TRIP OF A LIFETIME
TRIP OF A LIFETIME
This trip for me will be one of the easiest things to write about, because it really was the trip of a lifetime. I opened a gift from my husband on Christmas day 2022 which was just a piece of paper saying that we were off to Lapland in December 2023, I was stupidly excited like a kid at Christmas when Santa had brought me the one thing I had always wanted!
My husband had booked the whole trip through Andrea White independent travel agent, and I have to admit I was slightly nervous I have only ever dealt with large travel companies before but I really didn’t need to be worried at all, I can honestly say from now on I will NEVER use a large company again. Andrea was amazing and all my husband had to do was tell her what he wanted for our family, It was my husband, myself and my 2 girls aged 8 & 11. I was worried that I had missed the magic for my eldest daughter but again I didn’t need to have worried at all about that, she smiled from the moment I woke her up to go to airport to the minute we left to come home! I also at 37 found myself caught in the magic and believing in the big man again!!!
A couple of weeks before departure date, I contacted Andrea as I wanted to book parking for the airport and I wasn’t 100% sure which airport we were flying from as my husband had arranged it all with her. The minute I told her I was sorting out parking she assured me that she would sort it all for me and I didn’t need to worry, she contacted me soon after with quotes and asked me which one I wanted to go with, asked for my car registration and within minutes I had received confirmation e mail that my parking had been booked, literally amazing as I was not expecting her to do that at all!
Now for the fun part…….we got to the airport with plenty of time…or so we thought! The queue for check in was extremely long and took a good hour to get through, the staff were amazing chatting to the children and handing out chocolates, but I did find it slightly stressful. I would also like to point out that we actually had a text from Andrea whilst we were queuing for check in to make sure that we had arrived at the airport safely ect which I thought was a lovely personal touch.
When we arrived in Finland we were welcomed by loads of happy arctic stars, and loads and loads of snow…..my girls were in awe at the depth of the snow, in their whole lives they have only ever seen the piddly snowfalls we sometimes get in the uk, and I have to admit I was slightly taken aback at how beautiful the snow really was, it glistened at me!!
Canterbury travel and their staff were absolutely amazing my husband had given Andrea free reign on who to book with and honestly I don’t think we could have booked anything better ourselves. Everything from transfers to activities was absolutely perfect.
We stayed in an open plan log cabin, it was stunning with a log fire and sauna my only criticism is we were kept so busy we didn’t spend much time in the cabin to appreciate its beauty!
The Artic stars with Canterbury travel were honestly the best I felt like they were friends by the end of the 4 days! They are amazing with the kids and made every journey fun and exciting! As I have said everything was completely organised for us we didn’t need to worry about a thing it was so nice not to have to try and plan every second of every day as a parent we know that’s something we will happily have taken off our hands!!!
Whilst we were there we went on a husky ride, a reindeer ride, a personal family trip to see Santa, snowmobiles and along the way lots of other fun activities with the Elves such as games in the snow, sledging a trip to the elves house. I have to say my favourite bit of the holiday was the husky ride, my husband and kids will say the same, it was so magical riding through the forest on a sledge pulled by the most beautiful dogs!
At every activity were we thoroughly looked after there was always a fireplace where you could warm up and warm berry juice always on offer…I was sceptical about this berry juice at first but I have to admit it warmed on me (no pun intended!) and I have found myself googling where I can buy it in the uk!!!!
The food was delicious I am always slightly nervous that my 8 year old wont eat a thing as she’s one of those fussy ones, if its not beige its unlikely to get eaten, but there was always a good kids selection and she always found something she liked!
The views in Lousto were truly stunning, like something you see on a Christmas card and I have rinsed my storage on my phone because I took picture after picture as I genuinely didn’t ever want to forget what a beautiful place it was! We were even lucky enough to get a glimpse of the Northern lights which is a bucket list task ticked off for me, it was breakthtaking!
We have all said that this holiday has created memories we will never ever forget and for that I have Andrea to thank, we honestly wouldn’t have had a clue what to book and the fact that she did it all for us and we have both said we could not have wished for a most perfect holiday says it all, so thank you Andrea for giving myself and my family the most amazing holiday.
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