Arctic Reindeer Hike Experience - Rovaniemi

Disgusting service by Viator

Do not book anything through Viator. They neglected to tell us that this event was cancelled and we waited in reception and lost a day out of our short time in Lapland due to there neglect. When contacted about this to tell them how disappointed we were, this was going to be the highlight of our trip. They took no responsibility and said it was just a mismatch and not their fault. When I spoke to the reindeer farm direct they said they had told Viator weeks ago and they could not believe they had not passed on the message. Disgusting service and follow up by Viator and ruined our holiday. Book direct and ditch this heartless company.

Response from the operator: We highly recommend booking directly with us the operator and avoid all middle mans.

via Viator

Local farm experience

True local farm experience hosted by locals. We started the tour with trying to lasso a wooden reindeer, then learning on how to put the harness on the reindeer for the ride. The campfire lunch was cosy in the middle of the woods. The hosts are very knowledgeable about the reindeers and local farm life. Our guide, Emily, is friendly and kindly helped us to take photos to keep the memories. Would recommend for couples and small families.

via Viator

Disappointed

17 of us booked this tour, we were picked up 30 mins late because they had to have 3 cars. It took them 1 hr & a bit to get us dressed with one person attending to 17 people which meant we were 2 hrs behind schedule.The guide was inexperience, wasted time at reindeer farm & we missed our husky tour. I booked the aurora lights & decided to cancel without refund. Very disorganised will not use them again

via Tripadvisor

Lovely tour

Had a really nice time on this tour. Transfer to the farm took about 30minutes and once there everybody tried to catch a fake reindeer with the lassos. After that, we learned how to harness the reindeers and we started the sledge ride. It took about 30 minutes until we stopped for warm drinks and small lunch next to a fire in the middle of the woods. It was a welcome stop as you get a bit cold not moving during the ride. After another 30 minutes on the sledge, we were back at the camp. We got a reindeer driving license, although we didn't really get to steer the sledge. For us, the time spent with the reindeers and on the sledge, was very enjoyable and more than enough. Some people can get confused with the all day title, I would rather call it half-day as it takes around 4-4.5 hours with transfers.

via Tripadvisor

NOT ALL DAY-BARELY 45 MINUTES

So we booked the all day reindeer experience after comparing several companies and seeing that Lapland Welcome also had a one hour reindeer safari, but as we wanted longer decided to book an all day reindeer safari-after all you would assume ALL DAY was longer than ONE HOUR. We even emailed in advance to check the transfer time to the reindeer farm, so we could calculate time there and as one of us gets very travel sick and we were told it was 15-20 minutes away which we found acceptable. As the advert for this tour on their website said the safari was 5-6 hours we took 40 minutes off for transfer time in total and assumed at least we would get 4 hours 20 minutes at the farm, and on the reindeer ride. Well we turned up at the required time of 9.45 ready to leave for 10 as we were promised on the website and email-we did not leave until 10.30 as the guide said the farm does not 'take us' until 11.30 and that the transfer time was 45 minutes but we could go slow for the travel sick passenger-well I wish we had said no there as like mentioned above we had been told it was max. 20 minutes so now the one of us who gets travel sick had to deal with 60 minutes feeling awful, thrice the time promised on the email, and it reduced our overall time. But we were told it would still be a LONG reindeer ride so we decided to take the extra transfer time thinking maybe that day would be the 6 hours the advert said the safari could take in total. We were wrong, we got to the farm in 45 minutes, lassoed a fake reindeer and took a 20 minutes reindeer ride to a camp fire, were offered sausages and pancakes, spent almost an hour at the fire then had a 20 minute reindeer ride back-rest of the time was taking clothes on and off and waiting to leave. We were back at the Lapland Welcome Offices at 3pm so had only had 4.5 hours in total, of which travelling was 1.5 hours, and the reindeer ride was 40 minutes in total. We did not book for a 40 minute ride we booked an ALL DAY reindeer safari (which should have been 10-15.30 so the fact we left at 10.30 and were back at 15.00 already means we lost an hour) and were so disappointed, it absolutely ruined that day of our holiday which to us is worth much more than the ridiculous 159 euros EACH we spent-if we had wanted such a short reindeer ride we could have got one much cheaper and closer to the town centre, saving the travel sickness of one of us and money! We were so angry and tried to discuss it with someone on our return to the office who said they would get back to us, well when we went in the next day she said we had 3 hours at the farm and that is what the package is, well on the advert we booked through on their website it did not specify you only get 3 hours at the farm it says 5-6 hours including transfers (and we had even checked transfer time to be able to work out the time at the farm!) and it says an all day reindeer safari, well 40 minutes out of the 3 hours is nothing, we did not pay such a high amount to sit around a campfire which we could have done back in Rovaniemi for free! Also, if we knew we would only get 40 minutes of a reindeer ride we could have booked the cheaper 1 hour safari (which would have taken up less of our day overall too as this holiday was precious to us). When we tried to argue this with her suddenly she seemed unable to speak good English, after speaking perfect English previously and just shrugged and said the manager was busy so we would have to contact them another way-obviously completely ignoring our concerns as we were in the right. We should have a full refund as wasting so much time in the day for travelling that far for so little is beyond a joke and when people are paying that much for a once in a lifetime experience to not take their concerns seriously and ruining that for them by lying in adverts is heartless and cruel. Lapland Welcome are despicable, thieving liars who should take responsibility for destroying people's dream holidays. I will never be able to return to Rovaniemi and take a proper all day reindeer safari, that was my one chance, I hope you can sleep knowing that you ruined that day and a significant part of my dream holiday just to earn a little more money fraudulently.

Response from the operator: Thank you for your exceptional feedback. We are sorry about your feelings! We have run this tour already for over 10 years and people have been very satisfied with this tour. We do not run tours that people don't like. This safari is the longest reindeer safari day tour we know in Lapland. The duration is 5-6 hours from the hotel back to hotel and at with the reindeers people can spend 3-4 hours. The actual reindeer safari program takes usually 3 hours including harnessing the reindeer and the safari itself, and the lunch break with reindeer far away in the wilderness, by campfire. The actual time in minutes in the sleigh depends on many things like weather conditions, it is not possible to follow strict standards with animals and nature and it is not the meaning of this safari. It can be sunny and nice day or a snowstorm, everything is possible in Lapland. Snow can be hard or very soft, the conditions vary a lot troughout the winter. The idea is to spend a nice day at this authentic reindeer farm and on the safari. On the way to the farm and back it is possible to see authentic life in Lapland - in the country side - and very often also see "wild reindeer". The farm itself is home to the reindeer herders, they live there for hundreds of years in numerous generations and we are happy that they accept us visiting their home yard and we can ask questions about their life. We can confirm that this is a very authentic and real reindeer experience we recommend for all people who want to experience something exceptional and spend a nice day!

via Tripadvisor