Jennifer Hasslund

The trip overall was one we will always remember and cherish. Our family of 4, with an 18 year old and 15 year old, made the trek to Lapland from the southern United States to see the Aurora Borealis and Santa Claus. Jennifer did a fantastic job with communication and always helpful with difficult tasks before and during our trip.
We were switched to a different trip planner (Jennifer) a couple months before the trip and think that she would have had a much better go of it had she been the planner from the beginning. She had to make up a lot of shortcomings in both planning and communication from the original planner. Jennifer did an excellent job in helping us while on the ground, as in country logistics and travel proved to be challenging. We think most, if not all, of the struggles with those logistics would have been avoided if Jennifer had been our planner from the start. She was placed in late and had to work within a somewhat flawed itinerary that she had no part in, initially. It should be noted that taxi transfers in this part of Finland are exorbitant and often difficult to obtain during the Christmas week. Would highly recommend renting a car. Otherwise, the cabs were always spacious and very friendly. Specific feedback on the resorts:
Apukka Resort:
Room was lovely. Small for the family of 4 that we were placing in it, but exceptionally nice. Nicely private in spite of there being other igloos around us. The very muted lighting of the resort made for exceptional Aurora viewing. Minimal light from the ground and rooms. We were able to have the sort of Aurora viewing, with the naked eye, that you usually only see on highly filtered social media posts. Did a nice job on their menus to appeal to a wide swathe of guests. Service was friendly and available. Had a minor problem with the room door freezing shut, but they came out and devised a solution quickly.
Overall excellent experience, would definitely recommend and would happily stay here again.
Kakslautanen Arctic Resort:
An entirely different experience from the prior resort. While the room was very spacious for our family of 4, it was exceptionally dated. No amenities whatsoever were supplied. We have visited 30 countries around the globe and have stayed in everything from hostels to the finest hotels in the world. The price point of this resort was on par with the finest hotels in the world. The amenities were not. No maid service was given unless we called, no soap, shampoo nor conditioner was provided. The in room sauna to difficult to work. In a room costing around 2000 euro a night, this complete lack of anything is entirely unacceptable. As has been noted on multiple travel sites, Kakslautanen charges extra for EVERYTHING! They even charge you for firewood for the fireplace in the room.
For a resort that prides itself on the Aurora viewing (to the point that there is a screeching Aurora alarm in the cabin that pierces the silent nights whenever they determine that the lights can be seen -- we thought there was a fire when it first went off. Seriously, there should have been a warning and the capacity to shut this off), the ground light pollution was overwhelming. In complete contrast to Apukka, the neighboring igloos could see directly into ours, and the extremely bright porch lights from other igloos made any Aurora viewing from our glass igloo impossible.
As mentioned above, taxis were difficult to get this time of year. The resort is in the middle of nowhere, so that lead to the feeling of being trapped. This was particularly noted given the at culinary options were atrocious. The 25 euro daily lunch bullet consisted of a single 15 foot table with soup, salad and unimpressive cold cuts on it. The daily offerings were over 50% Indian food with no local cuisine at all the 3 .5 days we were there.
The resort must be targeted to a different traveler demographic than our family represents. The common areas were always overrun with Asian tourists. Their giant tour busses made it nearly impossible to find our taxis, and the concept of waiting in a line for ones turn, be it at the buffet, the bar or the restroom, was completely absent. It made for a very stressful, overcrowded and frustrating experience. The staff, with the notable exception of the front desk manager who worked very hard to find us a taxi one afternoon, was aggressively unhelpful. No assistance was ever offered, even on approaching the reception desk. Whenever we asked a question, or even placed an order at the bar, we were treated as though we were a nuisance.
The excursions, however, were all fantastic as well as the guides! The husky sledding, snowmobiling, ice karting and reindeer rides were well run, engaging, informative, exciting and tremendous!
Outside of the excursions, however, the service was at best mediocre. The waitstaff was stretched very thin, drinks were uninspired and difficult to get. Water glasses sat empty. Food arrived in no particular order. This distasteful experience was made particularly stark after we made an afternoon trip (that the aforementioned very helpful desk manager arranged transport for) to Saariselka. This was the next tiny little town up the highway, 15 minutes away. The town was quaint, the service was excellent and the food was both local and delicious. We have no idea why the resort could not achieve this level of excellence when the most expensive accommodation in Saariselka was 20% the cost of our room.
We will never return to Kakslautanen. We would advise in the strongest possible terms that no one else does either.
In the end, this was a tale of two cities, of sorts. Apukka was tremendous, Kakslautanen was very disappointing.