You may not know this about me but I love adventure. It is a core value of mine.  In my blog, I often talk about values based financial decision making. However, in this post, I would like to share a values based personal story about an upcoming adventure trip. The trip was ignited by my son who simply asked if it was possible to go to the North Pole. I share my North Pole itinerary which includes a search for Santa's house on a reindeer sleigh coupled with some bucket items to catch the Northern Lights and to jump in the Arctic Sea. 

Privilege 

A pause to say that I recognize everyone's values are different and what is valuable to me may not be for another person. Admittedly, this is a very big trip for our family and we are privileged to make it happen. I also recognize that a trip of this nature is not accessible to everyone. Saying that, this blog post was inspired by curious friends, family, and others interested in how this Arctic North Pole adventure came to be and what it includes.

The Story

As stated previously, one of my values is adventure. The dictionary states that adventure is to engage in hazardous and exciting activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory. Well, the story started about a year ago when my 5 y/o son asked, "Mom, where is the North Pole?". I had to think for a minute to carefully craft my response, "erm, well, it's kind of hard to explain but it is the northern most point on earth". He responded, "can we go there?" and I responded with, "not sure" but inside I said to myself, "challenge accepted!". 

Finding the North Pole

I started my research on Google and found varied postings. Officially, the Geographic North Pole lies in international waters and is the northernmost point on the planet, where Earth's axis intersects with its surface. The North Pole has also been referred to as Santa's home. This is the North Pole that enchants my son. Through my narrowed research, I found the Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi which is located in the Arctic Circle in Finland. It is known as Santa's official North Pole residence.  Perfect!

Pitching a North Pole visit to my husband

Once I found my desired North Pole and all it had to offer including Santa Claus Village (official North Pole post office is located there), an underground workshop where Santa's elves make the toys, expeditions to find Santa in the wilderness, reindeer sleds, a Winter Wonderland, Finnish food, the Northern Lights, and later an Ice Explorer Cruise with Arctic swimming, I knew it was the making of a great adventure. I immediately checked flights and they were only $500 return from California! We. Had. To. Go.  

Getting to Yes

It was a summer evening after my son had gone to bed and my husband was working in the office. I called my  husband to the living room and told him I was going to propose something out of the ordinary but that I wanted to know how we could get to "Yes". As we both value adventure, he was open to hearing me out and we talked about potential barriers including time off of work, the best time to go, and dedicating financial resources. He needed to do some thinking and we would talk about it again. 

The next day he texted me from work and said he could get time off of work during the holidays and typed "Yes" in the text. Over the next week, I feverishly researched activities, locales for Northern lights viewing, accommodation, flights, and transportation that fit within our adventure budget. Our itinerary was set within 5 days and includes: 

North Pole in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland Itinerary

Day 1 and 2: CA to Helsinki, Finland. 

Day 3: Explore Helsinki and the Christmas markets. Head to Rovaniemi via the Santa Claus Express Night Train

Day 4-6: Arrive in Rovaniemi and stay at the Apukka Resort and Igloos 

   - Explore Lapland, view Northern Lights, if visible, and visit Santa Park

Day 7: Collect rental car and drive to Sweden for the Polar Explorer Icebreaker Cruise. Jump in the Arctic Sea!

Day 8-10: Drive back to Finland and drive further North to Inara and stay at Northern Lights Village. 

 - Explore Inara, view Northern lights, if visible, and go on a Search for Santa excursion.   

- Enjoy a traditional Finnish Dinner at Arctic Restaurant. 

Day 11: Drive to Rovaniemi and go to the Ranua Zoo and hang out with the polar bears. In the evening fly to Helsinki. 

Day 12: Helsinki, Finland to CA. 

Check out my Blog Post: Top Tips for going to the Arctic North Pole, Lapland, Finland. 

Rolling with the punches 

Although this trip was a big family and financial decision, it was the right decision based on the importance of adventure to us as a family, especially in this moment and time. It has provided us a lot of excitement in the planning as well as the wonder of what the Arctic will bring. Plus, this trip really packs in a lot of unique experiences. I am not necessarily a cold weather person but I am ready to have my mind blown!

We remain confident, albeit cautious, about the current risk of travel. There remains a possibility that the trip can be canceled or altered secondary to the health of us or family as well as limitations set out by other countries. Knowing that we did it for the sake of adventure will ease that burden if issues present themselves. 

Ping: Navigating FOMO: How to align your spending with your money values 

Connect with or follow me on Instagram or Facebook if you want to learn more about values based living and decision making, creating a healthy relationship with money, or to see more fun adventures.  

Photo by Tuomas Haapala from Pexels . My social media feed has been full of photos like these since I started researching the trip.