Detour #79: Lapland
Marc Wieland / Unsplash
Lapland is a winter wonderland that will thrill kids from one to 92 (as Nat King Cole liked to sing) with reindeer, elves and snowy skids all within easy reach.
Start in Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland, deep inside the Arctic Circle and, once you’ve ticked off the Santa Claus Village and Santa Park, it’s time to head out onto the roads and explore.
With studded winter tyres you can make rapid progress, but watch out for the local wildlife – you will definitely be on the naughty list if you hit Rudolph.
If you do want to misbehave in the snow, and you’re short on time, then you can pay a visit to Lapland Driving just ten minutes outside Rovaniemi where they have a range of rally and road cars to slide around in. However, if you really want to experience the thrill of high-speed ice driving then you’ll need to take a 300-mile road trip to Arjeplog, across the border in Swedish Lapland.
You’ll head south to the Baltic’s Gulf of Bothnia on the E75 and the follow the E4, E10 and E45 all the way to Arjeplog. The roads are mostly straight and the speed limits low (and enforced) but driving through this stunning snowscape never gets boring.
The days are short this far north in the wintertime (and conversely very long in the summer) and driving in the dark is a challenge, as it can be hard to define the edges of the road in all the snow. The payoff for this extended darkness is the chance to see the incredible ionic display of the Northern Lights.
The roads of the region are used by car makers to test cold weather durability, so don’t be surprised if you come across a camouflaged prototype or two on the ice-packed routes through the forests and around the frozen lakes.
Arjeplog is home to the world’s biggest ice driving centre on Lake Udjaur – a massive 2,965-acre site built for skids. At Lapland Ice Driving you can take to a Formula 1-replica track carved out of the snow in a Porsche 911 or Cayman and reach speeds of up to 130mph on the straights, then send the car sideways through the turns.
We can’t think of a better Christmas present.
Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Photography Lapland Ice Driving / Marc Wieland / Mark Blackwell / Vincent Guth / Unsplash