Santa Claus Office - Rovaniemi

Hasitha Manage

This is where you can meet santa clause any day of the year. Unlike usual grottos that come up during christmas, his room here is well decorated and he is well dressed up to bring up that perfect christmas vibe.

Meeting santa claus is free. But you cannot take pictures or videos inside. Pictures and a video will be taken by the staff there and you have to purchase them. For the picture you have to pay EUR 35. For EUR 80 you can get one printed picture and link to download all pictures and the video.
However, unlike most of the pictures taken and sold at attractions, pictures here are taken by a professional using high end gear. Pictures are of superb quality. Printed photo is bigger than A4 size. It is sharp and has crisp colours. Given in a pocket that can be carried as a side bag.

Office is open from 10 am to 5 pm. It is located in Santa claus villege, rovaniemi which is about 3 km away from the airport and 9 km away from town centre.

Buses between town centre-santa claus villege-airport are operated by two bus companies. Buses are there every hour and they are reliable. But they dont run late. Last bus is at about 6.15 pm. Taxis are alao available. They charge EUR 30 to town centre. Bus fare to town centre is EUR 4 and to airport EUR 8.

You can even take Santa claus express night train to and from Helsinki which has upstair cabins with private shower and toilet. Regular seats are also available. This should be booked in advance at VR trsins website. Train has a good restaurant on board which operates till late night and from 4 am in the morning. Remember to check in at the station so that conductor will not disturb you to check tickets at the cabin.
Santa claus village has lot of activities such as rain deer sleigh rides, husky rides and snowmobile rides, nothern light tours, polar explorer tour, frozen waterfalls tour etc. There are more than one operator for raindeer, husky and snowmobiles. You need to have a valid driving lisence including class D to ride snowmobile. All rides are expensive.
You can see snow capped arctic forest.
Arctic circle which runs across the santa claus villege, is also marked here and you can cross it.
Santa clauses post office is also there where you can send a post card stamped here to anywhere.

There are some good accommodation options too, but expensive. There are many restaurants. Most of them close early like 5-6 pm. Restaurants that are open for dinner are expensive. Food here in general is expensive.

Remember to bring your layers and sun glasses.

You can get a live view of the central courtyard area via youtube through webcam fixed on one of the pillars marking the arctic circle.

Simon Filler

nice place, of course its for tourists but you can spend a half day here exploring everything. All basics are free (Meeting Santa is to) but the photos come with a somewhat high price of 35/50€. To many low quality gift shops, I would wish for more authentic and handmade or locally produced goods.

krzysztof rakowski (Kris)

Extremely expensive!
Obviously it's magic of Santa, Christmas etc, but expect pricey visit. 30€ for gift from Santa, 35€ for printed photo, 50€ for online download and 85€ for both option. Gift shop double prices than in Rovaniemi center for the same products.

Lisa Fisher

It is lovely but extremely commercialised. It is mostly shops. 3 hrs spent there with reindeer ride wh8ch was beautiful, visit to Santa, crossing Artic Circle, waving at webcam. We did all we wanted to do there. No tickets needed as we went in January.

Anna Egorkina

Very poor atmosphere. It must to be centre of magic… but here is not. Now it’s looks like we come here to stay in line to make photo. No music, no Christmas lights… just dark interior. With this opportunities you can make magical place for everyone. But now it’s just place to make photo with man with beard.

Luke Phang

The supposed main attraction of the Santa Claus Village, this is where they charge you an arm and a leg to print a photo of you with Santa. And nope, you are not allowed to use your own personal camera or whatever device you brought to take photos with Santa. Only official cameras are allowed.

Meeting Santa is free though, you have to give then that, and the Santa does give off Dumbledore vibes when you're talking to him. It's an experience that children would definitely enjoy, not so much adults. Unless you're still very much a child at heart and still believes in Santa.

We would have enjoyed our experience here more, even paid for the photo, if it's not for how insanely expensive the photo is. 50 euros! And it can go all the way up to hundreds of euros if you opt for the entire package, with digital photo and video included. They didn't even bother listing the price upfront and would only tell you when you ask them. A complete ripoff, we feel.

Still, it's still a rite of passage to visit this place if you're in Lapland, just don't have too high an expectation.

Zlatko Tota

Beautiful place to visit with kids. Best to visit winter time.Open 365 days. Perfect!

Claudia Teruel

Great experience, once in a lifetime time... highly recommend ?