My dear friends,
I am going to introduce you a 3-year old Lapland Hotel Oulu, which is part of the hotel chain called Lapland Hotels. As you can guess, it got started by having hotels only in Lapland but now, it's getting its newest addition to Helsinki at the beginning of next year, Lapland Hotel Boulevard. But now, let's talk about Lapland Hotel Oulu.
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| Outside the hotel in September |
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| Outside the hotel in December |
If you ask someone who lives in Helsinki if Oulu is part of Lapland, they say Yes! If you ask the same from someone who lives in Kittilä, they say No! Don’t let the location fool you. Oulu is near Lapland in any case. More importantly, Lapland Hotels bring Lappish vibes to where ever they are. You get to experience Lapland by staying in this beautiful, historical hotel, located next to Cathedral and the historical Ainola park. I've stayed here already 3 times simply because it is such a lovely place and its location is perfectly situated between Helsinki and Rovaniemi, the 900 km route that I drive many times a year.
Brief hotel introduction
Lapland Hotel Oulu has 160 rooms all designed and styled with high-quality Lappis products and design elements. The moment you step into the hotel’s yard, and especially into its entrance hall, it is very obvious that Lappish nature has had great influence when designing and accessorizing the hotel. There are elements there that literally radiate mystical Lapland vibes and if you have not experienced an authentic Lapland before your stay at Lapland Hotel Oulu, I’m pretty sure you will end up booking a trip to Northern Finland to experience that original, authentic Lapland’s nature as well – because being in this beautiful hotel makes you want more!
Location is very easy to reach and for a small fee of 25 euro, they also provide guests with convenient parking space in their garage (underneath the hotel) so that you have direct access to reception as well as to your hotel room floor by the lift. However, please note that since space is limited I recommend booking the spot prior to your arrival, in connection with your room reservation.
And since being all about nature, they of course also have Tesla Destination Charger & Tesla Wall Charger in the garage as well
And not to worry, in those rare cases that the hotel garage happens to be full, there's also a public garage building the hotel cooperates with called Auto-Heikki, which you find only a block away from the hotel. At Auto-Heikki you can park your car for 15 euros/night - just remember to bring your parking card to the reception and they'll give you a replacement card that gets you out of there.
There are only a few free parking spots within a short proximity from the hotel. If you arrive by train, the hotel is about 500-600 m from the train station, walkable if you're not carrying plenty of luggage, and if you are like me, meaning you do have multiple suitcases where ever it is that you're going, just take a taxi, it won't be more than maybe 15 euros.
Check-in begins at 15.00 / 3 pm and check-out is at 12.00, however, late check-out is available subject to availability at the price of 10 €/extra hour, which I think is fair. Also, in case you are arriving for example on a morning train, you can always either just leave your luggage to the storage room and explore the city until your room is ready or you can give the reception a call and ask in case you're lucky and your room happens to be ready.
Although, if you do have to wait just for a while, there is a beautiful seating area right next to the reception and a very pleasant, comfortable lobby bar on the other side of the entrance hall.
On the right-hand side there is the lobby bar and at the end of the left-hand side, there is the
Kitchen & Bar Oula along with the breakfast area. Also, I would like to point out that there is an amazing space divider on the left, a square-shaped shelf structure, wherein you can find all types of wonderful handcraft and other souvenirs that you can purchase, you will remember this place and the vibe forever once you take some of these products at home with you!
You can enjoy the tasty, exotic drinks and/or those delicious meals whether you're a local and just want to relax for a moment alone or with your friends or your a hotel guest that wants to feel that warm, pleasant Lappish vibe.
The menu of the restaurant features fish from the lake Inari, reindeer, game, almond potatoes, fried lichen, Nordic mushrooms, and berries - all products of fresh, pure, Lappish nature.
If you plan on dining on the weekend, I'd suggest you book your table upfront as this is a popular restaurant due to its tasty, unique menu and in order to make sure that you get the table at that specific time, book one upfront and you have nothing to worry about, just show up and enjoy, let the aromas take you to the wilderness of Lapland!
Lapland Hotels Club
Like I told you, Lapland Oulu is a part of Lapland Hotels chain, although you couldn't tell just by relaxing here (as some people seem to think that it is a bad thing to be a part of a corporate hotel - well, I can tell you, in this case, it is good thing and can be very beneficial for you as a guest)!
If you consider staying here, may I refer you to their website and make a direct booking or contact the hotel!
Lapland Hotel Oulu (click here to open the link!)
Below you find a link, via which you can join Lapland Hotels Club and get all the great benefits of the member, such as parking half priced, a voucher of 10 euro/night which you can spend in the restaurant or at the corner shop by the reception...
After joining and staying you can use your accumulated points in different ways, please read the further info below - and join! (As I think, if you travel a lot in Finland, after staying in one of the Lapland hotels, you may find it hard to choose any other hotels after that so why not just benefit from it as well!)
You can read more about the club here:
Lapland Hotels' Club (click here to open the link)
Rooms
Naturally, this being a modern hotel, there is a free wifi in every room.
Extra beds are available for certain room types for the charge of 25 euros/night, kindly book prior to your arrival. Baby cots can be set to all rooms. This is a pet-friendly hotel, thus, some of the rooms are available for guests with pets, the extra charge is 20 euros/stay.
The hotel and some of its rooms are also wheelchair accessible and there are also allergy-friendly rooms available, kindly request upon your booking.
There are 6 different room types;
Comfort Twin
This room type, just like them all, have a warm Lappish vibe, very relaxing atmosphere, suitable for both for holidays or a working trip. The room of this particular type has two beds, sizes of 90 x 205 cm that are very high in quality and mattresses adapt to your body which makes sure that you sleep well and wake up well rested. And, naturally, a good selection of pillows is also available and I have to say, for me a good pillow is worth gold!
The room has 40 " flat-screen TV with a wide selection of channels.
Naturally, there's also a bathroom with shower, towels and a hairdryer.
Comfort Twin Plus
This room type has similar amenities to the Comfort Twin but in addition, this one has a bathtub and some of the rooms have views and balconies facing the fabulous hotel atrium. I enjoyed sitting there and watching what was going on downstairs, quite a lovely experience in particular at winter time when it would be cold to sit in a balcony outside!
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| On the left, there is a small surprise complimentary gift from the hotel manager. Finnish vodka, small kuksa (the small wooden cup that according to folklore you're not supposed to buy, you can only get one as a gift and it brings you good luck) and a small box of Finnish candy, salted licorice called salmiakki, which I absolutely love! |
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| The Atrium |
This room type has, naturally all the basic elements similar to previous ones, but this one has a single queen size bed (160 cm x 205 cm), along with high-quality bath products and a hot beverage selection.
De Luxe King
This room type is excellent for some pampering due to superb materials from the selection of pillows to the adaptive mattresses and all those beautiful decor items along that make you feel like you're right at home in Lapland. It is very easy to get that luxury feel on the king size bed (180 cm x 205 cm) while watching that large 48" flat screen TV, and naturally you'd be wearing comfortable bathrobe and slippers after you've just taken a lovely hot shower or a bath and made yourself a hot cup of tea or coffee with tea maker or that specialty coffee maker. There is also a minibar, a high- speed wifi and APPLE tv in De Luxe room types.
Premium De Luxe King
This room type is a premium version of De Luxe King room, meaning this one has its own lovely sauna as well as a private balcony - I absolutely loved the room 539 with views to the cathedral - my favorite room type of them all! There is also, of course, your very own mini bar in the room with some lovely, quality products in it, and let's not forget its specialty coffee maker!
Premium King
This room type has, of course, all the basic, high-quality amenities as every other room type but on top of that, it has an individual sauna, bathrobes & slippers, a minibar, a 48" flat-screen TV and APPLE TV along with a minibar and a specialty coffee maker.
Suite
The Suite of the hotel is perfect whether you want to just relax and pamper yourself or maybe you're on a business trip and you also need to get some work done. Materials in this beautiful corner suite are luxurious and, naturally, the entire design is affected by Lappish stories.
It has its own sauna, spacious bathroom along with bathtub. The TV is an impressive 55" flat screen TV that provides you with a watching experience like no other. Naturally, there's also APPLE tv as well as a high-speed wifi.
This suite truly means luxury. It is spacious with great views and high-end amenities and is certainly worth it for example for a honeymoon night or if you just want to pamper yourself properly!
Breakfast
Breakfast is being served Mon-Fri from 6.30 until 10 am and Saturday & Sunday (and public holidays) 7.30-11 am, which I found very convenient as on my first trip I had to get going early in the morning and I appreciated the early breakfast whereas on my last visit it was Saturday and I enjoyed the fact that I got to sleep a bit longer, until 9.30 before even getting up and I still got enough time for my breakfast.
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| Fruit & berry shots! |
I can warmly recommend this breakfast! In particular, as someone with food restrictions, I was very happy with the servings, I don’t think I could have asked for more. There is a separate mini fridge in the corner that has various foods for those with allergies and restrictions; vegan, gluten-free, milk-free etc. - much appreciated!
There were all kinds of cold dishes, yogurts, jams, bread, cheese, ham, turkey, a variety of cereal and muesli along with local delicacies such as Lapin leipäjuusto i.e. squeaky cheese which I absolutely love, especially with cloudberry am! You have probably never tried anything like it and some people just don't get it and others are like me and simply love it!
Naturally, they serve also fresh fruits and all sorts of berry products, after all, ingredients from Lapland’s nature are its specialty.
They also serve many types of bread, basic white bread, dark rye bread (very good!) and I, once again, was very impressed of the fact that they have taken into consideration also people with special diets, and I even got to choose instead of just having one option - kudos to you!
There was a good variety of hot dishes as well, bacon (proper, crispy bacon!), scrambled eggs and there’s also a chef’s corner, wherein you can order your own omelets, (very important for me as I only eat egg white omelets so YAY!), porridge, fried potatoes, veggies, and reindeer sausages, which are a true Lappish delicacy and pretty much everyone who has ever tried them, loved them!
Oh, and let's not forget that smoked salmon they serve on their breakfast buffet, that, if any is a true Finnish delicious dish, if you are a fish lover, you will love this!
Lapland Hotel Oulu also served a great selection of juices on their breakfast buffet, starting from orange juice and other regular beverages to local juices, which vary and I strongly recommend to try them! Blueberry juice seemed to be particularly popular. Also, of course, there were different types of coffee and tea to choose from.
I couldn’t fault the breakfast, which is a lot said from me who due to my special diets, in most cases skips breakfasts as there's nothing special for me - but here, that was not the case, there were so many ingredients I enjoyed that I could have easily gathered even my lunch from their tasty breakfast selection!
They naturally also serve all types of coffee there as well as teas but the cherry on top was definitely that "Kuusenkerkkä" Sparkling wine that anyone was welcome to try!
What else can you do here other than relaxing, sleep and eat breakfast?
Well, there is a small activity room on the basement floor before the sauna department. The hotel also cooperates with an excellent local gym called Fressi, you pay your gym session, 5 euros at the reception (or put to your room invoice) and you get the key to get in - easy and a healthy option for entertainment!
Further, the hotel's lovely pool area is at your disposal (free of charge) from 7 am until 9 pm and saunas are warm from 5 pm until 9 pm (there are separate saunas for men & women or you can book your own sauna from the reception for a certain fee, if you want to experience it privately with your spouse or for example with a small group of friends, you can also order some refreshments there, and that is something that we, Finns, love to do and I could easily imagine booking one of the smaller sauna areas for myself and invite e.g. my cousins who live in Oulu to join me, that would be such a fun experience!)
Meetings
There are in total of 12 different types and sizes of the meeting rooms all the way up to 180 seat conference room. The actual part of the hotel in which the meeting areas are is called Ynninkulma ("Ynni's Corner). The history behind the name comes is based on the location; next to Frenzèn park and Oulu Cathedral. This fabulous, historical wooden house of OYMCA (= Ynni's Corner, corner referring to 4 centuries that OYMCA was there) still stands there, has done so ever since 1825 when it was built. The oldest of the three vaults on the grounds was built in the middle of the 17th century so you certainly get that history vibes in these meeting areas. I personally find it very fascinating that this hotel has two totally different sides to it; that charming Lappish hotel side and then this historical meeting rooms' area, which certainly is part of the most authentic Oulu, after all in the wine cellar there used to be a pharmacy already back in the 1700s - oh and by the way, that wine cellar is a perfect spot for wine tastings with your friends or colleagues, trust me, your mind starts to wander back in its roots when you look around in that basement while sipping your wine... If those walls could talk...
You can make your meetings more than just a meeting by ordering some delicious refreshments, snacks or even full course meals from Kitchen & Bar Oula and that will turn your meeting into a Lappish mouthwatering experience!
Restaurant Oula
Oula restaurant has a very calm, relaxing vibe to it and once you get to taste the flavors of its out-of-this-world menu, you are sold, I promise! The hotel chain's head chef, Tero Mäntykangas is a true Lappish food guru and a magician, he brings the nature to your plates and you get to taste things you probably didn't even know existed. Dining here is not just eating, it's an experience.
If you want to explore the city more, you can rent a bicycle (available on summertime), it is only, 15 euros/per day and free of charge for guests staying in Deluxe Rooms or Suites and what an fun and fabulous way to see the city! Especially on summertime Oulu is such a lovely oceanfront city and the views are stunning, just rent a bike and you get to see way more than just wandering around by walking.
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| Oulu Cathedral & a rental bike |
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| Oulu Cathedral and Ainolan Puisto (Ainola Park) - right next to the hotel! |
