We spent 5-nights at the Ranua Resort in Lapland, Finland in February doing a winter activity holiday. Here are all the details of our stay and our Ranua Resort review….
Ranua Resort is a holiday village and winter activity resort located in the Ranua region of Lapland (in the Finnish part of the Lapland region).
It has various types of holiday accommodation – lodges, a campsite (for those brave enough to bring a caravan or motorhome into this freezing cold region) and lakeside glass igloos at a separate location from the main resort, a couple of miles up the road.
We stayed four nights in one of the Ranua Resort lodges and then transferred on our final night to the lakeside glass igloos, doing a variety of activities that the resort had to offer each day.
Getting to Ranua Resort
Flying from London Gatwick, we landed at a snowy Rovaniemi airport in Finland and were met conveniently at the arrivals exit by a Ranua Resort guide, who picked us and one other family up in a small minibus and drove us the hour or so journey from the city of Rovaniemi up to Ranua.
The drive was superb – this region of Finland is sparsely populated and the roads almost empty, so it was a clear, straight drive, largely through immense, picturesque forests; the road lined with miles of snow-covered pine trees that made us feel like we were driving into some kind of real-life Christmas card.
Our excitement was building the closer to Ranua Resort that we got as we soaked in the beauty of the region.
After a smooth and pleasant drive, we pulled up to the resort, which consists of a collection of lodges, some buildings housing the reception, restaurants, a small shop and a wildlife park.
Ranua Resort is relatively small and quiet and is all situated in the middle of a huge expanse of forest.
It’s an attractive, low-key place that blends in well with its stunningly beautiful natural surroundings.
The thick snow deadens the sound all around and, with only a relatively small number of lodges and guests, it has a laid-back, peaceful feel. An ideal place to experience the natural, remote beauty of the area.
The check-in process was smooth and we were immediately kitted out with all-in-one snow suits, gloves and snow boots, which we’d keep hold of for the week and which were essential for keeping us warm during all the week’s activities.
After that, we were dragging our suitcases in small sledges around to our lodge, which we were very pleased with.
The lodges are surrounded by snow-covered forest – amazing surroundings for what was very comfortable, spacious and – most-importantly – warm accommodation.
Our lodge had two bedrooms plus additional sleeping space on a mezzanine landing, two bathrooms with separate showers and, in the downstairs bathroom, a sauna easily big enough for four people, which we made frequent use of to warm ourselves up when returning from each day’s outdoor activities.
There was a lounge with a TV and an awesome log-burner, a kitchen with cooker, hob, fridge-freezer and dishwasher, plus a large ‘heating cupboard’ where you can hang your snowy clothes / boots and turn on the power to quickly dry (or pre-warm) your clothes.
All the accommodation was very modern, extremely clean, had plenty of space and was a very comfortable base for us to stay for the week.
Restaurants and food
Our first stop having settled into the lodge was to find the restaurant and have some lunch.
Our stay was full board, with three meals a day all included at the ‘Wild Arctic’ restaurant situated in the main part of the resort.
We were happy with the food – the breakfast and lunch were help-yourself buffets with plenty of choice and, whilst the food was pretty basic, it was decent enough to fuel us up before and after our busy days out in the snow and ice.
Dinners were a set menu with the choice only between one set main course and a vegetarian option, with starters and desserts fixed each day (changing each day, but with only one option).
This wasn’t a problem as we were very happy with each day’s selection and the meals – although nothing spectacular – were tasty and filling.
There’s an on-site shop selling additional food, supplies and snacks if you need them – though we were totally satisfied with what we got from the restaurant, and I’m a big eater who needs a lot of food each day, so if I was satisfied with it, I think most others would be too.
Ranua Wildlife Park
We had no set activities booked for our first day, so having arrived, settled into the accommodation and had lunch, we took a walk around the Ranua Wildlife Park, which is a zoo that adjoins Ranua Resort – and which guests have full access to during their stay.
I must admit I’m not a great fan of zoos – I don’t get much enjoyment from seeing animals in captivity and this was no different.
The star attraction of the Wildlife Park is a Polar Bear, who didn’t seem to be out whilst we were in the park.
The other animals are kept in fairly basic-looking enclosures and seeing them wasn’t particularly great – but the Wildlife Park did give us an introduction to the beautiful natural surroundings of Ranua Resort, as it’s all situated within a dense forest coated (during the time we were here in February) with thick snow.
We were more wowed by – and spent more time looking at and photographing – the surrounding forest than we were by the animals in the zoo – and it was just a taste of what more was to come.
Ranua activites & excursions
There’s a wide variety of activities on offer at Ranua Resort – all run by friendly and interesting local guides.
We’d pre-booked all our activities before the holiday and had been given a printed timetable of what we were doing and when.
All our excursions were with limited numbers of other people (a couple were completely private with just ourselves and the guide) and all ran like clockwork.
The schedule of activities was co-ordinated perfectly, always leaving adequate time between activities for lunch breaks and plenty of time at the end of the day to warm up and change ready for dinner.
The activities we’d picked to do for the week were…
- Cross-country skiing
- Snowmobile ride to a frozen lake for ice fishing
- A ‘northern lights safari’ by horse-drawn sleigh
- Snowmobile ride to a reindeer farm
- Private ice swim and lake-side sauna
- Husky sled ride
- Overnight stay in the ‘Arctic Fox’ glass igloos
- There are full details, photos and video of these activities written up on our ‘Five Night Lapland Holiday Itinerary’ article here.
Every activity we did was absolutely superb.
Each one was a completely new experience to us and was exciting, fun – and made all the more enjoyable by the Ranua Resort guides who were always interesting, fun and enthusiastic.
Every activity lasted a good amount of time – we never felt rushed and we had plenty of time to get full enjoyment from each activity.
Each one was perfectly timed so that, just as it seemed we were starting to feel the cold and the warmth of the resort was calling, the activity ended and we were back warming ourselves with a hot lunch or a sauna, ready to do the next one.
Ranua Resort glass igloos
For the final part of our stay at Ranua Resort, we packed up our suitcases and were driven a couple of miles further into the forest to the separate lakeside glass igloos resort.
This was a magical way to end our stay in Lapland.
The lake is an enormous frozen expanse, which a few days earlier we’d been snowmobiling across and ice-plunging into, and which is an even more serene and peaceful setting than the main resort, with just a small handful of glass arctic igloos and a small restaurant building on the shores of the lake.
It’s an ideal location for viewing the northern lights and the panoramic view of the sky from within the igloo means you get a perfect view of them from the comfort of your own bed, if you’re lucky enough to get a display during the time you’re here.
Unfortunately the northern lights didn’t come out for us during the night we were staying in the igloo, but we’d at least had a spectacular viewing of them earlier on in the holiday from the Ranua Resort lodge, so we weren’t too disappointed.
- Full details and photos / video of our time in the Ranua Arctic igloos are in a separate post here.
Conclusion
After five nights staying in Ranua Resort in Lapland, it felt all too soon that our time here came to an end.
One final breakfast in the Arctic igloos restaurant and we were collected again by the driver who’d take us back to Rovaniemi airport for our afternoon flight back to London.
This holiday was a totally different experience for us, having spent so many years travelling to places to get away from the dreary and cold UK weather, it was new to us to travel to somewhere so much colder than the country we live in.
But although it’s very cold, snowy and icy (when we were here in February the temperature ranged from -5 down to -13 degrees – but apparently the week before had dropped as low as -30!) it still gave us an extremely refreshing break from the drab UK winter.
There was a different feel to the cold in Lapland – it was fresh and crisp and kind of enjoyable to be in – even for someone like me who normally loves the sun and warm weather.
That of course was helped by the natural beauty of the place – and how closely connected you are to nature – staying in a peaceful forest and spending so much time outside.
And it’s clear the people who live and work here have a very natural existence, living and working with the natural environment – something they introduce you to on the daily excursions and activities – and which helps you to refresh and recharge during what can be a bit of a depressing time in the long, grey UK winters.
We absolutely loved every moment we spent at Ranua Resort in Lapland.
Five nights was long enough to fit in loads of activities and we felt like we’d had more new experiences on this trip than maybe any other that we’ve ever done – but there’s no doubt we were sad to leave and will almost definitely be back to this amazing region again in future.
Useful information
- Ranua Resort website
- We booked this holiday (and all excursions) through Discover the World