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Ylläshumina Hotel, Ylläs, Lapland

Ylläshumina Hotel
Bedroom
Dinner buffet
Dining room
Bar
The vast cross-country domain
Northern Lights

View live webcam images of the snow in Ylläs!

Deep within the Arctic Circle, Lapland is an enchanting part of the world and snow-sure Ylläs (pronounced ‘Oo-las’), the location of Toivo Qvist’s Ylläshumina Hotel, makes an unrivalled base for an Arctic winter experience, whatever your age. As a former member of the Finnish cross-country skiing team, it is no wonder that Toivo decided to settle here - the area boasts the largest and best cross-country network in Finland.

Rooms: The hotel consists of a main reception building and several cosy timber cabins which cluster around it. It is in the cabins that the bedrooms are found - each cabin comprises four bedrooms. One pair shares an entrance at one side, while another pair of bedrooms shares the entrance at the opposite side. The comfortable, wood-panelled bedrooms are equipped with a telephone, television, fridge and hairdryer, and are all on two levels. The main level is furnished with twin beds, a shower and a drying closet, while there is space on the mezzanine level for a double bed under the eaves if you are travelling as a family of three or four.

Facilities: So integral is sauna to Finnish life that a further two spacious cabins are devoted to the hotel’s well-appointed men’s and women’s saunas. Other facilities include a lounge with a fire, a bar (popular with guests and locals alike) and an open-air hot tub (available certain evenings only) from where, if conditions are right, you can watch the Northern Lights.

Restaurant: The hotel’s other main focal point besides the saunas is the intimate restaurant, which serves authentic local dishes such as grilled fillet of reindeer, crisp-fried perch and desserts made from berries. We include a special Lapp meal once a week and an extensive three-course buffet on other nights.

Skiing and other winter activities: Hotel staff are on hand to offer advice and help with waxing your skis in the hotel’s first-rate ski room, from which you head out directly onto the cross-country trails. As you would expect of Finland’s best domain, it is very well-maintained and offers a wide choice for all levels, with frequent cafés. To help you make the most of the network’s 330 kilometres of trails, the hotel offers a bus drop-off service to various points along the domain from which you can ski back to the hotel across fells and through forests (pay locally). 38 kilometres of trails are floodlit, so you can enjoy a full day’s skiing even in the magical twilight of December and January (by February, the region enjoys nine hours of daylight). There is also an alpine ski domain which offers 60 pistes (eleven of which are illuminated) for beginners and families served by 30 lifts and accessed by the free ski bus. With activities such as snow-shoeing, ice-fishing, reindeer and husky safaris and torchlit walks available locally, a week here is a truly unique experience.

Inclusive value: For holidays starting 7-14 December 2008 and 4 January-8 February 2009, our prices include your choice of either:
• six days' cross-country ski hire, one 90-minute lesson and a guided ski tour into the fells or
• a guided winter walk and two guided snow-shoe excursions.

The village: Ylläs is the name given to this wilderness area’s two villages and seven fells. The Ylläshumina Hotel is located in the village of Äkäslompolo above a frozen lake. Facilities include a post office, general store and café.

Christmas festivities: Christmas week includes plenty of traditional festivities which seem all the more special in the winter wonderland that is western Lapland. Children can meet Father Christmas. On Christmas Eve you are invited to help with the decorating of the tree and the lighting of the 500 or so candles that line the village street. Enjoy a celebratory dinner and later attend Midnight Mass at the chapel if you wish. The highlights of Christmas Day are a snow-shoe walk and Christmas Dinner, after which there is a concert in the chapel.

New Year celebrations: New Year’s Eve starts with the lighting of candles outside the hotel, followed by a gala dinner. You can then have your future told by a Lappish shaman before making your way to the bar. There is a firework display at midnight, after which the bar remains open until 3am. Enjoy a leisurely brunch once you get up the next morning.

Prices & travel:

£ per person based on 2 sharing a twin room Adults
13yrs+
Children (sharing
with 2 adults)
12-5yrs 4-2yrs
7 December 2008-12 April 2009
7 & 14 Dec 795 557 382
21 Dec 1358 949 652
28 Dec 1168 818 559
4 Jan 695 487 334
11 & 18 Jan 795 557 382
25 Jan, 1 & 8 Feb 855 599 409
15 Feb 1150 805 552
22 Feb & 1 Mar 998 699 479
8, 15, 22 & 29 Mar 978 685 469
5 & 12 Apr 998 699 479
Single room: add £26 per night 7-13 Dec & 4-31 Jan; £39 all other dates.

Nights: 7
Meals: dinner & breakfast every day
Start: Sunday
Extras: free use of cross-country trails
Destination airport: Kittilä (fly direct or via Helsinki)
Latest flight arrival time: flexible
Earliest flight departure time: flexible
Included travel: Monarch Gatwick-Kittilä (3h30) (out dep 1240, home arr 2105) & connecting transfer (0h50)
Regional flights available from: Birmingham, Bristol & Manchester

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