The Santa Claus Express is the overnight sleeper train that runs from Helsinki up to Rovaniemi, above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. Kevin and I took it in February, flying into Helsinki the same morning after nine days in Egypt. We’d just done a sleeper train there too, and since we were already headed this way in the depths of winter, we figured we didn’t want to miss a shot at seeing the northern lights, and Finland seemed like the place to try. Here’s exactly what booking it, riding it, and getting off it was actually like.
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The short answer
Book a sleeper cabin, not a seat, if you want to actually sleep. Book it as early as you can: cabins sell out, and we had to keep checking back before one opened up. Expect a trip of around 12 hours that can run late without it wrecking your plans, since ours arrived close to an hour behind schedule and we still made our onward connection.
- Take the sleeper cabin over a seat if the trip matters to you and you want real sleep. It was, in Kevin’s words, “very comfortable, surprisingly.”
- Book as early as you can. Cabin availability was tight when we looked; we had to keep rechecking until a cabin opened up.
- Decide on your deck. Upper-deck cabins come with a private toilet and shower; lower-deck cabins share facilities down the corridor. We ended up on the lower deck because the ensuite cabins were already gone.
- Build in slack for a delay. Ours ran about 45 minutes to an hour late from a track problem. It didn’t cost us our next connection, but don’t book something time-critical right at arrival.
Booking the Santa Claus Express
The train is run by VR, Finland’s national railway, on a double-decker night train between Helsinki (or Turku) and Rovaniemi, Kemijarvi or Kolari. You choose between a seat and a sleeper cabin, and among cabins, whether you get a private shower and toilet or not.
We learned the booking lesson the hard way, twice on the same trip. By the time we booked, the upper-deck cabins with their own toilet and shower were already sold out, so we ended up on the lower deck with no ensuite. A few days later, booking a glass igloo for the same Lapland stay, the exact same thing happened: nothing available the day we wanted, and then a cabin opened up after we kept checking back. Cabins here don’t sit around waiting for you. If specific dates matter, start looking well before your trip and keep re-checking if your first choice is gone.
What the cabin is actually like
We had a lower-deck two-berth cabin: fixed bunk beds that don’t fold down into daytime seats, which is fine for an overnight trip but would get old on a longer one. Both bunks had a surprisingly cushy mattress, a duvet that felt hotel-quality, and full-size pillows. Each cabin has its own temperature control and light switch, so you can actually adjust the room instead of just living with whatever it’s set to.
Storage turned out to be the nicest surprise. There’s a nook tucked under the stairs to the upper level, plus room to slide bags underneath the lower bunk, which mattered a lot since we’d packed for both an Egyptian and an Arctic climate. There’s a small closet area with hangers, three European-style plugs shared around the cabin, a fold-down desk-slash-ladder to the top bunk, a gear net on each bunk for smaller items, and a little control panel per bunk with its own light and alarm settings. Safety gear (an emergency brake and a glass breaker) is mounted by the window in case you ever need it.
There’s a small wash basin in the cabin too, with soap and paper cups, and a blind you can pull down over the window for privacy or to block the light. VR’s own site confirms this matches the standard setup: wifi, power sockets in every cabin, and the choice of your own shower and toilet if you book the right cabin type.
Eating on board: the dinner car and the app
The restaurant car is a full sit-down option, not just a snack cart. We went down for wine and a beer and ordered Finnish meatballs, which, as Kevin pointed out, are not the same thing as their Swedish cousins. It’s decent train food: not home cooking, but a real meal.
The best tip we picked up was the app. The train has its own ordering app that lets you order coffee from your phone and just walk down to pick it up, which we used the next morning. It was worth it: about 30 people were crowded into the restaurant car trying to get breakfast and coffee in person, and ordering ahead meant we skipped that scrum entirely.
Bathroom and shower
Since we were on the lower deck without an ensuite, we used the shared facilities down the corridor. Each car has its own WC right off the corridor, and ours happened to be next to our cabin: small but clean, a proper flush toilet, hand soap, and a sink (the tap water isn’t drinkable). There’s an outlet if you need to shave or do your hair.
The shower is shared with the rest of your car and needs a separate key, which comes with your cabin booking. It’s a tight changing area, but it works, and soap is provided. We’d heard the hot water isn’t always reliable, so we kept our shower short since we were close to arrival anyway.
What the ride and the sleep are actually like
Despite the thin mattress, it held up: Kelly woke up a couple of times when the track got bumpy but otherwise slept well. Both of us came away surprised at how comfortable it was, especially compared to the sleeper train we’d just ridden in Egypt a few days earlier, which was its own kind of adventure (we wrote about that Cairo-to-Aswan overnight train separately, if you want the contrast). Our train ran about 45 minutes to an hour late after an announcement about a track problem ahead, but it barely mattered. We could sleep in since we weren’t racing a tight morning connection, and by the time we actually needed to be off the train, we still made our next pickup.
Arrival in Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi’s train station is small and simple, nothing like the scale of a major city terminal. With about 20 minutes before our next pickup, we grabbed a quick bite at the small restaurant right at the station. We both ordered the same thing to keep it fast: a traditional Finnish salmon soup, a chowder-like dish served with potatoes, and it hit the spot after a long travel day. If you’ve got a tight connection booked from the station, there’s enough there to grab a real meal rather than just a vending-machine snack.
Where the train takes you next
For us, the train was the start of a Lapland stay built entirely around Rovaniemi’s ice and snow properties. We spent one night in a room built from snow and ice at the Arctic SnowHotel outside town, and another in one of the property’s glass igloos, each with a glass roof designed for watching the sky and an aurora-alert system that wakes you if the northern lights actually appear. We also booked a snowmobiling-and-ice-fishing day tour once we were up there. None of that is what this article is about (each has its own story), but it’s worth knowing the train drops you within easy reach of it: the property runs its own shuttle from Rovaniemi, and everything we did was arranged locally once we arrived.
If you want to book the same kind of stay, you can check current availability for the Arctic SnowHotel & Glass Igloos, the property we stayed at and can vouch for firsthand. For a snowmobile-and-ice-fishing day like ours, we booked a Rovaniemi snowmobile and ice-fishing tour through GetYourGuide and would do it again.
Planning tips from our trip
- Book your cabin early, then keep checking. We watched availability disappear and reappear more than once on this trip, for the train and for lodging.
- Pick your deck on purpose. Ensuite cabins go first. Decide whether a private shower and toilet is worth booking early for, or whether you’re fine sharing down the corridor like we were.
- Download the train’s ordering app before you board. Ordering coffee from your phone saved us a long line the next morning.
- Pack a layer you can grab fast. The cabin runs warm; the platform and the corridor by the door don’t.
- Leave slack around arrival if you’ve got a tight connection. Ours ran about an hour late and it still worked out, but don’t cut it closer than that.
What our videos don’t cover
We only rode the lower deck, so we can’t speak firsthand to what the upper-deck ensuite cabin experience is like, only that it exists and sells out first. We also don’t have footage of the return leg south, or of the seat-only option instead of a cabin. For exact current schedules and fares, check directly with VR, since both of those change by season.
Overnight train to Rovaniemi FAQ
How long is the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi? Our trip was booked at around 12 hours, though ours ran about 45 minutes to an hour behind schedule from a track issue. Budget some slack either way.
Do the sleeper cabins have a private bathroom? Only some of them. Upper-deck cabins come with their own toilet and shower; lower-deck cabins, like the one we had, share a WC and shower down the corridor instead.
How far ahead should you book? As early as you can. We had to keep rechecking before a cabin opened up for our dates, and the same thing happened again a few days later when we booked lodging in Rovaniemi.
What’s the best way to eat on board? The restaurant car serves real meals, and if the train you’re on has an ordering app, use it. Ordering coffee from our phones let us skip a long line the next morning.
