Genuine winter experience
8 days
This tour offers a similar itinerary to our ”Christmas in the Heart of Scandinavia” tour but focuses more on the outdoor activities the area has to offer. We provide one genuine winter experince tour in januari and one in mars.
- Trondheim, Norway
- Trondheim, Norway
- 8 days, 7 nights
- When: January and Mars
- Size on the group: 10-15 people
- 3450 GBP
- Single room upgrade: 465 GBP
In January and March, we usually have a lot of snow here in Scandinavia and the sun starts to stay up longer every day. In other words, it’s the best time to try traditional winter activities.
On our journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Swedish mountains, guests can experience a range of activities such as dogsledding, snowmobile tours, spas, and guided hikes. We will meet tame moose, reindeer, visit a frozen waterfall, and the Nidaros Dome in Trondheim. This trip also offers us a chance to get to know the Sami culture and meet the native people of the area. One will be spent in a cozy cabin up in the mountains this plays is truly a hidden gem that only the locals know about.
The Genuine winter experience tour is created for travelers who want a high standard of both accommodation and food. After just a 2.5-hour direct flight from London you will arrive in the snow-covered landscape of Scandinavia. We will travel 600 km (372 miles) by bus in both Norway and Sweden.
You will be traveling in a small group (10-15 people) together with a local guide. Everything will be arranged for you upon arrival, and accommodation and many activities and meals are included in the price. Let the journey begin!
Hotels and activities can be changed if needed but will always be substituted with something equivalent
- 7 nights accommodation
- All breakfasts, four lunches, one dinner and additional culinary experiences
- All activities are included except on our full day in Åre (day three) where you get to chose your own activities for the day. We will still help you out with the booking of the activities and everything that need to be arranged.
- Optional activities are not included in the price.
- Activities can be changed if needed but will always be changed to something equivalen.
- Some of the included activities are: Historical walk in the mountain village Åre, Guided tour at a moose rescue center, Visit a Runestone form the Viking age, Meet a reindeer, experience a Scandinavian winter in a cozy cabin in mountains, Snowmobile tour to the Sami village, Cooking food over open fire, Hike a short part of the northern most located Pilgrim trail in the world, experience a frozen waterfall, entry to Nidarosdomen Cathedral and museum.
- Entry to Jamtli museum with several exhibitions, see the Viking and Sami history. Jamtli is also home to a branch of the National Museum with unique collections of Nordic paintings
- Please note that fight tickets are not included in the price and that you need to book them yourself.
- All accommodation has been carefully selected and offer a unique and authentic experience of Scandinavian hospitality. We will be staying six nights at hotels of a good standard and one night in a cozy cabin up in the mountains. Although the cabin is large and spacious, it is shared accommodation for the evening which means that the toilet facilities are shared and you will not can’t do a single room upgrade. The location of the cabin is good for the possibility of seeing Northern lights (weather dependent). All the other nights have the possibility for a single room upgrade.
- Hotels can be changed if needed but will always be changed to something equivalent.
Take a look at some of our accommodation for this tour:
- Copperhill mountain Loge, Åre, copperhill.se
- Åre Fjällsätra, Undersåker, arefjallsatra.com
- Frösö Park Hotel, Frösön, frosoparkhotel.se
- The start and end point for the tour is Trondheim, Norway. The date for the tour is made to correspond with the 2,5 h direct flight from London- Gatwick (LGW) and we will pick you up at the airport when you arrive and drop you of when it’s time for your flight home. www.norwegian.no is the company doing the direct flights.
- Please note that fight tickets are not included in the price and that you need to book them yourself.
- For those not on the direct flight, we recommend flights to Oslo international airport (OSL) and then take the 1 h direct flight from Oslo (to Trondheim (TRD). You can also take the 7 h long train-ride from Oslo if you want to see more of this beautiful country.
- We will always do our best to help you out! Let us know if you have any questions.
This is an example on an ordinary day when you are on the Christmas Tour (day six):
7:30 am– Breakfast in our cabin in Bydalen with a view over the mountains.
8:45 am– We depart from our cabin and do a short drive to the other side of the little valley where the road ends and the wilderness starts.
9 am – People from the Sami village of the aria will pick us up on there snowmobiles and drive us to there home ”Hosjöbottnarna”. They will tell us about Sapmi, the land of the native people of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.
12 pm – We join them for a traditional Sami lunch with reindeer meat and they will tell us stories around the open fire.
1:30 pm – Time to get in the cosy snowmobile sled and travel through the snow covered landscape back to Bydalen where our coach is waiting.
2 pm – Now it will be nice to enjoy the drive through the forest in a warm coach to our accommodation for tonight.
3:30 pm – We check in to our accommodation for tonight. A cozy little hotel where the owners are ready to welcome us and show us around. Take some time to relax at the hotel room or in the cozy hotel lobby.
5 pm – Join for a group dinner at the hotel restaurant.
6:30 pm – The outdoor sauna is ready for the the brave once. The Scandinavian way of taking a winter sauna is to run out in the snow and then get warm inside the sauna again. Few things makes you feel more alive! The hotel bar will be open, spend the evening with your fellow travelers.
Itinerary details
Welcome to Norway and to Mid Scandinavia tours! We will pick you up at Trondheim airport when your flight arrives and drive you to the hotel. Let the stress disperse and breathe in the invigorating cold winter air. Take this moment to just relax and enjoy your time in Scandinavia, everything is already booked and prepared for you for the next days! After a few minutes drive it ́s time to check in to our hotel for the night and prepare for an exiting day tomorrow. No activities are booked today due to the direct flight from Londons late arrival.
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Included meals: Light evening snacks
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Driving distance: Approximately 15 minutes
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Accommodation: Quality Airport Hotel, Værnes, Norway
The day starts with a calm morning and a Scandinavian breakfast that also give us some time to get to know our fellow travels. Our first stop for the day will be in the middle of the winter Scandinavian natural landscape. The native people of the aria have been living here for a long time and we will experience a part of the Sami culture when we get the chance to try Sami handicraft. After the stop the remaining coach ride crosses the border to Sweden and we will drive to the area that that has been deemed a UNESCO region for gastronomy. The gastronomy promise is delivered on one of our favorite lunch stops, where the passion and handicraft for food is of the highest priority.
In the evening we will arrive at the famous mountain village Åre that has been a popular tourist destination for more than 100 years. It all started with wealthy guests who came to the small farm village to breathe the healthy mountain air. The first tourist hotel opened 1895 by the lady Kristina Hansdotter. The cosy hotel is still around and like 100 years ago, still welcomes its guests and is where we are going to spend the night.
- Included activities: Sami handcraft
- Included meals: Breakfast and lunch
- Driving distance: 3 hours
- Accommodation: Hotel Åregården, Åre, Sweden
Get your camera ready because today we will meet the king of the forest, the Swedish Moose! The coach arrives at the Moose Garden, where we will meet the moose by the light of lanterns. There are lots of wild moose in the Scandinavian nature but these moose at the farm, are tame and live here at a moose rescue center. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to kiss and hug a moose!
Jamtli is the place where Jämtland region’s cultural history comes to life. Here you can also find the exhibition Vikings and the ancient woven cloths “Överhogdalsbonaderna”. These fabrics have existed for more than 1000 years and depicts a world miles away from the one we live in today. Jamtli is also home to a branch of the National Museum with unique collections of Nordic paintings, sculptures and other artwork dating from 1500-1900.
- Included activities: Entry to the local museum Jamtli, visit a Moose Farm
- Included meals: Breakfast
- Driving distance: 1 hour
- Accommodation: Frösö Park Hotel, Frösön, Sweden
The sun starts to stay up longer during this time of the year but we still just have a few hours of daylight but the reason we love the winters in the north is for the epic phenomenon aurora borealis, the northern lights and the stars that keep us company during the winter long nights. Imagine a clear morning watching the sun slowly rise from our bus window around 09:30 as we drive west to meet a local women named Ullis. She lives in a small village in the middle of the forest together with her family and a her tame reindeers! In this visit she shares everything she knows about these beautiful animals and part of the visit she invites us to taste and sample specialties for this part of Scandinavia.
We leave this experience with photos and visceral memories of a complete reindeer experience as we continue our drive to the cabins that we will be staying in tonight. We will spend the day outdoors and enjoy the winter landscape before we go inside and cook a traditional meal together. The feeling of just being together in a warm cabin with the dark and cold winter night outside our window is one of the best once.
- Included activities: Meet the reindeer Rudolf, experience Swedish winter activities
- Included meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Driving distance: 1,5 hours
- Accommodation: In a cozy mountain cabin with ablutions and shower but no single room upgrade. Bydalen, Sweden.
When the ice melted from the last Ice Age, the humans of the area followed the reindeers north into the area that we now call Sapmi. Sapmi is the collective area of the northern parts of Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. In this area, some Sami still make a living on reindeer farming. Today our tour will be taking us into their culture and we will guided around by Sami people. The tour starts when they pick us up on snowmobiles and take us to the place that they call home.
We will hear stories about how it is to live where the road ends and nature takes over. We learn how it is to live with the slow change of seasons in a barren and harsh climate. We will also be served lunch, most probably traditional reindeer cuisine around an open fire. In the end of the day we will leave the valley of Bydalen and arrive at our hotel in Undersåker.
- Included activities: Meet the Sami culture, outdoor sauna
- Included meals: Breakfast and lunch
- Driving distance: 1,5 hours
- Accommodation: Åre Fjällsätra, Undersåker, Sweden
We travel back to Åre to make sure we don’t miss out on anything in this cozy little village. Choose your own activity for the day and let us book or arrange the activity. We recommend to a typical activity for the area, dogsledding. It’s a unique experience, setting off and the tranquility sets in, the barking stops and the quiet nature are envelopes us. There is a chance to drive your own dogsled and let the dogs guide you through the forests that they call home.
Some other examples of things to do are ice fishing, historical walk and cross-country skiing. You can also shop at all the small shops of Åre filled with traditional handcraft from the area and high-quality outdoor brands that have their roots here. Our hotel for tonight is highly recommended and the spa view is one to remember!
- Optional activities: Spa, dogsledding, ice fishing or cross-country skiing, historical walk and a lot more
- Included activities: Take a look at all the shops that sells local handcrafts
- Included meals: Breakfast
- Driving distance: 1 hour
- Accommodation: Copperhill Mountain Lodge, Åre, Sweden
If you have been traveling all the way to Scandinavia it’s an absolute must to walk in the footsteps of the Vikings. We will start the day with a short walk on the northernmost Pilgrim trail in the world, the St Olav pilgrim trail. This pilgrim trail totals 580 kilometers in length and stretches from Swedens’ Baltic ocean in the east to the Norways Atlantic Ocean in the West and regales pilgrims with the story of the Viking Olav Haraldsson, born 995. His legend is how he brought Sweden turn from its belief in Nordic mythology and converted the land to Christianity. The pilgrim trail will take us to a stunning frozen waterfall along our 2 km long walk. After the walk, we will take the chance to enjoy the rest of St.Olavsleden from the window of the coach.
We arrive in Trondheim in the afternoon and we have time to explore Trondheim on our own. Maybe you want to stretch your legs and take a walk to Nidarosdomen, the cathedral where St. Olav is buried according to the legend.
- Activities: Walk the St Olov pilgrim path, see a frozen waterfall, visit Nidarosdomen
- Included meals: Breakfast
- Driving distance: 3 hours
- Accommodation: Clarion Hotel Trondheim
Today is our last day together and we will spend the day strolling around the town of Trondheim. Enjoy all the cozy small shops or take the chance to book a river cruise and boat tour on the Nidaros river. At lunch we gather for a final farewell lunch and share photos from the week we have spent together. The direct flight back to London departs in the afternoon and we will arrange transfer.
- Activities: Strolling the streets of Trondheim
- Included meals: Breakfast and lunch
- Driving distance: 45 minutes
- Accommodation: If you want to stay longer you need to do the booking by your self.
Accommodation
Authentic experience of Scandinavian hospitality. Six nights in hotels and one night in a cozy mountain cabin.