Ounasvaara PART1: Wintersports. and other Rovaniemi, Finland Sports Travel Tips

Theme: Hiking

Ounasvaara is one of the fjelds, little mountains surrounding Rovaniemi. But Ounasvaara is special. There's a LOT to do there!

Ounasvaara Skiing Centre is the place you wanna contact in the winter. Ounasvaara has 6 slopes, a 100 meter pipe, 4 lifts, 2 transfer-slopes and 3 ski jumps. There's also a really fun winter sledge track (800 m long). There are many cross-country skiing tracks, so if you're not interested in downhillskiing, snowboarding, blading or telemark-skiing, you could go cross-country skiing while your family or friends are doing something else.

There are many restaurants near the skiing cente. Two of them are in the centre itself: the comfortable and delicious Inkkari Ski Saluuna and the Alpenjager bear/drink bar. On the top of Ounasvaara, just by the slopes there's a delicious but a little more expencive restaurant in Sky Hotel Rovaniemi. That's also a very good choise of accomodation with beautiful views.

Equipment: Take warm winterclothes, wollen shirts, longjohns, extra socks, a warm winterjacket and winter trousers. Of course, if you have your own snowboard, skiis or slalom skiis, take them with you! You might want to have a camera too, there are great views from Ounasvaara and taking pics of you and your friends doing sports is also cool!

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Phone: +358 16 - 369 045
Address: Ounasvaara, Rovaniemi
Directions: There's no real address for the Skiing Centre, but just use the contact info down there or ask someone on the street. Anyway, the skiing centre is visible from nearly every part of the town, because the high skijumps are one of the landmarks of Rovaniemi.
Website: www.ounasvaara.net
Other Contact: email: info@ounasvaara.net

Theme: Other

Santa Sport Centre it the place where you want to contact during the summertime. If you by the Daypass, you have full acces to the three gyms, sauna and swimminghall and you can get supervised aerobic, spinning, pace and streching lessons. There's also a bowling hall, possibility to go wall-climbing and different kinds of organized sports and massage/spa services. In the winter you can go snowshoeing. Just a kilometer down Ounasvaara there's also a gym, "Kunnon paikka", where you can reserve time for squash, badminton, floorball, pool and normal gym... the address of Kunnon Paikka is: Lähteentie 20, 96400 Rovaniemi.
Phone: +358 16-314133

In the summer there are well kept sawdusttracks where you can go jogging, walking, enjoying the nature or practice orienteering. There's a birdwatch tower on the top of Ounasvaara and many ballfields all around. There's also a big arena called the Lappi Areena, which has happenings all over the year. It's situated just near Kunnon Paikka and Santa Sport Centre. There are golf links which is open full year.

Equipment: Take gym clothes, of course, and money. That's basicly all you need! Use common sense in packing. :P

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Phone: +358 16 3344 235
Address: Hiihtomajantie 2, Ounasvaara, Rovaniemi.
Directions: It's situated in the hillslide of Ounasvaara, just drive the biggest road and you'll find it with the signs. The biggest road is the one coming from town.
Website: http://www.santasport.com

Theme: Other

Rovaniemi has tens and tens of skating rinks, which include two indoors skating halls, many big skating rinks ans tens of small, cozy skating rinks. Already in our small neighbourhood we have one big rink and 4 smaller ones. And this is just a VERY small area.

Skating in Rovaniemi is very popular specially within families with children, but also amongst other people. For example, me and my friends went skating when we had our little christmasparty. It was lovely, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed really much!

Skating is a fun sport, you can do it seriously in hockey-teams or figure skating teams, but also just for leisure. It's a very effective way of keeping fit, too!

Have fun skating in Rovaniemi!

Equipment: Mostly what you need is warm clothes and skates, but there's one thing you might wanna take also, if you're out for a longer time and have friends with you:
Take a THERMOS-bottle full of hot chocolate, and maybe some gingerbreads or other nice food easy to eat with your gloves on. It's always nice having some food when doing sports!

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Address: All over the city.
Directions: If you're in the centre, you might wanna go to the biggest rink. It's just between the highway that goes under the streetlevel and the swimming hall. You'll just have to ask anyone and they'll know what you're talking about.

(picture coming later)