Guest Post: Skiing in Lapland – more to northern Scandinavia than Santa
If you’ve ever considered going on a skiing vacation, a small number of locations will have immediately entered your thoughts. In Europe, the Alps, which span south-west France, Switzerland, south Germany, Austria and northern Italy tends to be the most popular mountain range, while the Pyrenees and even the Scottish Highlands feature on many skiers’ radars. While the snow that lies there remains for a few months, it doesn’t last, so perhaps it would make sense to head further north where the weather’s colder to go skiing, right? Lapland, a part of Scandinavia which spans Norway, Sweden and Finland is on the edge of the Arctic Circle, which means that they enjoy a winter which lasts from early December right through till April.
A winter wonderland?
Sokuru Slopes Photo Credit
Even before it became known as an emergent skiing destination, Lapland was already popular with tourists for other reasons, the main one being its strong connections with Christmas. Every year, thousands of families make their way to Finnish Lapland to go and meet Santa Claus in his grotto, get up close to the native reindeer and play in the snow. Another major attraction of Lapland is being able to see the Northern Lights. Astronomers and people who like to take great photos love to head up north once in a while to see the Aurora Borealis in all its glory, and are helped during the summer when the sun stays up until midnight. The long summer days are also great for partying and walking when there’s no snow to trudge through!
Sloping off When it comes to skiing, a few resorts stand out, especially in the more mountainous areas of Lapland. A couple of years ago, the charming and authentic resort of Pyha was voted the best in whole of Finland. To celebrate its growing reputation, a competition has been announced which sees the winner will get the chance to go there this winter.
As Ian Brittain, Senior Product Manager from Inghams explained: “To celebrate the introduction of the award winning resort of Pyhä (voted Finnish ski resort of the year 2011) to our 2013/14 programme, we’ve decided to launch a Facebook Ski Photo competition to offer a lucky winner and their guest the opportunity to experience the qualities of Lapland for themselves! “There are also more second prizes up for grabs, so submit your skiing photos to win some great ski gear! For more information please visit us on Facebook”, he said.
A winter wonderland?
Sokuru Slopes Photo Credit Even before it became known as an emergent skiing destination, Lapland was already popular with tourists for other reasons, the main one being its strong connections with Christmas. Every year, thousands of families make their way to Finnish Lapland to go and meet Santa Claus in his grotto, get up close to the native reindeer and play in the snow. Another major attraction of Lapland is being able to see the Northern Lights. Astronomers and people who like to take great photos love to head up north once in a while to see the Aurora Borealis in all its glory, and are helped during the summer when the sun stays up until midnight. The long summer days are also great for partying and walking when there’s no snow to trudge through!
Sloping off When it comes to skiing, a few resorts stand out, especially in the more mountainous areas of Lapland. A couple of years ago, the charming and authentic resort of Pyha was voted the best in whole of Finland. To celebrate its growing reputation, a competition has been announced which sees the winner will get the chance to go there this winter.
As Ian Brittain, Senior Product Manager from Inghams explained: “To celebrate the introduction of the award winning resort of Pyhä (voted Finnish ski resort of the year 2011) to our 2013/14 programme, we’ve decided to launch a Facebook Ski Photo competition to offer a lucky winner and their guest the opportunity to experience the qualities of Lapland for themselves! “There are also more second prizes up for grabs, so submit your skiing photos to win some great ski gear! For more information please visit us on Facebook”, he said.
