"We had a fantastic bucket list trip to view the Northern Lights. Not only were the lights spectacular, but we had a wonderful time doing all the many other activities that were booked too, e.g., dog sledding, snowmobiling, learning about the Sami culture and reindeer sledding. The accommodations were great, as was the service and food. Thank you, Weekend a la Carte, for exceeding our expectations and for the memories of a lifetime!"
"Wow! Certainly a trip of a lifetime! Although a “package” holiday, the experience felt very personal throughout. I am really struggling to find the words to express how amazing our trip was."
"Five star service all the way. I was worried about booking an organised break but Weekend a la carte helped make this special birthday one to remember. Everything they sourced from accommodation to activities was first class."
"We had a fantastic bucket list trip to view the Northern Lights. Not only were the lights spectacular, but we had a wonderful time doing all the many other activities that were booked too, e.g., dog sledding, snowmobiling, learning about the Sami culture and reindeer sledding. The accommodations were great, as was the service and food. Thank you, Weekend a la Carte, for exceeding our expectations and for the memories of a lifetime!"
"Superbly organized aurora and arctic activities agenda
The tour organizers, Kevin (owner) and Jan, provided a lot of personalized attention, including some fine tuning of the agenda to meet our desires. This tour is really a managed agenda, with accommodations, dining, transportation and activities arranged and coordinated. This isn’t a group tour, with a lot of fellow travelers and a lot of bus time. Weekend à la Carte knows the good places to stay and eat, and fun ways to spend the daylight hours in the arctic. Everyone we met along the way was charming, upbeat and helpful. While there were activities planned each day, there was also a nice amount of unscheduled time for relaxation.
Our top objective was to experience the northern lights. By track record, Kiruna and Abisko, in the far north of Sweden, are among the optimal accessible viewing locations in the world. Of course both terrestrial and solar weather have to cooperate. We are happy to report that we did have two nights of aurora sighting, one of which was particularly ample and exciting. The leaders of our two organized aurora hunting outings were fantastic: enthusiastic and helpful (especially for the outing with provided aurora-friendly cameras).
We encountered temperatures between -4 and -26C. The nighttime aurora watching times were the coldest. We are happy to report that the provided arctic clothing, along with Weekend à la Carte’s clothing guidance, meant that we were comfortable even in the cold. In fact, it was a pleasure to be out in the stunning landscape without any distraction from the cold. It was actually fun to be outside.
We were surprised how much fun all the daytime “filler” activities were:
Time with reindeer and their Sami (Lapland indigenous people) owners: We fed and harnessed the reindeer, and then enjoyed a long sled ride (with one of us “driving” and the other enjoying the ride) through the beautiful snowy arctic countryside. Upon return to the reindeer home base, we learned how to throw a lasso Sami-style, and then enjoyed lunch (of reindeer meat) and coffee in a lavvu, which is the traditional teepee-like Sami all-purpose structure. Our host taught us with charm about the fascinating and difficult history and current life of the Sami people.
Snowmobiling: We enjoyed a generous amount of time snowmobiling through the snowy forests, over frozen lakes, and atop all-white mountains.
Dog sledding: Another day out in the gorgeous landscape, this time pulled by six dogs per two-person sled. The leaders, and owners of the dogs, told us to wait until the dogs were silent before calling out to them to start. The dogs are so eager to run that they jump, bark and yelp in anticipation. The owners want to ensure that the dogs associate quiet and order with the pleasure of running. At one point during the outing, we all stopped in an open snow-covered spot. Suddenly many of the dogs, including “ours,” started pulling to the left and barking. We held the sled in place while the owners coerced the dogs back onto the track. Apparently, a vulnerable reindeer was standing in the nearby woods, attracting the eager attention of the dogs. Once back at home base, we were instructed to give “our” dogs a post-run massage; it is important to help relax the dogs’ muscles after the exertion and assist their circulation from feet back to heart. We were instructed to massage the front legs from feet up, then down the back from head to tail, and finally the back legs from feet up. The dogs were in heaven! They nuzzled us, licking, tails wagging furiously."
"The trip was simply the best and more! The beauty of the Lapland scenery, the exhilaration of Husky sledging with such beautiful dogs, and to top it all, fantastic food. And then the bonus - the Northern Lights put on a display."
"Excellent short break.
Even though nature never allowed us a view of the whales or northern lights, the golden circle jeep tour more than made up for this. (Thanks Kate @ superjeep).
Blue lagoon is also a brilliant and relaxing experience.
Hotel Centrum was great and staff really helpful.
Will be visiting again"
Thank you so much for your kind review though am sorry to hear you did not get to see everything you wanted to. I wish the Northern Lights were on a switch as would make my job a lot easier! I am pleased you had a good time despite not seeing them. Regards Abigail
"We had a wonderful trip to Swedish Lapland with Weekend a la carte. The Lodge was perfect and the staff friendly and helpful. We saw the Northern Lights twice during the stay. A magical experience which we will never forget. Dog sledding with Ylva and Peter (and Leo age 3) was fantastic, we really felt like guests of the family rather than clients. Andreas took us Snowmobiling for a morning, which was great fun. All of the experiences we had with Weekend a la carte over the four days had an exclusive feel, These are not mass-market excursions along with lots of others. Bjorn and the rest of the staff were excellent. If you are thinking of making this trip, don't,.... just do it. You won't regret it."
"The best organised trip we've ever been on, from the booking to the choice of hotel and activities and even the planning of the activities so they were nicely spaced over the holiday - it was all fabulous."
"Everything ran so smooth. The activities were excellent especially the dog sledding. Ice hotel was outstanding and Abisko lodge superior rooms amazing. The food was sublime and seeing the aurora was the icing on the cake. We couldn’t have had a better time thank you."
"Kevin, Jan and Shirley at a la Carte have expertise and a well oiled organisation which ensures the customer the best of service. Translated this meant an unbelievable and memorable experience in Abisko. Our hosts were marvelous; the location magnificent; the food standard was gourmet; the activities superb and well organised with great guides and the aurora mind blowing.."
"An amazing trip to Kiruna - well organised and everything we had hoped for. Champagne in the Ice Bar and 2 beautiful Art Suites ticked the Ice Hotel off our bucket list, dog sledding twice was my Uni age children’s dream as was the snowmobiling. The Arctic Gourmet Cabin was amazing and an outdoor hot tub at -23° was novel, nothing was too much trouble for Johan (even toasted sandwiches at 5am the morning we left) - shame the Northern Lights didn’t come out to play, obviously our invitation to return!"
"The whole trip was seamless as so well organised by the team before we went. The trip organised met expectations, we really enjoyed the few days in Iceland"
"From the moment we were met at the airport to being dropped off 5 days later this was another fantastic short break to Iceland. The cabin is superb & set in a truly stunning location between the volcano & the ocean. The guys at Southcoast are great hosts, passionate about their country & really want you to have the best possible experience even if the Icelandic weather has other ideas.
Many thanks to all at Weekend a la Carte for organising this.
Andy, Steph, Lottie & Aidan"
"We had an amazing bucket list holiday and it was relaxed and well organised. I can honestly say I was really impressed with the teams that work at the venues and therefore I am confident Weekend a la carte take time to really consider the guest experience. We never felt in a rush or part of a cattle herd of a group. Our experience was unique and intimate which added to the experience. All the adventures we had booked and the people we meet were memorable. I will definitely be recommending to others and booking another special holiday with the team. thank you for making us feel special."
"The excursions which were organised by the company were really good and the hosts were brilliant at making us feel welcome and ensuring we achieved what we wanted to get out of the day.
The Lodge which we stayed at was also very homely and ensured we always had access to water and hot drinks. The slippers were a lovely touch!
The hotel we stayed at in Stockholm exceeded our expectations and the bar was great!"
"We wanted a trip to celebrate our big 'O' birthdays. The Aurora Nights trip was all and more we could have expected even though we missed the Northern lights. Great fun snowmobiling, dog sledging & many more activities. Thanks for an awesome time."
"The trip we did was a nice mix of activities and staying at the Icehotel was definitely an experience. The location of the Máttaráhkká Northern Lights Lodge was really good in that it was close to kiruna and yet has an undisturbed view of the national park, and had very little light pollution, and as a result we saw the lights really well on 2 evenings.
Given the changeable weather our ice fishing day was replaced with more dogsledding, which we were happy with. However, our photography evening was just straight cancelled and was neither replaced with another activity or refunded. I think Aurora Nights can do better in this regard as we were there for 3 nights, so there was plenty opportunity to move the day or at least offer a partial refund for the trip we'd paid for not running."
Dear Oliver
Thanks for the review and i am delighted that you had such a good trip but that the weather conspired against you. The team on the ground are normally excellent in juggling itineraries when needed but I was not aware that you were unable to do the photo evening at the lodge and we will certainly give you a refund for this. I have asked Jan to make contact with you so this can be arranged.
Regards
Kevin Collins
Managing Director - Weekend a la Carte
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