Santa's Hotel Aurora — Hotel in Northern Lapland

We stayed at this beautiful hotel for 3 nights early December as part of the TUI package to Lapland. On-route to the hotel we stopped off to get our winter gear. Transfer around 1hour 30mins. The resort of Luosto has a few hotels, ski slope, souvenir shops and reasonable priced supermarket. The average cost for a glass of wine and beer is £10+ .||Room: Very spacious, we had a double bed and sofa bed in another room. Sauna was an added bonus. If you wanted any housekeeping you just had to ask at the front desk. We stored our snow gear in the ground floor heated room which was handy. ||Location: The hotel was just a 5 minute walk to the ski slope. As a family of 3 we all had a 45 minute lesson for around £130. This is where you can also sledge and go tubing this cost us 20 euros for as long as you liked. I highly recommend this it was so much fun. There is also a nice restaurant/bar here. ||Staff: I would like to say a big thank you to all the staff who were always helpful and friendly. Also small bar area and nice seats by the log fire. Restaurant: Lovely restaurant area and friendly staff. We were half board breakfast was a continental option with lots of choice including porridge. We were half board and the food was fresh and delicious. We didn’t have a choice it was just a set 3 course but luckily we are not fussy eaters. We were a bit disappointed that there was no children’s menu as there was no way my son would eat reindeer or fish soup. So we had a takeaway from a lovely restaurant just down the road called Puna Kettu. Here you could have lovely pizzas and fries. ||Trips: We had the taster sessions on the Saturday where you have a try of the reindeer ride, husky, snow mobile - I would say just around a few minutes but sometimes that is enough for the younger ones. This day was around -20 but lovely cabins to have a hot chocolate and warm up by the fire. When we went to see Santa this lasted under 60 seconds wasn’t personal and he looked very fake. So that aspect of it was very disappointing. ||We paid extra for the night snow mobile tour which was 3 hours. We stopped off in a hut half way through the journey to light a fire and to have berry juice. We are so glad we done the trip as we were so lucky to see the Northern Lights. We also paid for the husky ride which was 2 hours, this was a great trip again where you have the chance to meet the dogs and drive the sled. Again these were cold days around -20. ||On the return home we stopped off in Santa Village, lots of souvenir shops. |I have rated the hotel a 4* due to there being no child menu at the hotel. I think they should offer fries at least as guests at the other hotels had a separate menu for children. |We would love to return to Lapland but unfortunately it cost so much money. It was something we are so glad we experienced and created so many memories, such a beautiful and picturesque place. You will not be disappointed going to this hotel and it comes highly recommended.||Tips: take hand and feet warmers. Your feet and hands will get the coldest. A snoode to cover most of your face....

My husband and I stayed at this hotel in December with our 7 year old son. Upon arriving, the hotel appeared worn and in need of a makeover. No lift and stairs that look like they're stuck in the 70's. The breakfast was very disappointing and left a lot to be desired. The beds and fold out sofa were not very comfortable at all. The room felt unwelcoming and bland. To top it off, when my husband became very unwell the morning that we had to leave at 5am for a flight out of Finland, our 7 year old son left his iPad in the room. I had tried to pay our outstanding bill at the reception, only to find that all of the doors were locked, and the only way out was at the end of the 70's style corridor. I emailed the reception to let them know that I had to pay the outstanding bill and requested their account details so that I could transfer the money in, and also to let them know that our son had left his treasured iPad in the room. I received a strange phone call as I was boarding our flight out of Finland (I was literally on the plane looking for my seat!) from the hotel telling me that a transfer driver was waiting for us. The hotel was aware that we had a car as I had discussed parking with them previously. I found the phone call to be unusual and inadvertently naive, with a hidden agenda, The receptionist on the other end went on to say 'Oh, ok then' and accepted that we in fact did have a car, however proceeded to "inform" me of our outstanding bill. I told the her that I had emailed them earlier and to check their emails because I had already told them I needed their account details to pay the bill, The receptionist refused to let me off the phone and it seemed that she was playing ignorant to what I was telling her. I firmly had to tell her that I was looking for my seat on the plane at that point in time and to email me back with the account details. The hotel refuses to provide any account details, and instead generates a link with only 3 days to pay it. As we were constantly on the move every night or two, when I would get a moment to relax and pay the bill, the 3 days would have just lapsed, then have to go back to the hotel to ask them to regenerate the link. The hotel began holding the iPad against us, saying that they cannot help us with the iPad because we hadnt paid using the link. My son uses this iPad to communicate with our family on facetime, and now is without any sort of communication unless he uses my husbands or my phone. If it had been my husbands iPad or mine, I wouldnt be so concerned, however it belongs to a child and the hotel have chosen to hold it against us. ||I would not recommend this hotel for 5 nights, or 1 night!! If it was the only hotel left in Finland, I would skip Finland completely and suggest others to do the same! Make sure you give very careful consideration to this hotel if you are thinking about staying here, and I hope that nobody else leaves anything there because you wont be getting it back!! This hotel sure knows how to ruin a...

First of all the staff were friendly and tried to help the best they could but you can't save a sinking a ship. Let's begin. We hired a glass igloo for the last night in lapland hoping to see the northern lights but wasn't able to, due to cloudy cover, but that's the only thing out of the hotel's control. The rest of the things are in their control. First of all we got here and theres no parking for igloo customers so have to park in the normal car park which would be fine if there was spaces which there wasn't so had to park about 4min walk away. I asked could i park the car outside the igloo just to unpack the car and was informed, we couldn't do that so had to park as close as i could so i could unload the car and then drive off to park up. Went in the glass igloo, and it was cold it was 20c and -12 outside, so you can imagine it's cold.

Another problem with the glass igloo is the sight you get when looking out as your mean't to see out and see the sky instead we get to see the hotel and all the lights from outside so its not really what you want, when you want to see the northern light's. Also, people can see you inside to so not much privacy.

But you are able to turn up the aircon unit butit'ss not the strongest. Went and had a shower and within a few minutes the temperature started getting colder and this was set at 38c and in about 2 mins after that the water was ice cold. So never finished having a shower as couldn't shower with such cold water. Went over to the main reception to complain and said the shower is cold and the room is cold and the tiled floors are cold. I was informed the tiled flooring isn't heated. The shower maybe i was in there for to long i said i was in there for less then 4 mins and my partners little boy was in and out in about 3mins. So was told theres nothing they can do as there isn't a maintenance person on duty till tomorrow so my partner couldn't even shower this evening. I was then informed later on that its a small water cylinder and takes time to warm up. I said really so only 1 person can shower at a time? The receptionist then said it should take about an hour to warm up. 2 hours later the water is still cold. Total joke. The pillows are small and flat so had to request 3 additional pillows. Had to also request 2 portable heaters due to the room being cold. Was told they will look in to getting the water fixed tomorrow. I said that's no good now as we are only here for the one night. For the price we paid £779 for 1 night the quality of the room and the service is poor also its 2 single beds pushed together that keeps separating so not really ideallyif you want to cuddle up to a loved one. I will let the photos tell...