Finland in Winter: The Budget

There always seems to be interest in my budget posts, so I’m going to try to make this a more regular thing. Here are all the details about my wintery solo trip to Finland.

Flights: $166.13
I used 40,500 American Airlines points and $51.03 to book my flights to Finland. I flew Portland to Seattle on Alaska Airlines, Seattle to New York (JFK) on American, and then to Rovaniemi via Helsinki on Finnair. For my return I flew Helsinki to New York on Finnair then to Seattle and Eugene on Alaska. I booked the quick flight from Rovaniemi to Helsinki using cash for a total of $115.10 on the low cost carrier Norwegian. Other than a hiccup in Seattle on the way home, all of my flights went smoothly. Which is a minor miracle. My track record with solo travel is not so great. True, I ended up with an unexpected overnight stay in Seattle. But it really could be worse, much worse. By saving money on the flights, I was able to splurge elsewhere.

Other Transportation: $133
I also tried to be thrifty in this area, as well. The most affordable option for getting from Rovaniemi to Luosto is the SkiBus. My roundtrip tickets cost around $60 (converted from euro - from here forward, I’m going to give the approximate totals in USD although costs were in euro). I also used the airport shuttle to get to and from the Helsinki airport. At about $65 roundtrip, this was the most affordable, if not quite the quickest, way to get to my Helsinki hotel. Other than this, I had two $8 taxi rides to and from Olo, which was totally walkable, but this pregnant lady was not about to navigate the icy sidewalks in the dark.

Hotels: $1034
All that money I saved on transportation? Well, I spent that on hotels. In the realm of available options, I would classify my Luosto hotel as reasonably priced and my Helsinki hotel as a minor splurge. Lodging is one area where it can be difficult to save money as a solo traveler and personally, I’m not particularly interested in shared options such as hostels. Plus, I just honestly love a good hotel. I ended up spending $720 for three nights at Santa’s Hotel Aurora, paying a little extra for a room with a fireplace and sauna. This rate also included breakfast, a buffet extensive enough that I never needed to eat lunch. One night at the luxurious Hotel F6 cost me $185 and also included breakfast. Obviously the Luosto hotel was more expensive per night, but again, the locations were vastly different. I could have found less expensive options in Helsinki, but winter in Luosto is high season and everything is expensive. At the end of the trip, I had an unexpected overnight stay in Seattle. There was no communication from the airlines, so I ended up paying $129 out of pocket for a one night stay at the Seattle Airport Marriott for the chance to get a few hours of sleep before my morning flight. The hotel provided a free airport shuttle and was easily booked on the Marriott (now Bonvoy) app at the last minute.

Activities: $425
I tried to balance free activities with the usually expensive winter activities available in Luosto. Conveniently, I was able to book and pay for my activities with my hotel. The Northern Lights tour was $145, the reindeer safari was $135, and the husky sledding was $145. In addition to the one tour per day I booked in Luosto, I planned plenty of free things, such as sitting by the fire and reading, relaxing in my sauna, and exploring Luosto by foot. In Helsinki, I walked where I could and did not spend money on any activity except my amazing dinner at Olo.

Food: $350
The set meal at Santa’s Hotel Aurora was $45. One evening, I also tried a special sparkling lingonberry drink that was surprisingly expensive at almost $10. I ate at the hotel restaurant two evenings. My big splurge of the trip was dinner at Olo. The tasting menu with non-alcoholic beverages cost $220 (it’s about $145 without drinks and $310 with alcoholic beverages including wine pairings). There were certainly more affordable options in Helsinki, but Olo was as much an experience as it was a meal. I get it, this was not exactly cheap for essentially three meals, but food in Finland is expensive. Want a tip? Get pregnant and don’t drink alcohol. That will save you loads of money. Another way I saved money on food was taking advantage of breakfast buffets at my hotels. This allowed me to skip lunch, especially since my appetite wasn’t always the best during that point in my pregnancy. There were a couple of airport meals thrown in for good measure, probably for a total of less than $30.

Miscellaneous: Maybe $100
I really had few other expenses. I bought a few souvenirs, including a pair of amethyst earrings. At most, I estimate I spent less than $100 on other expenses. A couple other things - tips are not customary in Finland, neither for food nor for activities such as tours. I got out cash at the beginning of my trip, but would have been fine without it, as I had either prepaid or could easily pay with a credit card.

This brings my grand total for my solo trip to Finland to just over $2200. It was a quick trip, but I enjoyed almost every minute. Obviously half of this cost was lodging. I could have saved money in several areas, but I regret nothing. It was wonderful to escape all on my own for a few days. After all, it may be a while before I’m able to take my next solo trip.