Covid-19

Travel safety

Travel update 1st August 2021:

Finland welcomes all fully vaccinated travelers and travelers who have recovered from COVID-19

As of 26 July 2021, travel to Finland is possible for all travelers who meet the following health requirements:

• You can present a certificate of having received the full COVID-19 vaccines 14 days prior to arriving in Finland. There is no mandatory testing for people who meet this requirement. Please refer to the Finnish institute for health and welfare for the approved vaccines.
• You can present a certificate showing that you have recovered from the COVID-19 disease within 6 months prior to arriving in Finland. There is no mandatory testing for people who meet this requirement.
• You have received one COVID-19 vaccine shot at least a 14 days prior to arriving in Finland. In this case, you must also take a COVID-19 test 3–5 days after arriving in Finland. You must avoid contact with others and remain at home or in your place of accommodation until you receive confirmation of a negative test result. Please refer to FINENTRY for information on COVID-19 testing locations.  Please refer to the Finnish institute for health and welfare for the approved vaccines.
• You can present a certificate of a negative COVID-19 test taken before entering Finland. In this case, you must also take a COVID-19 test 3–5 days after arriving in Finland. You must avoid contact with others and remain at home or in your place of accommodation until you receive confirmation of a negative test result. Please refer to FINENTRY for information on COVID-19 testing locations.
• Children born in 2005 or thereafter are not required to take part in a health examination or a COVID-19 test.

The certificate needs to be in either English, Finnish or Swedish. A certified translation can also be used as a certificate. The certificate can also be an EU digital Covid certificate.

—————————————-

A few points about travelling safely with us:

Firstly, as a small company safety and social distancing comes naturally to us. Ever since we started our tours in 2014, they have always been exclusively for very small groups. We normally only have 10 or less people per week, with the maximum number of people on any tour is 16. Indeed this is our business model. We don’t want big groups of tourists because we were never designed for that. We focus solely on individuals, couples and small families visiting us. From the moment we pick you up from the airport, this is it for the rest of your time with us, just you and a few other people. Our tours made sense before the pandemic, but now they make even more sense. We are one of the smallest tour operators going, because our motto has always been quality over quantity. We’d much rather give 8 people an awesome holiday, than 80 people a mediocre holiday.

Secondly, Finland has had an incredibly low number of cases and very low mortality from the virus. If you look on the world list https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, Finland is way down in 101st position, or 121st looking at cases per 1M population (July 2021). This might partly be down to the fact that Finns are by their very nature “reserved” and love their own space, so the pandemic never really got a foot hold here. It’s one of the largest countries in Europe but has only 5.5m people, so people are spread out and quite isolated by the very nature of the country.

Thirdly, an important point that I think is worth mentioning, is that our minibuses are quite roomy. In fact they fall under a bus category and we require bus driving licenses to drive them. We have always had these large minibuses for comfort levels, because a big bus that you can stretch out in is more comfortable, but now they make even more sense. We generally only ever have them half filled because of our small tours, so it bodes well that you have big minibuses that are often only half filled.

Fourthly, when we have clear skies, we don’t even go out in the bus. We watch the aurora from our amazing watch tower, or on the terrace of your own cottage. Additionally, all our daytime activities are outdoors, so provided you keep to social distancing, the only air you are breathing is totally crisp fresh Arctic air. On the Huskies or Snowmobiles, you will not be sharing them with a stranger, only yourself or your family/friend!

Fifthly, our cottages are cleaned thoroughly between guests (as they always have been) but now with an additional disinfecting of all surfaces, handles, etc. There are dishwashers in all the cottages too which ensure crockery and cutlery is steam cleaned.

We also offer hand disinfection gel at all our sites, including in the bus, cottages, etc. Also, when your guide is driving the bus they will always have a mask on. It is adviced our guests also wear masks in the bus and we are happy to offer you a spare in case you run out of your stock.

To summarise, we are a small tour company in the middle of Lappish wilderness, in  a country with one of the lowest rates of corona virus. We have very small groups and we pick you up in large buses. Once you get with us, you are really in good hands and we are sure you will have an awesome holiday. Come and breath in the crisp, super fresh arctic air, switch off and forget about all the pandemic for a week and just enjoy the beautiful Lapland nature and the northern lights dancing in the sky. We’ll look after you.

If you have any questions or queries at all about visiting us next winter, do not hesitate to contact us.