Husky sledding, snowmobiling, and viewing the Northern Lights, is what Jo from Taber Holidays got up to last week when she escaped to Finland. As soon as she stepped off the plane, she was whisked away to the Finnish wilderness and welcomed by the wondrous Northern Lights.

The next day she headed to Kilpisjärvi which is on the boarder of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. On arrival she wasted no time snowmobiling through miles and miles of unchartered snow and treeless mountain area. And after working up an appetite, the group were shown how to catch fish through making a small hole into the great body of frozen ice covering the lake they were snowmobiling on.

The highlight of her trip came when visiting one of the largest husky farms in Europe at the Harriniva Arctic Sleddog Centre. Once there, Jo was instructed how to use the husky sled and drove for hours in the white abyss of snow with her new canine friends.

If you love the sound of Jo’s trip, and wish to experience an adventure like this first hand, then view all our holidays to Finland here.

Fresh back from her workshop in Norway, Suzel tells us she had a fabulous time!

Her highlights included a mouth-watering culinary experience by Kristoffer Hovland, head chef at the Fossheim Turisthotell in Lom. Hovland was awarded Norway’s Chef of the Year 2004 and has put his expertise into Fossheim’s gourmet restaurant; adding even more finesse to this beautiful hotel.

The next morning Suzel went cable gliding over the river Bøvra with Active in Lom, which also took her over a waterfall and under an old stone bridge. As you can see from the photo, Suzel took to the speed and strong river current with an almighty scream!

For a more relaxing afternoon, Suzel headed to Norway’s most famous mountainous peaks to Jotunheimen National Park. They passed the Sognefjell mountain, where the snow had only just been cleared 15 minutes earlier. The photograph below shows how much snow had to be cleared- a mammoth task for those involved! Instead of a hike, they took the leisurely option of walking and admiring the panoramic views of the peaks and dipped valleys that encased their eyeline.  For anyone who loves walking and hiking, Jotunheimen is one of the best places in the world to go for it. ‘The Father’ of the peaks is Galdhøpiggen, and depending on which route you take to access the summit, you will have to cross a huge glacier!

From the perspective of the workshop, it proved very valuable for Taber Holidays. Over the coming months you can expect to find a new Northern Lights trip to the Arctic, multi-day husky dog safaris and we’re going to feature an superb New Year holiday to the Lofoten Island, packed with new and exciting activities.

To celebrate the launch of the new Iceland Express (IE) flights from Edinburgh, agents were invited to a workshop at the Dynamic Earth venue in Edinburgh. The new flights will operate twice weekly on a Monday & Thursday from 21 June – 31 Aug 2012.

From left to right:-

Sigríður Heiðar ( Project manager sales- and marketing of IE), Terry Shaw (Taber Holidays), Thórunn Reynisdóttir (Chief Commercial Officer of IE) and Skarpheðinn Berg Steinarsson (CEO of IE)

 On Sunday 22 April, Suzel will be attending Scandinavia’s biggest workshop held by Innovation Norway. The purpose of this annual workshop is to promote Norway, and is being held in the city of Fredrikstad on the  east coast of Norway. These workshops provide tour operators, like ourselves, with a wealth of information that we can pass onto our clients. The aim of Innovation Norway is to release the potential of different districts and regions through promotion and internationalisation, which make these workshops extremely valuable to the travel industry.

All participants of the workshop gain first-hand experience of the different aspects of what the beautiful country of Norway has to offer. The three-day event holds the unique opportunity to meet and network with Norwegian travel providers through group and one-one meetings. These include the Hotel Association, excursion providers, transport providers, activity providers and many other agencies associated with Norway.

Suzel will also be exploring the cultural facets of Fredrikstad, through exclusive visits to museums and attractions that give light to the local and historical interests of Fredrikstad.

If the adventure of whale watching, glacier hiking and taking a dip in the Blue Lagoon is the direction you want your summer to go, then be sure to head to Scandinavia.  It doesn’t stop there; spectacular waterfalls, crystal-clear fjords, inspiring mountain tops and vast forests are all packed into our new, adventure tours that span across unchartered beauty.

Sweden’s Wildlife Tour

 Ilulissat in Greenland- Image of Ice

Fjords of Norway

For a complete view of all our summer holiday destinations please click here.

Snowmobling, dog sledding, breathtaking scenery and meals in a Sami Lavvu made Terry’s and Jo’s recent ‘familiarisation trip’ to the fabulous Arctic capital, Tromsø very memorable!

They stayed at the very well appointed Clarion Collection Hotel With in the harbour area and during their stay enjoyed snowmobiling with Lyngsfjord Adventure, Northern Lights hunting with Natur i Nord and dog sledding with Tromsø Villmarkssenter. The weather held up and the ethereal Northern Lights were seen! To follow in their footsteps visit www.taberhols.co.uk/holiday/tromso-and-the-northern-lights

Terry and Jo enjoyed the stunning panoramic view of Tromsø from the mountaintops. You can get there either by cable car (the most popular way!) of if you fancy a challenge, there is the option to climb the mountain.

By crossing the 1036m Tromsø bridge , you are crossing what used to be the longest bridge in Northern Europe at the time of its opening 1960.

Snowmobiling through the unchartered white landscape of Tromsø made Terry and Jo soon warm!

When it came to leaving Tromsø, Jo wanted to smuggle this little beauty home with her!

Singer turned Presenter, Jenny Frost visits the city of Tromsø and enjoys stunning views from the top of Mount Storsteinen as she travels to the northernmost part of Norway in search of the Northern Lights. She also has a go at skidooing, meets some friendly reindeer and spends the night at the Alta Igloo Hotel.

This is not to be missed!

But now a new range of treehouses have been designed to let grown-ups step back into the footprints of youth and explore the DIY of world-class Scandinavian architects. Set inside undisturbed nature, you go to sleep and wake up as though you were one of the forest’s wild inhabitants.

There are five imaginative treehouses on offer, these are:

 The Bird’s Nest

This treeroom’s exterior is nothing but a gigantic bird’s nest, that’s caught the attention of Sesame Street’s Big Bird but whilst he’s saving his pennies for a trip across the Atlantic, we thought we’d keep the nest warm for him!

The Cabin

Stepping into this treeroom is to step inside a capsule where nothing but yourself and the beautiful scenery it overlooks exisits. 

The Mirrorcube

Attached around a single tree trunk, and can be seen reflecting its stunning surroundings it is no surprise that along with the Bird’s Nest it is the most recognisable room. To prove that everything was taken into consideration when constructing this unforgettable room, the mirrored walls have been clad with infrared film to prevent birds from flying into them which is invisible to humans, but visible to the birds!

The Blue Cube

Providing you don’t have an unhealthy loyalty to the colour blue, this treehouse which is of course red provides a unique twist on a traditional wooden house. The Blue Cone is based on simplicity and accessibility, both in terms of material and design.

The UFO

Unlike the Bird’s Nest which tries to camouflage itself into its surrounding, the UFO could not be any more different. The UFO proposes the idea that you are set inside another civilization and by creating the binary of nature and futuristic the idea is a complete success!

Taber Holidays provides a holiday to Swedish Lapland which incorporates a stay in these eccentric yet eco-friendly treehouses, and for more information on these incredible tree houses please visit their website at Treehotel.

The Northern Lights have been on the tip of everyone’s tongue, especially since Joanna Lumley and the BBC recently sighted it in a one-off documentary. Just like Lumley, the viewers were enthralled and inspired in equal measure as the camera crew captured the enigmatic sequence of colour forms.

There is no one definite place, but we certainly know where you’re most likely to see them, and those places lie in the Arctic Circle. We suggest the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway which was featured no.4 in The Telegraph’s Ten Ways to See the Northern Lights. The unique experience about seeing the lights in the Lofoten Islands is that the surrounding sea often maximises any sighting of the Northen Lights by the spectacular, mirror reflection it produces.

It’s a hard life, but someone’s gotta do it. Suzel says Fam trips are for work, but her latest visit to northern Norway begs to differ…

Vesterålen invited Suzel to an array of activities in extraordinary natural surroundings. At no other point along the Norwegian coastline does the Gulf Stream come closer to the land than in Vesterålen. 

On her first full day, after awaking inside the simple but lovely Hotel Andrikken she was fully submerged in adventure as she climbed inside a RIB boat, gliding along the beautiful Andfjord. After several minutes on the safari she spotted Humpback Whales and Orcas. The small size of the boat propelled the adrenalin rush of being in the open sea with little between herself and the ocean’s most dynamic predator- the killer whale! For an adventure like this visit: www.whalesafari.no

In the afternoon Suzel headed to Andøya Friluftssenter, once there she walked over frozen lakes and hunted for the northern lights, which just as luck would have it, turned out with be some of the strongest lights Mother Nature has displayed for a long time. For those who weren’t exhausted after the day’s activities, there was an option to stay up late in the Jacuzzi. Watching the star studded sky above transform into brilliant hues of green, from a pool of warm bubbles below it could not have been experienced more decadently.

A taste of indigenous culture defined the third day of Suzel’s fam trip. Departing for Inga Sami Siida in the Village of Kvalsaukan it took 25-minutes by bus. First-hand experience of authentic local Sami culture is undoubtedly interesting for anyone and sitting by the fire in one of the Lavvo’s she ate a local specialty of reindeer stew.  Reindeers occupy much of the land so stroking and taking photos of them is inevitable!

Thereafter, Kabelvåg in Lofoten was the next port of call. There, she visited the Lofoten Aquarium which is a great place for families to enjoy the lively idiosyncrasies of seals, otters and other underwater life. All the fish in the aquarium are also local to the area and the aquarium promotes insight into the marine ecosystem.  In the evening she arrived at the Thon Hotel Lofoten in Svolvær which is recommended for its city centre location and modern décor.

Suzel’s final days were spent dipping in and out of Lofoten’s art galleries that showcase some of Norway’s most important artists, and more adventures with RIB boat safaris intervened, which incorporates an optional Sea Eagle Safari where you’re almost guaranteed to see Europe’s largest bird of prey. She had lunch at the Anker Brygge, highly recommended for high-quality food and a hotel which offers stunning views of the fjord.

After only a brief account of Suzel’s experience of Lofoten and Vesterålen, we’d be surprised if it doesn’t inspire your next place of adventure!