Lapland Welcome - Saariselkä

Theau Balmes

We had a wonderfull time with the "Aurora Nothern Lights by Car and on Foot". We arranged the pickup at the K-market in Saariselka, drove to the office to get additional clothes then to the hill where after a short walk we could go out to see the lights and get in to get warmer and enjoy cooking on the fire place. Of course the experience was made better by the luck of seeing many lights.

Maria Delia Muresan

We booked the Learn some skiing tour a few days ago. Māris was an extraordinary guide. He he had a lot of patience teaching us the basics of cross-country skiing, he was very friendly so totally recommend him! I see now that some people had bad experiences with the company, but in our case everything went very well!

Chloé Balmès

Very magical evening. Our guide, David, has been very caring, giving us a lot of information about Finland and its culture. We were lucky enough to see a lot of northern lights. The campfire was good to warm up and cook.

Julie D.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM. It pains me that I have to give them one star because I have never experienced something so unprofessional.

We booked a tour to see northern lights but they cancelled it after our pick up time!!

We were supposed to be picked up from our hotel at 19.00. After having waited outside from 18.45-19.10 we called them just to make sure they were on their way. The person who picked up said that the car was on its way and to wait outside the hotel.

Then we get a call from someone else from Lapland Welcome who says that they are fully booked after all and they won’t be coming for us. We said that we wanted a refund and then THEY JUST HUNG UP ON THE PHONE!!!! We called I don’t know how many times, but no one picked up the phone again.

Then after 25 minutes we get a text saying that they are in fact on their way to pick us up and that they were just late.

1 minute later they text again saying that they are not coming due to extraordinary circumstances.

I also want to add that earlier in the day around 15.00 we called the company to confirm that they could pick us up from our hotel and we were told that it was definitely possible and we just had to book it online.

So obviously I do not recommend anyone to book with this company because clearly you can’t count on them. And it’s even more disappointing because it was the only day with possibility to see northern lights. So please do yourself a favour and find another company if you are looking to book a tour to see northern lights.

Silvia Diloy

Vaig contractar el 'Private Aurora Tour' contactant per correu electrònic i tot va ser molt fàcil.
A l'hora de la recollida estava nevant i semblava impossible que poguéssim veure les aurores. Ens van equipar amb roba d'abric i vam fer una parada a un turó per beure algo calent. El temps estava fatal.
Després vam anar cap al lloc que anunciaven amb un micro-clima i va funcionar. Cel despejat i aurores impressionants.
El nostre guia (un noi holandès, no puc recordar el seu nom...) va ser molt amable. Ens va donar de menjar quasi bé de tot el que portava, salsitxes, mandonguilles, nuggets, formatge,... tot fet al foc dins d'un tippi molt confortable.
Experiència molt, molt recomanable.

Stijn D

Long story short:
Book with the companies on location and don't use this "middleman".
We booked a full week of activities with Lapland Welcome.
Some of the activities were good and complete however it's not a fair price for the kind of service you'd expect.
Normally if you book with a travel agency you pay extra for the service they promise.
Lapland welcome promises a lot but doesn't provide.

In my opinion Lapland Welcome is a extremely expensive taxi company transporting you to and from the activity. They don't help you with problems and the extras they promise on there website are far from what you get in reality.

Important examples:

- (E-)Fatbike on location: 79 euros for 3 hours
Lapland welcome price: 150 euros (includes a guide)
For this extra you would expect decent service . 2 bikes had failing transmissions so 2 persons of our group had to return right way. Another bike had a extremely flat tire so this one was changed with the guide's bike. He returned as well so we had no more guide. After a while another bike's tires went completely flat and we all had to return to the starting point. No bikes were changed along the way. 4 out of 8 people had bike problems and nothing was fixed on location by the "guide" of Lapland Welcome.

Afterwards we tried to discuss this with the company but they wouldn't even listen. They told us they were waiting for a reaction of the bike company which would take 2 weeks. (-> they knew we would leave shortly after)

- Husky safari:

We were brought to a wrong Husky farm causing us to lose 1 hour of our program.

- Aurora watching by van:

Cosy attempt to see the lights. And it's a natural thing so they can't change this. But you are promised a barbecue on location but only recieve one sausage and 2 tiny meatballs.

Teo Kokotas

SCAM - AVOID! We were waiting for 30 minutes outside and not only they were late but when we called them they said we cannot after all offer the tour because they don’t have space. When we said we need a refund they hung up the phone. Then they are not responding to our phone calls! They said they will refund us.
UPDATE: 12 days and still they have not refunded us!!!

Marta Rodriguez

Hicimos una excursión con moto de nieve + pesca en el hielo. Superó mis expectativas, ademas nos dieron de comer con una gran variedad de productos (también veggies previa solicitud). Nuestro guía Maris, insuperable. Muy agradable y atento. Muy recomendado la experiencia con ellos