Feeling like a queen in the middle of the forest

There is a place in Ruka where luxury and traditional Finnish nature collide. Chalets with all the facilities you can ask for and more but only a few steps from the unspoiled forest. And this place has a name, of course: Rukan Salonki.

First time I was there I was guiding a group of tourist, so I didn’t really have the time to enjoy the surrounding. That’s why I convinced some friends and we went there to spend a few days in those chalets.

When I told them about the chalets, they were very suspicious, and it was understandable! What would you think if I tell you to spend some days in a chalet with sauna, many bathrooms, kitchen, TV, living room, Internet connection… and especially after seeing pictures of the place, where everything is wooden and the decoration makes it cozy but still impressive? For sure you would think it would be too expensive, so my friends did! But high-quality doesn’t mean exorbitant prices. If it was like that, how a group of young people and students as my friends could enjoy those facilities?


I prepared a program where we could always have time on the evening to relax and enjoy the chalet and the surrounding, because they are worth it. The first impression my friends had when arriving to the chalets was a homogeneous “woow”. They started looking around amazed; they could believe that chalet was ours for a few days. “Look, there is a fire-place! And look at the TV! Have you seen the rooms? And there is even sauna! This is awesome!” – they were saying all the time.


That first night, when everyone was more exited and had plenty of energy, we took some kick sledges that were next to the chalet and started exploring around. Of course we had the hope to see northern lights, because the resort is far enough to spot them without light-pollution interruption, but we weren’t lucky that night. Anyway, we had lots of fun with the kick-sledges and the feeling of freedom the place gave us, like if we were really far from any civilization.
After that, we had to warm ourselves, so what’s better than our own sauna in the chalet? Afterwards we were so relaxed that fall sleep immediately until the next morning.


The next morning we had breakfast in the restaurant that is the centre of the resort, Kultala, and we enjoyed a buffet with homemade bread, jam, coffee, tea, chocolate, cookies, cornflakes, ham… whatever we needed for a new day. Later that day, when we came back in the evening after a day outdoors I had prepared a surprise for my friends. When we arrive into the chalet again I told them “take your towels and follow me! No questions allowed!”. They were surprised, but they know me well enough to trust I would bring them something nice. But this time they didn’t even imagined what I was going to show them. An ice sauna! Sounds strange, I know, but it is true. A sauna built of the ice.


We had that amazing experience together and then we decided to have dinner on Kultala, since I told them the food was good and they could see that at breakfast. The menu was some reindeer rolled with vegetables, salad, soup, homemade bread and a sweet dessert with berries. Everything was great!

The last evening we decided to take some snowshoes and walk around hunting for northern lights, enjoying the nature and the beautiful Lappish sky (for me is always awesome with so many millions of stars). Since it was our last night there, after a sauna (it is always very pleasant after a day outdoors), we watched a film on the big screen we had on the chalet while some of my friends connected to the Internet to share those days we spent.

The next morning we had again a delicious breakfast at the cozy restaurant Kultala and spend some time playing with the snow and the sledges on the ice slope they had next to the lake until our transportation came. A friend of mine who loves photography took incredible pictures of the area with the day light and then, once home, we compared with the ones she was taking at night time, and they looked so different it didn’t seemed the same place. At the end, after all the experiences they told me “You were right, that place definitely worth it”.

Ester