Getting to Kakslauttanen (and back!)
From London there were a few options for getting to Ivalo which was the closest airport. Finnair run a twice daily service from Helsinki, Easyjet fly direct from Manchester and Gatwick. Numerous airlines run services to Helsinki if you wished to organise your own connections. We opted to take Finnair all the way just incase there were any delays as it is easier to deal with a single airline/booking combination, plus we could check our luggage all the way through. In retrospect it was a brilliant decision, as every flight we caught was delayed by at least an hour.
I’ve spent much longer in airports far worse than Helsinki. It has a newly renovated day spa should you feel the need for a refreshing treatment, a handful of shops, and a few bars in addition to a couple of restaurants and cafes. Every hour or so a choir of airport staff assembled and entertained the bored travellers with Christmas carols in both English and Finnish. Our 5 hour wait was quite pleasant and we managed to fill the time for the most part. Oh, and there is free wifi should you have a laptop or iPhone with you.
From Helsinki it was approximately another hour by plane to Ivalo airport and to the relief of my now fiancé, it is a reasonable sized jet engine plane and not a turbo-prop or light aircraft. We were served a cheese roll as a snack which was quite tasty, but I really don’t expect food on such a short flight. Likewise, don’t expect much in the way of in-flight entertainment. It’s an older fitout plane with TV monitors descending from the bulkhead every few rows playing an endless loop of information about various Finnair destinations.
Ivalo airport was quite cute, you’re dumped straight into the arrivals hall which looks like a log cabin with a baggage carousel in in. The bags arrive quite promptly and our man with the Kakslauttanen sign ushers us and approximately 15 others off to the coach and drives us to our destination. It was about a 35-40 minute trip, with some surreal scenery to take in on the way.
On departing Kakslauttanen we decided to take the evening flight out (it appears everyone else takes the morning one) so that we could make the most of our time there. As a result, the resort organised us a cab to take us to the airport rather than the coach. In hindsight, I suspect the cab costs about the same as 2 people on the coach. So if there is 3 or more of you, you might be better served getting a taxi.
Once again, our flight was delayed an hour due to the snow. It’s not really a criticism of any Finnish airport or Finnair, it’s really quite remarkable they manage to get planes off the runway at all given the conditions. We’ve experienced first hand how lesser conditions will shut Heathrow entirely. Departing Ivalo was as quaint an experience as the arrival, the desk agent that checked us in didn’t give us a boarding pass which seemed strange. It made sense later when we realised she actually seemed to fill every role, meeting us at the gate to usher us onto the plane and being able to recall the handful of other passenger from when she’d just previously checked them in. Finnair also gave us an €8 voucher each as they suspected the flight would be delayed by an hour, it was.
Our arrival back into Helsinki wasn’t as smooth. It was difficult to get information as to what exactly was happening, with a few conflicting stories, but suffice to say there was a build-up of luggage in the arrivals hall and some people were reportedly waiting 4 or more hours for their bags. Many were being told to fill in paperwork and just leave with their bags being sent on after them via courier when they were in. We were staying the night at the Helsinki Airport Hilton with an early flight out in the morning, so I wanted to wait for our bags so we had a change of clothes and could be sure they were on the flight with us the next morning. Thankfully it was only a 2 hour wait, but given we were already delayed by an hour it had completely removed any chance we may have had of seeing Helsinki at all.
The next morning was a mad rush at the airport. Owing to the delays from the previous day, the airport was packed. We’d allowed ourselves around an hour to check in, clear customs, and get to the gate. It was immediately obvious that wouldn’t be long enough, but the airport staff were very helpful. We were put into a priority check-in line, threw our bags on the belt, and sent to the front of security. We made it to our gate with enough time to buy a bottle of water. No delays on this flight, and we were promptly back at Heathrow. Unfortunately, my bag arrived 2 days later.
- Kakslauttanen Hotel and Igloo Village
- When to stay in Kakslauttanen
- Activities around Kakslauttanen and Saariselkä
- Review of Kakslauttanen Hotel and Igloo Village
