Hotel berhampiran Haparanda Church, Haparanda

Hotelli Olof is a nicely decorated and friendly small hotel in the city centre, on a short walking distance from the bus stop and the border to Sweden -it is a 10 minute walk to the shops in Sweden, including an IKEA store. The Haparanda train station can be reached by foot in 30 minutes.. The rooms are clean, modern and nicely furbished. Complimentary coffee, sweets and biscuits are offered all day. I paid 115 euros for a single room, which is a reasonable price for a quallity hotel in Finland. The staff is friendly and I was tempted to give an overall rating of five, but the booking system on the hotel's website is not working well -I did not receive the promised confirmation e-mail, not even in the junk mail, and I had to call the hotel in the old fashion to finalise my reservation. They should probably update their online booking system. This was however no big deal, and I had an enjoyable and good stay at the hotel.

We stayed here for two nights. The hotel is conveniently located 10-15 min walk from the train station. This is an older hotel, but with clean nice rooms and everything functional. Staff were very professional and friendly. Ice Castle is only 15 min walk from this hotel and there are shops nearby. Sincerely Marianne & Anders

The staff was very friendly, professional, knowledgeable, multilingual and the food was amazing. They went above and beyond to make our stay comfortable and took our allergies into consideration and provided the best meals ever! The rooms were cleaned daily and the staff wore masks in public areas, but still remained friendly and greeted guests. Checking in and out was very easy and i appreciated talking to a human being and being welcomed in person. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Kemi. The location is great! It is in walking distance to a supermarket, ATM, pharmacy, Subway (the food establishment) and many more different stores.

服務非常一般

Stayed three nights at the Seaside Glass Villa in Kemi. We arrived around 8:50 pm after a flight from Helsinki. The property is not very far from the airport and is part of/near to the Snow Castle. Though the actual Snow Castle is only slated to be ready in mid-January. There is an in-door “snow castle” area that is reportedly opened all year. Breakfast was served from 6:30-9:00 when we were there. With the kitchen closing at 9 pm and reception at 10 pm. We ended up getting cup noodles at reception for a late dinner in the villa. We had one of the larger units that has a “living area” and a kitchenette with induction stove top, microwave, electric kettle and coffee maker. And no television set. The beds are in a loft above with a glass, albeit very low, ceiling. Note the stairs going up are rather narrow. Took a little getting used to but once you do, it’s ok. At least for us. The down side of the larger units it’s that it is further away from the sea but much closer to the centre. Temperatures plunged to -12C when we were around. So being nearer is good as one has to walk to the restaurant for meals including breakfast. No in-room safe and please remember to bring adapters for your devices if not from Europe. The “downstairs” is the coolest part of the structure but the sleeping area is fine. The instructions was not to change the setting for the air conditioner. The bathroom has heated floors and is cosy. There’s also a sauna. But needs time to heat. So plan ahead. There are a variety of activities that can be arranged. From husky rides to reindeer etc. Aurora hunt though that might be even more suitable a little further north. All sorts of walks etc. Contact Marko Varpo if you fancy any one of these activities. You can even walk into town. It’s not actually that far away. Other than shopping or eating, there’s also a cafe that you can visit on top of the City Hall building, the tallest in Kemi. Gives a bird’s eye view of the area. Taxis are available but do note it is not exactly cheap. The thing to do here is to get on a real icebreaking ship to go out on the frozen sea. The historic Sampo icebreaker was really something different to do as a half-day tour. A very different type of moving museum. On top of being allowed to walk on frozen sea in the Bay of Bothnia (ie the northern part of the Baltic Sea), one can even float in it. And as guest of the Glass Villa, there’s even a special discount. For us, this is a once in a lifetime trip especially going out on the Sampo. But we do highly recommend it.

Really nice apartment, good space, large rooms, indoor sauna, outdoor wood-burning sauna, good and quiet location.