Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort West Village — Hotel in Northern Lapland

Warning: this resort is not upscale.

Ok, so you read the website and hear that Ralph Lauren did a photo shoot there and the glass igloos look amazing, and they are. But they are more like expensive tents as they do not have a toilet nor a shower. For this reason, I reserved a kelo glass igloo, which is a combination cabin and glass igloo for 900 USD a night. It's boasted to have a private sauna and a huge spacious living space. Everything looks good online, but when we arrived, it was somewhat disappointing.

I want to say the good things first. The cabin smelt great from the wood and it was very romantic and potentially amazing. But you can tell they skimped a lot of corners making this resort anything but upscale. I thought it was going to be world class service, but it absolutely sucked.

First, I've seen bathrooms in gas stations which nicer design. The sink was the size of a small bowl and there were open holes in the walls. On the on the other hand, the sauna was awesome, but you have to walk through a second rate bathroom to access it which always raises the question, “for 900 USD a night, you would think they would provide toiletries and hire a high quality designer to make it nice”. They have shampoo/body was out of a dispenser like a truck stop! As a well traveled American, I had to warn my fellow travelers whom might also get sucked into the trap thinking his place is upscale.

Now the food situation was an outright joke. It seems this place has little to no provisions for couples and is geared to rotating groups in and out every three days. We stayed for 4 nights and they started repeating the menu after the third day!!! Not only that but I ordered the lappish salmon for 144 EUR to get an authentic lappish meal, and they served us the normal soup of the day along with some dried out salmon with the mushroom sauce from the day before!!!!!!! Outrageous!!! I demanded a refund and only got 50% back at the time of checkout which leads me to my next point: the staff.

Not one person spoke Finnish, as all the staff members are from all over Europe and Asia. So if you think your getting an authentic experience, you are getting a tourist trap resort. The waiters were great, they don't make the rules. But the front desk was outright insensitive. For example, one of their snowmobiles malfunctioned while one of their employees and my wife had been getting on and it jumped forward and threw both of them off. She hit her shoulder and the mobile hit her head and would have ran over her had she not rolled over! This is a lawsuit in the states! Over the next days, she got a little fever and I asked for a thermometer. By the way there are no phones nor room service so if you want a romantic dinner in the room with your loved one, you can forget it, you wed to go into the Hogwarts like hall and eat with everybody else EVERY NIGHT!! I called to tell them, I need help and they said they would come right away and nobody came! It's a long walk to the reception from the igloo-cabins and I didn't want to leave my wife alone, so the next morning I asked them what happened and they didn't care. This was the turning point when I decided I am going to take intense action with the front desk who was just horrible in receiving my feedback.

The highest manager on site admitted they have communication problems amongst the staff but to say that they are unorganized is an understatement. This is not one expects for 900...

I have had “sleeping in an igloo” on my bucket list and literally pinned this exact resort to my “favorite places” Pinterest board for nearly a decade. It truly felt like a dream. However, the real-life experience did not live up to my expectations.

Food - 2 out of 10 This was the first-night impression–We were really looking forward to the nice 3-course meal that was stated on the website. We sat down and waited for someone to come over and take our order. No one came by. We audibly gasped when we saw the drink menu prices. Eventually, we got up and noticed the buffet tables. Three of them. Each table offered one of the “3-courses”. Feeling a bit duped, we opened each silver container of food, there was maybe a half scoop left in every other one. There were a few vegetarian-friendly options. Boiled potatoes, steamed veggies, pasta, a butternut squash something or other, and cheesecake for dessert. For meat eaters, your option was reindeer or fish. If we were not already disappointed by the lack of service and food choices, the potatoes were cold, the pasta was watery, and the butternut squash was gross (and this is coming from someone who is not picky at all and eats all the things). The cheesecake was good though.

We chalked it up to arriving late and having to eat the very end of all the dishes. We went back up to the reception area. The lady asked how the food was almost like she already knew the answer. We politely and hesitantly said it was not terrible, but was not good.

Flash forward to the end of our trip...the food never got better.

I cannot get over how disappointing the food experience was. Food plays a huge role in the travel experience. A large reason for the disappointment was the high expectations of a “3-course dinner”. Since Lapland is extremely remote, perhaps this is a leading factor as to why the kitchen chose to recycle and repeat food which we are fine with, and in some ways respect. But, for the price we paid to stay at this resort, the food was NOT good enough.

Service - 6 out of 10 No one ever came by to check on us or help us understand what was going on. The staff ran around clearing tables and seemed more concerned with making more tables available than tending to the people who were already occupying the tables. The receptionists are friendly, answered our questions, and helped keep things organized for the excursions each day.

Transportation - 6 out of 10 The shuttle that goes between resorts is convenient, but the fact that they won’t drive an extra few minutes to the nearby ski resort was not ideal.

Excursions - 8 out of 10 Really really awesome experiences (especially the huskies). The only reason it doesn’t get a 10 out of 10 is that the images advertised for the tours were not the real-life experience we had.

Glass Igloo Accommodation - 7 out of 10 This igloo was a cool experience, but privacy was non-existent. They are glass igloos so of course we were aware people would be able to see inside to some extent. But people walking right up to it, tour groups taking photos inside the igloos, and having to change practically crouched down on the floor were not fully anticipated.

This resort truly could be a dream destination. However, until they take the food seriously, it will continue to disappoint guests for...

Please book somewhere else. After the first night I was in tears and wanted to go home so bad. This was a big $2000 mistake. I should have read the negative reviews. They warn about everything I experienced. The staff is so non bothered with any issue or help you need. They all pretend to know nothing and have 0 sense of urgency. They microwave their food for dinner. And lie about it when you ask. They "upgraded" me when i checked in, but really it was a bigger kelo igloo that I didnt ask for or want instead of me getting the newly renovated igloo I wanted and paid for. It was farther from everything too. So when it was time to go to my room I had to walk farther away and couldnt take my luggage. They just leave it in the hall right under a sign that says they are not responsible for stolen items. The room was dirty and falling apart. I had hair in the bed and in the sauna. The bathroom smelled so bad when I arrived that; I almost threw up. The garbage can was broken. The room was set to almost 90 degrees when I got there. I had to ask for a remote for the heating system and they told me no because guests had lost them before. So a bell boy came and turned it down but it was still so uncomfortabley hot the rest of my stay. They give you a number to WhatsApp. My messages were ignored. My emails were ignored. They charge for hotel transfer when other resorts don't. They drop everyone at the same place instead of asking if you're west or east and then you have to wait for another transfer. The husky dog ride said it would be approximately 1 hour. It lasted less than 30 min and that's with stopping in the middle so someone can take a picture of all the individual groups that go out. Don't bother paying the extra $100 to go alone because they will stick you with other people even when I spoke up multiple times. The whole thing with transport lasted 1 hour. I made a complaint when I got back and the manager couldn't care less. I tried to visit the husky puppy farm but they wouldn't let me unless I paid for 2 people. Every time you leave your room it will cost you. Not the service of a 4 star resort at all. Drinks are free with breakfast only. If you want to have something to drink at dinner it'll cost you. The food was disgusting. I ate plain rice 2 nights in a row. I asked for a salad and was told no. Your options are meat or a spicy Indian menu. So if you are vegetarian, you starve. And it all comes out after microwaving. You can hear the microwave in the dinning area and see the sauce boil marks in the bowl. The food in the display case must sit there for days because it's dried and cracked. My sauce came out one night with some rice already scattered in, so I felt like they reheated someones leftovers. I showed the waiter and he said that shouldn't happen not that it wasnt true. My activities were changed from 4 hours to 2 hours and from a reindeer to a horse and they still haven't refunded me. It's been over a month! I had to ask multiple people and they all played dumb. No one has yet to give me an answer. I've heard that other local resorts are...