Octola Lodge, Finnish Lapland
When I was first introduced to the lodge I watched the stunning video on their website. I’ll be completely honest, I got a bit teary at the sheer beauty and magic of the place. Imagine then my absolute joy when I was invited to come and see it in person.
We flew 3 hours on Easyjet to Rovaniemi and were met for our 30 minute journey to Octola. Once you leave the main road, you wind up for ages through pristine woodland, all heavily covered in perfect snow. I was already planning my first snow angel!
Wonderfully Octola manages to be blisteringly exclusive and yet so low key. You are welcomed with lovely hand made woollen socks to wear in the lodge. The bedrooms are simple as this is all about the wilderness out the window. The team are subtle and efficient. I sat by the fire in my new socks with a glass of delicious champagne in utter awe of the beauty of the place. You would have seen my smile for miles.
The set up for outdoor activities is incredible. They have an entire hall just for clothing. We all went out and bought boots for the trip and immediately ditched them for the lodge ones which we were told cost £300 a pair and no, we couldn’t keep them.
From there the world is literally your oyster. We went on reindeer sleigh rides with the lodge’s own reindeer herd. We went racing in 4 wheel drive ice vehicles and as the place is part owned by Mika Hakkinen, you can imagine the quality and speed! We drove snow mobiles and enjoyed the lodges spa facilities with views over the wilderness.
A real highlight for me was the ice dip. There is a sauna by the side of a river where they cut a section for a small entry with a ladder and floorboard. Two shots of vodka for courage and a little swearing later and I was in. It felt like I had really achieved something and the whole group were giddy with adrenaline after. It could also have been the vodka.
How could you ever top all this? Well the last night we all walked up to the bear cabin for a “casual evening with karaoke”. We had the best luxury burger and chips prepared by our private chef. They then left us with plenty of drinks and said they would let us know if the Northern Lights were likely. Queue many hours of us all having such a ridiculous amount of fun, dancing on tables, laughter and then the lights did indeed make an appearance.
Picture the silence of the snowy wilderness framed by the most stunning Northern Light show only punctuated by screams of laughter from the cabin and this sums up our trip.
This is a once in a lifetime place but intensely understated unless you peek under the surface and you see the immense quality underlying the casual feel.
