Name: Aurora Nights
Address: Office 8 Empingham House, 1e Uppingham Gate, Ayston Road, Uppingham, Rutland
Rating: 4.88

“Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday; the transfers, activities, food and Ice Hotel accommodation were all very good. There were a few things at the Abisko Mountain Lodge which were disappointing and prevent me from rating the holiday as very good. Firstly our room, which was tiny and the two single beds weren't even together. I think we had the smallest room in the lodge and for the price we were paying I would say it was not worth it. Rooms also didn't get any kind of servicing during our stay. Second, a group of us were given the wrong time for the collection for the photography evening (19:00 rather than 19:40), which meant that we rushed dinner when we didn't need to. Thirdly, dinner service was extremely slow on the evening that we were visiting the Sky Station. We went into dinner in plenty of time (1 hour & 40 min before pick up) but it was 25 minutes before we received our starter and in the end I had to miss my dessert.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Very well organised, but not overbearing. Without exception, extremely friendly, helpful and informative staff: guides, drivers, kitchen and restaurant staff. Delicious food. Very comfortable accommodation. All activities equipped to a very high standard. Highly recommended.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Deborah Thanks for your feedback on your trip. Delighted you had a good time and the trip lived up to expectations. Thank you for using Weekend a la Carte Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“Three nights in Abisko Mountain Lodge from Heathrow. All bookings and connections and transfers worked perfectly. Accommodation was great. Food was excellent. Swedish hospitality lived up to its high reputation. Even taxi drivers could not have been more assisting and friendly. Excursions were first rate. Sledding, sky station dinner, tour to Narvik with some bird spotting en route, Ice Hotel visit and photo evening with world class photographer Oliver Wright (google his wonderful photos) were very memorable and enjoyable. Lodge provided winter gear which kept us warm and happy for hours outside. Fantastic aurora sightings each night despite cloudy forecast. Two days were absolutely clear all day. Abisko's rain shadow location almost guarantees sightings.Thoroughly recommend. Many thanks to Weekend a la carte team for your attention to detail and delivery of excellent service.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear John Thank you for your feedback and delighted that all went so well for you. I have passed on your feedback to the team in Abisko. Kind regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“Just returned from the 5 night stay in Sweden (2 nights ice hotel, 3 nights Abisko Mountain Lodge). Fantastic holiday, enjoyed all the activities planned - snow mobiling, husky sledging, day trip to Narvik, chair lift to sky station etc. Photographic evening was brilliant with Mat Richardson who showed me (a complete novice) how to get the best photos of the Aurora which we were lucky enough to see. All transfers and pick ups worked well, except there is a tight flight transfer time at Stokholm, which caused some stress as our flight to there from Kiruna was delayed. Fortunately flight to Gatwick was also delayed so we just made the connection. Accommodation at ice hotel (1 night warm chalet - very comfortable) (I night ice art suite - an amazing experience and very toasty warm inside the sleeping bag even though it was -5c). Staff at the Abisko Lodge very welcoming, but did note that there was a variation of room standard. Maybe you have to pay more for the upgraded rooms, I don't think we were given an option on booking. The food in both resorts was excellent, being quite fine dining (and expensive) at the ice hotel, but as a treat was worth it. Alcohol also very expensive in Sweden. Food in Abisko was included and excellent. Tried lots of new dishes, reindeer, moose and elk (all very much like beef and delicious). Artic clothing in both resorts was excellent and warm. We were kitted out with everything we needed very efficiently. All in all a fantastic holiday, would love to do it all over again. Thank you weekend a la carte.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Yvonne Thank you for your feedback and sorry for the delay in acknowledging it. We have been snowed under coping with the Norwegian air strike. Your comments are greatly appreciated and have been forwarded to the team in Lapland. Kind regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“I will definitely recommend Weekend a la carte to all my friends. They have organised a splendid vacation and selected splendid local teams to make the vacation memorable. Absolutely delighted,”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Only five stars? The organisation was superb, making every guest feel confident and happy with their chosen activities. Staff at Mattarakkhi Lodge were friendly and extremely knowledgable, making sure that we had the best possible experience. Food was excellent, and having coffee/tea (and biscuits) available all day and evening encouraged guests to socialise. The quality of the Arctic clothing supplied was excellent, and not once did we feel cold. Altogether, a very enjoyable holiday. Clive & Jennie Gibbs”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Clive Thanks for the note and sorry for the delay in acknowledging your feedback. I am delighted you had such a good time. I will ask reviews if they can add a 6th star! Thank you for traveling with us Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“Everything worked as booked, hire car better than expected with good winter tyres. Both hotels of very good standard, comfortable rooms, warm. The food in the dining room in Hotel Ion was over pretentious, minute portions but expensive, it did taste good, but without the generous bread we would have been hungry. Breakfasts were good in both hotels. SuperJeep tour was excellent, driver Magnus advised a change of route because of poor visibility and the alternative was very good and the tour lasted much longer than expected, which was good too.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Ian, thank you for your feedback. I am delighted you had such a great time, and thank you for your kind 5 star rating. I have passed on the feedback to Hotel Ion re their menu. Regards Abigail

Posted 9 years ago

“We've had the most amazing time on our weekend a la carte package holiday. The Lodge in Kiruna was small and intimate and relaxed. We met lots of lovely people including and our hosts and guides Horkan, Helen, Nina, Petras and Miko et al were welcoming and genuinely keen to give us the best experiences ever. We loved all the activities we did and were lucky enough to see the Aurora on our first night right outside of our lodge! A truly amazing sight. The snow mobiling and dog sledding put permanent grins on our faces and the sami experience was very interesting and humbling. The short stay in stockholm was an added bonus on our way home. We had a chance to visit both the Vasa museum and the Abba museum as well aa take the ferry across the river and wander around Gamla Stan. Loved it all. The hotel Rival was very comfortable and funky. Thanks to the weekend a la carte team and their choices of package elements we had a holiday full of perfect unforgettable memories.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“We had a great time and saw a fabulous display of the aurora, it was out for 2 of the nights that we were there , albeit that we missed one of the nights as it was 2 am and we were sleeping when it came out , I would have happily paid extra for a wake up call ! The lodge was cosy and the accommodation has just been refurbished so it was good. I was apprehensive about dining in the lodge for most meals etc but as it turned out the quality of the food was unexpectedly very good ! If you want to go snow mobiling do book it first as it does get very booked up !”

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Posted 9 years ago

“We were very pleased to see the Northern Lights on all 4 nights. Things to recommend: When we arrived the welcome was warm but we were asked for our itinerary so that they could find out what we were supposed to be doing....did not fill us with confidence! Having got out of bed at 3.30 am and arrived at Kiruna by 2pm I was disappointed that nothing had been arranged for us for the rest of the day except for clothes fitting, lunch and dinner. We had the Sami trip for the evening on our itinerary but that was postponed until the next day. Fortunately we saw the Northern Lights that evening. We were told that my wife and I were to be separated form our four friends for both the dog sledding and snowmobile. This was disappointing to hear but you will have heard from Doug Millington that we had a great time dog sledding as just the two of us were on our own with the guide and we were both able to drive. (Doug was extremely disappointed that he and the other three in our party had to sit together on a sled and were denied the opportunity to drive as had been promised.) Howeve,r two minutes after the dog sledding we rushed off to the Ice Hotel. It would have been far better to have included this visit on the first day. For me, the food offered for dinner was insufficient at Kiruna although the breakfasts were very good. (The dinners were very good at Abisco.) Our transfer from Abisco to Kiruna was supposed to be at 10 am but we were rushed, without notice, by Patrick at 9.40 am to leave so that other clients could be transferred earlier to their plane. I would have been happy to have arranged to leave at 9.40 am but I did not like being rushed without notice on our last day to spend even longer at Kiruna Airport. I understand that the organizers have problems dealing with clients on different itineraries but the problems I have described would have been easy to avoid.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Excellent bespoke vacation with really good informative guides and supurb accomodation, To be highly recommended.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Thankyou so much for your kind feedback. I am delighted you had such a superb time in both Iceland and Sweden. Abigail

Posted 9 years ago

“Our trip was excellent overall. Unfortunately our flight out was cancelled at the very last minute, but Kevin was brilliant and within 30 minutes had booked us on to the next available flight and sorted a hotel for us, we couldn't have asked for more. The local guides were very helpful; the accommodation was great and the food was really nice with lots of local specialities to try which added to the experience. The only minus is that the snowmobile trip was quite a lot shorter than expected, it was only 1hr30minutes and we were expecting a longer excursion of about 4 hrs. I think that day could have been slightly better organised as there was quite a lot of hanging about and to-ing and fro-ing from one place to another. Apart from that we really enjoyed our experience - the husky sledding was brilliant and we even got to see the northern lights which was the icing on the cake!”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Oleg Thanks you for your feedback and i am delighted that besides you having suffered the very rare event of a flight cancellation we managed to look after you throughout and make sure that everything was re arranged for you. I was delighted to be on hand to personally help when you called on Sunday morning. Re the snowmobile tour I have fed your comments back to the team. The whole experience including lunch normally lasts 4 hours so the snowmobiling itself is usually around 2 -2.5 hours. There must have been a reason if it was shorter than this. Thank you for traveling with us and best wishes Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“This Lapland Short Break was absolutely brilliant. We went as a party of 4 and the whole experience was superb. The husky sledding was for me the highlight, but all of the excursions were well managed and enjoyable - the ice hotel visit and the snow-mobiling were great as well. We even enjoyed the aurora hunt in a real blizzard, riding in a coffin! The Lodge rooms were fairly small but it didn't worry us and the food was not 5 star, but perfect for an adventurous holiday. The staff at the lodge and local kennels were particularly helpful and we were very sad to leave”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Richard Thank you for your feedback which i have passed on to the team in Lapland. They pass on their appreciation. Sounds like you have a few stories you can talk about for a few years to come! Thank you for using Weekend a la Carte and hope we can be of service in the future. Kind regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“The transfer time at Stockholm to Kiruna on the outward flight was not enough, only just made the connection. There was no meal provision at lunch time on arrival at the lodge after our long trip. The dog sledging was not a pleasing experience this time round, the girl running the event had no interest in us or her job it seemed, we asked for 6 dogs, because we knew the 5 we were going to get and me being a big bloke we knew from last year 5 would not be enough, the other couple in our party were given 5 dogs which was not enough ( I don't think she had anymore dogs to give us ) to pull two people and Richard ran with the sled most of the time, I mentioned this to the guide, well this fell on deaf ears. I was also involved in an incident ( there was no detrimental damage to anyone or thing ) I was taking a photo whilst the guide had instructed us to stop, she could quite openly see what I was doing, but decided during my photo taking to restart the run, the dogs jerked the sled I fell over and off the brake, the dogs headed off with my partner, luckily the guide was able to stop the sled with no damage to me, my partner or the dogs, this could have been nasty. The guide was not tuned in to us, she did not apologise for not having enough dogs to the other members of our party or their poor experience, she should not have been left in soul charge of us, she should have had an assistant. This experience is a total reversal of the excellent time we had last year. I will not be going back there. I think the meals need to be explained at the lodge or at booking so that this can be amended to suit our needs, unless booked the meals were basic and inadequate. At Abisco Mountain lodge, the meals were spot on, the lodge was comfortable, the only complaint I have is their timings were not in line with the itinery or the mini bus drivers ie the bus turned up at 17.45 to take us to the Sky Station whereas the itinery said 17.50, the diver was a little put out because we were late. In all we had a nice time, the Ice Hotel was good, the mine and the snow mobiles were good. 'Hawk' was spot on, Nico was very welcoming, the girls in the kitchen looked after us. At the Abisco lodge, spot on in the main, the trip to the Fjords was well below par I would'nt recommend that. In all fairness the guide did say this was not his regular tour, which did show. At the moment I'm not sure if I would go back, in stark contrast to last year when I rebooked almost immediately.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Kevin Thank you for the review. Sorry i have had a very busy week or I would have responded sooner. Whilst giving us a score of 4, which means that overall the break was good I am never pleased to receive negative comments on particular parts. I have phoned my partners in Lapland and can feedback to you the following: 1. Chad Blakely from lights over Lapland was disappointed that they did not meet your expectations on the Narvik Trip. This is our first season on this tour so we are still perfecting it but overall we have had positive feedback. I did the tour last March and was blown away with the scenery alone. Chad has asked for your address as he wishes to send you a limited edition Lights over Lapland print. 2. Mikko at the lodge apologizes for there being no lunch on your arrival. Your plan had to be changed and you should have had a meal. We will be refunding you for this 3. In Terms of the huskies, Mats who runs the kennels, has taken on board your comments and will look to improve the standard of communication and customer service. We did have some other feedback on the guide in question and this will be sorted immediately. I know you have been before and i know what a great time you had ( thus booking again) i am sorry that the holiday was not perfect. Jan will refund the lunch for the 4 of you and Chad will be in touch by post. Kind regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“Both lodges were very good, in different ways. Abisko was basic but had excellent food, Mattrakha was much nicer, though the food less good and a little sparse. Very nice staff there, and we were lucky to see the lights on three of our four nights. Only organisational glitch was that we were told the wrong terminal at Heathrow in our departure pack.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Linda many thanks for your review and delighted above all else that you saw the lights on 3 nights. Not only that but i think you had some exceptional displays! Sorry about the terminal glitch SAS changed terminals last year and one of two travel packs for clients were not updated. Thanks for traveling with us Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“We had a wonderful, memorable time and everything lived up to or exceeded our expectations. All activities were superbly managed, the hotel was clean, warm and was very welcoming and the hotel staff were very friendly and happy to help whenever needed. Their local knowledge was wonderful and they were more than happy to spare their time to share it. A superb experience which I would highly recommend to anyone. Thank you!”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Gaynor Thanks for your review which i will forward onto the team in Lapland. You did not mention the aurora but i think you were there during some great displays? Kind regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“Our hostess, Mina , was extremely friendly and efficient. All the staff involved were brilliant. The holiday was a wonderfull experience which we would recommend wholeheartedly.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Thank you Malcolm for the review - we will pass on your comments Mina at Abisko Mountain lodge. Delighted you had such a great time. Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“First class holiday. We stayed 2 nights in Kiruna and 2 nights in Abisko after a one night stop over at Stockholm airport hotel - this was a real bonus as we then started fresh on Monday morning.. The staff at both lodges went out of their way to be helpful and friendly and the trips we did were enjoyable and carried out in a professional and safety conscious way. Although rooms in both places are a little small, ( this is the norm in this remote part of the world) this is acceptable as long a guests are made aware of this and don't over pack. This is really not necessary as in both places the thermal extreme weather clothing was very adequate. The food in the Abisko lodge was of an exceptionally high quality. The organisation throughout was first class. PIck ups and transfers always on time and guides informative and friendly. In all a very successful holiday which we would be happy to recommend to others.”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Rosalie Thank you for your comments and delighted you had such a good time. I will pass your feedback to the lodges in Lapland. Thanks for using Weekend a la Carte. Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

“Everything went very smoothly and was very well planned. I will happily use weekend a'la carte anoter time”

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Posted 9 years ago

“We have had such an amazing 4 day break. The lodge was warm, cozy, clean and comfortable. All of the staff there were very friendly and helpful, nothing was too much trouble for them. The food was good, wholesome and tasty and there was plenty of it. The breakfasts were buffet style continental, and with a huge selection including a waffle maker and batter! The rooms were quite compact but adequate for the little time spent in the room. Towels, shower gels, shampoos, slippers and hair dryer were all supplied. All the trips we went on ( snow mobiles, dog sledding, ice hotel, Sami Northern Lights experience) ran like clockwork and were fantastic! We would certainly recommend it!”

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Posted 9 years ago

Dear Stephen Thanks for your positive review. I am delighted the service you were given was so much appreciated, The team up in Lapland do try exceptionally hard to exceed your expectations. I hope you got to see the northern lights? Kind Regards Kevin

Posted 9 years ago

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
On-time Delivery	Greater than 94%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	4.9 out of 5

Aurora Nights Reviews