Lapland

Head to northernmost Finland to find Lapland, a realm where the summer sun never sets, and the Aurora Borealis lights up the winter, autumn, and spring night sky. Experience daylight all summer long as the sun travels in a circle above Lapland, and Finland is one of the best places on Earth to view the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights as they appear more than 200 nights a year. The Lapland city of Rovaniemi is 6 mi /10 km south of the Arctic Circle, and locals will tell you that's where Santa Claus lives. The post office here receives over half a million letters each year from children around the world, and you can look at a selection of the letters and send postcards bearing an official Santa Claus stamp. 

The Ranua Wildlife Park is the world's northernmost zoo, with 50 wild animal species and 200 individual animals such as lynx, brown bears and wolves, European moose, deer, and Finland's only polar bears living in artificial snow. A popular pastime in Lapland on Finland vacations is to stay at an igloo hotel (or ice hotel), where no matter how cold it is outside, you will stay warm and comfortable in a sleeping bag made of reindeer skins. These include the Snow Castle in Kemi, the Arctic Snow Hotel 15 mi / 25 km from Rovaniemi, the Lainio Snow Village near Yllas, the Hotel Kakslauttanen in the Saariselka region, and the Hetta Snow Castle situated in Vuollikka.