On our last day at the Nellim Wilderness Hotel in Finland, we spent the day doing several different activities. In the morning, we met up with our group and our guide, Jonny, who explained what we were going to do that day. After a short recap of how to use the snowmobiles, we hopped on and off we went!
Our first destination was to the local Lutheric church, where we stopped for a bit while Jonny gave us a brief history of the Lapland area and the Sami people. Then, we were on to a nearby reindeer farm which is owned by a Sami family. The reindeer were so cute and it was fun to feed and interact with them! One thing we learned is that each reindeer herder has a specific ear mark that is designed for them. They mark the ears of the reindeer when they are babies so the herders know which reindeer are theirs.
After spending time with the reindeer, we continued on our way to the center of a nearby frozen lake where we tried our hand at ice fishing. Let me tell you, ice fishing was not our forte! It is a very popular activity with the Finnish people and was fun to try, but it requires a lot of patience.
Our next stop of the day was our last – to a campsite near the Russian border where we stopped for a late lunch. After having lunch and exploring the nearby area, Jonny took us to the border zone. There isn’t a concrete border, but instead the yellow tape on the trees signifies the makeshift border. It’s a no-man’s land for miles and miles before you reach Russia.
Once we arrived back at the hotel, we popped over to the sauna for a quick steam to warm up. There were three saunas on the property, all of which you could rent out for an hour. Saunas are the traditional Finnish experience – each home in Finland has one. Fun fact: pregnant women give birth in their saunas! The sauna was really relaxing and I’m so glad we did it!
After our steam, we checked into our new room for the night – an Aurora Kota! These cozy rooms have walls made out of glass for you to look out and admire the night sky. And if you’re lucky, maybe watch the Northern Lights from the comfort of your bed! While it was a cool experience, I would only recommend staying in one for one night – it’s small and there are no showers in the room. Also, unfortunately it snowed a bit in the evening, so the glass of our Kota became covered in a faint layer of snow. This meant that we couldn’t see out of the glass at night; however, it did make for some cool photos the next morning haha.
If you missed my other posts from Finland, you can read Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 here.
