Whilst Fin­land has been among tho­se coun­tries with low infec­tion rates and strict regu­la­ti­ons, we have had our share of covid-19 pan­de­mic this spring and sum­mer. As the pan­de­mic is still a big play­er glo­bal­ly in almost anything we do, we need to try and find posi­ti­ve sides of ever­y­day living like it was normal.

Nor­ma­li­ty needs some adjus­t­ments, of cour­se, but we all know stay­ing safe is always a prio­ri­ty, espe­cial­ly when tra­ve­ling abroad. We in Alp­land think that tra­ve­ling during the­se uncer­tain times should be con­si­de­red care­ful­ly, plan­ned tho­rough­ly, and done with respect and care towards to nati­ve peop­le who you are plan­ning to visit. Ever­y­bo­dy should stay safe.

The ethi­cal side why one needs to tra­vel should not only to be done by secu­ring the tra­vel indus­try to bloom. Tra­ve­ling should bring more bene­fits for all par­ti­ci­pants, tra­velers and tra­ve­ling expe­ri­ence pro­vi­ders, than pro­blems and nega­ti­ve effects, both local­ly and glo­bal­ly. We want to push you to con­si­der whe­ther to tra­vel now or not, is it necessa­ry and if you need to or want to, how to make the most of your trip.

Fin­land has strict pre­ven­ti­on mea­su­res to avoid the pan­de­mic to spread. Howe­ver, the coun­try has ope­ned its bor­ders to several coun­tries with low infec­tion rates. This allows one to plan post­po­ned holi­days, for instance. We intro­du­ce you 5 rea­sons why you should con­si­der Lapland as your tra­vel desti­na­ti­on during the­se unsta­ble times. For sure, Lapland wants to wel­co­me you but remem­ber, be pre­cau­tious, take good safe­ty mea­su­res when moving from place A to B and do not tra­vel if you feel unwell.

1. Natu­re

Fin­nish Lapland’s best fea­ture by far is its natu­re. Vast forests, water­si­des and fells pro­vi­de end­less hours of acti­vi­ty pos­si­bi­li­ties. Not only the forests bring peace of mind, lower stress levels and allows you to take care of your phy­sics, it pro­vi­des food in the form of fish, ber­ries and mushrooms. If you are a cam­per by soul, stay­ing out­doors is a cheap and excel­lent way to avoid crowds and expe­ri­ence the beau­ty of Nort­hern wilderness.

2. Scar­ce population

If you want to con­si­der a tra­vel desti­na­ti­on whe­re it is effort­less to avoid mas­ses of peop­le, Lapland is your choice. As we say as a joke, the­re are more rein­de­er resi­dents than peop­le. Lapland’s popu­la­ti­on is 1,91 peop­le per km² which in theo­ry means you can walk a mile and see 2 peop­le on the way – if you are lucky! What sounds bet­ter during the­se uncer­tain times than your own vast per­so­nal space?

3. Quiet Sum­mer and Autumn season

What at the time seems to be the most popu­lar time to tra­vel to Fin­nish Lapland is the win­ter sea­son. Sum­mer and Autumn are stun­ning, flou­ris­hing and oh, so unu­ti­li­zed. The best Autumn sea­son is ahead of us. Lap­pish rus­ka – Autumn folia­ge – is a con­cept well-known to every Finn, but how many of you have expe­ri­en­ced the stun­ning and almost over­whel­ming blast of Autumn colours in Lap­pish wil­der­ness? Autumn also means tons of edi­ble goo­dies in the forests, such as ber­ries and mushrooms and as well only few insects in the air com­pa­red to sum­mer sea­son. Cris­py mornings calls one to head to nature.

4. Qua­li­ty of accommodation

If you can find some­thing pro­per­ly done for tou­rism, it is the amount of accom­mo­da­ti­on in Lapland. During the past few years, dif­fe­rent forms of camp sites, tra­vel vil­la­ges, sin­gle wild accom­mo­da­ti­on pos­si­bi­li­ties as well as count­less of Airbnb sites have been ope­ned. The pri­ce sca­le dif­fers from luxu­rious 5‑star sites to cheap but super per­so­nal Airbnb bedrooms. What you can be sure of is the friend­ly ser­vice and safe­ty of the accom­mo­da­ti­on throughout the who­le field.

5. Self-tra­ve­ling along with a local gui­de is easy…

…and a true bang for your buck! Mass tou­rism as a con­cept could be alrea­dy as his­to­ri­cal as land­li­ne pho­nes but in our minds tailo­red tra­vel expe­ri­en­ces for small groups have alrea­dy been the best thing that could hap­pen to tra­vel indus­try. We have been doing it even befo­re covid-19 hap­pen­ed? Why so? Local gui­des can show you the hid­den tre­a­su­res of the desti­na­ti­on, they make your tra­vel expe­ri­ence more secu­re and you can avoid unknown groups of peop­le by a nice ser­vice packa­ge. They lis­ten to you and for sure, they make your time in the desti­na­ti­on so worthwhile you will come back one day for sure!