FIRST CLASS OVERNIGHT TRAIN to the ARCTIC (The Lapland Express)
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- čas přidán 26. 01. 2023
- Today I'm taking a first class sleeper train to the Arctic Circle! Come with me aboard the Lapland express, for a snowy long distance train journey :)
We are going all the way to Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland in one of the most comfortable and beautiful train rides I've ever experienced.
I've been on a lot of trains in my life, like the Amtrak trains (California Zephyr and Coast Startlight), Rovos Rail (the most expensive train ride in the world), and the Caledonian Sleeper. But with this train, we are literally going to the top of the world (close to the North Pole)! This was such a special and unique train journey and I really recommend it!
Also, I'm having a bit of a girl's trip here since I'm bringing my friend Camille along. Btw, it's her first time in a CZcams video so if you read this, go subscribe to her channel and tell her to post her first video ASAP: / @camillegrassi
More info about my luxury train journey:
- Train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi (in the Arctic Circle) on VR (Finland's national rail service)
- First class train cabin is the upstairs cabin with private shower
In this trip report, you'll find:
- A full train tour of the two floors including: dining car, bar car, seating compartments (with reclining seats), storage space...
- A room tour of our first class cabin
- Food tour of our breakfast
- The incredible views over the arctic circle including beautiful snowy train tracks, icy rivers and our arrival into the arctic.
Also, all my luggage is Solgaard, I absolutely love this brand and they are now a partner of the channel!
You can get 15% off using my code LUCILE15 (www.solgaard.co/LUCILE15)
#firstclassovernighttrain #firstclass #overnighttrain #sleepertrain #finland #arcticcircle #rovaniemi
Thank you so much for the super positive response on this video!! If you enjoyed it, make sure to subscribe, because I have 4 more videos from Finland planned :)
As a Finn, I confess only the price is most often that of the first class. Yet there are no complimentary amenities, the cabins are small, the bed linen coarse, the food is non-complimentary, expensive, and modest. You get a nice free bottle of water, that`s it. There are special offers, if you buy many months in advance, otherwise: this is no hotel, even though the price gets ridiculous. Years ago, special breakfasts, worthy of presenting to tourists, were available, served to your proper restaurant table, in porcelain tableware. For these, I`m embarrassed and sorry. You got microwaved porridge, in a paper cup, with an inferior rye sandwich, and thin coffee.
10:25 that's called "sininen hetki" or the "blue moment". It's a typical phenomena in Finland during cold winter mornings just before sunrise.
Oh thank you for the information! It is SO beautiful!
"blåtimen" or "blue hour" in Norway.
and you should enjoy it with Fazer blue chocolate naturally...
@@LucileHR l'heure bleue :)
Ok so I’m petrified to fly. I’m hyper focused on going to Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort! So this is perfect ❤
Woooow! This is literally a winter dreamland of a train :) love your train videos Lucile!!!
aww thank you!! :D
Happy new year to an AMAZING couple
omg hi bobby ur my fav youtuber :0
Bobby should try too!!
My wife and I traveled to Finland last November just so we could take the Santa Claus Express. Your video captured the beauty and fun of taking the overnight train to Rovaniemi. We spent 4 nights in a cabin just north of the Arctic Circle before taking one night at Santa Claus Village. It was a memorable visit, even though we locked ourselves out of the cabin at midnight after taking a sauna! The train was awesome and we want to come back and do it again. Thanks for the video Lucile!
we are going in November 2024. Do you need additional tickets for the seating cars if you are in an overnight cabin?
You should really do this again in Summer time. It is amazing when sun never goes down. There is like a Day in night. Also when nature wake and there is those thousands clean water lakes to swim it is just amazing in Finland.
wow this must be so cool!!
@@LucileHR If you don't mind a metric heckton of mosquitoes, Lapland in summer time is so nice, sun is shining 24/7 quite literally.
@@VonArmagedda Yeah one should check out when the mosquito season really starts and travel before that :) though the weather might be colder. The season varies depending on the water situation in spring and the temperature. If it's a late cold and dry spring mosquitoes come later etc.
@@VonArmagedda it might be preferable to be on the coast of Norway during the summer, to avoid the mosquitoes, because it really does get annoying to pick them out of your eyes and ears and nose every few seconds.
Except for the amount of masquitoes in Lapland in the summer.
Such an amazing experience ! I just loved sharing that with you Lucile !!!
awww :) Thank you for being there :D
Nice and positive video! Personally I love the old blue night train coaches which travel between Helsinki and Kolari. It's like taking a time travel to 70's
AMAZING, I have waited when you go to Finland and experience those. WELCOME to Finland!!!!
Thank you :D I love it here!!
You and Bobby are literally living my dream that is to travel around the world and watching your videos makes me feel like I'm travelling with you... 🥺🥺🥺 Thanks for giving so much efforts on these videos 🥺🥺🥺💖💖
Aww thank you so much!! This is so nice :)
@@LucileHR🤗❣️🤗❣️
Looked like an amazing train ride. Double decker sleeper train is the way they should all be for long train rides!
Yes I agree!! It was super comfy :)
Winter wonderland ❄️, amazing vid Lucile
Thank you! And yes, it was exactly that :)
Thats pretty cool. First time watching and I'm hooked lovely energy from the girls. I havnt finished this video so I will continue 😂
Amazing video
Can't wait to see next one!
Love amazing content!
Keep going!
Angelus from LV
Thank you so much Angelus :)
this is a beautiful train, well done Finland!
Well thanks 👍
Thanks for the videos .I had the same experience .
Litterly just got back from Rovaniemi and the youtube algortim recommended me this video and I loved it!
:D thank you for watching! I hope you enjoyed your trip in Rovaniemi :)
What a fun train trip! The blue light at around 9am is my favorite color ever! 😊
Sininen hetki (blue moment) - blue hour in english =)
@@epookkiblogi thank you!
I made that same journey in March 2022 from Helsinki to Rovaniemi as I wanted to drive a snowmobile as it was in my bucket list! Great fun and the light was longer!
Oh no way!! That's cool :)
Nice that you felt the train trip in my home country comfortable. I've never done that, I have travelled to Lapland only by car (I live near Helsinki).
Yes, it was such a nice train :)
Täällähän tulee tuttuja vastaan =D. Ei taida Transiitti sopia junaan.
Finally somebody makes a good. Video of Finland :)
Love the video but I have to point out that @ 4:20 you can see the keycard on that "keyholster"... it even has a helpful key symbol on it haha.. not trying to be mean but yeah there it is.
I kinda love taking long train trips there is just something really chill about train traveling... spending time in bar train talking with strangers, looking at the view passing by or sleeping in the cab.
Just found your channel! Maybe it was because your travel came so close to us, we live in a little village in north of Sweden, Vittangi, about 270 km northwest from Rovaniemi. I actually went with my velomobile (check films on my channel) to Rovaniemi in the beginning of September 2022. Hope you had some nice time in Rovaniemi, it is a nice city. Hope you also were lucky and saw the northern lights!
Some people have already made some comments that you should come in the summertime to experience the midnight sun. The midnight sun you will see when traveling north of the Arctic Circle. In Rovaniemi the Arctic Circle goes north of the center of the town. Even in Rovaniemi you can experience the midnight sun, but continuing the travel to the north the time of when you can experience the midnight sun will be longer. Here in Vittangi we can see it about one month around midsummer.
A very common discussion starts about Santa Claus or as he is called in Finland, Joulupukki. Rovaniemi has made Santa Claus as his homeplace, but all children in Finland knows Joulupukki lives in Korvatunturi :-), a real mountain in Finnish Lapland. I could recommend the book "Joulupukki" by Mauri Kunnas with beautiful illustrations, you can find it also in English language with the title "Santa Claus".
Welcome back to the north and maybe you have already travelled the beautiful railroad from Boden (Sweden) to Narvik (Norway)? The trains are not so comfortable as they are with VR in Finland, but the sceneries are beautiful.
Oh, this is such a good comment, thank you so much for taking the time to give me all this info! I would absolutely love to come back to the North and try this train! Also the book you mention seems so cute :)
Arctic circle is just where lapland starts.. Korvatunturi is a little mountain ear shaped. Korva=ear. Story tells than Santa can hear if somebody is bad. If want to visit in there, that's long way to skiing.
What a fun looking trip! I must say that Camille was much more graceful than I would be getting into that top bunk. Some good engineering by the train designrs to work in that shower. Was breakfast your only meal? Thanks again for sharing!
Yes, breakfast was the only meal we had since the journey was from 11pm to 11 am :)
Lol Steve ! Thanks for that comment, I was channeling my inner ballerina ;)
wow! It's amazing...
This video really brought me there 🙌
Super vidéo Lucile !
merci :D
Hello! Greetings from Finland. I hope you have experienced the beauty of Karkkila, too.
Finish train are so much nicer than Swedish night trains!
But the Swedish one are pretty cool too, you can go from Malmö to Kiruna, a trip of about 18 hours. The bed coupes are six beds, three on top of each other. I of course took the top one. :) the trains are 60 years old built in the good old days so vintage guaranteed. (They’ve added power outlets). You can check in your big bags in a storage wagon in front of the train so every stop is 15 minutes. Not many stops during the trip. :)
2001 I traveled with 3 of my friends by train from Stockholm to Gothenburg to the hockey world championships and to our disappointment the restaurant car "ran out" of booze already in Karlstad Clearly they were not prepared for 4 "finnjävels" 🤣 Greetings from Finland
@@mantelikukkapenkki2368
Hahaha!
I recognize that! We were 50 guys flying Stockholm - New York with an American company, we emptied all they had on the plane. The steward asked “How do you guys keep up” 😆
I think they look forward to a slow sleepy flight. On no. ;)
Entertaining clip ! Thanks.
Thank you! :)
You have inspired me to a overnight traindrive, even if im Finish. Never done that.
Thank you for another great video Lucile!
Thank you for being here Dominique :)
Nice trip.
This looks like a fun time
Yes, it was so fun :)
Wow! I am from Finland and I will take a train after one week!🙂
Nice video Lucile. In extreme cold weather electronic devices like mobile phones, GoPro and power loose their battery charge very quickly. How did you keep them working in those very cold environment? Any tips or are you planning to do a video about this topic please
Thank you dear beauty ms.
Awesome job Lucia thumb up
Thank you :)
I have been to Rovaniemi twice. Is there a train from Stockholm to Swedens Lapland also?
I've heard about it! I've not taken it (yet) though!
Freezing? What do you mean by freezing? It was freezing once, in 1987. I remember quite well. You see, I have been living in Finland since 1974.
In February 1987 we had 36,7C in Helsinki and everything was completely normal.
Next time you're here in the Nordic Countries take the sleeper train from Stockholm/Sweden to Narvik/Norway in the summer, you may have a chance to the midnight sun - I've seen it a couple of time, living in Sweden but not that fare north. This gonna make you a little sad but Rovaniemi is situated a little south of the Artic Circle. Once I've been up north when it was -40C, don't feel it was that cold since it was "dry cold", it was at Ylitorneo, a little south of the Artic Circle about 80-100km.
Why would you want to experience midnight sun from the train? Just travel to the Lapland.
Very good energy dear.
Welcome to my home town!
thank you!! it was very nice :)
I live there! :D
Your friend seems nice ;)
I agree ;)
Lucille is cute as heck )))
Soo mesmerizing!💯
:)
You said you don't know where the key is, but just after that, you filmed it. xD
Actually Santa's home is at Korvatunturi - a middle of nowhere place right at finnish-russian border. :)
At 2:20 did you notice that there are six fingers in the hand sign on the door :D
10:06 those are blueberries. Btw i live in finland with my parents. I go school by train. So i have good experience with vr. But sometimes the train is late
Hii , your new subscriber from india , I love your video🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
You are so cute😊😊😊😊😊
This winter is so warm and 1m less snow than last winter.
Yes apparently it was very warm! As someone from the south, it was still very cold for me though!!
I love your videos! I wish they were longer!
Thank you :)
0°c is pretty warm
Lucile Welcome Back Happy New year 🎉🥳
Thank you :D Happy new year to you too!!
woah
:D
Hopefully your channel grows! Such a very good content! I miss bobby in your channel!
Thank you so much :) We have a few videos together planned soon :)
Love your vids Lucile ✨
thank you :)
Window seat on VR train bar car is one of the best places to enjoy some beverages
Yes, it was SO nice :)
@@LucileHR I also liked a lot of you paying attention to little details like snow on tree. I've been getting used to it cause it's every day winter life here. Hope you had great time in Finland!
any places for keeping the luggages , thanks
This video was download about those days when we had pink moment and suddenly the whole world is pink. It can also be green or lila or yellow. It is kind of weird but beautiful.
Wow that must be so beautiful!!
The restaurant car has an old school feel to it, because it actually is around 30 years old.
your C / F scales are all over the place :P
The only gripe I have with Finnish trains is that they're not exactly high speed. In a big country like Finland with a small population, it takes a while to get where you need to be. They're still the fastest way to travel within Finland for most trips, though.
But the trains are very on time, very clean, very comfortable and not particularly expensive. I love taking them when I'm not in a hurry.
Yes that's why I like night trains for leisure activities !! :)
On time you say lol It's a common joke that VR always fails you. But I've seen worse, and customer service is way better than SJ. Also prices went down more this year.
@@MusaFinderi idk, I think Finns are just so used to everything working on point and being on time that VR's slight inconsistencies seem like a noticeable disappointment to us, when in reality it's probably still way better than most.
@@MusaFinderi I feel like everyone likes to complain about their country's infrastructure. But I'm originally from Germany, so I travel to Helsinki a lot to fly back home for visits. Compared to the DB, VR is extraordinarily punctual.
Tampere is also long stop (they add more carriages especialy vehicle carriages).
Oh thank you! I didn't notice because I was still discovering the train with my friend haha
The different light you talk about around 12 minuts is caused by the snow. If there were none it would be significantly darker outside.
thank you! I love this light!!
well.. you got to the southern Lapland. Trust me, it gets better the further up north you manage.. Tracks do stop @ Rovaniemi tho.
no they don’t I have went to kolari by train and its like 200km more north…
The Finnish sleeper into Lapland seem to be a bit lower standard than the Swedish equivalent, but more modern. In Sweden you can go from Malmoe or Stockholm to Narvik in Norway. It’s close to a 20 hour ride from Stockholm and some 24-26 hours from Malmoe. Highly recommend.
Oh very cool!! I'd love to try it!
and coffee cost more than sleeping bed xD
👍😃🖐❤
Did you noticed, that there are six fingers in the handshape of the restaurantcar doo handle?
Yes, I only noticed this a few days ago when someone pointed it out! This is so funny!!
Feels like "Snowpiercer", 72 carts long... Don't know if you have seen it
YES! Every time I take a snowy train ride in first class I think about snowpiercer haha
actually temperatures go to a lil over -50c and u went through my city💀💀
that's very cold!!
Welcome to Finland!
Thank you :D
Bonjour Ça va ?
What did I say plz reply in french
9:02 City name is Oulu.
11:42 count how many fingers there are in doorhandle. Little funny thing on finnish dining cart.
I didn't notice that!! This is SO funny, thanks for pointing it out :)
The price of this is More than a hotel night. And it is quite lousy hotel. You can also travel by day train and it is faster.
Which year was this Journey?
2023 :)
Wait you grew up in the south of France ? What part of it ?
Yes!! I'm from Toulouse!!
@@LucileHR oh my god how cool ! I’d heard your accent but I wasn’t sure if it was French or not so that’s nice
@@LucileHR mais donc vous parlez couramment français et anglais ?
Oui, je parle français :) Ma mère est française et mon père espagnol !
@@LucileHR ah mais c’est fantastique ! Ma mère est anglaise et mon père est allemand et je suis né en France
1:20 PASILA NOT PASSILA
I love your French pronunciation of Oulu. 🙂
Thank you, it has nothing to see with the real way to say it haha
While I visited my local bakery in Grenoble France the second time the lady at the counter even told her colleagues to come and listen the "funny Finn" as I did not speak french at all in the beginnin of my six years there. But they were very friendly while having lot's of fun st my expense. Never bothered me though. Donc bien jouer, madamoiselle!
You should been in Finnmark, northern Norway where you could experience snow covered mountains and fjords.
I'm super jealous of your mountains and fjords. Shame we don't have anything like that here in Finland.
@@Jantzku Don't be since you doesn't get avalances there + you can always travel on holiday to northern Norway.
@@ArcticExploring Well that is true 👍🏼
ohh another place to add to my list!! I've only been to Norway (Around Trondheim) in the summer, and I was pretty impressed by the natural beauty and the night sun :)
@@LucileHR Trondheim doesn't get midnight sun like we have up here in the north (above arctic circle). I live like 3 hours from North Cape (by car). Also up here we doesn't have ticks, so spending they night out grilling is what people love to do in the summer.
missed opportunity to say "the polar express"
That's true haha :)
Anyone else who lives in Finland
I don't think the trains have the "second class" sleeper cabins these days...
On our return journey we tried the lower floor cabins ("second class") and it's really less nice (less space and no shower or toilet) haha but at least you don't have to share your room with a random person like in the "couchette trains"
The Finnish sleeper cabins are all same class (=classless). The only difference is, that the upstair cabins have en-suite showers/toilets, while the downstairs cabins have shared toilets and showers at the end of train cars.
The upstair cabins might also be marginally larger, although personally I have never noticed any difference.
With all your travels have you ever thought where Would you go for your honeymoon?
Ohhh good question haha I haven't thought of it but somewhere new and relaxing for sure
@@LucileHR have you been to Southern California? I live close to a small danish town that has been named the #1 Christmas destination in california multiple years. I think you would have a blast. It’s in wine country near Santa Barbra( famous for sea urchin)
Oh that's very cool!! No I haven't, tell me more about this town, it seems lovely
@@LucileHR it is Solvang California. We’re a small town over 110 years old. It was founded by a few danish family’s and there are a few of those family’s still around today. We have the title “danish capital of America” and all our business and buildings have the same architecture as you would expect from the title. December is Julefest and that’s when things get goin the entire town all the trees along the streets from tip to tip are lite up all night long. Research Solvang julefest or Solvang California and you won’t be disappointed.
@@Solvang_circus Thank you! I'll check it out :))
Juan.
ei tänään juoda.
You know a lot about the train.. even what it says on the mattress
1st
yesss you're first again, you are so fast!!
Hi
Hi :)
Greetings from Finland! You should go more farther than Rovaniemi. It's not "The real north" for Finns.
Suomi perkele
The upper floors have toilets and showers in them
Yes, that's pretty nice!!
@@LucileHR and these trains arent even new they are ordering 9 of new ones which are even better and the total cost wil be 50 million euros
restaurant wagon its build 1993. VR wants scrap all long distance one deck railwagons.
Oh that's why the restaurant wagon looks a bit vintage (in a good way!!)
hi
hiii
Check Murmansk city! 24 Hours from St. Petersburg!
How do I donate for more adventures?
Great video, only issue is that Santa lives at the North Pole, in Canada. Sorry the Fins have had that all wrong for years
but north pole is not even in canada???
😁
Finland's Santa Claus has had a bit of the same fate as Russia's. Santa Claus in Finland has been boycotted by other countries' Santa Clauses because he does not agree to live at the North Pole
That north pole thing is just a Disney conspiracy.