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Voted 1st out of 4 reviewed ski resorts in Finland
- Superb(3)
- Good(2)
- O.K.(0)
- Poor(0)
- Awful(0)
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Christmas in Yllas
Reviewed 11 Apr 2016
Yllas is brilliant, it has everything you need within walking distance from skiing to activities (I’d recommend the huskies and snowmobiling). 10 times better than Rovaniemi! We spent Christmas here in 2015 and will be back for New Year 2016/17!
Wonderful!
Reviewed 11 Apr 2016
We had a wonderful week in Yllas. We loved the snowmobiles, I shared one with my husband and we had an absolutely brilliant trip. The huskies were great too. The weather was freezing, around -40 some days. The clothing was really good, the first time we went out without snowsuits we regretted it! Everyone there is doing the same thing in terms of stripping off their snowsuits when you’re in the hotel etc, so it really isn’t a problem. The only time it seeped through the snowsuits was when we were out on the snowmobile – and I think that was because we’d been out there for 5 or 6 hours and I was sat on the back. It was an amazing place to be on the lead up to Christmas and I loved every moment, I don’t want to spoil it by going back in case the next week doesn’t match it!
Amazing Christmas with the family
Reviewed 16 May 2014
We hadn’t been before and what attracted us was the guarantee of snow for the Christmas period. You also have the chance of seeing the Northern Lights although we didn’t manage to because of the weather.
Yllas is probably not for people who want to go hurtling down the black slopes all day every day, but from a family perspective it’s excellent – you just need to mix the skiing with the non-ski Lapland activities so you get the best of both worlds.
The area is brilliant for beginners as the skiing is easy peasy - if you’re learning that’s where I’d want to go to learn. The majority of people in the resort are not there to ski, they’re primarily there for the Lapland experience, which means you have the slopes to yourself! The slopes are lovely, wide and beautiful and there wasn’t a queue in sight. We had ample skiing for the family.
The area is mostly button lifts but this is a good thing as they aren’t affected by high winds so you don’t have them closing in bad weather. They flood light all the slopes because the light goes at about 2 in the afternoon which means you can still get a full day’s skiing in.
We were lucky that it wasn’t too cold but you do have to have a full thermal kit and we were prepared for this.
Yllas is more of a modern resort, the other side has more traditional cabins. It’s quite a small place but there are a couple of nice bars and restaurants.
We went on a reindeer ride on Christmas day and also did the Ice Hotel visit, I wasn’t looking forward to having to be on a coach to get there (we don’t usually do that kind of thing) but I’m so glad we did, it was absolutely amazing. A good tip is that you don’t have to follow the tour going round and can just go off in your own to do it at your own pace, that’s what we did and we really enjoyed it.
Great for beginners and cross country
Reviewed 4 Apr 2014
We hadn’t been to Yllas before and were seeing Finland for the first time – there’s not a lot there but we liked it. We were all new to downhill skiing and it’s great for beginners but it would probably be a bit limited for experienced skiers. We mixed cross country and downhill skiing and hired gear separately each day - we’re more familiar with cross country skiing and this was very good here, if you want to go on prepared tracks it’s excellent. There are also ample places to stop and get a hot drink.
The area is forest not mountain and by the end of the week I remember thinking I’d now done Finland forest when it comes to cross country skiing! It’s certainly adequate for a one week holiday as you can always go round the corner and see a new view – they have huge frozen lakes – but after two weeks you’d probably never want to see a frozen lake again!
We were here at the end of March and it was very cold some days and a bit windy, one day the downhill was closed in the morning because of the winds. A friend told us to pack Buffs which is essential and makes a huge different as it was really cold some days. If it’s -10 and windy like it was for us, think carefully about getting warm gloves, I used my mountaineering gloves and was quite surprised that my hands got so cold - I got hot aches on one occasion which is really unpleasant. The roads had hard packed snow so you wouldn’t want to walk around in town shoes, the key requirement is that you’d need a sole with a grip so you don’t end up slipping over.
It’s not somewhere you have 20 places to choose between when it comes to where to eat, but there were some good restaurants and the menus have plenty of choice and good helpings – not Cordon Bleu but everything up to that.
One evening we went to see the Ice Hotel, which isn’t something I would usually do - I was persuaded to do by the people I was staying with –but I enjoyed it. We also went snowmobiling in the night time to see if we could see the northern lights which was a great experience.
Yllas is a small scale, low-key and homely place where everything is efficiently organised. It’s a small village where everyone seems to know everyone else, for example I asked our ski instructor if he knew a good place to hire cross country gear and got the impression he knew the owner of the shop personally.
I’d be surprised if there were more than five ski instructors in the whole place. I was told the thing to do was to get individual lessons as you get some personal attention, so I fixed this up with the ski school by email and it worked extremely well; when I turned up at the counter on Monday morning they knew we were coming.
Atmospheric
Reviewed 29 Mar 2014
It’s all quite atmospheric in Finland, it’s nice to do activities like the reindeer safari and snowmobiling as well as skiing, it makes the whole thing an adventure holiday and more than just skiing.
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