Traditional Lappish Evening in the Wilderness with Dinner

My friend and I had the best experience with Tetiana! She picked us up from a central location in Rovaniemi and drove us to their private home just outside of Rovaniemi. Her knowledge of the Finnish culture was amazing and we learnt so much! The sauna was a traditional Finnish sauna (only 150 of these left in Finland!) and we had this to ourselves. Towels, slippers and tea were provided. We went ice swimming in their private late and as recommended made snow angels! Tetiana then made us an amazing traditional Finnish lunch which was the best meal we'd had in Finland throughout our travels. Tetiana was really accommodating and took photos for us and dropped us back at our accomodation. This was my favourite experience in Rovaniemi and would love to do it again! Thanks Tetiana.

My wife and I had a great time with our hosts. The sauna they had was authentic and beautiful and we only shared it with 2 other people, so the environment was nice and not crowded but fun and friendly. They cooked a very nice salmon dinner with a delicious dill onion sauce that I need to find the recipe for.

This was probably our favourite experience that we had in Rovaniemi. The cabin was in a secluded area and sat on a private lake with a pier that was lit up with fairy lights. We had the sauna to ourselves which was great and as recommended we went ice swimming and jumped into the lake which was a thrilling experience and one I would do again. We were then welcomed into the cabin where Tanya had our dinner ready. Because I don’t eat fish, Tanya had prepared a vegetarian meal for me which was great. My two friends said that the salmon was absolutely delicious and probably the best they have tried. We didn’t get to see the northern lights but honestly after such a good experience in the sauna, ice swimming and dinner, it didn’t really bother us. Tanya was such an amazing host and she
is so knowledgeable about Rovaniemi and the Finnish traditions and we learnt so much from her. Thank you so much to Alex and Tanya for an amazing experience :)

Perfect guide !

I’ve been there in April for vacation and Alex give me a wonderful vacay. At first he came to pick me and we talk a bit about general things Lapland. Then we arrived the wonderful private place. We enjoyed with Alex’s family. Alex’s wife was so nice like his husband. They cooked amazing Lappish meal for me. The sauna was so great, I’ve never had such a great experience before. I hope to go back again. Thank so much Alex.

On the April 14, 2019 my friend and I met Alex Rudyuk, our driver and owner of this extraordinary tour, at the lobby of our hotel.
- It takes roughly 30 min from the center of Rovaniemi to Alex's private estate.
- The traditional woodfire sauna room is situated next to a walkway that leads to the partially melted Lagonlampi lake.
- The whole place is clean and safe. You can walk barefoot without worries.
- Alex gave us a very thorough intruction on how the Finnish enjoy their thermal retreat. His encouragement for us to jump into the frozen cold is reassuring.
- After about 1.5 hour of sauna and cold bath, we were served with a marvelously grilled marinated local salmon. The dining room has a very cozy and homely atmosphere with and open fireplace.
- Alex is a very nice and informative Finnish nature lover local guide who can give you an authentic account of how living in the wild is like in the modern world.
- For me, this is a must if you are visiting Rovaniemi.

Superbe premier jour et découverte de la Laponie en compagnie d’Alex! Quelle expérience ! La formule est exactement celle détaillée avec sauna, bain dans le lac gelé et repas collectif.
Propriété charmante et dépaysante a 25 km de Rovaniemi (bien isolée dans la forêt). Alex est un guide formidable avec un excellent accent anglais , il explique parfaitement les coutumes, les habitudes de vie, la faune et la flore Lapones (photos a l’appui).
Moment délicieux et surtout sensations garanties dans le lac gelé ! Repas typique, délicieux et copieux.

This tour is amazing! Alex and his wife are very friendly. He explained everything clearly about Sauna and wildlife in Rovaniemi. Their house is very warm and lovely. We had fresh Salmon for dinner.

We had a wonderful experience visiting Alex Rudyuk. Along with an incredible sauna, he gave us much information about his world. We appreciate the knowledge, and really feel that we got an actual taste of what living in northern Finland is like. Thank you so much!

We booked the traditional Finnish sauna and ice swimming with Alex and his wife.
They very kindly picked us up and dropped us off at our AirBnB, and provided us with a lot of interesting facts and information about Finnish culture and traditions on the ride there and back.
The sauna was very cosy and well equipped with everything that we needed, including coffee, tea, water and lollies. Slippers and towel was also provided.
The sauna experience followed by ice swimming was amazing and unforgettable!
It was such a pleasant surprise to have a meal of sausages, biscuits and glogi at the end of the day too!
This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Rovaniemi, and I would highly recommend it to everyone!

We booked the traditional Finnish sauna last minute and were so glad we did it!! Alex and his wife were very accommodating and even picked us up from our Airbnb. The ride to their wonderful retreat was informative and we learned a lot of interesting facts about the Finnish culture. When we arrived we got taught how to use their traditional woodfire sauna and then had great fun running to the ice lake and snow rolling!! So refreshing!! Even though we booked the sauna without dinner (because we had booked last minute) Alex and his wife still prepared a surprise delicious Finnish feast with glogi, sausages, flatbread and biscuits. This experience was a true highlight for us :) highly recommend! Love Jo and Nicki

We thoroughly enjoyed the night, our guide was especially informative and good company. The sauna experience was a perfect opportunity to relax after our trip into Rovaniemi and the meal was a simple yet delightful set of homemade glazed salmon and vegetables.

完美的一次体验，Alex和他的夫人非常友好，桑拿非常舒服，三文鱼也很好吃。除了没有看见极光一切都很美好。下次还会来！

We booked the full day adventure to the Ranua Zoo and Lappish evening in the wilderness with sauna, ice swimming and dinner. We enjoyed every minute from being picked up and driven out of town to the Zoo and spending the morning looking at the animals, having lunch and then back to our accommodation for some relaxation before being picked up again and being taken to a cute little cottage in the forest where we enjoyed a sauna and a dip into the ice lake. The lake was breathtaking (literally), but an amazing experience. Alex and his wife then prepared a beautiful dinner that we ate in the cosy cottage. They were wonderful hosts and lovely people. I would highly recommend this company and our time spent with them has been one of the highlights of our trip.

There was no northern lights coz of cloudy tho, it was a great place to visit with nice dinner, 1st trial of finish sauna, very nice host couple, super warm little house! Thanks Alex, the Nordic Adventures host, and Alex’s wife for the delicious dinner with introducing Golgi!

Increible actividad tradicional, en un sitio privilegiado y muy intimo. Tuvimos la sauna tradicional a nuestra disposición durante casi 2 horas, con el lago al lado mismo.

Despues una cena ligera con un salmon espectacular cocinado por el guia, el cual por cierto fu espectacular en todo momento.

Lo recomendamos totalmente.

Compañia nueva en rovaniemi nos dijo, pero que el trato fue excepcional!

Me and my friends booked with them through positive comments from TripAd about the place. Once we there, we started to understand why do they deserve it. Alex and Tanya's house were in the middle surrounded by great Lapland nature. We highly recommended the tour because after the sauna and dipping in cold water we had a great night sleep and thought that it was best decision to book them.

Give your self some Finnish Sauna and experienced Finland nature.

A fantastic experience of sauna and company. We mix relaxing with adrenaline after the swimming in the frozen lake. Beautiful place, excellent food and Alex and Tania were really nice and made us feel welcome. Thank you so much! I really raccomende!! :)

We had a great time with the tour we did from Nordic Adventures. Alex is nice and his wife and answered all our questions. We had a great experience in doing sauna and able to go swim at the lake after sauna. The food that was prepared was delicious which made us experienced eating some Finnish foods and also got to taste the famous Glorgi drink . I highly recommend best of lapland tour from Nordic Adventure.

Totally recommended for families. Alex and Tania are a wonderful hosts and fantastic chefs. Many thanks stories about Finland and Rovaniemi

We were picked up by Alex(promptly), the host and driven to his cottage where we enjoyed a sauna and a lovely meal prepared by himself and his wife. It was such an intimate setting where we relaxed in a 2 hour sauna in a traditional log fire stove. The pier was lit up beautifully with warm lights leading you to the private lake where you can ease yourself in to the Nordic temperatures of the water or just jump into the shoulder height water.

We have already planned to come back and perhaps look into hiring out the cabin to stay in. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and we are all relaxed now as a result of their hospitality.

Winter is my favorite season and it is associated with my childhood. I’ve been dreaming to visit Finland for a long time, because for me it is the country where Santa Claus lives and Christmas mystery never ends. Last year I decided to take a vacation in winter and fully enjoy the Christmas holidays. My husband and I decided to invite few friends, so that we could have small group experience without other participants. Local guide Alex from Nordic Adventures helped us to organize everything. Our children wanted to meet Santa Claus so badly, so we decided to start our trip from the capital of Lapland – Rovaniemi, where Santa’s official office is located. It was an amazing feeling to see Santa, sit next to him, make wishes, photos and video. Then we visited an exhibition of snowmobiles, which traditionally takes place every year in Santa Claus village. Also, we went to the Snowman World and it was a small wonderland. There simply are not enough words to describe everything. Santa’s helpers – elfs – are everywhere and they also helped us to send postcards to our friends and relatives from official Santa’s Post office. That tour lasted for 5 hours and it was just great! We decided to continue our day visiting traditional Finnish sauna. Our guide Alex took us for a short drive (about 22 km) to a magical forest, where there was a private lake with wooden-burned sauna and a cottage with the fireplace. Nature there was amazing! After warming up in sauna, we jumped into the icy lake and snow, which made this holiday truly unforgettable. Therefore, I recommend everyone to have a rest in Finland, especially in the winter. I highly recommend Nordic Adventures, if you wish to have a real lifetime experience in Finnish Lapland!

It was my first time in Lapland, so I have had no any idea of what was I going to do there. Tons of offers from various tourism companies, plenty of possible trips and services to choose. However, my search ended up on the Private Lappish evening in the real wilderness (so atmospheric and exciting), offered by the Nordic Adventures travel company. The experience I have received was outstanding, sauna and traditional dinner were included, and I loved it. Never before I have been to the Finnish sauna, never before I have tried Lappish cousine, and I did not regret about choosing this opportunity at all! Whole service was smooth and pleasant, I give my five stars to this trip, but I wish I could leave 6-star feedback! I recommend it to everyone, who is willing to visit this magical place.
Thanks to Alex, I had a great time!

We were picked up at 5 and got to go in the Sauna at 5:45, ate at 7:15 and drove back to Rovaniemi at around 8.

The Sauna and the house were very lovely. We had the sauna all by ourselves and were left alone all the time.

The Dinner was great and we learned a lot about Finnish Traditions.

After Dinner we were shown the Kingdom of the Lord of the House, so the workshop.
It was really great to learn so much about the life here, how it was traditional and how it is now.

The few things that were not perfect:
-We felt a bit rushed. 2 hours of sauna and a bit more time for the dinner would’ve been nice.
- at Dinner we sat next to each other and just ahead of us, pointed directly at us, was a Surveilance Camera. This way we felt a little uncomfortable.

It was an amazing experience to have a Finnish style sauna by the frozen lakeside. My parents were super excited for jumping into the lake / the snow. This was really an unforgettable experience for us who live in a place without snow. The host Alex and his wife were very friendly and keen to share their local’s life with us. And unexpectedly at the end he gave us a little surprise (that I'm not gonna share here haha). Yep, I can tell this is one of the most awesome things in this trip in Finland and it's a MUST do for those who wants to know more about locals.

Alex自家的庄园，打理得很棒！热桑拿之后可以快速跑到室外裸体跳近冰湖，也可以选择跳进松软的雪地里。庄园很大周围都没有人，所以不用担心。我跟妈妈一起去的，两个人都这么干了！很疯狂的经历！
之后Alex和他的妻子Daniel为我们准备了美味的烤三文鱼晚餐，有说有笑with他们家的狗狗lumi很开心。他给我们介绍了庄园的情况，不同季节的景色的照片，会有哪些植物，湖里都有哪些鱼，周围都有哪些野生动物出没，还带我们参观了工具仓库，里面有三台铲雪车等等，很热情却很周到！最难忘的活动项目，强烈推荐去！

We went to Alex Rudyuk sauna and dinner in rovaniemi. It was an amazing expirience the sauna is located on a frozen lake in a beautiful spot. You sit in the sauna and then you can jump into the ice or little pool with icy water wich is an amazing thing to do. Dinner cooked by Alex was very tasty.

I must say that me & my friends are fully enjoyable and feeling warm with this Traditional Lappish Evening that hosted by Alex~! We've experienced the little slideable-chair on the frozen lake, special Sauna in the firewoods plus jumping into the ice water in the fascinating lake~!!!
After experiencing the Sauna & icewater-jumping, Alex & his wife already prepared the grilled salmon with Lappish side dishes & veggies. All of them are delicious and sweet with the warm and romantic set-up table inside the house just opposite the cottage.
Everything is SOOOOO GREAT to USSSSS~! & we just feel being well-served with detailed arrangement.
Alex also provide informative sharing about the Finnish and different Lappish topics during his drive that makes our journey without a minute being bored and very memorable~!!! WE LOVE IT!!!
Thank you so much Alex & your wife~! We hope to visit Rovaniemi in Summer Time would absolutely looking forward to seeing you soon~!!! Just bring us to see what you mentioned in Lappish Summer~! GoD BLeSs~!

We have recently enjoyed the best Sauna experience ever we could imagine in Rovaniemi. Alex and his wife were an excelent host for this activity and took us (A couple with two kids) to their really nice cottage by the lake just 30 min away from the Santa Claus Village where we were staying.
The place was like a dream, really nice house and incredible sauna little cottage, just in front of the lake therefore perfect for the Sauna+buterfly snow swim+lake swimm. All very nice light up with candles up to the lake. At the Sauna we found towels, sneakers, water, coffee, tea and some sweets wich was an unexpected plus for this experience. Once inside the Sauna just plenty of time to relax and enjoy the evening.
After Sauna and swimm great experience we enjoyed a lovely grilled Salmon dinner in the Cottage, really very nice atmosphere with the candles and the nice set up of the table where we enjoyed some of the lappish dishes.
We are a couple with two kids (14, 7 years) and really enjoy all of us the great experience and actually something really memorable for the family. Therefore even if it doesn't sound like a family fun activity we would highly recomended as well together with the rest of activities you can do in Rovaniemi (Huskies, Reindeers,.....)
Alex and his wife were at all time very nice with us and explained us many issues and facts of Finland and Rovaniemi. They were a really great Hosts!!!

It's a great end to our holiday in Lapland. Thanks Alex and his wife.
传统芬兰浴，尽管我们没敢往冰窟窿里跳，但依然是个很棒的体验。蜡烛、桑拿标配的香肠和果汁，还有手工曲奇，一个温馨而美好的夜晚。Alex（主人）给我们看夏天的照片，野果、蘑菇，超级赞！值得再去。为我们的拉普兰之旅划上圆满句号。谢谢Alex和他的太太。

We visited the program "traditional Lapland evening", were very satisfied with this place and its employees. Host Alex was very nice and showed us a lot of new things like going to the traditional wood-burning sauna, swimming in the ice-hole, we tried the snowshoes and ended the evening with dinner in a cozy wooden cottage. highly recommend this place!

I went on the Lappish evening tour and I loved it from start to finish. We drove to a lovely spot in the forest by a frozen lake where they have a traditional cottage and wood-fired Finnish sauna. It was lit up with lanterns and torches and looked so welcoming. It was so peaceful and the sky was beautiful with so many stars!

Everything was provided in the sauna: towels, slippers, wood for the fire, cold water, hot water, tea, oils for scent and a walkie talkie in case you need anything else! When I wanted to cool down I could walk outside into the snow and look up at the constellations - it was an almost spiritual experience. It was the best sauna experience I have ever had - much better than a hotel sauna.

The other people in my group tried ice fishing in the frozen lake. After the sauna, we enjoyed delicious wood-fired salmon with simple vegetables and potatoes as well as (non-alcoholic) Gloggi and cinnamon cookies. Alex was very knowledgable and informative about many things to do with Finland.

Even though we did not see the aurora that night, I had already seen it on a different night so I did not mind. This trip was one of the highlights of my trip to Lapland. Thank you very much Alex & Tanya. I would highly recommend it.

The evening started by meeting Alex, who picked us up from our accommodation and drove us straight to his sauna by the lake. There was a dressing room inside containing everything we could possibly need. We did three sessions of sauna. When taking a break, we sat on a bench outside, in -14 deg. Celsius. It didn't seem cold at all. Then, after running approx. 10m, we jumped into a hole in a frozen lake. Its hard to describe the feeling but it's definitely experience of a lifetime. A tasty dinner made by Alex & his wife in a building nearby concluded this great evening.

Make sure to dive in the frozen lake. The alternative is jumping into a snow which, somehow counterintuitively, felt much colder!