Santasport Resort

We stayed here in the week before Christmas. Check in was bedlam due to our flight being delayed and another flight arriving at same time to the hotel but this was bad organisation from tui rather than the hotel. We stayed in the main building and rooms were large and functional. Great dryer for outdoor clothes but the rooms were mega warm (hard work getting yourself and two children togged up in winter gear whilst trying not to melt) good to have a fridge in room for drinks. Food was buffet and very basic but wasn’t expecting gourmet and it filled us up for a busy day. Hotel itself was is huge and has loads of sports facilities used by many locals. Swimming pool is fantastic after a day in the snow (naked showering made my 9 yr old a bit uncomfortable though) play area for €5 all day was another good addition. They have a room we’re you can hire everything from skis to sledges which is very useful (sledge €5 a day) and across the road is a brilliant sledging hill and a forest with a walk up to an observation tower which reminded me of Narnia. Overall would say this is a great base for a busy holiday

I have been in this resort during my New year trip. I have been stay in the apartment building. The resort is ok and the apartment is a new construction but the temperature inside is around 20 degree when outside is -15/-25. I have been asking several time to increase the apartment temperature but they told me that it is set on max 22 degree for energy economy. I have done several activities with a local company and I asked to other people about the temperature inside other hotels in the area and they all told me that was 25 degree plus. The first night has been terrible cold, was 19 degree in the room and -15 outside. I had to go to buy a portable heater at my expenses because the resort doesn’t t supply for one. Incredible! I have been travel a lot in all Nordic areas and always inside is really warm. I would not suggest anyone to go to this resort mostly fo this reason… IT IS COLD! By the way also the pool area is cold in fact most i of the guest stay in the last pool that has warmer temperature

If you need a good family base for your Lapland stay then this place does the Job, if on the other hand you are looking for anything like a hotel experience then stay some where else. We never comment negatively on the staff, after all who knows what sort of a day they have had, we are all human, but in any case we found everybody pleasant and helpful. I have seen other comments about waiting for the room, however ours was ready so cannot really comment. Our room was good, clean and modern, very quiet and warm, the lights were a little irritating because we only discovered how to turn them off totally on the last night (You need to push the dimmer switch in) if it matters very little in the way of British speaking TV. The bar is ok, a great pint but we never had any food in there. They do have some great facilities, spa, swimming pool gym, bowling alley and play centre, they all looked good, we only used the play centre. Just for information the so called swimming attire for men was not enforced, no budgie smugglers being forced upon you, I saw plenty of guys in swimming shorts. They have a great rental centre and apparently although we never saw it there is a walk that you can do along with a tower that overlooks Rovaniemi. There is a good supermarket that isn't far but it is quite a challenging walk with a bag full of shopping. From what I could see a lot of the issues were not caused because of the hotel but by the sheer number of people who had booked with holiday companies, to many people at once, perhaps we were just lucky. However ONTO THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM THE FOOD IN THE MAIN RESTAURANT. Quite simply the worse offering I have ever experienced and i am not that hard to please. We were on a half board basis, we could hardly bring ourselves to make the effort to eat in there, nothing was hot enough, it was very samey, with little choice, and I really felt miffed that our little boy was having to eat cold food, simply not good enough, it would all be so much better if they got this right. there was a sign by the so called desserts that read "Dessert not included for students" my goodness aren't they the lucky ones, a big bowel of fruit salad out of a tin with some custard, not good enough. There was not one sitting where I did not see some very loud verbal displeasure either about the awful food or the service, which incidentally seemed to consist of one team member making sure that you zapped your room card and got the green light. It might have been a buffet but you didn't really feel like filling your boots, I got along with the Porridge for breakfast but to this day I cannot figure out the scrambled eggs, it must have been powdered or something, just awful, the bacon and sausage were not the best, no option to toast, just awful, and to top it all you have to clear your own plates away and deposit them in the washing up area, you had to scrape off the food and then seperate everything into different trays, plates, glasses, knives and forks, I'm really not that proud to do this, no great shakes, but on top of totally horrible food it is just an insult. Comon Santa Sport you need to get this right for holiday makers who have spent a lot of money for a magical stayl in Lapland, you have a lot going for you but you really do have a duty to get this sorted. Simply for the food alone I would not stay there again.