From Rovaniemi to Levi: Heading to the True North of Finland
Levi, March 2nd, 2018.
After spending a few days in Rovaniemi, I decided to explore another town or city in northern Finland. I considered several options (Inari, Hetta, Utsjoki, Sodankylä), but in the end, I chose Levi since I have a friend from my hometown living there, and this would be a great chance to visit him.
More than a town, Levi is a ski resort located in the province of Kittilä. It’s the largest ski resort in Finnish Lapland. That’s why, in winter, it’s common to see a high influx of tourists as well as locals coming to enjoy winter sports.
The Bus Ride to Levi
Despite being a vast and sparsely populated country, traveling around Finland is quite convenient thanks to its extensive public transport network. Everything is well connected. However, like most things in Finland, transportation is expensive (unless you travel with Onnibus). At least for those of us coming from Southern Europe.
To get from Rovaniemi to Levi, I first checked the Matkahuolto website, which provides information on bus and coach services across Finland. There, you can find all the available bus routes in the country. I had four daily options to get to Levi: two buses operated by Gold Line and two by JM Eskelisen Lapin Linjat.
I decided to take the 8:00 AM Gold Line bus. We left the station on time, but the actual journey didn’t start until 8:20 AM because the bus made a second stop to pick up more passengers.
The distance between Rovaniemi and Levi is around 170 km, and the trip takes about 2.5 hours—nothing compared to the odyssey of getting from Savitaipale to Rovaniemi. The good thing is that the buses have WiFi (though no chargers), so you can stay entertained during the trip. To my surprise, most of the passengers on board were foreigners. When we stopped in Kittilä, just 10 km from Levi, a bunch of couples and families got on, fully equipped for skiing.
One thing I found quite curious was that the driver made occasional stops to drop off mail in certain mailboxes—something you don’t see in Spain!
Arrival in Town
I arrived at the Hotel Levi Spa at 11:00 AM, where I had arranged to meet my friend. Finnish punctuality is no joke—if they say you’ll arrive at 11:00, you can be sure you’ll be there at exactly that time. We then headed to his house to drop off my backpack. It’s about a 20-minute walk from the center, but we used a sled to carry the luggage.
The weather was quite cloudy, and it snowed non-stop throughout the day—sometimes more, sometimes less. The temperature ranged from -8°C to -5°C, though I felt it was much colder in Savitaipale. All things considered, it was fairly bearable here.
First Impressions of Levi
As I mentioned earlier, Levi is more of a ski resort than a town. It’s tiny, and you can walk through the center in just a few minutes. At first, I thought it would be larger, but it’s basically made up of just a couple of main streets. That said, despite its small size, there’s a lively atmosphere (and lots of French tourists). There are also a couple of supermarkets (the classic S-Market and K-Supermarket) and plenty of restaurants.
Personally, it reminded me a lot of the typical little villages in the Swiss Alps. In this article from “El Viajero Fisgón” (in Spanish), they mention a town called Bettmeralp, which looks very similar to Levi: small wooden houses, everything covered in snow, forests, and a ski resort in the background.
Lunch at Panimo Restaurant
When I travel, I get so caught up in doing things that I completely lose track of time and forget to eat. I tend to snack throughout the day, but I either have a super late lunch/dinner or end up having just one big meal a day, which is exactly what happened today. That’s not right, I know…
By 4:30 PM, I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since leaving Rovaniemi. So, I wandered through the two main streets, checking out restaurants and prices. In the end, I decided to give a place called Levin Panimo a try. It’s a restaurant/pub serving traditional Lappish food, including salads, burgers, meat, and fish. The staff was very friendly and recommended several dishes, including trout, but it cost €35, which felt like too much.
I ended up choosing the Special of the House, which was reindeer meat stuffed with some sort of sauce and served with fries. I don’t remember exactly what the sauce was made of, but it was delicious. This meal, along with a bottle of water, cost me €19.90 (in 2018), a pretty standard for eating out in Finland.
By around 6 or 7:00 PM, the restaurant started filling up with families and groups of friends coming for dinner. The change in mealtime habits still feels strange to me because in Spain, we usually have dinner at around 9 PM.
Finland and Alcohol
Another interesting thing about Finland is that alcohol sales in supermarkets end at 9 PM. It doesn’t matter if you’re of legal age—if you haven’t checked out by 9:00 sharp, you’re out of luck. And that’s exactly what happened to me. In Finland, schedules are strictly followed, and asking for “just five more minutes” won’t get you anywhere. Since I’m quite indecisive when it comes to choosing, I ended up missing the deadline by five minutes. No Finnish cider for me tonight… Guess I’ll try again tomorrow!
