Star Arctic Hotel & Activities — Hotel in Northern Lapland

We arrived at Ivalo airport to be greeted by the friendly driver from the Hotel and the transfer was quick – less than half an hour door to door.|||We had already ‘checked-in’ on-line before our arrival, but we had a few questions for the Reception staff and they were very were attentive and welcoming. In the meantime, the driver had delivered our cases to our ‘Scenic Suite with Sauna’ room! |||The accommodation was a great choice. The Suite was quite comfortable, clean and spacious for two people. The small kitchen had an induction hob, microwave, fridge, coffee machine, kettle and cutlery, pans etc. – everything you might need to make light lunches, snacks and hot drinks!|| ||The beds were comfortable and the wet room (shower room) was modern and met every need. A compact living area with sofa, coffee table, and television was nice and relaxing.||We didn’t use the sauna but it looked wonderful.|||A great bonus was the ‘Drying Cupboard’ to dry off clothes and boot liners after a day in the snow! |||Underfloor heating kept the room toasty – in fact a little too toasty until you get the thermostat worked out!|||The views from our balcony across to Saariselkä were wonderful on clear days and the village lights twinkled in the dark skies. |||And, by the entrance, there were three toboggans for us to use.|||Daily room cleaning is available but you can opt-out as we did. We only needed a change of towels halfway through our stay and some extra toilet rolls and coffee pods along the way. We mentioned this to the Reception staff and they were quickly delivered to our room.|||We cannot fault any of the staff at all – everyone was friendly, helpful, spoke excellent English and seemed to want you to get the very best from your stay there. It was interesting to chat to the staff and discover their stories of how they came to be working at the Hotel. Several are not from the region, or even from Finland, but return each year for the winter season.|||The Restaurant was excellent, as were all of the staff working there. The breakfast was full of variety and the only problem was what to choose to eat as there was so much choice!! ||In the evenings we enjoyed the set-menu and all of the meals were delicious! There is also an à la carte menu.|||Activities are plentiful, varied, interesting and sometimes a little challenging. They all start from the reception of the Hotel, with some involving a trip to the Hotel’s Wilderness Centre which is about twenty minutes journey in the Hotel’s mini-bus or coach. We had booked some activities before we arrived but Cass and Kasper were very helpful when we wanted to book some more.|||A couple of hours after we arrived at the Hotel we went to get fitted for our snowsuits – all very well organised. The Hotel will provide a thermal suit, thermal outdoor boots and thermal mittens for the duration of your stay (as well as a helmet if needed – for example, for snowmobile adventures). We had brought our own arctic clothing, but still used the excellent Hotel-provided thermal suit and thermal mittens for the activities. |||During the ‘Traditional Reindeer Experience’ we met the reindeer and then went on a joyful reindeer sleigh ride with two people per sleigh. We were given lots of information by a very experienced reindeer herder and by our guide, Henry, who told us about the Sami languages and Finnish life while we all sat around a warming fire drinking hot apple juice. After this, there was a good soup and salad lunch back at the Wilderness Centre.|||Our ‘Aurora Hunting – Adventure by Car’ was led by a knowledgable and enthusiastic Jannika. ||We were lucky to see the very active northern lights from all three stopping places that evening and the group took some very good photographs. There were only seven in the group and four were quite young ‘twenty-somethings’ who hadn’t really come dressed well for the cold and just wanted to take a quick snap with their phone, jump back in the mini-bus and send photos to their friends. Three of us were enjoying the experience and were happy to take many more photographs and had come more prepared. Jannika did a great job of managing the two parts of a group with split aspirations. However, this is something you should bear in mind when you book this activity – it is the luck of the draw who ends up in your group!|||The ‘Northern Lights Wilderness Dinner’ was very enjoyable – a chance to try all the local cuisine. It was a beautiful spread of food and you were encouraged to try a bit of all the dishes on offer. The chef cooked the main course of meat/fish over a huge wood-fired grill. It was a lovely evening, but to hear some Sami folklore as well would have been the ‘icing on the cake’ for us. That’s just a personal view though.|||Sadly, although we went prepared, the Northern Lights didn’t make an appearance during the Wilderness Dinner. However, an hour after we had returned to the Hotel, the sky cleared and so we walked for five minutes up towards the top of Kaunispää. The Northern Lights were clearly visible and so we went back to our room, got our camera gear and went back out! Ninety minutes later the Lights began to fade, but we had well over four hundred great photos taken from next to the Kaunispää viewing tower.|||The ‘Snowshoe Safari in the Wilderness’ with Tommi was great fun! We walked through the trees to the top of the gentle hill, often through knee-deep snow. There was a welcome break at the top where we took a seat on a log, drank hot apple juice and gazed across the snowy and serene wilderness. Then it was time to walk some more. Listen carefully to the information at the beginning of the session as there are a few techniques to remember! We listened but got a bit lost in the moment just after the halfway break and ended up toppling over in the deep snow which was hilarious! We didn’t stop smiling for the whole two hours and finished up back at the Wilderness Centre where there was some excellent chicken soup, bread, salad and cake waiting for us. Thoroughly recommended!|||On our final full day we returned to the Wilderness Centre for the ‘Siberian Huskies – The Ultimate Sleigh Ride’ experience and lunch. This was also great fun and a little challenging for whoever is driving because the huskies are full of energy and keen to run. However, you soon got the hang of it! The total distance is about ten kilometres. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and meeting the beautiful huskies after the sleigh ride is an absolute treat – they love a bit of attention and ‘fuss’. We met the husky puppies and then, as before, had a very welcome lunch.|||Although it is perfectly possible to book activities at the hotel once you arrive, we would say that you should try to book your chosen activities before you arrive if possible, to avoid any disappointment, especially if you are staying for just a few days, as the experiences are very popular. ||On our final day we checked out at noon and took our luggage the very short distance to Reception using one of the toboggans. We waited for a short while in the comfortable lounge area with a delicious hot chocolate until our safe and timely transfer by mini-bus back to Ivalo airport and then home.|||So, all in all, a great welcome, a cosy and comfortable stay, very tasty food and wonderful adventures and memories.|||Thank you to everyone at the Star...

Hard to write a review for this one - it's a little long but honest and hopefully helps future travelers. My wife and i stayed here as a major part of our honeymoon from Australia. Firstly, it's literally a mountain top resort, glass cabins are closer to the Kaunispaa ski lift than any access road- great, amazing, excellent place for snow bunnies ( skiers, snowboarders and taboggoners). Definitely no guarantee on northern lights, actually a rarity at this hotel due to the altitude and constant clouds. The cabins are still really good though, of our 4 nights we loved the night we got to watch the stars, the others were unfortunately cloudy or snowed in. Rooms were good size, ludicrously comfy beds and Scandi bathrooms. Hotel sauna was our first sauna experience and quite lovely, looking out across the village, plus it's free for guests ( along with the gym) and open till 10 most days. The location and facilities are really amazing, the staff are very hit and miss. Huge thanks to Kang for making the initial booking so easy and answering, what I'm sure, sounded like silly questions. And to Arthur in reception, he was amazing and really went out of his way to help, most of the afternoon and night staff were excellent. Day staff - not as good, at all ( Roya) checked us in on our first day and gave off a terrible, uninterested, impersonal impression, maybe just a bad couple of days. As complete foreigners we'd have loved much more info on transport and activity options.

Things to help future travelers, that might've helped: The ski bus runs every 30-50 mins from around 10.30am to 5pm when the ski lift shuts, it goes through town and stops at the restaurant at the peak- cost is 5€ / day. The hotel has drivers that can take you into town for 5€/ person at their leisure, and strand you there ( taxi is around €10 either way). Major recommendation to star arctic is to make this a hotel service, all of your non- driving guests would appreciate it! We didn't end up using the ski bus because we snowboarded and tobboganned into town. If you've never done it, even as a 6ft5 adult, toboggan down the aurora run ( 2km, next to the hotel, and amazing) You can walk up to Star Arctic from town - there's a winter "track" all the way up, even in -10°C and snow it took 25 mins and was stunning - although tiring. Restaurant lights!! Out the front are NEVER turned off, causing an annoying 6x sided glare in glass cabins nearby, we were in 305 and had a ton of light pollution (as i said little chance of aurora spotting anyway), but another suggestion would be for the hotel to limit their own light pollution for the benefit of glass cabin guests, paying a premium to, at least see stars! The restaurant is good - breakfasts are Scandi normal and enough for a meat eater and vegetarian to be happy, well passed lunch! Dinner options are limited costly and delicious - remember you're eating on the top of a mountain with 5* views.

Overall, still a young hotel that needs to fix teething issues, manage expectations and make sure happy staff make happy guests! Again major thanks to Arthur - mate you...

We are a family of four (2 adults, a tween and an 8 year old) and stayed for 3 nights in a Scenic Suite with Sauna. We loved it here! The rooms are clean, modern and have all the amenities you'd expect (except for hot chocolate sachets for in-room use. There's tea and coffee, but no hot chocolate, unlike every other hotel we've been to in Finland, please include some hot chocolate!). The view is stunning and we made good use of the private sauna. The daily room servicing was exceptional - everything was tidied up, amenities restocked, fresh towels provided, beds made and room left fresh!

Reception and Activities staff were great, very helpful and friendly! They went out of their way to accommodate our needs and requests. Big thank you to Cass for helping us organise some amazing last minute activities, we enjoyed them so much!

We did the Husky Safari and the Aurora hunt by snowmobile drawn sleigh with camp fire. We loved both activities, really unique experiences with lovely guides. We loved visiting the Wilderness Centre and the husky farm. The Huskies are beautiful and friendly, Leif takes good care of them and really loves his dogs, which is so lovely to see! And the Huskies seem to love their job! The only thing I would suggest is perhaps going somewhat faster, at least at certain points - it was extremely slow going and felt like we were constantly riding the brake. Fabulous experience mushing though in the beautiful countryside! We also got to see a litter of new husky puppies, they were so gorgeous and our kids loved patting all the animals! We had lunch at the Wilderness Centre after the husky safari, lunch was delicious and the staff were attentive, friendly and kind. Thank you!

The Aurora Safari by camp fire was so enjoyable! All the guests including ourselves (adults and kids) loved the ride in the sleigh pulled by the guide's snow mobile to the campfire site and back- it was so much fun! It was just a bit of a short ride, it would be great if the ride went for longer, perhaps another 15 min! The campfire/teepee site was incredibly beautiful and picturesque - lots of instagram-worthy / Pinterest-worthy pics and videos! The snacks and conversation were wonderful and even though it was too cloudy to see the Aurora on our night, we thoroughly enjoyed this activity!

The food at the hotel restaurant was fabulous! Buffet breakfast was really lovely (the only suggestion I have is please put out some maple syrup for the pancakes!). Dinner menu is like fine dining and the food was absoutely delicious! The kids are not forgotten and well catered for as they also had a simple kids menu which is great for fussy little eaters! We found the restaurant staff wondeful! They were incredibly helpful, friendly, made the kids feel welcome and were attentive, thank you guys!

We loved our stay here,...