Lapland’s Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, A Winter Wonderland
It’s not everyday that I get to sit down at my local coffee shop and meet a Laplander of Sami descent. But there I was yesterday with my wife, travel agent Lisa Leavitt, and Ari Siivikko, Marketing Manager of Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort. I receive a slew of media requests to meet people from around the globe when they make their way to Boston, and I usually decline the majority of those requests. I just don’t have the time. But after checking out this unique resort online, I had to meet Ari. The property lies 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in northern Finland. After an 80-minute flight from Helsinki, you’re picked up by snow shuttle or snowmobile and escorted to the resort. Here, you’ll find upscale log cabins with requisite sauna, snow igloos, and the main reason I took this meeting, glass igloos. See, Kakslautannen is one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights. And if you read my story in the Boston Globe on seeing the Northern Lights in northern Maine, you’ll realize that the winter of 2013/2104 is supposed to be a stellar year for solar activity. Within the glass igloo, you simply lie down, preferably with a glass of chilled Finnish vodka, and wait for the kaleidoscopic light show to happen.