Christmas at Luosto with Canterbury Travel

8 OF US INCLUDING 2 4 YEAR OLDS WENT TO LUOSTO THE MAGICAL SOJOURN PACKAGE IT WAS THE MOST MAGICAL AND WONDERFUL 5 DAYS THE STAFF, ACCOMMODATION ACTIVITIES WERE EXCELLENT. EVERYDAY WAS WELL ORGANISED AND EXCEPTIONALLY WONDERFUL. ON THE THIRD MY PARTNER AND I GOT MARRIED, ONE THAT WE WILL NEVER FORGET. THIS WAS CHRISTMAS AT ITS BEST. CANTERBURY TRAVEL ARE MARVELOUS.

Went on the lapland melody two day tour 2 adults and 2 kids

withcanterbury and had an amazing experience from the minute we

boarded the flight the food was ok the locals we found were very friendly

Canterbury staff were more than helpful at all times .we stayed In log cabins ten minute

walk from main hotel it was so much fun tobogganing down from the hotel after meals

it seemed the activities were one coach at a time so their was no queue for any

activities. Looking for santa up the forest on sleighs was incredible and to top

it all our flight was return flight was cancelled again canterbury were so efficient

and had everyone checked into a lovely hotel within 30 mins of cancellation

they looked after everyone so well .in our case it really was a trip of a life time

magic memories that will last forever .worth every penny and I couldnt

recommend canterbury enough

Christmas in Luosto. 2 adults plus 2 children. Flight from Gatwick no atmosphere no crew particpation. Canterbury Travel provided our family with holiday of a lifetime.On arrival in Lapland until we departed we were provided with excellent transport between venues.Plenty of time to ride various forms of transport with more than adequate supervision of children.Accomodation great in log cabin 2 minutes from Restaurant but with great slopes for children to sledge to and from Hotel. Food very good.From Airport to Airport character input was fantastic, kids were mesmorised. Christmas day was everything you could have imagined.Entertainment in Hotel Excellent. Well done Canterbury Travel

Canterbury Travel LOUSTO- 4 day magical interlude 16th - 20th DECEMBER 2010

I was extremely worried about the negative reviews on this trip I had read here, as this company was recommended to me by close friend and they enjoyed it.

My experience was excellent and I think CT did a great job. The arrivals desk at gatwick was full of tinsel, the Thomas cook flight left on time and the crew had santa hats, sang christams songs and got formes the kids into a choir and sang in the gangways. Pilot said he's look out for sleighs downroute.

Arrived on time at snow filled ROVANIEMI airport and cleared customs and baggage and were on festive coaches in 12 minutes. Brillantly organined

Great english from tour guide. 90 min transfer resort to collect thermal overclothes and everything explained perfectly. Resort snow was 20cms all running fine.

In resort, Log Cabin efficiently allocated- all warm, clean and cosy, fully kitted out, log fire, sauna etc. sledges outside for kids.

all meals served in SCANDIC LODGE which was main reception in LOUSTO and plenty of choice, breakfast buffet fantastic, Evening meal good simple food

lasagne/chicken/stew/ salmon/ salads/ soup/ kids- nugget, fishfinfers, pasta/ chips. Always fresh and different choice. water juice tea coffee all in. Alcohol is extra - Wine 29.50 euro a bottle,7.30 euro a glass Beer 6 euros a pint. expensive compared to uk but standard in finland.

This is an organised holiday and you get escorted to trips which were all good and interesting. We met Elves along the way at different sites all of whcih are different characters and great fun. All trying really hard and seemed genuinly friendly fun and helpful. Each visit is around 90 minutes and there are two activities so you can choose without waiting too long. we

had 12 families on our coach and we never had more than a few (2-3) minutes to wait for anything and can repeat if needed(eg skidoos)

Good variety of events for all tastes, Skidoos, mini skiddoos for under 10's,huskies, reindeer, ponies, all pulling sledges and on their own, visit to toy workshops, tobogganing etc. all have hot berry juice, roaring fires in braziers and larges teepees to keep warm if needed. all trips are just about right as it was -30 some days and any longer outside is just too much

for younger children.

Visiting santa was great and very well organinsed without children getting too hyped, santna looked genuine and was a elderly calm scottish gent who was fantastic and very quick in answering childrens questions and supporting parents answers,wishes and preferences(eg santa having magic key rather than coming into their room or coming down chimney.) Just brilliant !

We were delayed due to snow in UK and were ssettling into the scandic lodge restaurant with free drink until coach arrived with clear information every 90 minutes plus maigic show, facepainting and ballon modeller turned up within 8 minutes of the delay anouncement.I cannot praise this highly enough.Wwe were then taken to the airport via shopping centre and arrived fresh and unhassled with drinks and sandwiches provided on the coach.

This in contrast to thomson trip who were driven to airport with an 8 hour delay no explanation and then eventually gien a 8 euro voucher !!

The moans were from the very loud pretentious "ya-ya" london types bemoaning no champagne available, their precious children not being first in the line for everything and there being no organic houmous or freshly squeezed pommegranet juice!! plus .... " oh we have a little man in chamonix who does that for us , i must give you his number, he's simply marvelous !! well, sorry but if you're that posh, what are you doing on a package trip, ruining for everyone else with you unrealistic expectatons and demanding that you child is seen by santa first.!!!!

You have to remember we are nearly two hours inside the artic circle at this point and the chance of getting Wwaitrose croissants and huomous is pretty slim !!!! That is not canterbury travels' fault. !

I guess it comes down to peoples expectations and the other "normal" families I spoke to really enjoyed it and I thought it was good value for money and for my children it was magical and they believe in father christmas and it kept the magic alive.

YES it's expensive but if you look at the cost of the componene parts I really can't see that CT can be making a big margin on this and I think we had every pennies worth over the 4 days.

Hope this helps and don't be put off by the neg reaction of day trippers and professional moaners. I have high but realistic expectations and they were met on this trip setting in context the remote and expensive operation.

Our 4 night trip to Luosto was magical. Canterbury Travel were professional and well organised. We had problems with both our flights due to bad weather and CT looked after us very well, making sure the children were entertained!! The log cabins were cosy and confortable and the food was good. Santa and the elves were authentic and our children fell in love with them. Would recommend this trip!

Flight including aircraft problems, delays and re-direction cost 14 hours of the holiday time ending up having one day break for the cost of 2. These guys have cut costs far too much now. Cosmos were checking in next to us and the children were having much more fun.

The credit crunch has caused Canterbury Travel to cut costs everywhere, but not their price to the customer. I worked for Canterbury travel for the past 2 christmasses, but not the upcoming one. The first year they had the correct number of staff to ensure that each customer was dealt with in a way that is befitting a top end company. But last year changed my opinion of the company. When I was out there the staff conditions had deteriorated drastically from the previous year. Now the staff meals were the previous day's customer left-overs, the staff accommodation also served a secondary purpose during the day as a customer dining hall and the number of staff had been cut by half (with everyone now expected to "chip in" and do extra jobs). After complaints about the food and accommodation, i was informed that canterbury travel were only expected to provide a meal and accomodation. Left overs counted as a meal, and as long as we could sleep and keep our clothes somewhere the accommodation could have been anything too. So i pointed out that MY contract was as an entertainer in the evenings and my contract was for 1 hour show every night, so cleaning, driving, delivering things etc etc was not in my contract and so they could find someone else.

But i'm a nice chap, and because of this I still ended up doing things that the previous year would have had a specific staff member accocated. I did them because i can't bear to see the upset faces of the kids and the disappointment from the parents. I went out of my way to fix customer's problems and to prevent other problems from occuring. Some of these problems were beyond my ability to fix (lost luggage, wrong accommodation, ill child) but sometimes just listening to a grievence can make a person feel like they are being cared for. Whenever I could I tried to make things work for the customers, as i realise that this is supposed to be a magical trip with memories that they will cherish for a lifetime.

This year Canterbury Travel have decided not to hire me because i'm "not what they're looking for". Basically i'm not a push over and i will stand up for myself if someone tries to take advantage of me.

However, i realise that this is a place for customers to air their problems as apposed to ex-staff. I feel I should point out that the number of problems i have read on here don't come close to scratching the surface. Canterbury travel market themselves as the premium product, but they're just an own brand with a big price tag. What you see as a once in a lifetime oppourtunity to visit lapland and see santa, canterbury travel see as an oppourtunity to take as much of your money as possible.

I implore you to not book a trip with canterbury travel, and to instead use a different company. If it's a once in a lifetime trip, then why risk using canterbury travel?

do not book a holiday with canterbury travel. they are only interested in taking your money and have no customer service. any complaints are dealt with arrogantly and they will not accept any criticism. the santa we saw was terrible - it was not magical - do not waste your money on this company. please take my advice and look elsewhere for a lapland holiday.

We paid a lot of money to look for Santa and find him on Christmas day but it was such an anticlimax and unfortunately our son wasn't fooled! Everything else was good but the whole point of this trip was to find the 'real' Santa.......there was no magical feeling to the meeting and that made us really sad.

If you go to lapland you need to take into account you are in another country and they eat, sleep and work in different ways. But to us we embraced this and enjoyed every minute. We got married in Luosto and Canterbury organised everything, and it was fantastic a real winter wonderland.We went as a couple with no guests or even children, and we still got into the whole atmosphere (afterall it is for children really). We found the whole experience breath taking.Highly recommend.