Stayed at Hetta Hotel, 4 nights full board flying from Manchester to Kittilä with TUI 12-16th Dec.
Check in
Easiest and smoothest check in and security ever. From parking up to getting through security was less than 20 mins.
Flight
Plane decorated with tinsel. Cabin crew in Christmas jumpers and Santa hats.
Christmas activity pack given to children.
Colouring competition.
Singing carols.
Santa landed on the plane and his reindeer guided us into the airport to land.
Invited children up to flight deck when landed.
Arrival at Kittilä
Greeted by plenty of reps, elves and Captain T TUI mascot.
Very well organised.
Allocated a coach, dropped cases off, 2 minute walk to the warehouse for snow suits etc. (You pass it on the way to the coach)
Again very well organised, in and out in 2 minutes and back on the coach. They give you a big clear plastic bag that you write your family name on, you put the suits etc in here until you get to the hotel.
Once checked in at the hotel, you can swap any items for alternative sizes if something doesn’t fit so don’t worry too much at the warehouse. The staff are good at guessing your size.
The snow suit and boots are great. We took our own stuff but I chose to wear their snow suit as I preferred it for comfort and warmth.
We travelled in jeans, jumper, coat and boots and was warm enough. Although temps didn’t go below -8c during our trip and was usually quite mild at about -1c
2 hours transfer to hotel. I enjoyed taking in the landscape and soaking up all the scenery.
Hetta Hotel
Check in easy and smooth.
Stayed In a bungalow.
Dated but comfortable.
Too warm inside at times. No need for fleece pjs.
As we stayed in the bungalow we had to walk over to the hotel for meals etc, at night we just wore our own coats over our jeans and jumper and were fine for the 2 minute walk.
Bungalow had a kitchen with fridge, kettle, toaster, microwave and oven plus plates etc.
We had 3 single beds, small but comfortable.
Small living area and dining table.
Wet room style bathroom. A gastly green colour but clean and adequate.
Plenty of hanging space.
No WiFi in bungalows but free WiFi in the hotel.
There is a programme of entertainment during the day with crafts, snowman competition, camp fire and cookie decorating. Evening entertainment starts with a kids disco with Captain T.
We won the build a snow monster competition!
Food was fine, enough choice and kids catered for, drinks expensive but that’s to be expected. You are allocated a table in the restaurant and this is your table for your stay. Water, tea and coffee provided with meal but any other drinks cost extra.
Pepsi around €5, glass of wine €11, mulled wine €6, cider €7.
Gala meal was brisket, roast potatoes, sprouts, red cabbage, turkey, salmon, meatballs, chips, veg, salads with cheese and crackers and cheesecake dessert.
Taster day
Quiet and not rushed.
Got to do things multiple times.
Reindeer rides, huskies, snowmobile, sledging.
Warm berry juice and gingerbread.
Cute souvenir shop.
Husky safari
We booked the extra trip to do a 6km husky safari through TUI but provided by Hetta Huskies, it was amazing. You drive your own team of huskies. We booked at the resort with TUI last minute. We also had a tour of the husky farm and got to meet the huskies. Tours can be booked for cheaper with Hetta Huskies.
Santa
We met him in the hotel during the gala meal. I was disappointed at the thought of this as previous years I had read about meeting him in a cabin in the woods. However the interaction was good and Santa was authentic. My little girl was not disappointed. The room was nice with a crackling fire and Christmas tree.
Kittila airport for departure.
Small but very efficient and well organised.
Check in was quick, security was fast. Then there is an area with shop and restaurant but you will still need to go through passport control. Don’t worry there is another shop and restaurant and a play area with comfy bean bags.
Other
Small souvenir shop in the hotel, sells some essentials such as toothbrush and some snacks, drinks and ice creams too.
We walked into Hetta to the supermarket. Bottles of wine average €11. About 10 minutes walk, take a sledge to carry back your shopping. It’s a small town centre with a supermarket, alko shop, pharmacy and a burger bar.
Sledges are for using, the etiquette was to use/ take any dotted around and leave when done for others. Always managed to find one when we wanted one. There usually some out front of the hotel or round the back.
Turn right out of the hotel and about 2 minutes up the road is the museum and tourist centre. There is a beautiful walk through the forest at the back. There are a few walking tracks. There is also a cafe here.
Ski slope also here, didn’t see the slope but heard it was good for sledging.
Frozen lake at the back of the hotel is where most of the activities took place. We spent hours building snowman and sledging down the banks.
No northern lights sadly due to cloud coverage but the lake would be the perfect place to see them.
Reps do a great job, TUI were fantastic, everything was very well organised. Charlie Christmas, Merry Morgan, sleighbell soph , frosty snow Dan and Christmas Cracker Katie all worked really hard and entertained the children.
We were never cold but the temps never really went as low as -8c. Thermals, fleece, jogging bottoms, socks and snow suit with a hat was toasty enough. I constantly took my gloves off to take pictures and was never too cold. Temps are set to decrease over the next few days though and it ha seven -29c the day before we arrived. I think we had the prefect temperature.
My little girl (5) loved it, the small things like building a snowman, being pulled on a sledge, making friends, just playing in the snow were her favourite things.
It barely gets light. Even though I had read about the limited light, it still shocked me how little daylight there is. Sometimes My brain didn’t know if it was 9am or midnight. It’s weird.
Also so much snow!!
Now I’m off to price up next year!!
