Sweden Tours in Spring

This was the best vacation we’ve ever had. There were four things that made this vacation absolutely outstanding: First: the location- between the Northern lights and the snowy forest and river landscapes, this place is heaven on earth. Second: the guides- Janne and Lars made this a really special trip. It’s clear that they love their jobs and their location. Lars makes all of the bread fresh daily and his kitchen staff is so talented. All of the food was delicious. Janne is such a great outdoorsman (Janne was our main guide for the trip)- it was so neat hearing of all of the training experiences he’s had. They were both so knowledgable about all of the wildlife in the area. Third: the activities. The activities were so great! The snowshoeing and cross-country skiing was challenging and fun. I loved them both, and I even had time to improve my new skiing skills over the trip (my husband wants to continue in our winters at home!). Then the dog-sledding, reindeer-sleighing and learning about the Sami culture and visiting with a Sami reindeer herder were once-in-a-lifetime experiences. They were amazing, and I will never forget them. Finally, the fourth thing that made this trip fabulous was: the group. I wonder if Exodus just calls to people who you really want to spend time with. We loved the entire group, and they made this vacation amazing. They were supportive in all of our falling-down efforts, no one felt they had to outdo anyone else, and our evenings of downtime while we chased the Northern lights were all so much fun! We’ll definitely book with Exodus again!

This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime trip. The itinerary was incredible, the accommodations were perfect, the included activities were really interesting and the optionals?? If they are in your budget, you need to do ALL OF THEM! They are all so so so cool and unique. I am still flying high from the trip a week later :)

We really felt that we had a taste of what it must be like to be Scandinavian on this holiday, making the most of the glorious scenery and winter activities (well, apart from being able to ski with the effortless ease of the locals, obviously!). The skiing is superb, on and off-track, rolling countryside with some achievable summits, beautiful scenery and barely any other people. We did so many things during this incredibly busy, varied week and enjoyed it all so much. We learned some animal tracks (and to identify droppings, who knew that the seasonal changes in moose poo was so interesting!), went into an ice cave behind a frozen waterfall, went night-skiing, cooked hot-dogs for lunch in a mountain hut and went snowshoeing. On the night in the wilderness hut, discovering how much we take water for granted was a real revelation. When you have chopped the wood made a fire, collected snow, melted it and then heated it up, you really appreciate your cup of tea!

This trip was so much more than a classic cross-country week. It was one of those holidays where at times you were pushed out of your comfort zone but the sense of achievement was well worth it! We climbed up 2 mountains on skis, skied in the dark and for one of the night lit a fire to heat a lakeside sauna and slept in a really cute wilderness hut.

Liked: loved snowshoeing; loved snowmobiling; loved reindeer sled ride; all breakfast buffets were excellent; glad we got to see a bit of Northern lights; dinner and wine in Helsinki and Stockholm was excellent. Disliked: Hotel rooms were too warm for sleeping, except for Lulea and Rovaniemi which had nice fans for the rooms; Fika was nice, but too many sweets — wish it had included something savory; could have easily allowed more time for sleeping before taking the snowshoe excursion (we were out very late the evening before for the Northern lights); recommend one glass of wine be included with all dinners; worst experience: did not like getting suited up in the thermal suits in Kiruna to sit on ice around a smokey fire for over an hour waiting for dinner to be cooked. Then it was much too hot in the suits and boots inside the building while we ate dinner. Outdoor toilets were hard to get to, had no lights, and suits made it difficult to use the toilet.