"ubiq Ivalo and Lappi (Lapland)" Top 5 Page for this destination Ivalo by ubiq

The Northern part of Finland is called Lapland (Lappi in Finnish). It is quite popular destination, especially among British and Japanese tourists.

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Lappi is fullfilled with contrasts: the summer without the moon and the winter without the sun, literally. The flora and the fauna varies from extremely rich and colourful areas to rough and treeless mountains.

Regardless of the place you are in Lappi, you have always spacious feeling. From the highest mountains you can see some 50 kilometers into every directions. Off the beaten track you will meet rarely human being.

Ivalo is one of the northest town in Finland. It is an excellent base for most of the activities in Lapland.

Furthermore 40 kilometers straight to the north there is Inari (please see Europe > Finland > Lappi before my personal Tips> Inari), and still more towards the northern pole, there comes Utsjoki and after that chilly Barents Sea.

On the other hand, to the south again some 40 kilometers you will find Saariselkä traveling centre, which has a bunch of resorts, other accommodations, shops etc. and the place is major starting place for arranged trips

With Ivalo, Saariselkä is quite popular base for making one-day - or more - nature trekking with posted signs so not to get lost and trips to different gold mining activities, like museum and actual modern claims. You can arrange a trip to claim and get some actual gold for quite cheaply. ;-)

Saariselkä is also the area, where the mountain fell sprawl starts. My suggestion for easy short trip at summer is: go to Saariselkä, take decent accommodation (they are much cheaper in summer), make some half-day trekking in the Saariselkä nature park, eat dinner (with local specialities) and go to Kaunispää mountain fell to see Midnight Sun. Kaunispää is the closest mountain fell beside Saariselkä.

Winter Tips I will cover later.

See my Must see hint about Ivalo also.

The nature of Lappi is similar to Northern parts of Canada, Sweden and Norway. The are mountains, woods, high slopes, rivers in defiles, coniferous forests, broadleaf forests, mixed forests, rock formations, many types of swamps and treeless mountains.

More to come with gold mining at Lapland.