Name: Hotel Laanihovi
Address: Viskitie 1, 99830 Saariselkä, Finland, Saariselka, Saariselka, Saariselka, 99830, Finland
Rating: 8

Location

Ivalo Airport

Hotel Laanihovi

Went here for a meal only, as part of an après-ski tour group, and found the elk, mash and root vegetables (with pancakes and cloudberries to follow) excellent.  Learned with some dismay that we might have secured our place in history as probably the last UK tour group to visit, as the place is rumoured to be closing soon.  Didn't see the rooms or facilities but it's likely that the 1970s feel of the building, dodgy WiFi and distance from the town centre have finally done for it.  A pity.

We stayed here for a week in over New year in 2014/15. We had arranged a week of activities with Top Safaris (which owns the hotel). The package was seamlessly organised with the hotel, so that meals were at times around the activities, and the staff always knew what time our next activity was.

We had all meals paid for as part of our package, and the food was much better than we expected. We had hearty soups for most lunches, and delicious dinners (lots of reindeer), plus a fabulous buffet for New Year's Eve.

The hotel provided free cross country skis and snow shoes, and was about 3-4K from town, so we ski-ed into town a couple of times, a great way to see the countryside.

We managed to see a fantastic show of the northern lights - the hotel staff knew we were keen, and came and fetched us from our rooms when they started at 5pm, much earlier than we had thought they might happen (the only non cloudy day we were there in our week).

The staff were really friendly and helpful, waxing our skis, providing snow shoes and suggestions of where to go, helping us with washing, all sorts of small touches.

The rooms are fairly basic (the hotel was built in the 70s, and it was a bit 1970s motel-like) but very comfortable, well heated and with everything we might need.

The saunas (one each for men and women) were nice as you would expect in northern Finland, and available each evening.

The wifi is fairly weak, which is probably reasonable given its location, but not as good as the rest of Finland.

We stayed 1 week in the Laanihovi hotel near saariselkä,  and we had a wonderfull time there spending our winter holiday. The hotel has everything what we needed, clean and spacious rooms, but not very luxurious. If that is what you are looking for, Laanihovi is not the right place for you. But we needed a comfortabel bed, a healthy breakfast and a good dinner... and that was exactly what we found in Laanihovi. Also very nice was the free use of the cross country skis, the snowshoes and the sauna. You get a small discount if you book your safari's at Topsafari in saariselka. The owner of hotel didn't always look very happy, also his English was not very good, but the staff was very friendly and helpfull. Laanihovi is the right place if you love cross country skiing, if you like real lappish food, if you want to spend your holiday in the woods and not in the town, and if you want to get value for your money.

Saariselka

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Excellent elk.....but is the end nigh?

A lovely week in Finnish Lapland

nice experience in Finnish Lapland

This hotel is pleasant enough but the bedrooms are small. The bar closes and one is virtually locked out of the hotel and confined to ones room. The staff are friendly enough and the food is acceptable. There is one major drawback if you do not have a car because it is quite a walk from the bus stop and with luggage and snow it is difficult to put it mildly. The hotel website says that it is near a bus stop - don't believe a word of it.
The dog sledding and the snowmobiling are very exciting and hard work

Pleasant but hire a car

we got to Laanihovi by mistake, butoverall it was a nice experience.  The hotel is located at 3.8km from Saariselka and that is a minus.  The taxi fare to downtown is 15-20 EUR, depending on the hour.  The rooms are OK, quit spacious and comfortable.  The biggest plus is the personnel: very friendly, helpful and always ready for a joke or a smile.  The restaurant serves very good food, but you have to announce the chef in advance if you want dinner (sometimes he may leave earlier if the hotel occupation is not that high).  Breakfast is decent, including besides the usual hotel breakfast, salmon and arctic fish, We had dinner once there and I had the best raindeer steak in Saariselka.  In other places they serve combination of raindeer dishes, buit here I got just a medium-rare juicy raindeer steak!  My wife had a soup and a fish dish which she enjoyed alot.  They also have a very good salmon soup!  Even if you do not choose this hotel because of location, I recomend visiting the restaurant (it is a 30 minute nice walk/ski walk from Saariselka).

Hotel Laanihovi

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