Chasing the Northern Lights in Finland
My best friend Lizzie likes to travel just as much as I do, and recently she went on a trip with a luxury travel group to Turkey. I thought it was an amazing itinerary with nice hotels and interesting activities, so I started to peruse their site to see if there were any trips that I’d like to take. One of the trips immediately caught my eye, a trip to stay in a glass igloo and see the Aurora Borealis, which had been on my bucket list FOREVER. I quickly realized however, that I would not be able to afford ANY of the trips that they were advertising.
I wanted to find out where the hotel was, so I did a Google reverse search on a picture of the igloos and found that it was the Wilderness Hotel Muotka in Finnish Lapland. I knew that the Auroras were most visible between November and February, so I looked up the prices for the first week of December. After adding up the prices for the group trip plus the international airfare which they had not included, I realized that I could book the same resort (for dates that better suited my schedule) with airfare, hotels for 8 nights instead of 6, more activities and a day trip to Estonia for thousands less. So, at that point I kind of had to – and immediately planned out an entire trip to Finland😉. I called Deb and said, look how much money I just saved us! And just like – that we were headed to Finland. (Side note, loving an enabler makes life much easier and way more exciting 😉)
We looked for the cheapest flights we could find, and because we have an American Airlines credit card which allows us 2 free checked bags, and I have Platinum Pro status we were able to buy the Basic Economy fares and still check bags and pick extra leg room seats. (Note: typically you have to pay for bags and to choose your seats on Basic Economy fares so make sure you read the description and cost before you hit buy).
We flew from Miami to Helsinki via a layover in London. We live in West Palm Beach, but flights are typically cheaper from Miami and sometimes non-stop internationally so many times we’ll use the Tri-Rail to get down to Miami (It only costs $7) and it brings you straight into the airport. It also saves you from paying for parking while you’re on your trip. This time there were no nonstop flights on our outward journey, so when choosing a layover option, I made sure that my first flight left the US and went directly to Europe rather than having a layover within the US. I do this because if our first flight is late and we miss that connection many times there’s only one flight a day from the US to the foreign country and you lose an entire day of vacation waiting 24 hours for the next flight (and that’s only IF a flight on that seat is available). Whereas, if we made it to London and missed our adjoining flight – there are many more options for flights within Europe (in our case from London to Helsinki) and there’s a chance we would still make it the same day or at a minimum the first thing the next morning.
We flew out on Thanksgiving evening at about 10:00 PM. This allowed us to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families, but it also let us take advantage of that extra day off for the day after Thanksgiving and the following week to give us 10 full days of travel, while only taking five days off work. I had never used miles for an upgrade before and I had read mixed reviews on whether I could do it or not with a basic economy fare, but I called American Airlines and they told me that for 25,000 miles and $300 per person I could put us on a waitlist for business class seats. Basically, if the airline doesn’t sell the business-class or first-class seats just before the flight they will let you upgrade using miles. We were lucky enough that on the morning we were supposed to leave we received an email saying that they had accepted our upgrade, and we would be flying in business class to London. This flight normally costs over $5,000 each, but we were able to fly it for 25k miles and $600 per person, saving us about $8200.
The only glitch we had was that at about 4pm on the day of our flight we received an email that our flight had been canceled. Luckily it looks like they just made some sort of aircraft change and changed our flight number because they said they put us on a new flight, but the times and destinations were still the same. Whenever you receive a cancellation and they send you a new flight option, make sure to look at it carefully. Typically, it will request that you confirm the new flight. If you want the new flight, make sure that you confirm as they sometimes won’t issue the e-ticket until you do. We lost our seats on a flight to Turkey once because they sent an email about a 3-minute time change and we didn’t confirm. If you don’t like the new flight option – search for what other flights are available on your own and if you can’t change it in the airline app, then call the airline armed with that information to see if they can change it to your preferred flight. Many times, if you confirm the new flight they offered you after yours was cancelled, you can’t change it again so make sure it works for you.
Through my American Airlines Platinum Pro status, we also have OneWorld Emerald Status, which means we can receive status benefits from other airlines that are in the OneWorld network. In Miami even though we weren’t flying first class, we had access to the AA Flagship lounge prior to our flight, so we hung out there and had a meal at the buffet prior to boarding the plane. Business class on this plane meant lie-flat seats with a large entertainment screen, upgraded food options and a semi-enclosed area so that you weren’t surrounded by other people. Having the ability to sleep until we arrived in London the next morning is a game changer. We made sure that we had at least a 4-hour layover in London just in case there were any delays, and that OneWorld status allowed us to visit the first-class lounges in Heathrow. We tried Qantas, Cathay Pacific and British Airways as they are all very close to one another in Terminal 3. I think Cathay Pacific was the nicest with a lot of open seating and different chair types. The food is mostly Asian so if that’s an issue for you, you would be better off at one of the others. Qantas and British Airways were both pretty comparable. One of the issues I frequently have at Heathrow is that for some reason American Airlines does not print your OneWorld status on your boarding pass. It just says “Pro” and the people working at the lounges didn’t seem to be able to convert that to a OneWorld status and wouldn’t let me in until I could prove it to them. It took me a while to find it, but there’s actually a digital card in the American Airlines app. After having the same issue three different times I finally wised up and saved it to my Apple wallet so that I won’t have to look for it going forward.
From London we flew to Helsinki, Finland and landed at about 9:00 p.m. It was about 9:30 by the time we got our bags, so we opted to eat at the airport before trying to find an Uber since it didn’t look like there was anything open close to our hotel. I have to say the food at the airport was awesome. We ate at Prettyboy Chicken and had Manchester Dynamite wings with honey-sriracha sauce, crème fraiche, chili, and marinated onion and chives as well as a Bang Burger with Aioli, caramelized chili-garlic sauce, red onions and lettuce. We decided that it was so good that when we flew home, we wanted to have it again!
We spent our first two nights in Finland at Hotel F6 in Helsinki. We did this to make sure we had a buffer in case our original flight from the USA was late, we wouldn’t have to rearrange our flights to Lapland or lose a night at the Wilderness hotel. Hotel F6 had a great price, was in a great location and was a super cute hotel. It included breakfast, which definitely helps with your budget. The buffet had a lot of offerings, yogurts, eggs, meats and cheeses, breads etc. When booking hotels, I always check the AA Hotels site first. American Airlines has both Advantage Miles which you can trade in for travel, and Loyalty Points which allow you to obtain status. Typically, if I book a hotel room using my AA Credit Card for $150 a night, I would earn 150 Advantage Miles and 150 Loyalty Points. The AA Hotel site offers bonuses if you book through them, which allows you to hit your miles goals faster. In this case, the room I booked for the first two nights came with an additional 3000 Advantage and Loyalty Point bonus. Make sure you do your research though and find out how much it would cost to book directly through the hotel as sometimes the price is much higher on the AA site which negates any miles you might earn.
Helsinki is a very walkable city, and we were able to see everything we wanted to without using any public transportation. We walked through the Esplanadi, a public park decorated for the holidays to the shopping area where we visited Stockmann’s, the largest department store in the Nordic Countries. Similar to Macy’s in NYC they had their front windows decorated for the holiday season and parents were bringing their children by to see them. We passed by Kampii chapel, also known as the Chapel of Silence, since it is intended to be place to calm down and have a moment of peace in one of the city’s busiest areas. The chapel is known for its wooden oval shape and welcomes everyone irrespective of their religion. Next up we visited the Central Library Oodi because we are obsessed with cool libraries. The library is a striking piece of architecture with its glass and steel structures and its wooden façade. We very much enjoyed the fact that the books in the LBGTQ section all had cute little rainbow stickers mirroring the welcoming sentiment of the country. They even had robots that shelved books!
We wandered through the shopping district down Aleksanterinkatu Street, toward Helsinki Cathedral originally built as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland and one of the city’s most famous landmarks. The steps of the Cathedral lead down into Senate Square, where the annual Christmas Market is held. There were dozens of stalls selling trinkets, souvenirs and food items like hot cocoa and mulled wine – I think it was Debbie’s mission to try every flavor of mulled wine they had! It was a super cute market, but the prices seemed very expensive compared to other Christmas markets around the world.
Because we knew we were heading to Lapland for four days with an all-Finnish menu, we opted to have lunch at a cute little Italian restaurant called Siciliano. There seemed to be a big market for Italian in Helsinki as there were Italian restaurants on every corner! Had we not been headed North, our choice for lunch/dinner would have been Savotta, which is a traditional Finnish restaurant. They have items like Roasted Arctic Char with Tarragon Carrot puree, Jerusalem artichokes and ginger tartar sauce or a Hunter’s Pie with braised moose and forest mushrooms in a puff pastry with herb salad and black currant. They even have an appetizer called Supreme Savotta, which is an assortment of Finnish appetizers like mushroom mousse, patti toe lamb pate, bear salami, reindeer tongue, pickled herring and beet root salted salmon with cranberry. If you are looking to try all types of Finnish food, this is your place.
After lunch we wandered down to the Helsinki Market Square on the water to look at the stalls there. You could also see the Allas Sea Pool, which is a complex with a children’s pool, a warm pool and a seawater pool along with a sauna and a cave. We were there in December and there were plenty of people swimming in the sea. We walked on to the Uspenski Cathedral which is the largest Orthodox temple in Northern and Western Europe and is located on the highest hill of the Katajanokka district. We had done a ton of walking at that point and I was happy to look at it from the bottom of the hill. For dinner we went to a great restaurant with an unfortunate name – The Cock. Name aside, the food was great, modern brasserie classics with a petite Asian kick. We both had the Steak Frites-Entrecote, house fries with bernaise sauce and baby gem salad with a Dijon vinaigrette. I’ll have to admit though, all I can think of is Pulp Fiction when I see a Royale with Cheese on the menu!
The following morning we headed back to the airport for our flight to Ivalo. One thing we noticed is that taxis were much more expensive than Ubers, so we used Uber to take us to the airport. We flew Icelandair and the basic tickets do not include checked or carry on bags. Because I had OneWorld Emerald status I was able to bring one checked and one carryon bag, but we had to pay for bags for Deb. I was not able to get the bag information to show when purchasing my ticket, so I had to ask about it at the airport instead. Ivalo is about 12 hours North of Helsinki by car in Finnish Lapland and located in the Arctic Circle. The Ivalo airport is the northernmost airport in Finland, and is a small airport where passengers deplane on moveable stairs rather than through a boarding gate. When we got off the plane it was snowing, welcoming us to the Arctic Circle! Once we gathered our luggage, Wilderness Hotel Inari had a bus waiting to take us and other patrons to the hotel located in Inari. Wilderness Hotels actually have 6 different hotels in Northern Finland. When I originally googled the tour, those guests stayed at Wilderness Hotel Muotka. But when I looked at my dates, they did not have the rooms I wanted available. Instead, we went with Wilderness Hotel Inari which was very similar, but an hour further North which would give us an even better chance of seeing the Aurora.
During Winter in Northern Europe the days are very short. In Helsinki, we had about 6 and a half hours of daylight with another hour or two that the sun was below the horizon, but you could still see some light. Because Inari is in the Arctic Circle, they experience what is called Polar Night, where the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for more than 24 hours. For Inari, the sun rose on December 1st at 11:49a.m., then set at 12:12 p.m. (23 minutes later) and would not rise above the horizon again until January 11th. That doesn’t mean that they are in complete darkness. Even though the sun does not go above the horizon, there is still some light visible throughout the day due to atmospheric refraction which creates a twilight effect called “Civil Twilight”. For us that meant we would start to see Civil Twilight at about 10:00 a.m. and it would be completely dark again at about 3:00 p.m. Though this gave you limited time for “daytime” activities, this time of year is the best time for viewing stars and the Northern Lights.
We arrived at the Wilderness Hotel a little before 2:00 p.m. and the desk clerks suggested we visit the buffet before checking in as lunch would end at 3:00 p.m. We booked a package that included full board as there weren’t many places to eat in Inari and we had not rented a car. The buffet typically included 3 mains for lunch and dinner like a Reindeer stew or White Fish and then something different like Spaghetti or Pork Chops. There were different salads, sides and desserts as well as breads. If you’re a completely picky eater and will only eat American food, there may be a few meals where you might be having bread for dinner. However, they did have an ala carte menu that was not included in the full board pricing where you could order a cheeseburger or something else if needed. Water and coffee were included with the buffet, but hot cocoa and sodas were not. Alcoholic drinks were available for purchase at the bar. The dining room was all wood and had a rustic charm with separate areas with comfortable chairs, TVs and games. It faced Lake Inari so when it was light out, you could see the frozen lake.
After lunch we checked in and were shown to our chalet. Oddly enough, the whole trip was based on the fact that I wanted to stay in a glass igloo to see the Northern Lights. When we looked at the different rooms, we realized that the igloo was smallish, and had a bed, bathroom and a chair. While the Arctic Chalet’s had a sitting room, a kitchen area, a fireplace, a private sauna and a panoramic glass wall to see the Northern Lights. We thought we’d spend a lot of time in our room (this turned out to be wrong lol) and would want to be able to stretch out and use the sauna after our activities, so we booked the Chalet instead. Once we booked the chalet, I sent an email to the hotel asking if it would be possible to switch to an igloo for one of those nights and they stated they were able to accommodate that for the last night of our stay for a small fee. So, we were able to enjoy our space, but still experience the igloos.
The chalet was spacious, and we immediately turned on the fireplace and went to the sitting room to take in the view. I had read in a review that there were a few chalets directly facing the lake (629, 630, 625 and 626) so I requested one of those and we were fortunate enough to get one. This was great because there were a lot of motion-activated lights on the property and there was never anyone walking in front of our chalet who could see in our window wall or trip the lights. Others were not as fortunate and as we were walking past one chalet its inhabitants had apparently forgotten that even though it was dark out, people could still see in as they were getting undressed.
Before dinner we walked over to the equipment shed and were assigned coveralls which were basically a one-piece snow pants/coat combo, socks, a balaclava, warm gloves, and snow boots. They were included with our package, and we were allowed to keep them until the day we left. As for layers, we each brought a merino wool under layer, and then had a few more pairs of warm pants/shirts we could put over them when needed. We also had a few t-shirts and a flannel shirt which we’d wear the short distance to the dining room and back. Here’s the one thing I’ll say about the coveralls – they were definitely needed, and they kept us warm and stopped the snow from getting into our under layers. However, for those of us who do not weigh 125 lbs, there is no graceful/easy way to put these on. Every time we had to get geared up for an activity, Deb and I would be rolling around on the bed like flopping fish trying to squeeze into them! After dinner every night we would check the board at the activity desk, and it would tell you what tours/times your group was signed up for the next day.
On our first full day we had three activities – the first was the Husky Safari. We were taken on a bus to a Husky farm, where we were given instructions on how to operate the 2 person sleds, with one person mushing and the other seated during the ride. We were able to switch positions at the half-way point so that we could both get the full experience. The dogs were awesome, and the trainer told you to keep one foot on the sled at all times, so if they had an abrupt start – you wouldn’t be left behind. For the most part, it just took rocking back and forth on the sled to get them started, and you would use a foot brake to get them to stop. Except of course when there was a hill, and the driver might have to step off the sled and help to give the dogs the extra push they needed. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard when we hit a hill, and the dogs just stopped. Deb stepped off the sled to help push and I could hear her huffing and puffing with the dogs just looking back at her like, “we are not pushing the two of you up this hill”, and we all knew, dogs included, that there was an 99% chance if they started up again quickly, she wasn’t going to make it back on the sled in time. Somehow, even with the two of us laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our eyes, she managed to get them moving again and made it back on the sleigh. Once we were back at the farm, we were able to spend some time with the dogs and then gathered in front of a fire for hot cocoa, wine and cookies. We were lucky enough that we did this activity at 10 a.m., and it lasted until 1:00 p.m. so it was light out while we were there. There were tours after us and I’m betting it wasn’t as fun in the dark so if you choose to do the Huskies, see if they can put you in a 10:00 a.m. tour.
Our second activity did not require putting on the snow suit thank god, and was a lecture on the Northern Lights, where to see them, how to spot them and how to film them. The lecturer talked about Alaska, Russia, Finland and Sweden being the very best places to see the lights, though the tours in Sweden actually bring people to Finland due to there being more light pollution in Northern Sweden. Depending on the brightness of the lights, many times you cannot see the Northern Lights with your eyes. You can pick out a milky “cloud” in the sky, but don’t see the bright colors that you see in pictures. When you use a camera however, they appear more vivid and colorful because cameras can use long exposure times and high ISO settings to gather more light, and capture details that are invisible to the human eye. There were times we could see the colors without the camera, but more often than not the camera was what made the pictures. Make sure to bring a tripod as you have to hold the camera very still to get those long exposures. The hotel offers an Aurora service, where they will call you up until about 1 a.m. if there is an Aurora out, but it cost $30. We found some free apps that let us know the forecast for that night’s Aurora’s and made sure we were outside to try and see them.
After dinner our third activity of the day was an Aurora Snowmobile ride at night. We were driven to a snowmobile path and rode snowmobiles deeper into the woods looking for the Aurora. The forecast wasn’t good, so we weren’t optimistic – but we found a spot where we could see the Aurora and got some great pictures! The guides made hot drinks and cookies, and then we returned back to camp. I think most of the time we were in Inari, the temperature ranged from 9-20 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m not sure if I just have bad circulation, but my fingers and toes were COLD on this ride. I brought some of the hand warmers that you shake to activate. They worked a bit, but it was still cold. (I got electric handwarmers this Christmas and can’t wait to try them out). It was so nice to get back to our chalet sauna to warm up. Luckily, I had packed some hot chocolate packets, and we had unlimited warm drinks in our room.
Our second full day began with one of my Bucket List items – Ice Fishing. I have no idea why, it’s just always been on the list. We were the only ones on this tour, so our guide Satu put us in a snowmobile led sleigh and took us out to Lake Karipaanjarvi. She told us that they had to bring us a little further North than they usually do because Lake Inari had not fully frozen over yet. She told us that due to climate change the lakes were freezing over later and they had actually just gotten their first snow three weeks earlier. Satu showed us how to drill the holes and then brought out reindeer hides for us to sit on as we fished. As she was showing us how to fish, she put the rod in the water as part of her demonstration and when she pulled it out she had a fish. She said that had never happened before and had to send her boss a picture of us getting a fish within 20 seconds of sitting down. Satu then made us some hot drinks and biscuits while we fished. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch any more fish after that, but I still considered it a victory and checked it off the list!
That afternoon we visited a reindeer farm owned by a Sami family. Sami’s are the indigenous people of Lapland, and the owner explained how the reindeers are handed down to the new generations and his daughter had just received her mother’s herd. We then got to meet and feed the reindeer. Once we had our fill of the reindeer, we were brought into a tent where the owner and his family talked about the traditional dress, schooling and politics, and treated us to tea and cinnamon rolls. He explained there are many different Sami languages, but there are only 300 Sami’s who speak the Inari Sami language. Then we walked around the farm to see traditional Sami games and crafts made by the family. Visiting the reindeer was fun, but it reminded me that the one thing I was really disappointed in was that I could not make time in our itinerary to visit Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of the beautiful little Christmas village in Finland, covered in snow and Christmas lights where Santa makes an appearance. Rovaniemi is about 8 hours North of Helsinki, and 4 hours South of Ivalo where we flew to. To visit Rovaniemi we would have needed to either fly or take a sleeper train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, and then after visiting take a 6-hour bus ride to Inari. We just didn’t have enough time in our schedule, and it remains a bucket list item for another day. There was a silver lining though – our Ice Fishing Guide Satu told us that when we were visiting on December 4th, Rovaniemi STILL had not gotten its first snow of the season due to climate change. I would have been so incredibly disappointed if I made the long trip to see the Christmas Village and there was no snow! Satu told us that because Russia celebrates Christmas in the first few weeks of January and Rovaniemi is a popular tourist destination for them you can still see the holiday decorations and Santa after Christmas which might be a better time to go as you’re practically guaranteed snow!
Our final adventure of the day was an Aurora Sledding adventure. We had been out in the cold all day on tours and had about 2 and a half hours to have dinner and make our way to the sledding adventure. At this point I was exhausted and was not looking forward to taking the equipment off and putting it back on again for dinner so instead of joining Deb I simply unzipped my coveralls and left the bottom half and boots on and sat in front of the fire looking out across the lake and eating Pringles instead lol! Deb did take pity on me and brought me back some bread to supplement my Pringle dinner and still, I did NOT regret my choices. 😉 Once we were back up and moving, we were taken on sled to a frozen lake where we were treated to a nice showing of the Aurora. We all took a million pictures before getting our fill and going into the tent for hot drinks. One thing about the Auroras is they move FAST. Just like clouds on a windy day, so if you see one – take the picture immediately because it could be completely different a few minutes later. This time both Debbie and my fingers and toes were frozen and once again, choosing the chalet with a sauna seemed like a great decision.
On our last full day, we were scheduled for 2 more activities. Day time snowmobiling at 10:00 a.m., and then Snowshoeing at 3:00 p.m. This was one thing that we thought the resort could have done better. This was the same day we were moving to our igloo for the night. Even though we were just moving rooms, they made us check out of the chalet at 11:00 a.m. and leave our packed bags in the main lodge until we could check in at 3:00 p.m. This would mean that after our snowmobiling adventure we would have to take off our snow coveralls in the lodge, eat lunch and then put them back on in a tiny bathroom. I’m pretty sure they could have scheduled our igloo to be cleaned first and then allowed us to move our luggage over. It turned out that it didn’t really matter though because we thought our snowmobile ride was 2 hours, but it was actually 4 hours with lunch. At this point, I was a bit over snowmobiling and even though I enjoyed the first few hours of our daylight tour – I was ready to be done as my toes and fingers were so cold it hurt. As we were headed back, two of the snowmobiles ran out of gas and we had to wait for them to be refilled. Once we were back on the path, we passed the turn for the bus, and it was only then I figured out that we had another two hours and an outdoor lunch of salmon stew that I probably would not eat. Needless to say, I stayed in the teepee near the fire during lunch as much as possible trying to warm up. Because we were delayed once we got back to the resort we had only 25 minutes to get out of our gear, use the restroom, eat lunch in the lodge if we wanted to and get back into our gear. With that in mind and because we had not gotten the chance to warm up from the first excursion, we opted to skip snowshoeing. Just make sure that your really cold activities aren’t back-to-back so you have time to warm up. Honestly if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t book more than two outdoor activities in a day.
Missing snowshoeing actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we checked into our igloo and got a chance to relax which we really hadn’t done the entire week since we were so busy. The igloos had a small counter with coffee and a water kettle, an armchair, heated floors and a bathroom. The only odd part was the bed was in the middle of the igloo so there was no headboard, and it was two twin beds pushed together so with no wall to rest on they would move apart. We decided to have an early dinner and just enjoy our igloo for the rest of the evening. As luck would have it this was the BEST night we had all week for the Aurora and we spent the evening watching the incredible views from bed. The pictures we took were amazing and we can’t wait to display them on our travel wall.
The next afternoon we flew back to Helsinki and checked into Hotel Haven. This was also a nice affordable boutique hotel that served a great buffet breakfast. The rooms were large, and we got another 3000 miles by booking through AA Hotels. This time we visited Ekberg 1852, the oldest café/bakery in Helsinki. They had both a counter service bakery and a sit-down café where you could get pastries like Cheesecake with passion fruit filling or Cake with a chocolate base with a hint of vanilla, chocolate mousse and a layer of caramel. I cannot even remember what the dessert was below, but it was GOOD! Finally we went back to the Christmas Market so we could see it at night and browsed for souvenirs to take home.
Because we want to visit All. The. Countries. and see all the Christmas markets, I was excited when I realized that Tallinn, Estonia was just a two-hour ferry ride across Finland Bay. They have a couple of different ferries that cross back-and-forth and they are the size of cruise ships holding over 2800 passengers. On board they have multiple seating areas, food, entertainment – there was even a Burger King! We decided to spend our last full day in Estonia and took the early ferry over which got us to Tallinn at 9:00 a.m. We met a couple, Keith and Jill, on some of our resort tours who were also from the US and told them about our plans to visit Tallinn. They initially thought they couldn’t do it due to having an early flight the following morning but decided to do it anyway. Jill said she told Keith, “There is no way we’re going to find them in Tallinn”, and lo and behold who did we see within our first hour in Tallinn lol! We had a nice catch up and Jill filled us in on all the best Christmas Markets in Germany.
When we arrived in Tallinn, we grabbed an Uber to take us to the city center. Honestly, it wasn’t super far and if you like to walk, it would be an easy walk for you. We actually ended up walking back to the cruise port which took about 25 minutes. The driver dropped us off at the edge of the old town area and we walked in towards the Christmas market. Tallinn is such a pretty little town, and we loved looking at all the beautiful architecture and the cutest little Christmas market. One thing to note that though we used a card for all of our other purchases in Finland and Estonia, some of the stalls at the market only took cash. Old town was very small, but it was adorable. You could walk in one direction and be in a modern area, and in the opposite direction you had a medieval town that reminded me of Prague. We walked up to the Kohtuotsa Lookout to get pictures of Old Town Tallinn from above. In the same area you have Komandandi aed (Commandant’s Garden) which is a green area in Old Town bordered on one side by the Nevsky Cathedral and the Kiek in de Kok artillery tower and city wall on the other. A few steps away is Toompea Castle which today is the home of the Estonian Parliament. They actually have free tours of the castle Monday through Friday, but they have to be booked ahead of time. We then headed back down Toomea Hill to do some souvenir shopping and wandering around the area. Our original ferry back was at 7:30 p.m., but we switched our reservations to the 4:30 p.m. ferry since we had to get up early the next day. We weren’t there long but still got a great introduction to the city.
Our return flight home was a direct flight between Helsinki and Miami. We booked it through American Airlines, but it was operated by Finnair. We had to check in at the airport because it was an international flight, and they wanted to see our passports. In reviewing our tickets, I realized the receipt said that 2 bags were included, but in small letters at the bottom it said if the flight was operated by another carrier, you would be bound by their baggage rules. We asked at the desk what our luggage allowance was, and the woman wasn’t sure, so she called over a supervisor. We were told that it would be the same as our previous Finnair flight – I would get one checked bag and one carryon bag due to status, and Deb would have to pay for hers. When the original agent went to tag our bags, it did not ask for payment so she just shrugged and added the bag tags. Somehow we weren’t charged – but I’m not sure if that’s because we shouldn’t have been or if it was an oversight so make sure you double check your luggage allowance when the flight is operated by another carrier. With my Oneworld Emerald status we were able to visit the Finnair Platinum wing lounge and wait for our flight. The lounge was very modern and provided snacks and drinks as well as a buffet. One thing to note though, the Helsinki airport is huge and the gates are spread out so make sure you have enough time to get back to your gate. Our flight was uneventful, and we arrived in Miami at about 5:00 p.m. We were a little worried as the next Tri-Rail train was at 5:55 and there wasn’t another until after 8:00 p.m. if we missed it, but as soon as we landed my daughter Brynna texted and said not to worry about the train, she had driven down to pick us up scoring her a million best daughter points lol!
We enjoyed our visit to Finland and the experience at the Wilderness Hotel in the Arctic Circle was one for the books! Remember, life is short – buy the tickets!
