Stunning scenery, wide open spaces, magical never ending days AND the sun is coming........Summer Finland, heaven!

The coming weekend in Finland sees forecasts of 20-25C and above. The population are already heading out of the cities on weekends to their lakeside cottages and putting their yachts into the water along Finland’s extensive and beautiful coastline.

The country blossoms with the arrival of summer, which is made, even more special due to those never ending days. In the north of the country, Finnish Lapland, the sun will not set for two months. This means the normal daily timetable goes out of the window. It is not unusual to be invited to midnight picnics, take saunas and lake swims in the early hours.

Midsummer celebrations, this year the weekend on 23 & 24 June, sees the summer city exodus in earnest with many families starting their long summer vacations until late July or even into August.

Even above the Arctic Circle summer temperatures are taking hold and the regions most famous resident will be donning his summer outfits and making plans for his summer vacation.

For Finnish weather forecasts click here

Swamp Soccer World championships celebrates 10th Anniversary!

As the football season ends in the UK those of you that cannot survive without a football fix until the Charity Shield may want to check out the Swamp Soccer World Championships.

This years sees the 10^th anniversary of this fun event that takes place in Hyrynsalmi in Finland each summer. The 2007 event will be held from 12th - 15th July 2007 in the original and now legendary Vuorisuo swamp.

The event now attracts up to 30,000 visitors with teams and supporters from around the globe, many of whom that have returned home over the years to set up their own leagues.

If you are interested in seeing the crazy event please do not hesitate to contact us for help with your travel arrangements. The nearest domestic airport can be found at Kajaani. Hyrynsalmi is approximately 600km drive from Helsinki, in eastern Finland.

For further details on the event click here to enter the official website

For further details of visiting Helsinki and beyond click here.

Locals take to 2 wheels when summer arrives thanks to great urban planning.

According to Helsingin Sanomat Helsinki, the Finnish capital, boasts about 1,150 kilometres of bicycle paths and each year nearly 20 kilometres are added to this.

Antero Naskila of Helsinki's City Planning Department says "We have estimated that during the summer period, nearly 200,000 Helsinki residents cycle on a daily or nearly daily basis”

To read the full article in Helsingin Sanomat click here.

For further details on visiting Helsinki click here.

An exciting range of holidays throughout December from London and Manchester to meet Santa!

Emagine are once again offering an exciting and diverse range of holidays to Lapland and Northern Finland this coming December.

Choose from holidays packed with activities in  a range of wonderful accommodation where you are

guaranteed personal care and attention.

Hotel Riekonlinna in Saariselka, Hotels Harriniva and Hotel Jeris in Muonio, Hotels Syote Keskus and Hotel Iso-Syote in Syote.

At all of these locations Emagine includes meeting Santa twice (once as a family in a forest cabin and again at a Christmas party), snowmobile safari, reindeer rides, a husky safari, ice fishing, full board, outer thermal clothing and the Emagine team on hand throughout your stay.

For those wanting a little more independence, new for this year is Simply Saariselka featuring   Hotel Holiday Club and Hotel Tunturi. The concept allows you to decide on the level of activity and meals included in your holiday. We have included the essentials such as flights, accommodation, breakfast and a fun activity day where you get to meet Santa as a family, then they let you decide what to do with that precious free time.

Emagine clients frequently comment on the levels of care and the attention to detail that goes into making their holiday to Lapland so special. They love the small finishing touches and the personal, thoughtful and friendly sevice from the guides  

To learn more about the holidays contact reservations on Tel: 0870 902 5399 

Click here to order a brochure.

To look at the holidays on the Emagine website click here.

Mr Wogan is enroute to Helsinki - it must be that time of year again!

As Terry heads to Finlands capital, Helsinki, to prepare for the coming weekends Eurovision final we are guaranteed a couple of mornings, thanks to his popular BBC2 radio show, filled with gems and insight about this small, pretty city and the Finnish people.

Lets hope he is more popular in Helsinki than he was in Copenhagen. Finnish friends in the UK that live for the annual Eurovision fix are not keen on Mr Wogan. They are disgusted that he does not take the whole thing more seriously. They simply don't believe that Brits only watch the Eurovision for Wogan and not for the event........

So tomorrow we can awaken to comments about the Finnish language (impossible), people (initially perceived as dour but once the shyness wears off friendly), hopefully how pretty Helsinki is when the sunshines and how wonderfully efficient everything is (Finns in the UK never fail to mention how inefficient Uk transport, banking, etc, etc is but then there are only 5.6 million people in Finland)

To learn more about the Eurovision click here.

To visit Helsinki one the Eurovison circus has left town click here.  

Lapland - Europes last true wilderness.........breathtaking!

I have just returned from the most amazing adventure. With a group of close firends we travelled to the Kilpisjarvi area of Finnish Lapland.  It was a bit of a trek to get there but boy was it worth it.

We flew from London Heathrow via Helsinki to Kittila and then headed an hour north to Harriniva. Here we met our amazing guides, Pasi,Kaitsu and Jussi. Over dinner they went through the plans for the next 5 days, they filled us with confidence even though we all felt as if we were taking a step into the unknown. They kitted us out with outer thermal clothing, helmets, hats, sleeping bags then told us to have a good nights sleep in what would be our last night in civilisation. 

The next morning started with lessons in snowmobiling and on handling a husky sled and then after lunch it was onto the coach departing Hariniva for a two and half hour journey north to the small village of Kilpisjarvi.

We had planned that half the gang would snowmobile and half the gang would husky, swapping activities each day. The excited huskies were awaiting our arrival on the ice. We loaded all of the kit into the snowmobile sleds (tents, food, cooking equipment, we had to take everything with us) and then we were off across the fells. It was just exhilirating heading up hill from the village towards the fells pulled by a team of 5 huskies and looking back over the frozen lake.

After about an hour a storm closed in and we started to experience real Arctic conditions with snow blowing from left to right but it was all part of the adventure. As conditions closed in the guides decided that we should set up camp for the evening! This involved pitch huge army tents at the centre of which was a wood burning stove that was lit in no time at all. As we rolled out our reindeer skings and sleeping bags and settled in we wre met by the most amazing aromas from Kaitsu's kitchen tent. Over the whole trip he never failed to amaze us with the mouth watering menus, steak, salmon with shrimp sauce, Lapp burgers, reindeer stew......and full cooked breakfast!     

The next morning the storm had cleared and we were met by blue skies and sunshine. After we packed up camp we were off again across the fells. This time I was snowmobiling, what a buzz. We could travel for an hour without seeing anyone and then come across 3 cross country skies pulling their kit in little sleds, crazy people.  We came across herds of reindeer and the guides pointed out Wolverine tracks.

We set up base camp, home for the coming days while we explored the area. Once the tents were in place (we wre camping on a huge lake) we drilled holes and set about catching dinner! Some were more successful than others.

I could go on for ever about how beautiful this area is and what amazing activities we did but I think I will let the pictures do the talking.

Thanks to all at Emagine for making it happen, when we said we wanted a once in life time experience you really delivered. Also a big thanks to our guides Pasi, Kaitsu and Jussi for taking such good care of us and for being such fun.

Telegraph article tells all about visiting Santa in Finnish Lapland.......

When the travel presenter Judith Chalmers took her grandsons on a surprise trip to see Father Christmas she was just as excited as they were.

  
You know when you have been planning something secret for a long time? As the occasion nears you get excited: you want it to be the day to reveal all, yet you almost want to hold the pleasure back as it will all be over so quickly.

For the full story click here.

Limited availability remaining, click here for details.

Work has started on the igloo at Harriniva.

The team at Harriniva in Finnish Lapland have started work on their Igloo. The excellent snow levels and cold nights, already at times as low as -30, are ideal conditions for building.

Guests staying at Harriniva during the winter can book a room in the igloo to stay in for the night. At Harriniva they build this one large igloo with a central chamber which will be furnished with an ice table and chairs in the coming weeks. Individual bedroom chambers then lead off the central room.

The cosy sleeping bag and crisp clean air are the ideal conditions for a good nights sleep, even when it is -30 outside.

Pictures of the finished, decorated igllo to follow shortly.

For further details on visiting Harriniva this coming winter click here.