I stayed here with my wife between Jan 22nd and 29th in chalet number 15. Location is ideal for a number of reasons, we booked with Inghams and arranged several excursions, the pick up point for the excursions is at the sirkantahti hotel opposite, perhesafarit who deal with snowmobile safaris and thermal suit hire etc is also across the road as well as the supermarket which we used a few times.
We stayed in the smaller chalet, there is a small entrace foyer with a drying cabinet and space to hang coats etc, then the main room with kitchen area, sofa, log fire, table and then bunk beds which were actually really cosy, then the other room is the shower, wc and private sauna which was fantastic after a very cold day.
Also there is a tv with dvd player, we took a few dvds with us which was a good idea.
We booked with inghams as we found them to be quite reasonable on their website, we went in search of the northern lights and to enjoy the excursions. We were both non skiers, for skiers you would maybe have a 5/10 min walk to zero point for the ski lifts.
We found a couple of negative points with this accomodation,
Firstly the cleanliness which we found a little below par, hairs around the place, some of the kitchen utensils weren't clean.
Secondly we found the walls to be a little thin meaning we could hear the couple next door pretty clearly including their skype conversation one night, they were an elderly couple quite possibly a little deaf as well and perhaps we were a little unlucky in this respect as I don't see other reviews around noise!
I would be happy to return to this accomodation but would ideally prefer the larger chalet for a bit more room, the log fire and sauna were both fantastic. The sauna was warm pretty quickly, around 20-30 mins or so, in an ideal world they would have an electronic timer on it so it would be ready for when you got back!
Northern lights - we read reviews on trip advisor and walked down to the immelmokit cabins by the immeljarvi lake. From where we stayed it wasn't a long walk, 5 - 10 mins ish maximum You can see the lights on average on 4 out of every 5 days in levi provided there is no cloud cover, we were lucky enough to see the lights a little on sunday night and then for around 30 - 40 mins on the tuesday night.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast is useful for identfying when will be a good night.time for spotting. We went out around 10 ish, it seem between 10 - 12 pm is the best time for spotting.
It was a truly magical experience, a few people do go down to the lake as it is away from the lights of levi ( of which there isn't that many, it's just to improve your chances)
We booked many excursions, huskey safari, reindeer safari, ice karting, snow village and evening aurora safari on snowmobile.
Huskey safari was amazing, we were taken to a lovely huskey farm, all the animals well looked after well, gorgeous picturesque scenary and then were taken over the frozen lake and through the forest when the sun was going down.
Highly recommend that one, in fact all the excursions were great, for any more info do contact me.
- Levilehto Apartments Levi
