Bucket List Experience : Watching Northern Lights from the Glass Igloo
Snuggle up romantically with loved one in a glass igloo tucked into the snow in the middle of arctic snowy jungle under the stunning northern lights illuminated starry sky – a dream moment which everyone will have in their bucket list. Here we are sharing the story of that day we lived one of our dream. A night under the starry sky decorated by Northern lights.
We picked Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort for making this dream true. This unique property is located in Saariselka, a resort village in Finnish Lapland. We took flight from Helsinki to Ivalo, which is the nearest airport to Saariselka. Convenient bus services are available from the Ivalo airport to various major hotels in Saariselka. We had to pay only €10 as the bus fare for the 30 minutes journey and no prior reservation was needed.
Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort offers many exceptional lodging such as glass igloos, traditional wood chalet, luxurious log cabins etc. We planned to stay in glass igloo for one day and the rest two days in log chalet. Kakslauttanen arctic resort has igloos and log cabins both in east and west villages. We stayed in the east village and the glass igloos are located 600m far from the reception in east village. They provided free wooden sledges to transfer our luggage to the igloo and it was totally fun to ride the sledge through the ski tracks. Sledge is a vehicle without any wheels and move on runners which slides over the snow or ice, often pulled by Huskies and Reindeers. The whole property is surrounded by spectacular arctic nature and everywhere you find postcard-perfect views. On both sides of the lane, the array of snow shielded pine trees and snow covered lakes were amazingly fascinating with alluring ambience. There is also a frozen ice pool on the way to the igloo.
The Igloos are made in distant places, away from the reach out of the artificial lights and illuminations which otherwise hamper the visibility of the Northern Lights. There are very few trees obscuring the sky so that we can experience Northern Lights very clearly from the igloo. Being situated in the wilderness and the fact that they are providing luxurious facilities in the middle of isolated snow-covered nature, you may find Kakslauttanen glass igloo little bit expensive. But undoubtfully, this is one of the best places in Finland to see the magical glow of Northern Sky Lights.
After a full fun sledding we reached in front of our glass igloo. We literally stepped into a wonderland, the glass topped igloos tucked into the snow surrounded by snow covered trees made us speechless. When we opened the door we got the wow factor, the igloo is designed perfectly to provide panorama view of arctic nature. The glass igloos are specially designed with thermal glass which allows you to view Northern Lights from your bed. The two-person igloo includes a toilet and two single beds (can be combined into a queen size bed). Saunas and showers are provided 500m across the snow at the other side of the resort.
Until night we decided to explore the stunning nature around the igloo .Every moment we were falling in love with the eyeful beauty of Finnish Lapland. Around 7pm at night we had dinner from the Kakslauttanen restaurant, located beside the reception in east village. The dinner was included in the package and they offered a menu packed with delicious local Lappish cuisine.
The receptionists were very helpful and friendly. Since the sky was clear with stars and moon, they told us that there is a probability to see Northern Lights on that day. By checking the Northern Lights prediction websites, we noticed a chance of seeing aurora during mid night. So we decided not to sleep and wait for Northern Lights. We even kept alarm on every one hour, to wake us up even if we fall asleep. But that feeling of excitement never made us to sleep. We were enjoying the beauty of nature even in darkness. The vistas of endless arctic nature, the moon, the stars twinkling above, all set the mood on!
It was around 2am in the morning we first spotted a thin line of green light on the sky. After few minutes, the sky turned so magical by rays shooting in all direction across the entire starry sky in shades of green 💚. That was one of the greatest sights we have ever seen and we wanted to see over and over again. We got ready with our tripod and set the camera into long exposure. We tried our maximum to capture the magical moments in camera.
Though, the Northern Lights are in fact the after effect of storms on the surface of the sun, over centuries many myths and legends are being circulated. It is the symbol of good fortune and prosperity. Some others believe it as “Dancing of Spirits or a sign of God”. We felt really blessed to witness this magic on sky. Our dream of romancing under the starry sky painted with Northern Lights came true!👫💖
After the unbeatable experience of watching aurora from the igloo, on the next day morning the sky greeted us with mind-boggling pink sky. Sky looks extremely dramatic before sunrise or sunset on the coldest days of Finnish winter. Not only the Northern Lights, color of twilight during sunrise or sunset is also amazing to watch. We felt extremely blissful to witness both the miracles on the sky and thus our glass igloo experience turned out to be one of the ultimate contrasts of colors and temperature!
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