Independent Families: 'How cheaply can we get to Santa's home?'

Q. We'd love to take our five- and seven-year-old to see Santa in Lapland, but the holiday companies want well over £1,000 for the four of us even for a quick day trip to Finland. Are there any low-cost alternatives?
S G Wright, Stratford-upon-Avon

A. Seeing Santa on his home turf - or snowfield - is, as you indicate, one of the most indulgent and expensive Christmas treats for children. The Finns claim that their portion of Lapland is where Father Christmas and his helpers reside, and a dozen different companies will take you and your offspring there (or, indeed, someone else and your offspring - these trips are favourites of benevolent grandparents and godparents).

A standard day out involves an early start from one of Britain's leading airports. A flight of up to four hours takes you to the airport at Rovaniemi (sadly not yet named Santa International). Here, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, after the usual immigration formalities, you are taken to the Santa Claus Village (00 358 163 562 096; www.santaclausvillage.info), just outside Rovaniemi. You can meet the man himself in his chamber, visit his post office and do your Christmas shopping at any of the many handicraft, gift and delicatessen shops.

The village also includes a reindeer park where you can ride across the snow in a sleigh pulled by reindeer for €16 (£11) for adults and €12 (£9) for children.

Days are very short in midwinter this far north, which means that the evening gloom will have set in by the time your sleepy children are taken back to the airport for the long flight home. By the time you get home you may feel that you (as well as your bank balance) have been sleighed .

Fortunately, there is a way of putting together a trip yourself that may save you some cash - and, hopefully, give you a more fulfilling trip. The basic plan is to fly to Tampere in southern Finland and then make your way north by train. Instead of flying in and out in a day, you would travel on day one, revel in the frozen north on day two and fly back on day three - though you could also squeeze in an extra night away.

Ryanair (0906 270 5656; www.ryanair.com) flies daily from Stansted to Tampere, with pre-Christmas fares at around £166 return (children over two travel for the same price as adults). The airline still has availability in the run-up to Christmas, though fares are likely to increase.

The departure time is an inconvenient 6.20am, but this gets you to Tampere at 11.05am - comfortably in time for the 12.02pm direct train north to Rovaniemi. A cab from the airport to the station costs around €30 (£22) and takes about 20 minutes. You would arrive in Rovaniemi just before 8pm the same evening. Should the flight be delayed (actually an unlikely event on Ryanair), the next northbound one departs at 3pm and arrives in Rovaniemi at 10.55pm.

Finnish Railways (00 358 923 192 902; www.vr.fi) offers family tickets for two adults and two children starting from €123 (£88) each way.

Should you decide that you can't face the eight-hour train journey after an early flight, you could always fly from Heathrow or London City on SAS Scandinavian Airlines (0845 607 2772; www.flysas.com) which has very limited availability on its flights via Copenhagen to Oulu. This is only two and a half hours from Rovaniemi. Flights start from £205. The 9.20am flight from London City airport arrives in Oulu at 5.15pm. The next train to Rovaniemi leaves at 8.20pm, arriving there at 10.55pm; the family ticket on this journey is €54 (£39).

Accommodation is obviously at a premium in Rovaniemi at this time of year, however the English-speaking tourist information office (00 358 163 221; www.rovaniemi.fi) has many helpful suggestions regarding places to stay. About two kilometres outside the city there is accommodation attached to a sports centre (00 358 163 344 11); family rooms cost a very reasonable €105 (£75) including breakfast and use of the sports centre, including its swimming pool.

The more central Guest House Borealis (00 358 163 420 130; www.guesthouseborealis.com) also rents out an apartment with its own kitchen which sleeps up to seven people; prices start from €150 (£107). Double rooms start from €60 (£43) and triples, (which can have an extra bed in) start from €114 (£81).

The aptly named and more expensive Clarion Hotel Santa Claus (www.hotelsantaclaus.fi; 00 358 163 213 227) has family rooms for €185 (£132). The attached Gaissa restaurant is perfect for sampling local delicacies; the €36 (£26) set menu includes flambéed reindeer noisettes (perhaps best not to tell the children you are eating Santa's furry friends).

Once installed, reaching Santa Claus Village by local bus is easy. Entrance is free, and the park is open 9am-7pm daily throughout the month of December.

Erasetti Safaris (00 358 163 628 11; www.erasetti.fi) has its head office in the village and organises a variety of trips. You can set off to see the northern lights (with luck) by reindeer, or take a snowmobile or husky-sleigh ride; the latter start at €16 (£14) for adults and €12 (£9) for children under 15.

There is also the nearby Santa Park (00 358 163 330 000; www.santapark.fi; open 10am-6pm daily except Mondays before Christmas, and daily after Christmas). It is a festive grotto inside a cave complete with elves baking gingerbread. Entrance is €20 (£14) and €15 (£11) for children under 15.

At the end of your stay, a direct train from Rovaniemi departs for Tampere at 9.40am, arriving at 5.53pm. Ryanair's return flights leave at 10pm or 10.30pm, depending on the day, arriving in Stansted at around 11pm.

If you have been keeping count so far, you will see that this comes in at £1,000, give or take a few euros - but you will have had the adventure of crossing the landscape where Doctor Zhivago was filmed in the depths of winter, and the pleasure of spending a full day - or two - in Santa's home town.

For those who cannot make the journey in person to Lapland this winter you can write to the official Santa Claus Post Office at Santa Claus' Main Post Office, Santa Village, 96930 Napapiiri, Finland. Despite the volume of letters he receives, Santa does try to reply to all letters and cards.

Send your family travel queries to The Independent Parent, Travel Desk, The Independent, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS or e-mail crusoe@independent.co.uk

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