conference room and sell

Some of the reviews on this hotel are baffling and are quite the opposite of our recent trip (2 adults and 2 kids aged 5 and 9). We upgraded to a Gielas room which had plenty of storage space, a safe, tea/coffee, a sauna, balcony and relatively comfy beds. The room was quite warm, so much so we had to open the balcony door, despite sub-zero temperatures. We didn't hear any noise so managed to get a peaceful sleep. The rooms, cosmetically, were quite dated and basic, but again this was no surprise due to advanced research. You aren't in the room that long anyway. The food wasn't amazing, but satisfactory. Our expectations were met as we had done the sufficient research in advance. We weren't there for the culinary experience. Breakfast had cereal, toast, porridge, fruit, scrambled eggs, sausages (mini hot dogs), tea, coffee, pancakes. If you can't find something from that, then tough. Or, walk 15 mins to the supermarket. The festive gala, again wasn't brilliant food. Just ok. But the kids had a wonderful time dancing and singing which was worth it. The staff were friendly (both hotel and Santa's Lapland). The location was perfect. Gift shop opposite side of the road, snowmobile excursions a 2 min walk, toboggan slop less than 5 min walk and all other restaurants and bars are within a 15 minute walk. Aside from the hotel, we weren't pushed to purchase any additional activities and never felt pressured. My top tip is to do your research... Are prices of the trips, food and drink expensive? Yes. Is the food brilliant? No. Are the rooms basic but fine for the odd night? Yes. Will the hotels be full of 'overpriced' Santa trips? Yes, it's Christmas. Also, money is relative to each person. Is Lapland cold in December? erm, yes! None of the other reviews should really have come as a shock to those people.