Lapland Hotels Bear´s Lodge

Excellent service from the hotel staff. Breakfast has more quality then quantity. Hotel is a little bit out of the way especially if you drive a rented car as most of the roads have no street lights and you will have to depend on the high beam from the car to lead you through..it can get overwhelming esp if the first time you are driving in the snow. 10am to 3pm is the only period you can drive anywhere safely as beside the lights, there are stil icey roads to tackle

After a long day travelling, we arrived at Bears lodge, it’s a lovely quaint hotel ina. Very remote area of Lapland. The area itself is stunning and really captures the essence of Christmas. It’s a very small hotel and on the face of it is quite basic, but it’s warm, clean and the food and service are excellent. Yes, the rooms are more on the basic. Side, but the kids loved the bunk beds and all being in one room. Despite some of the negative reviews, there’s really nothing to worry about! We travelled as a family of 4. 2 adults, an 8 and 3 year old. The TUI staff were great all the way through and the entertainment team did a superb job keeping the young ones excited! If you’re looking for quality family time this is a great hotel and will come back with great memories. Enjoy Lapland!

This review is split in 2, one for TUI and one for the hotel. I know this is trip advisor and really should be hotel only but I thought it would be useful to hear about TUI and what you'll get upto as well! Hotel review is further down. TUI This TUI review is SPECIFICALLY for people staying in Bears Lodge - Winter Wonderland Hotel. I'm calling this out as it MIGHT be different if you stay elsewhere. The hotel is really remote and that might impact activities etc. Check in: at Manchester airport was brilliant, Christmas music playing, elves welcoming you on board and festive picture opportunities Flight: 3hrs, Brilliant, singing Christmas songs, colouring competitions for the kids Arrival at Rovaniemi: Great met by the Elves and shown quickly to the bus Snow Gear: On the way to the hotel you stop at a warehouse and collect your snow gear, they provide boots, socks, gloves and snow suit. All of the equipment is really good, kept us really warm the whole time (in -15). We had our own hats, gloves and socks but great all the same. The process was super quick too, on and off really efficiently. (I'm going to review the hotel separately so going to keep talking about TUI at this point) Communication: I know this is a weird thing to call out, but I thought it was particularly bad / confusing and maybe even deliberately so (explained later) We all get an itinerary, but it's REALLY vague, and lacks any specifics, i.e. how long you spend in places, how long it lasts, where the excursions are (Santa village etc)... More detail later Arrival at the hotel: you get there about 2pm and check in isn't until 4pm. It's kind of weird because the TUI reps just kind wander off and you're a bit in limbo as to what the plan is, when evening meals are etc. All the information is on a hotel notice board though so easy enough to find. At this point we put our snow gear on and played in the snow for a bit until we were able to check in TUI Excursions chat: This is the bit about an hour after arriving where they sell you the excursions. This is the bit that was getting on my nerves the most because at this point, you still don't know EXACTLY what your taster day includes so made it a bit tricky to decide. (More in the Day 3 bit below)... So here's the detail about your stay Day 1: arrive (explained above, evening meals and entertainment in the hotel review bit) Day 2: Taster Day Specifics Starts ~9.45am (you get allocated a time based on your flight, more below) Husky Ride: 5/5 Bus arrives and taken to the woods for a Husky ride. This lasts for approx 2 mins but was really good. Snow Mobile: 4/5 Next you hop on a snow mobile for a ride through the woods, this was brilliant, the scenery is amazing and this last approx 5 mins Santa: 5/5 Then you arrive at a small cabin in the woods. Here you meet Santa. This was brilliant and our little girl loved it, we snuck her Christmas list to the Elf on the way in and she was amazed when Santa showed her her exact Christ