From planning her 16th birthday trip to England to now running a travel blog full time, Michelle Jensen, founder and editor at Travel HerStory, has traveled across much of Europe and the U.S. while combining her self-proclaimed love of nerd culture, travel and history. While a lot of her trips and content focus on lower-cost activities, that hasn’t stopped her from exploring high-cost locales.
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The most expensive place she’s visited is Rovaniemi, a city in Northern Finland that claims the title of being the official hometown of Santa Claus. As such, this city gets particularly pricey around Christmas but also in the winter as a whole, given its many seasonal attractions.
Jensen took the trip in January 2024, just after New Year’s, when a friend asked her to go for a birthday trip to see the Northern Lights. The problem was that Jensen had recently left her job in tech in order to find something better for her mental health — it wasn’t until later that she decided to focus on travel writing — so she was facing income uncertainty in an expensive city.
Still, during her nearly two-week trip, Jensen was able to find some balance between indulgence and affordability. Here’s what some of her costs looked like.
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Accommodations
Jensen’s most expensive stay was at the Arctic SnowHotel and Glass Igloos, a famous hotel that gets partially rebuilt every year due to parts of it being made of snow and ice. There, Jensen said a two-night stay ran her and her friend a total of $1,127.20.
Given that they split the room cost, that works out to $281.80 per person per night, which is a bit more affordable but still adds up quickly, especially with other costs for the duration of the trip.
Their other stays included seven nights at Scandic Rovaniemi City hotel for $2,387.04 total, which works out to about $170.50 per person, per night, and they also opted for three nights at Ski-Inn PyhäLinna outside the city for a more affordable $455.55 total, or $75.93 per person, per night.
“Scandic is in the city center, so it was very convenient to do many of the excursions, as they depart from there. Ski-Inn was closer to the hiking that my friend wanted to do,” explained Jensen.
Altogether, the pair spent nearly $4,000 on hotels for 12 nights of accommodations. As a rough comparison, a stay during those same dates in January in Oslo, the capital of Norway, at a three-star hotel — comparable to their more expensive stays in Rovaniemi — could currently be booked for around $1,000-$2,000 total.
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Activities
The hotels in Rovaniemi can be pricey in winter, especially compared to some other European stays, and the slew of seasonal activities can also make this an expensive vacation. For Jensen, some additional activity costs included the following, broken down as a per-person cost:
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Husky sled tour: $217.17
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Reindeer sleigh ride: $136.73
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Snowmobiling: $141.32
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Snow sauna: $102.94
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Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) hunting tour with a photographer: $179.89
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Ice floating tour to see the Northern Lights: $94.99
These excursions alone added up to around $873 per person.
Finding Balance
Because Jensen was between jobs during this trip, she “was a bit hesitant to do some of the costly experiences,” she explained. However, being mindful about what she valued helped with decision-making.
“I bit the bullet on the ones I’d really wanted, such as the snow sauna, but did talk my friend out of some of the very expensive experiences, like the icebreaker cruise, which was over $300 per person. Instead, I found us the ice floating tour at night, which provided the chance to see the northern lights as she’d wanted,” said Jensen.
“I tend to like less costly things like museums, so Rovaniemi was a bit difficult for me,” she explained. In that regard, she was only able to find the Arktikum Museum nearby, which is a science center and museum about the history and culture of that region in Finland, called Lapland. A ticket there, based on current conversion rates, costs about $23, so it’s a much more affordable experience than some of the more adventurous activities.
At the same time, Jensen and her friend were able to do some adventurous hiking while staying at the Ski-Inn PyhäLinna, the most affordable accommodations during their trip.
So, even though traveling to Rovaniemi can have many expensive aspects, not everything has to be pricey. For budget-conscious travelers — whether you’re visiting this area of Finland or anywhere else in the world with an expensive reputation — you can similarly find some balance by focusing on what you truly value.
“Spend on the things you really want, but try to save on things that don’t matter as much. If you’re not a big foodie, find cheaper places to eat. If you’re not planning on spending much time using a hotel’s amenities, consider a three-star or four-star hotel instead. Essentially, pick and choose your battles by doing research and considering your preferences,” said Jensen.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I’m a Millennial Traveler: This Is the Most Expensive Place I’ve Visited (and How Much It Costs)
