Many times, we as Alp­land get the ques­ti­on of ’what we do’. We are not a nor­mal tra­ve­ling com­pa­ny. We are a tra­vel expert and a part­ner throughout your trip. When you want to tra­vel to Switz­er­land or Fin­nish Lapland, we take care of ever­ything: get­ting to know you and what you want from your trip, orga­ni­zing trans­por­ta­ti­on, accom­mo­da­ti­on and iti­nera­ry if you wish, and also if nee­ded, we tra­vel with you so not­hing goes wrong on the way. Per­so­nal ser­vice is the icing on our cake so that you will enjoy and we take care of rest.

Most important step in this pro­cess is to get to know you. In other words, we defi­ne your tra­velers pro­fi­le. What type of per­so­na­li­ty you are and what you want from the trip defi­nes every choice we make as a partner.

For a suc­cess­ful, once-in-a-life­time expe­ri­ence you wouldn’t buy some­thing that is not desi­gned for you, would you? It is com­pa­ra­ble to buy­ing a wed­ding dress; if you want it to be your dream dress, tailor needs your mea­su­re­ments, ide­as and bud­get. You can also defi­ne your own traveler’s pro­fi­le. Here are a few aspects you could think about befo­re boo­king a trip.

LOCATION

First things first, whe­re would you like to go? Is the­re a place in your mind that you’ve always wan­ted to visit? How much do you know about this loca­ti­on? Nowa­days the Inter­net pro­vi­des more infor­ma­ti­on about the trip desti­na­ti­on that you can hard­ly pro­cess. As a rule of thumb, we sug­gest you lis­ten to the locals, their blogs, vlogs and local tou­rist asso­cia­ti­ons. If their visi­ons and mes­sa­ge through dif­fe­rent chan­nels tou­ches you, then you have a gre­at chan­ce that you will enjoy tra­ve­ling to that location.

Reaching this loca­ti­on is ano­t­her mat­ter. Would you like to keep it simp­le and take a flight, or perhaps you want to be more awa­re of the eco­sys­tem and take a train or bus. Perhaps this is a big ques­ti­on for you so that you pre­fer tra­ve­ling natio­nal­ly or clo­se to your home coun­try, rather than taking a long-distance ticket to other side of the World.

ACCOMMODATION

The world of accom­mo­da­ti­on has unfold­ed tre­men­dous­ly thanks to the Inter­net, again. Remo­te and uni­que pla­ces that you wouldn’t even be awa­re of have been ari­sen into awa­reness most­ly due to social media. Are you a com­for­ta­ble slee­per in a hotel’s white she­ets, or would you like to take chan­ces and try slee­ping abo­ve the clouds, in an ice room or camp by the bonfire?

Airbnb is full of unty­pi­cal and exo­tic choices, and why not to try and find a local home that would host you and even show you around? Remem­ber that more uni­que expe­ri­en­ces are not always more expen­si­ve, you only need to spend some time to find the­se gems from the typi­cal mass of offering.

ACTIVITIES

It is very unli­kely that the things that make you hap­py during your nor­mal, ever­y­day life would make you unhap­py when you tra­vel. Natu­ral­ly, some want to try as many new expe­ri­en­ces as pos­si­ble des­pi­te a very full sche­du­le for the trip. Howe­ver, the more com­for­ta­ble you feel during your trip, the less likely it is that some­thing lea­ves you unsa­tis­fied afterwards.

In Switz­er­land and Fin­nish Lapland tou­rism revol­ves around typi­cal sight­see­ing and a hand­ful of cho­sen acti­vi­ties that are often offe­red for the mas­ses. If you are wil­ling to avoid the­se pla­ces, you need to dig a bit deeper bene­ath the brochu­re sur­face. Uni­que expe­ri­en­ces are a bit more remo­te, offe­red by locals and what is even more, they lea­ve you with an expe­ri­ence tailo­red only for you. Try Airbnb and Tri­pAd­vi­sor Expe­ri­en­ces, for examp­le, to find some­thing that would suit you.

FOOD

It goes without say­ing that when you have cho­sen a desti­na­ti­on, don’t be afraid to try local menus! Quick food chains are flat and gene­ral all around but with local deli­caci­es, as we have writ­ten about Swiss and Fin­nish food. Your holi­day should be about expe­ri­en­ces and tas­te, so lea­ve diets at home and give yourself a chan­ce to enjoy.

If this all sounds a bit too much of a workload for you to figu­re out, we as Alp­land are here to help you! As we said, this is what we are here for.

Fin­nish cin­na­mon buns, a tas­ty des­sert enjoy­ed with coffee