Day 1:
Independent morning arrivals in Stockholm or second day in Stockholm if you have chosen the pre-tour optional night . (In which case, your 3/4-star hotel is a stone's throw from the Central Station, arrival and departure point for main line trains and Arlanda and Skavsta airport connections.) The hotel is also close to Drottningsgatan (« Queen's Street »), Stockholm's main thoroughfare, with its many shops, bars and restaurants.
Meeting point for all in front of the hotel at 1:00pm and walk across the road to the station where a chartered railcar will be waiting for the first leg of the journey - to Östersund. You'll be heading northwestwards across central Sweden and arriving there around 6:00pm. After a short walk (300m), check-in at a three-star hotel followed by a simple buffet dinner. Day 2:
After a buffet breakfast, departure at 9:00am with a railcar northwards to Vilhelmina in southern lapland, where you will stop for lunch. After lunch, the train continues north to Slagnäs, where you arrive at about 4:00pm. There is a short coach ride through the snow-covered forests to the sami center at Båtsuoj where you'll have an introduction to sami culture and reindeer herding. After the visit and an early evening meal typically sami, rejoin the train that has been waiting in Slagnäs and continue towards Arvidsjaur.
Arrive in Arvidsjaur around 9:00pm and after a very short transfer, check-in at a three/four-star hotel that will be your base for two full days of snow-based activities (or you can just "chill out"!). Day 3:
After a hearty Scandinavian buffet breakfast, you'll be out and about on an approximate two-hour dog-sledge tour through the forests and countryside of Arvidsjaur.
Your afternoon is free to make the most of the sauna and gym, or the optional activities available through the hotel: beauty center, snowmobiles, ice fishing, ice driving etc.
In the evening, enjoy dinner together in a typical sami atmosphere around an open fire in the sami center near the hôtel. Perhaps you'll get a chance to see the Northern Lights as you take the short walk there through the snow? Day 4:
After a buffet breakfast, you'll have an hour and a half initiation in ice sculpting, an activity that is becoming ever-more popular in this part of the world.
Your afternoon is free to make the most of the sauna and gym, or the optional activities available through the hotel: beauty center, snowmobiles, ice fishing, ice driving etc. Day 5:
After breakfast and the short transfer to the station, leave Arvidsjaur at 9:00a, via railcar for Northern Lapland, the Artic Circle and the renowned winter market in Jokkmokk. During the journey, you'll stop to celebrate crossing the Artic Circle!
Arrival in Jokkmokk at approximately 12:15pm and free time to visit the huge market that extends from the railway station to the frozen Talvatis lake. In the market, which attracts visitors from far and wide, you'll find local produce, handicraft typical of the sami people, heated tents where you can get a snack or a glass of hot mulled wine and all sorts of opportunities to see and sample the lifestyle of the inhabitants of these northern lands.
At the end of the afternoon,a train will take you ever northward to Kiruna, a mining town situated on the strategic Narvik-Gulf of Bothnia iron ore line. Arrival at about 6:30pm and after a short walk, check-in at a three-star hotel that overlooks the station, followed by dinner. Day 6:
After a buffet breakfast, the train will leave at 9:00am and take you along one of the most scenic portions of the mythical "Malmbanan", the railway line linking the port of Narvik in Norway to the Swedish hinterland.
You'll gradually climb to the northernmost station in Sweden - Riksgränsen, literally "the frontier of the kingdom". After a short stop, return along the line to Björkliden where you'll visit the caves deep in the Låktatjåkka mountain and have lunch before rejoining the train for the trip down towards Kiruna, through the Abisko National Park.
Arrival in Kiruna around 6:00pm, followed by dinner at the hotel. Day 7:
After breakfast, take a coach for the 20km trip to Jukkasjärvi where there is a guided tour of the famous Ice Hotel, which changes shape every year! After lunching there, return to Kiruna to collect your luggage and board the mainline night train to Stockholm, some 1,500km further south.
Departure of the train is at 5:48pm and discoveryTRAINS has reserved sleeping cars (two-berth) with washbasin. Shower and WC are situated at the end of each coach. A self-service dining car serves dinner and breakfast (not included). Day 8:
After breakfast, arrive directly in Stockholm Central Station at 9:15am. (The train also stops about a half-hour before at Arlanda airport station.) Luggage lockers are available in the basement of the station should you wish to visit the town before commencing your journey homeward.
On such long journeys, trains can be late, especially in winter, so guests are strongly advised not to book a flight too early on the Sunday. |
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