Its been on our wish list for a long time but this week we finally made the journey to Lapland Uk.

If you are looking to visit Lapland UK next year (all sold out for this year) do be aware of a few things first... It is undoubtedly one of the most expensive christmas experiences on offer in the UK and tickets do go on sale in March (this year there were no further ticket windows either) so you would need to make sure you had the budget to book ahead for this experience. 

This tried and tested review will contain spoilers of the experience so read at your own risk.

Lapland Uk has long been renowed for offering the best immersive christmas experience in the UK! I am lucky that as a kids day out blogger I have been lucky enough to have reviewed some exceptional christmas experiences over the past 4 years ( we did the polar express experience last year for example) and so I was sent on a mission this year to investigate if Lapland Uk really lives up to the hype!

The experience begins far before you head off in search of the magical portal to lapland! You will be emailed and notified that your invitations are on the way. These are truly wonderful and come in a very special gift box with a special FC wax seal. They explain to your child that so many children are on the good list this year that the elves really need some help in lapland and ask if your child/children could come and help. Via the Wishing glass app you can also make your invitations come to life with VR characters that talk to your children. Also included in the invitation box is a little guide for big fold (hide this from your children), a special lapland newspaper and a post card. You can use these to gradually deliver these to your children in the run up to the big day. It all adds to the excitement. Prior to your visit you will also have the opportunity to personalise you visit and add details about your children so that when you do visit Lapland Uk and see the big man himself he will know all about your children (this really adds to the magic). 

A big tip I have if you are considering a visit to lapland Uk is to join the Lapland Uk fan chat page on facebook which is full of useful information and hints and tips! Through this page we were able to find a really good pub (The Golden Retriever Bracknell) to visit enroute to our session.

Lapland UK is NOT a full day out, you must book a session time (ours was 3:30pm), you are asked to arrive 30 minutes early. The experience lasts around 4 hours. 

Upon arrival you follow the signs to Lapland, where once through bag check you enter the first welcome area of Lapland Uk, here you can purchase a hot drink, use the toilets, engage with a few elves dotted around, grab a newspaper and become immersed in what is about to unfold, the whole experience is thought out with impecable attention to detail, from the tannoy announcements to the tiny little elf houses dotted around. 

Now you may wonder just how an earth you manage to convince your children that they are indeed travelling to lapland without setting foot on a plane. Now again, I was sceptical and as my eldest is 9 I was sure that he wasn't going to buy it at all! But Lapland Uk have thought of EVERYTHING. As you enter the check in area, it very much gives off an airport vibe. You check in, the children are given special elf passports (remember to check the back of these as it tells you when to leave the Elven village to see Santa!) , My eldest was amazed when he asked how the elf knew his name and she said " I know everything about you, like that you love football and especially spurs!" his face! She then turned to my youngest and said "and we know that you love Halloween dont you Oliver!?"

We then were shown to an area to wait where elves appeared and started interacting with the children, they explain that these small folk have been invited to visit Lapland to help Santa and we will travel down some magical secret corridors to find the portal to lapland.

The Whole thing is seamless! We were split into teams (we were team Huskey) and lead through a secret door down a small corridoor adorned with lights into a theatre like area, impecably themed as woodland around a huge tree, here we met more elves (Sage and Ecko) who explored the story of father christmas and the woodland elves and how he came to live in the forest, its extremly immersive and captivating and concludes with the magical opening of the portal to lapland door. Its not cheesy at all in fact its and as the doors open, dry ice appears and before you is a magical snowy wonderland, I'm not sure if they actively pump cold air in or it was just our minds playing tricks on us but it felt cold , lapland cold as we stepped into our magical christmas journey.

First stop for us was the toy shop, here we met wish and conker and helped the elves make some toys for the children to receive on christmas eve. The children don't keep these toys, as its explained that when they were invited to lapland it was to help Santa make toys for boys and girls as he was struggling to keep up with the demand, none of the children seemed disappointed however . This is however a bit of a ruise as at the end of the expereince you are sneaked a snow leopard teddy that the children made earlier to leave under the tree xmas eve (in your initial invitation box there is also a post card from santa for xmas day thanking them for helping and saying they did such a good job they can keep the leopard), this is a lovely touch and helps to prolong the magic.

Then it was on to Mother Christmas kitchen where we decorated gingerbread, listened to stories and helped the elves with some magic along to way.

After this we were lead to the Elven village where you have approximately 1.5 hours to explore, here you can ice skate ( a highlight for us, the ice rink is stunning!), purchase food and drink, visit the lapland post office to write a letter to santa, interact with elves, visit various boutiques and sweet shops and generally soak up the atmosphere.

The whole place from start to finish is a beautiful wintery wonderland, snow everywhere, tiny details everywhere you look to me it literally felt like i had climbed inside of the Tv to a christmas movie- thats how real it felt. It was like the creators of lapland uk had bottled joy and released it everywhere, even the rain could not dampen our spirits. You also had the chance to meet Father Christmas' huskies whilst in the village. We enjoyed hot chocolates and purchased a bauble whilst in the Elven village.

After 90 minutes here it was time to begin our journey to Father Christmas himself, again we followed the snow covered, lit up hidden paths which lead us past more elf houses, past santas sleeping reindeers, past santas sleigh and finally to a waiting area , where elves are waiting to check you in. We took a seat and after approximately 5 minutes an elf appeared and called our name and lead us through the door to another snowy corridor.

There are (obviously) more than one father christmas however you would never know this, so much thought has gone into the experience that each route to a different father christmas area does not at all link with any of others. We didnt see any other cabins, nor any other children on a different route at all.

We entered our cabin and were greeted by two elves and the most amazing Father Christmas i have ever seen! He greeted the children by name and immeadiately engaged them in conversation, he spoke to Jacob about football and the keepy uppy challenge he had been doing for charity, he asked Oliver how his best friend Jack was and told him he knew he had started school that year. The children told him what they would like for Christmas and then Father Christmas told them they had made the good list and the joy on their faces was so beautiful and pure. He gifted each of them a golden bell and a special Huskey teddy (no rubbish here these were high quality and immeadiately adore by my boys). After around 10 minutes we had a lovely photo and then were led away, We exited through the "northern lights" and out into a gift shop. If you have two adults in your party send the other adult off with the children for the next bit. As part of your experience you get one free photo which you go and claim at the desk (others are available for a cost), this is also where they sneak you the two snow leopard teddies I mentioned earlier.

You then exit Lapland into the car park full of festive cheer and wonder . We arrived at Lapland Uk at 3pm ahead of our 3:30 tour and left around 7:15pm. 

So down to the nitty gritty ... would I say this is the best immersive christms experience in the UK (that i have personally experienced)? Absolutely yes, I have been to lots of christmas experiences over the past 9 years and some of these do have similar aspects to part of Lapland UK , such as the making a toy and gingerbread aspects, BUT and it is a big BUT I have yet to come across an experience that is as good as Lapland UK. The whole expereince is seamless with incredible attention to detail, you can see a whole lot of thought and love and experience has gone into creating the magical world that is Lapland UK. For us it was a once in a lifetime trip, I know many people (probably stuck because its hard to find anything to compare to LLUK) visit year after year but for me personally I think i would struggle to convince my children that it was real a second time. The novel factor for us played a huge part in the magic, they genuinely felt like they had been invited to lapland to help with the toys as a one off because this year there was so much demand, I'm not sure they would (particularly) my oldest by this if they were invited again.

As previously mentioned Lapland UK is not cheap ( and there are some really reasonable alternatives locally if LLUK is out of your budget) prices vary on dates and also time slots for example a monday in november (14th) at 8am the cost is from £59pp where as for a saturday in December the same 8am slot would be £139, the more desirable slots are more expensive, reaching to several hundreds of pounds per person. My top tip would be to utilise any inset days in November/December you may have and consider an earlier time slot if you are on a budget. Slots sell our within hours on release day however, so be prepared to be logged on ready (maybe even on multiple devices). 

We genuinely had a wonderful time and thank Lapland Uk so much for hosting our family this festive period and letting us into your festive wonderland, in years to come I am sure we will continue to treasure the memories made at Lapland Uk, the day we were invited to visit Santa in his snowy home. When I dreamed of being a parent it was days and moments like this i longed for, days where you get to see your childrens dreams come to life dancing in technicolour before their very eyes and when I am old and grey I'm sure I will still look back on this day and smile, I'll keep those memories in my heart, always.

Thank you for reading

Kayleigh & The Boys

XxxX