cold – Wanderlust Wonderland

Hotels made of snow and sleeping under the stars

7 March 201917 August 2021 by Mariska, posted in Cold weather vacations, Europe, Lapland

Lapland is such a wonderful place to be and there are some unforgettable locations where you can spend the night. Of the four nights we stayed in Lapland, three of them were spend in this lovely wooden lodge. As I said before, we booked out trip through an organization that took care of everything and they were also in charge of our lodging. We stayed at the Pinetree Lodge in Kangos, Sweden. We also visited a snow hotel which would be such an amazing place to stay and we slept in the most incredible Aurora Hideaway, which is by far, the most wonderful place I have ever spent the night.

The pinetree lodge is a cosy cabin in the middle of the woods. Everything was made out of wood, it had a sauna and a restaurant, and upstairs there were some couches you could lounge on, read a book, or play some chess. You could also hire a private cabin, instead of room in the lodge, where you could relax in front the fire.

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Exploring Lapland on a snowscooter

6 March 201919 November 2020 by Mariska, posted in Cold weather vacations, Europe, Lapland

I’m a scaredy cat. I’m afraid of heights, I can’t watch horror movies because I will never sleep again and I probably have pissed off my roommates numerous times by turning on the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the night (but seriously, how else am I gonna get rid of that spider that’s right above my bunk bed?)

Anyway, we booked our trip to Lapland via an organization (XPlore the North) that arranged everything for us. The flight, the lodge we stayed in, the meals, and the activities. They had arranged two ways for us to explore the snowy landscape. One was awesome. One was terrifying…

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

5 March 201919 November 2020 by Mariska, posted in Cold weather vacations, Europe, Lapland

I don’t like cold weather. When I was younger, I remember my sister and my dad going outside to make a snowman and having fun, and afterwards they came inside and had some hot cocoa (with whipped cream, ofcourse) to warm up again. I just skipped the whole snowy experience and enjoyed my hot chocolate whilst reading a nice book, and being warm inside. If you told me then that I would voluntarily go to a place where it is -25°C (= -13°F), that I would actually be super excited to go there, I would have laughed in your face.

But I did. Our last summer was incredibly hot. It had been 40 °C (=104 °F) for weeks and I work in a place with no air conditioning. Everyone was fed up with it and was looking for ways to get cold. As always, I was thinking about going on a trip and I wanted to plan our next vacation. I started looking for places where it would be cold, even though we weren’t planning on going away again that summer. Just thinking about cold places made me feel better, somehow. And that’s when I found Lapland.

The pictures I saw of Lapland were absolutely gorgeous. Talk about a winter wonderland! Snow and trees as far as you could look. Peace and quiet. The activities you could do there also sounded absolutely amazing. Staying in a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere. Go on a tour on a husky sled. See the northern lights. Sauna, Jacuzzi. I was sold. Lapland it was!

It took me some time to convince Boyfriend that we had to go there as soon as possible, and it took some saving, but we went there and it was so amazing. And, honestly… not even that cold…