Quick look
What To See
Eating Out
Sleepover
Getting There

Cradled in the Arctic Circle, this magical place is as surprising as it is serene. Mid September is Ruska time, literally translated as Russet, and this is the perfect description of the stunning autumnal colours that light up the tree filled landscape: Gently rolling fells are punctuated by shimmering lakes, surrounded by forests comprising of only pines and silver birches, the latter of which have turned to shocking yellow or deep russet red. This is not the conventional image that Lapland might conjure, naturally Santa and snow spring to mind and by all accounts winter is a literal wonderland, but the best time to beat the tourists is Ruska, where your only travelling companions will be the Finns from the south who visit to enjoy the tranquillity and beauty of the season.

Finnish Lapland is a country of contrasts, with near 24 hour sunlight in summer and only a couple of hours of twilight in the winter, and these extreme climactic changes govern every part of the Finnish and Lappish lifestyles. The gentle landscape in summer comes alive with teaming vegetation that turns rich and abundant by Ruska. The forest floors are littered with fat berries - blueberries, lingenberries, and bilberries - all ripe for the picking as you wonder the enchanting forests. Though you must be alert as this is home to brown bears, and although they are shy, they will not take kindly to surprise visitors - our guide casually told us to make plenty of noise as we walk to warn any bears that we're approaching. The wildlife is fast adapting in September for the impending snow, during just a few days the snow grouse turned their feathers from tawny brown to brilliant white before my eyes. And of course, if you’re lucky enough, you might just catch the startling and magical Northern Lights dancing through the sky.

The gentle and welcoming Sámi people are indigenous to Lapland, which covers the northern parts of Norway and Russia too. Traditional reindeer herding and forestry are the backbones of the society, which sit harmoniously with the expanding tourist industry, within an intimate community. Outdoor pursuits are the order of the season, with trekking, hiking and cycling through the stunning countryside. Post exercise relaxation and fun is equally important with many cosy fire lit bars for intimate drinks, and some dancing thrown in for good measure.

What To See : Back to top

Berry picking & Gold-diggers camp
With a guide in tow or even alone, a trek through the hushed forests is a serene and enchanting experience. The branches on the trees start well above head height, and the foliage on the ground lies so low that the trek is relatively easy, and you can see well ahead of you - for those bears - they are rare to sight, but a concern nonetheless! Our lovely guide, Sally, tells us that the best way to tell if a bear is close by is if the cloudberries (a local delicacy that crops up quite often in the restaurants) have been sucked dry, the bears are not fans of the skin it seems!

The forest is abundant with herbs, many of which are believed to have powerful medicinal properties such as angelica which rich in antioxidants, and the bog bilberries are believed to fight cancer. They are all absolutely delicious whether this is true or not, and it’s addictive to be able to stoop and gather fistfuls of these juicy berries that would cost a fortune in a British supermarket.

A great place to drop into on a trek is the Gold-diggers Camp, where Pavo the Gold Prospector who owns the claim will tell tales of his craft whist serving coffee in traditional kuksa cups, and flambéed pancakes with thick cream and cloudberry jam. You can camp at the claim in tents and small cabins, and even prospect for gold yourself. This is still a thriving industry from May to October, though it's seriously hard work, and in the local bar you can even pay for your drinks in gold!

Hiking in Urho Kekkonen National Park (inc smoke sauna)
Hiking in the fells is an extremely popular activity, particularly Nordic Walking - walking with sticks resembling ski poles. This sport was started by skiers keen to stay fit in summer, and is a great way to maximise the exercise by working the arms as well as the legs. There are many marked paths to trek, covering the barren fells and rich forests riddled with meandering mountain streams. The centre will provide you with a truly delicious packed lunch with piping hot mushroom soup and sausages to roast on an open fire.

Once you've completed a hard days hiking the best way to relax is with a smoke sauna - which sounds terrifying but is exhilarating and not to be missed. The turf hut sits beside a babbling stream, which is the only sound you'll hear, and overlooks the fells and forest that you have just conquered. The sauna has been heated by burning wood for up to ten hours, filling it with smoke which is realised before you enter. It is initially unbearably hot, with the flames fanned by our seemingly immune guides. You sit in this dry heat until you cannot bear the heat a moment longer, then rush outside and fling yourself in the icy pure mountain stream! This sounds an unlikely pleasure but it is utterly exhilarating, and on returning to the sauna you can sit for a good long time before the heat begins to cloy, and you throw yourself in the water again.

Dancing at Tunturi Hotel
This is dancing, but not as we know it! Though the fabulous Tunturi Hotel does have a disco upstairs, the main dancing attractions here are traditional waltzes and foxtrots, which bring every member of the community flocking to the hotel. Chivalry is a given, as Ladies are asked to dance by the men, and it is considered very rude to refuse a dance; once asked a lady is expected to dance two consecutive dances with the man, again it is considered rude to walk away after just one. Language barriers were forgotten instantly as I danced the night away with an array of lovely people, every one a perfect gentleman who could dance with skill and suave long forgotten in Britain.

Siida Sámi Museum & Boat trip on Lake Inari
Sitting beside Lake Inari, the Siida centre is an unusual, unstuffy museum, and a joy to visit. The Sámi people have worked closely with the centre to deliver a true and accurate picture of the countryside alongside the way of life it governs. The main room is a journey through the seasons, with each month represented in breathtaking backlit photographs, pieces of footage, succinct and fascinating facts and samples of the wildlife. Hours could be spent here!

From the centre you can take a two hour leisurely cruise on the lake. Lake Inari itself is so enormous that it holds over three thousand three hundred islands! Local life is intrinsically linked to the lake, with its teeming stock of delicious fish. The most important island on the lake is Uko Island (Ukosaari) the sacred Sámi Island dedicated to Uko the Sámi god, an imposing, conical island that the boat will stop at for visitors to climb, though this practice may stop very soon to preserve the island.

Idoli Design House
The Idoli Design museum is a breath of fresh air. Quirky and original as the couple that dreamt up and realised the concept museum, it is not only a fascinating tour inside, it is a remarkable piece of architecture designed by the couple themselves. Hanneli and Pekke Sillfors are an intriguing couple, she is an ex-model and owner of a fashion boutique and he an ex-director of an advertising agency. On visiting the shores of Inari fifteen years ago they fell in love with the tranquillity, and decided to move there and open the centre to champion the exquisite and often quirky design that Finland is famous for. Young and innovative designers seem to abound in Finnish Lapland, and this is certainly the place to see them. Once you have toured the exhibition, which is full of exquisite design pieces and iconic designs, updated throughout the year, Hanneli and Pekke will take you to their self designed glass hut. Based on the traditional Lappish shape with its striking white interior and lavish chandelier, it takes in beautiful views from the shores of the lake. They will feed you champagne in exquisite glasses with utterly stylish canapés.

Eating Out : Back to top

Traditional foods in Lapland are in total harmony with the countryside. Reindeer meat is herded locally by many of Saariselka’s residents, snow grouse, hare and bear are locally hunted (with licences) and the fish is all freshly caught, usually the same day, from Lake Inari. Vegetables are fewer and further between due to the harsh climate, but typically beetroots and other root vegetables are locally sourced. The berries used are always forest fresh from just outside the restaurants, and the true delicacies are the cep or porcini mushrooms. With everything so locally produced this is the original macrobiotic diet!

Hotel Riekonlinna (Saariselka)
This hotel boasts a delightful dining experience, with their award winning chef appealing to locals and visitors alike, and their welcoming hotel manager Maria. We started with a small but perfect amuse bouche of porcini mushroom soup with champagne, followed by the legs of an absolutely enormous King Crab, with battered cod’s tongue and chilli mayonnaise. You can absolutely taste the quality of the ingredients here, which have been handled with sensitivity. Pudding was a light and delicately made white chocolate mousse with cloudberries – Riekonlinna comes highly recommended!

Panorama restaurant Huippu (at the top of Kaunispaa Fell)
The views from the sophisticated and delightful restaurant are magnificent. On a clear day the eye can see as far as the fells of Russia, and the decor of the panoramic restaurant is perfectly complimented to the view. Clearly geared towards the winter season (it is, after all, atop a skiing fell) the hexagonal room echoes a Lappish hut, with high conical ceiling picked out by tiny lights like stars, with the traditional open fire burning.

The excellent food again spoke volumes about the local produce. Starting with vandace and whitefish roe with onion and sour cream on black pepper toasts, this was just the right portion – enough to prelude the fabulous main course of breast of mountain willow grouse and elk noisette elegantly accompanied by green pepper sauce, potato terrain and simple fried ceps. Once again the mushrooms stole the show with their rich flavour and simple handing. The mini crepes with marinated berries and cloudberry sorbet were lovely, if slightly heavy following the main, but the meal was well accompanied by a robust Riesling.

Saariselka Tunturi Hotel – Cookery course in a Lapp Tepee (Saariselka)
Tunturi have come up with this ingenious way of showcasing their good food and dedicated chefs - a Finnish cookery class in a traditional Lappish tepee. Our lovely host asks us to call him simply "chef" and his wonderful assistant Paeve is there to dish out the wine and aperitifs with enthusiasm and a generous idea of proportions.

We start by putting on our aprons, which we later keep as souvenirs, then are taken straight to the delights of getting messy. To start we make Arctic Skate and Tiger Prawn skewers with plenty of cherry tomatoes and onions, roasted over the open fire traditional to a Lappish tepee. These are served with a rocket salad dressed only with olive oil and salt - this is not a culture that is shy of salt, maybe the sodium scare has not reached them, so the heavy handed salting was a theme running through the meal. However the pine wood smoke infused the food with a unique delicate flavour. Chef explained that he let the excellent produce, when smoke infused, speak for itself and never over complicated it. The result was a truly delicious meal.

Our mains were huge, tender reindeer steaks with morels and pan fried vegetables. Once again the morels stole the show - these mushrooms, we are told, are so poisonous that only reindeer can eat them raw. However we have to cook the morels three times before they can be eaten, and our chef had picked these himself in summer, and had twice cooked them already. These were boiled with specially treated cream that did not split, and were rich, nutty and mouth-wateringly earthy.

In all this is a great "foodie" experience. Our chef was great fun and both he and his assistant Paeve joined us for drinks and dancing later. The Lappish tepee is comfortingly cosy and the whole experience was great fun.

Hotel Kultahovi (Inari)
The lovely brother and sister team that run this hotel are thoughtful and quietly dedicated to the total culinary experience they offer. Set beside the thundering Inari River, their restaurant menu is a considered tour of what they believe to be the very best of Lapland, including many fish dishes inspired by the catches from the river itself.

Plumping for the vegetarian menu in this hotel I was treated to a mushroom (cep) soup of such delicate nutty flavour I almost wished that my main course would be a repetition of the starter. My companions were treated to and excellent carpaccio of reindeer with pickled mushrooms.

Main courses here are an absolute triumph - I ate goats cheese topped courgettes with caper risotto, simple, elegant and scrumptious. The goat’s cheese had been brought up from Helsinki for the menu, but, as ever all other ingredients were local. This simply makes one realise how utterly in tune with the environment the Lappish Finns are. In Britain, a restaurateur admitting with some shame that they had been forced to bring one ingredient in from, say, Manchester down to London would be unthinkable. But here the emphasis is on enjoying the rich foods that the local climate offers up, and making the very best of these ingredients. A crème Brule with cloudberries tops off this truly excellent meal, followed by a surprisingly smooth shot of angelica vodka.

Sleepover : Back to top

Hotel Riekonlinna (Saariselka)
This charming hotel is instantly warm and welcoming as you walk through the doors into the reception housing the cosy bar. The crackling fire is the centre piece of the bar – fire is the hearth and heart of any truly Finnish establishment.  The brave should order the bar’s signature drink the Aurora Borealis – a heady concoction of apple sours and vodka with a drop of cloudberry liqueur. Rooms are modestly furnished in a clean Scandinavian style, with balconies overlooking the forest which inches into the hotel grounds. The dining rooms are excellent with their award winning chef, and the breakfast is typically Finnish with either porridge and freshly picked berries, or dark rye bread, cheese and pickles.

Hotel Kultahovi (Inari)
Sámi Brother and sister team Kaisu and Heikke have taken this simple hotel and made it into a cosy, welcoming sanctuary. Having been brought up in the hotel trade, they have both perused other successful careers following university, and now, in their thirties have returned to Kultahovi to bring their experience and personal touches to the hotel. The building itself, despite being the oldest hotel in the area, only dates back to the 1950's, and is fairly basic. Rooms are comfortable but slightly spartan. This is all set to change, as Kaisu and Heikke have started their updates with the restaurant and concentrated on changing one element at a time - the accommodation will be the next thing to be updated.

The hotel is right on the banks of the thundering Inari river, which provides a soothing aural backdrop as you drift off to sleep. The sauna here is really special too. Set in a separate log cabin, the sauna, though electric, is great, and when it all gets too hot, you simply step outside (in your towel of course!) onto the cabin's veranda where you can sit quietly steaming in the crisp air as you watch the mighty river rush past. This is utterly peaceful and a great experience for the soul as well as the body.

Getting There : Back to top

Finn Air flies to Helsinki where you will transfer to a smaller plane to Ivalo.

Reservations : 0870 241 44 11
For more information on flights visit www.finnair.com

Isabel Robinson