Finland & Norway Trip Day 3 - Santa Claus Express to Rovaniemi & Santa Claus Village

We took Intercity Train 273, also known as the Santa Claus Express, which departs from the Central Railway Station at night, reaching Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, in the morning the next day. There are many ways to get to Rovaniemi, and we choose to take this overnight train just for the experience, even though the train ticket does not come cheap as we choose to stay in a sleeping compartment with shower. However, considering that we save on 1 night hotel fee, taking the train is still an economical choice, although staying in a hotel and taking a flight to Rovaniemi will be much more comfortable. You can buy the train tickets online, and do remember to check for your compartment or seat number online or at the train counter (which is open only during working hours) before boarding the train.

The journey is about 12 hours, and a towel and a bottle of water is being provided. Each bunk is also equipped with its own charger for you to charge your electronics devices.

There is also a restaurant car on the train, and we had our breakfast there. The cinnamon roll was surprisingly fantastic, and they also serve free oat porridge. 

Upon reaching Rovaniemi, we picked up our rented car from the train station, and drove straight to Santa Claus Village, one of the highlights of our tour. 

We were extremely delighted as it started snowing as soon as we reach this magical location.

The first thing that we did was to visit the Santa Claus Office to meet the legendary Santa Claus (or rather, the man's whose only occupation is to be the Santa Claus). It was quite magical to have a chance to chat with this famous man, and he promised to see us in Singapore during Christmas!

After having lunch in 1 of the restaurant in the village, we went to the Santa Claus main post office to buy and write on postcards, and send it out from the post office. There are options for you to choose whether you want to send out the postcards immediately, or wait until its near Christmas before the postcard will be sent so that you will receive the postcard during Christmas.

Another "must-do" thing to do in Santa Claus Village is to cross the Arctic Circle Line. For regions located on the north of the Arctic Circle, the midnight sun phenomena, where the sun does not sets, will happen at least once per year.

Just like amusement parks, there were many souvenir shops around and we spent the rest of the afternoon going from shop to shop, grabbing cute Santa related souvenir to be bought back home.

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