Riding the Santa Claus Express Sleeper Train to Lapland | Helsinki to Rovaniemi

Riding the Santa Claus Express Sleeper Train to Lapland | Helsinki to Rovaniemi

Today we’re boarding Finland’s popular sleeper train, the Santa Claus Express. …on a special winter journey. A 12-hour winter journey through Finland’s frozen forests and towns. From Helsinki all the way to Lapland. Crossing the Arctic Circle and visiting Santa Claus Village. Meeting Santa’s pets. And staying in a luxury hotel in Rovaniemi. Please enjoy the journey! Good day from Helsinki. Finland’s capital and the starting point of our Arctic adventure. Today we are here to ride on a special train. It will depart at 11:13pm so we have some time to explore the city. We’re already in front of Helsinki Central Station. Considered for many years one of the most beautiful train stations in the world! This will be the route. An 11-hour, 50-minute night journey from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. The official name of the train is actually Sleeper Train 273 but everyone knows it as “Santa Claus Express”. Here we go. I am excited. Helsinki Central Station, 10:12pm. ?? There are some cafes and shops here. We’re taking the last train to Rovaniemi, the PYO 273 sleeper train at 23:13. Let’s find our platform. Looks like we’re not the only ones heading to Santa’s hometown. The train will depart from platform 7. We booked a private cabin on the Santa Claus Express. One-way ticket costs about €204 for two adults. Not bad after all, especially when you’re on your way to meet Santa… Claps, Claps. Here you have it, the famous Santa Claus Express. Oh wow, it is huge. So the train generally has 9 passenger cars, or 10–11 if car-carriers are attached during winter high season. Found Santa. Many people take photos with Santa on board. Our Santa Claus Express has a total of 9 cars, 8 double-decker carriages and one dining car. This is the dining car. The last two are seating cars while the remaining six are sleeper carriages. Our train is powered by a bi-mode locomotive, the VR Class Sr3. It can reach speeds of up to 210 km/h. Our cabin is located in the first carriage, 62. Somewhere around here. Let’s see our cabin. Which should be on the upper deck. The category is the “Upstarirs cabin for two people with en suite toilet and shower”. Here we go. Carriage 62, seats 205 and 206. Departed from Helsinki Central at 11:15pm. Two minutes late. The trains appears to run very smoothly. The room even comes with a hotel-style key card. You can lock it from inside or outside. Oh wowow. Our 4.2 m2 luxurious retreat. Surprisingly spacious and brand new. Let’s start from the beginning..
Mirror, hangers. There’s an evacuation plan displayed next to every cabin door. Heating and cooling system. Power outlet and lights. Both bunk beds are 200 x 75 cm in size. Each comes with some still water. Towels. On board dining menu. Soft and big pillow. Small net for storage. Here is the clock and alarm. Small reading lamp. Stairs to upstairs… Same facilities here. No pets, no smoking room. It’s a large window. That comes with window shades. Table and a green seat. Narrow but fine for a 10-year-old. Each compartment comes with 2 key cards for the door. Secret door leading to… ..private bathroom. Private bathroom for elves. We have a shower indeed! Paper cups, shower caps, two soaps from Aqua Senses are provided. Water pressure is medium and please do not drink. Hand shower. Now I am going to do a trick. Here’s the trick. TA-DA! Now we have our own shower! Shower gel. Water works amazing. We can put our luggage under the bed but it should be lots of dust. Anyways. Room tour is done. So let’s celebrate our trip to Lapland. With a Santa chocolate and some champagne. Subscribe to our chanel if you like our travel vlogs. Thanks a ton! Oh come on. -0.5 cents. Cheers anyhow. By the way, the Santa Claus Express entered service in 2016. Look at that mustache. Kinda cool. Our journey is 820 kilometers, about 11 hours and 50 minutes from 11:13pm in Helsinki to 11:03am in Rovaniemi. The train makes 12 official stops during the night, depending slightly on the day and schedule. Next, let’s take a look at the rest of the train. We’ll begin our tour with the first one, carriage 62. This is a compartment on the lower deck. Pet-friendly room! It’s similar to our cabin, except it doesn’t have a private bathroom. Kit for pets. Beds are identical. Let’s find the toilet and shower. Each carriage comes with shared facilities. Spacious and incredibly clean. Is this the nicest train bathroom I’ve ever seen? Should be. The bathroom comes with a toilet, sink and other amenities. Moving on. The shower is occupied, so I can’t show it to you right now. Why are we still stopped?! These are the downstairs cabins for two people. 3.3 m2 cabin. This category is only €25 cheaper than the one with a private toilet and shower. Pretty big. 😉 This is an accessible cabin for two, around 4 m2. It features an automatic door, almost one meter wide and even a private sink. What is happening here everyone? The 2-minute stop at Hameenlinna somehow turned into twenty. Not good. Another shared toilet but this one is smaller. Same forest design as the previous one. Broken mirror. I guess someone has 7 years of bad luck. Finally reached the dining cabin and restaurant. Come on Why is it so full? There are only a few seats here. Wait a sec… Is that …Santa eating supper? Brought our midnight snack to eat here but I guess not anymore. All the tables are already taken. Let’s take a look at the bar though. They sell orange juice, banana swirl, iced coffee. Protein yogurts, cheese croissants, A+ yogurts. Bagels with ham, sandwiches and soda juices. I want to try this one. Prices are on display above the counter. Thanks. Toijala station at 1:29 am on time. There are no announcements on the train during the night so people can sleep comfortably. Back to our room. Mate, I hope you are not wearing those in your bed. Gotta pass. Round two of train snacking. Some pesto sandwich. Carrot and dark chocolate cakes. Premium strawberry yogurt. It is with muesli. A+ quality. If you are hearing something, it’s just our neighbor talking on the phone. Or taking showers. Or both on the same time. 9 hours to go. Now, this is nice. Cake time. Get the carrot away.
You are scaring my people. Tampere at 1:54 am, arriving 1 minute earlier. The train will stop here for about 40 minutes, so we can step outside for some fresh air. Outside temperature is 0°C so it’s quite alright. It is a beautiful train! This is the dining car. Restaurant closes at 2am and reopens at 4am for breakfast. The reason why we are stopping for so long is this. The car carriages at the end of the train will be disconnected And then our train will connect with another one.
We are now at the end of the train, car 54. Now that we are here, let’s see the other classes on Santa Claus Express. This is the seating carriage. The seats are in a 2+2 basic layout. It is not very crowded. However, I’ve seen that most of the sleeper cabins are occupied. There’s also the upper deck. Same as downstairs but more private. There are also private seating compartments with 2 or 4 seats. Ticket prices for seating start at around €50–70 per person, depending on the season. We can also come with our bicycles. Price is around €8. Well, at least I get to see it. That’s something. Time for our beauty sleep. Looks cool and comfortable. The quality is really nice. Bed, done. Christmas pajama, done. Shields, done. Oh, there’s also Wi-Fi on board, but the internet speed is slow. Now that today’s events are all done, let’s go to sleep. It is now 7:45am. Good morning from somewhere in Finland. The view from outside is beautiful. Passing through forests and small villages. In terms of sleep quality… Not bad, except for my neighbor next door snoring all night. At least now he stopped. Time to enjoy the bed and look outside the window. There isn’t much snow yet but the scenery is still beautiful. Passing by a few cozy forest cabins. They look straight out of a winter postcard. Few more stops to go! Almost there!! Arctic Circle is waiting. Oulu station at 08:15am. Oulu is one of the largest cities in northern Finland, located right by the Gulf of Bothnia. In winter, everything here freezes. Civilization!! It’s known for its mix of modern architecture, cozy cafés and the northern lights that can sometimes be seen right from the city. Wakey wakey! The upper bed felt alright. Now that we are fully awake, let’s prepare for breakfast. We’ll enjoy our pre-ordered breakfast in the dining car! Let’s hope that the area is not as crowded as yesterday night. Very lucky day. There are two seats next to the window. And a free table in the dining car too. While we wait for the breakfast.. Some croissants, chcolate muffins, vanilla brioches. Here is it. Our €13 breakfast. Today’s menu consists of Americano coffee, orange juice, ciabatta sandwich and yogurt. Beef ciabatta is soft. You know the yogurt already. Coffee.
Cheers! God Morgan orange nectar. Sip of happiness. It’s not bad at all. Actually better than most trains I’ve been on. Let’s try the orange. Tastes like Finland. Alright, let’s see who’s taking the sandwich. OH COME ON Good! I love this yogurt. I can’t see snow for now though but let’s hope! I’m starting to get used to eating it every day. Breakfast on the train is comfortable and quiet. Train runs so smoothly, you almost feel like you’re in a hotel. 9:45am.
First announcement on the train is made in the morning. Next stop is Kemi. Oh my god Oh my god We’ve officially entered Lapland. 858 km away from Helsinki. In less than an hour we’ll arrive at our destination. Kemi River. Welcome to Lapland! The view from the dining car is way better than the one from our room. Time to relax and enjoy the last few minutes aboard the Santa Claus Express. The train ride was really nice. Everything felt quiet and our cabin was warm and comfortable. The staff were friendly and the whole train was very clean. I liked watching the villages and forests pass by. A beautiful way to reach the Arctic Circle in my opinion in one of the best sleeper trains in Europe! Arrival in Rovaniemi! Round of applause… 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Hello Rovaniemi. Arrived 1 minute earlier, 11:02am. Goodbye train! Thank you to the conductor and all the people that made this journey special. Thank you Santa for being there. Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland and the official hometown of Santa Claus. Rovaniemi train station is really small. I stayed outside for 3 minutes and I am already freezing. Let’s take some photos. Cheese. There are some brochures about things to do in Rovaniemi. I just noticed they’re all in Chinese and I’m not Chinese from what I know. Here we visited the famous Santa Claus Village and even met Santa himself. It’s also where we officially crossed the Arctic Circle line. Santa Claus Village is about 8 kilometers from Rovaniemi city center. It’s open all year round and completely free to visit. The village is quite big with shops, restaurants and hotels. People can meet Santa Claus every single day. There’s also the official post office where you can send letters worldwide. I also sent a letter! ..to Santa. There are many restaurants and cafés offering specialties like reindeer burgers. Buffets! In winter, you can go on reindeer or husky rides. You can roast marshmallows by the outdoor fire. Visiting all the Santa’s pets and reindeers here. (A like here for this beautiful video.) And we can also feed them! There’s even a snowmobile park nearby. Starting with December, the whole area is covered in white. It’s the most famous attraction in Rovaniemi. And it really feels like the home of Christmas. Santa Claus Village is open all year round and you can visit even in summer though Santa himself takes a little break. We chose to stay at Rovaniemi’s most luxurious hotel, the Arctic Light Hotel. We had such a great time there. We stayed in their Polar Room with private sauna and it was fantastic! We loved the cozy Lapland atmosphere. Also tried the best restaurant in town and tasted reindeer for the first time. We went on a northern lights hunt with hot chocolate! Thank you to all of you for watching to the end. See you next time soon from Santa Claus Village. Have a happy day.

Today, we’ll be riding Finland’s popular overnight train, the Santa Claus Express, from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, the Arctic Circle and the official hometown of Santa Claus.

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◽️Information
Train: Santa Claus Express (P 273)
Fare: €100–180 per person
Route: Helsinki to Rovaniemi
Departure: 11:13 PM
Arrival: 11:03 AM
Cabin Type: Upstairs cabin for two people with en suite toilet and shower
Experience: Santa on Board!!!

◽️Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:42 Helsinki
01:22 Train Route Map
01:35 Helsinki Central Station
02:20 Tickets Information
02:50 Santa Claus Express to Lapland
05:09 Upstairs Cabin with Bathroom Tour
09:04 Midnight Snack
10:19 Train Tour
13:10 Dining Car and Restaurant
14:55 Midnight Snack (Part 2)
16:05 Tampere Station
17:00 Other Classes on Train
18:18 Go to Sleep
19:10 Good Morning from Lapland
22:15 Breakfast with a View
25:51 Arrival in Rovaniemi
26:18 Impressions
27:17 Rovaniemi Station
28:00 Santa Claus Village
31:13 Arctic Light Hotel
32:18 Thank You for Watching!

Thanks for watching everyone! See you next time. ✨

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