Essentials to Pack for Lapland (Small Stuff, Big Difference)

The one thing we were wishing for when planning our Lapland holiday?

That someone would have posted a complete list of all the essentials to pack for Lapland!

Not just a few things mentioned at the end of a clothing packing list.

But a proper list, telling us what was truly useful and what we could safely leave at home.

So we decided that we’ll be those people.

We’ll tell you exactly what essentials you should pack for Lapland. Plus bonus tips and hacks!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please read our Disclaimer.

Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

The ultimate Lapland packing list

Speaking of really good Lapland packing lists.

Do you want one?

We’ve got a few for you:

🧳This is our complete Lapland packing list + tips on how to build your own

🧣 Head this way to find out what clothes you should pack for Lapland, so you don’t freeze your bum off

💡And if you need help fitting it all into your suitcase, here are Lapland packing hacks that will help (COMING SOON)

Our crazy Lapland trip

Here are some fun facts about our Lapland trip that will help you understand our packing list better:

• We did this trip as 3 adults, the two of us + Mirka’s sister
• It wasn’t just a Lapland holiday. The one thing no one, including Mirka’s sister knew about the trip? We were getting married at the start of it, in Copenhagen! So we had a secret wedding, with just one guest (Mirka’s sister), wearing snowboots and totally untraditional outfits, and then continued on to Finland for more adventures!
• We did the whole trip, including the wedding on a budget and shared all the details here.

Essentials to pack for Lapland

Okay, let’s finally get into the fun stuff!

Let’s talk about what exactly you should put on your Lapland packing list – and also what you can safely leave at home, because don’t be a dumbass like we were (more on this below).

Need-to-know about our Lapland packing list:

1. We always organise our packing list into 3 categories. Clothes, other, which in this case means the essentials, and hand luggage, which is pretty self-explanatory.
2. First, we’ll give you the full list of essentials to pack for Lapland. Then we’ll give you extra tips for many of the items from the list – so you know why on earth we were packing a paracord, for example!
3. We’ve also hyperlinked these items, so you can skip straight to the section with the extra tips, if you are curious about something.
4. In the brackets, we’ve included how many pieces of each we’ve taken. Remember, we travelled as 3 adults, for 12 days.
5. We’ve also noted where we shared something with Mirka’s sister, to save space and weight (this is one of our packing light tips).

List of Lapland essentials

Other

• Cleanser – bar + dish
• Conditioner 
• Contacts
• Cotton swabs – share
• Deodorant x2 – share
• Elastic bands
• Extension double x2
• Face cream 
• Feminine wipes 
• Game
• Hairbands 
• Hair curly thingy
• Hairspray – share
• Hair mousse – share
• Handbag
• Hand cream – share
• Lip balm 
• Locks 
• Luggage scale
• Make up
• Make up remover cloth
• Manicure scissors 
• Mouthguard
• Nail file 
• Nail clippers
• Noodles x6
• Paracord
• Perfume 
• Period stuff?
• Plastic bags spare
• Protein bars x9
• Razor
• Retinol – share
• Shampoo 
• Snacks 
• Sunscreen – share
• Tangle Teezer
• Teabags
• Toothbrushes
• Toothbrushes interdental
• Toothpaste – share
• Torch
• Towel x3
• Tripod + clicker
• Tweezers
• Waterproof bag x1
• Waterproof phone bag x1

Hand luggage

• Camera + charger 
• Chargers
• Emergency cash
• Glasses +  cloth + case
• Hand gel 
• Inhaler 
• Insurance cards
• Medication – painkillers, diarrhea medicine, antihistamines, Lemsip
• Passports
• Plasters
• Pocket mirror
• Power bank
• Sunglasses
• Tissues
• Tote bag x2
• Travel Tap – x1 with filter, x1 without
• Waterproof covers for backpacks
• Wet wipes 

These are the essentials we packed for Lapland. Now let’s talk about them in more detail – we’ll share extra tips and info to help you!

Cleanser bar + dish

When it comes to cosmetics, our one big tip is to switch from liquid toiletries to solid ones, wherever you can. If you are not sure whether this is a good idea, these 7 reasons will convince you.

We took a cleansing solid bar to Lapland. And the dish? That’s just a little recycled bit of plastic to hold the bar – we explain it all here. 

Trust us, solid toiletries are the travel upgrade you didn’t know you needed (but you can also make the switch at home, solid cosmetics are so much better than liquids!).

Elastic bands

We used to travel without elastic bands and then forever be needing them. Mostly to tie a bag of snacks, so they wouldn’t spill into our backpack, let’s be honest. 😅

These days, we travel with a selection of elastic bands – they are light, but can make all the difference.

Extension double

Turns out, the proper word for this is a socket splitter. Who knew!

Normally, we don’t take extension cords/socket splitters on our trips. But this time we knew that:

• There were 3 of us, meaning more devices than usually
• It was a very important trip (we were getting married!), so having our phones and a camera charged was crucial
• In the arctic cold, devices lose power faster, meaning you need to charge them more often
• Since we were sharing a room with Mirka’s sister (Lapland on a budget!), some sockets might become inaccessible, hiding behind the unfolded sofa beds
• We also read in reviews of one of the hotels we stayed at that many sockets were not working for other guests (we didn’t end up having this issue, but it’s always good to check this in reviews and be prepared)

Instead of taking a big and bulky extension cord though, we only packed small double extensions.

They were much lighter and packable, but turned every socket into a double one.

If you are sharing accommodation, try and find out how many sockets are available, and then add up your devices. In your calculation, assume that every device will need to be charged every night, and then see if you also need an extension cord or a socket splitter.

Alternatively, if you already own a universal power adapter, that might work too, depending on your chargers.

Face cream

Creams are one of the strange things we packed for Lapland.

Why strange? 

Creams are perfectly normal, right?

Yes, but the creams for Lapland should not contain water.

Which, depending on where you live, might be an easy thing to source.

Or an absolute nightmare.

Here is why:

• It’s dangerous to use cosmetics with water in Lapland because water freezes—meaning if you put it on your skin and then come out into the arctic cold it can damage your skin.
• We were worried about this because our skin tends to get really dry in cold weather—Mirka’s hands bleed constantly during winter.
• But finding a water-free cream in Slovakia? Impossible. “Aqua” is listed as the first ingredient in pretty much all face/hand creams.
• In the end, we managed to find kids’ face cream, in a pharmacy. It’s specifically marketed for winter months as it has no water.
• The catch? These creams are usually oil based, meaning they are super greasy and don’t soak in well. We ended up not using the cream much during the holiday, because putting make up on top of it was a nightmare.

What would we advise you to do?

• Consider the weather forecast for your Lapland holiday. How cold is it going to be? -5°C is very different from -25°C.
• What is your skin like? Or the skin of other people in your travel party that you are packing for, for example your kids.
• How easily can you buy a cream without water?
• Make sure to also consider sunscreen – we’ll cover that later in this Lapland packing list.

Feminine wipes

This should really say feminine/body/baby wipes, because basically, the idea is having something to clean yourself with, should you not be able to shower.

If you are now thinking: “Okay, I thought this was essentials to pack for Lapland, not trekking the Amazon packing list,” you are correct! 

But.

One of the awesome experiences we added to our trip to make it more magical?

The Santa Claus Express sleeper train!

It took us from Helsinki straight to Santa’s village—basically, we got on a train in the evening and woke up in Christmas town!

Now, while we had the fanciest cabin on the train with a shower (!! mindblowing, we know!), some reviews mentioned water problems on the train, so we wanted to be prepared, in case we couldn’t actually use it.

If you are thinking of taking Santa Claus Express or you just want the option of refreshing yourself throughout the day, make sure to pack some wipes (not antiseptic, although we’ll get to those too!)

Game

This note is mainly for people without kids, because if you have them, you are probably packing plenty of games to keep them entertained.

A small, travel-friendly game is a great idea for all trips though.

For example, the beautiful Aurora Cabin we stayed at in Lapland? It had no TV. So if you are used to relaxing in front of a movie in the evening on your holidays, you might wanna have a plan B.

Our go-to travel game, that we even packed for our full-time travels, is Star Fluxx. Another fun option is Dobble, which even comes in a super holiday-friendly waterproof version!

Hair curly thingy

+the hairspray and hair mousse

Mirka speaking:

“We left this on the Lapland packing list even though it:

• Probably makes no sense to you
• It wasn’t actually something we needed in Lapland; it was for our wild secret wedding

But we thought it might be a useful tip for some of you, so we kept it in the packing list.

Basically, do you know the heatless bathrobe curls?

If not, watch this.

It’s a great way to get curly hair without lugging hair curlers with you on your holiday (so you can pack light!).

How much do I trust the method?

So much, that my sister and I used it to do our hair for my wedding!

Would definitely recommend, if you want to add some bounce to your Lapland holiday (or any other trip. Or even use it at home – my sister does all the time!).”

Lip balm

If your lips are sensitive to cold, lip balm is absolutely essential—add it to your Lapland packing list!

If you are not sure how your lips will respond to the arctic cold, get a lip balm just in case. It’s super cheap, but can save you from a lot of pain and discomfort (you do wanna be able to eat all the yummy food in Lapland without wincing all the time, right?).

Do also check out the sunscreen section for more info!

Make up remover cloth

If you don’t own one, what are you even doing with your life?? 

Check out this article on 17 essential travel items for women to find out more.

Spoiler alert: those 17 things are so useful for day-to-day life too, not just travel!

Mouthguard

If you are wondering whether we packed this for our husky ride in Lapland:

1. Not sure if that would have helped the disastrous experience
2. No, we didn’t. It’s actually Mirka’s, for her terrible nighttime clenching, because is travel actually good for your health??

So unless you are also a type A person, who processes their daily stress while sleeping, you can safely take the mouthguard off the list of essentials to pack for Lapland.

Noodles

Yeah, you read that right. We took x6 packs of instant noodles with us to Lapland.

Why?

Because:

• We picked half-board package at our amazing northern lights resort, meaning no lunches for us. We thought we’d be hungry. Spoiler alert: we never touched the instant noodles.
• Other Lapland travellers online freaked us out about the high cost of everything in Lapland, including groceries. Turns out, noodles are still affordable! No need to drag them all the way from your home country!
• We love to plan things in advance and be prepared. What if we got hungry after the local supermarket (because we based ourselves within a walking distance of one – a smart hack for Lapland) closes? Noodles to the rescue!
• We were doing Lapland on a budget, so bringing our noodles instead of having to buy expensive ones in Lapland seemed like a no brainer.

As we mentioned, we ended up not needing the noodles, so again, this is more of a tip on what not to add to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland.

Paracord

Paracord is one of the more unhinged things we travel with, but hear us out.

It’s such a useful travel hack, and yet almost no one talks about it!

You can read all about why you should travel with a paracord here, but this is why you should add it to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland:

• We use our paracord all the time as a long clothesline. And in Lapland? Chances are your clothes will be wet constantly, because of all the fun in the snow. The usual problem? Accommodations never have enough hooks/dryers to dry all of your clothes on. Cue: paracord!
• Are you planning on going sledging in Lapland? What if the flimsy string on your sledge breaks? What will you replace it with? What’s that? You were smart, added paracord to your Lapland packing list and now you can use it as a replacement string? Awesome, well done you!
• Continuing the sledge idea—do you have a pile of luggage you are hoping to drag to your accommodation on a sledge? How will you make sure it doesn’t topple off into thigh-deep snow? Tie it with a paracord? Ah yes, also smart.

Basically, read this to learn more about why paracord is a great travel hack.

And then get some for your Lapland trip.

Period stuff

Mirka speaking:

“Pardon the vague terminology, but there are actually 4 period products I swear by—they save my sanity when we travel (but also at our homebase too).

The question marks in the list are because when two women are going travelling, they both have to check their calendars to see if period products are getting packed or not.

It’s a good reminder to put it on your list of essentials to pack for Lapland, though, because forgetting something crucial, like your period cup, could be a proper disaster.”

Plastic bags spare

Add these to your always-pack list, like the elastic bands.

Because you never know.

We always carry a few extra zip-lock bags and a few basic plastic bags (like the ones for fruit and veg in a supermarket). 

We usually end up using them for:

• Opened snacks, to keep the backpack crumb-free
• Anything that ends up wet, unexpectedly
• Any stones etc. that we pick up along the way on our travels

These are some of the best travel essentials to pack for Lapland (or any other trip). They are light, easily packable, do not take up any space, but can be so so useful.

Protein bars

This goes hand in hand with the instant noodles—if you haven’t checked out our info on them, jump there by clicking here.

Basically, we wanted to make sure we had snacks, for any hunger emergencies, and protein bars are a great solution.

One bar will fill you up more than a bag of cookies, and it’s a lot more packable. 

The downside is, protein bars tend to be quite heavy, so don’t go crazy on them.

An embarrassing mistake to avoid

This is quite embarrassing, but when we were going full-time travelling, we took 12 protein bars with us.

Each was 75g.

Meaning we were carrying almost a kilo of protein bars with us.

Which, when you are backpacking and every gram counts, equals a lot of pain.

Unnecessary pain as well, since we didn’t eat any of them (okay, eventually we ate them all just to get rid of them, but we didn’t need them as an emergency snack).

So learn from our mistakes. 

Pack smart. Pack light. And don’t take 12 protein bars with you, unless you have a big travel party and know you will need them.

Snacks

Continuing with the food vibes, we also snuck a few extra snacks onto our list of essentials to pack for Lapland.

Sure, we already raved about protein bars being the ultimate Lapland snack… but this time, we went full-on festive with Christmas-themed treats!

We brought them to sprinkle a little extra holiday magic on our trip. Even though it was March/April, we still hopped on the legendary Santa Claus Express night train, met the big guy himself in Santa Claus Village, and even went for a reindeer ride—basically, a mini Christmas wonderland in the middle of spring.

This is a little tip on how to make your holiday more Christmassy, even if you don’t go in November/December (which is a smart budget move, btw). 

If you are heading to Lapland in the new year, put some Christmas snacks aside for the trip, and then relive the festive season magic once you are there!

Sunscreen

If you are thinking: “Eh, I thought this was essentials to pack for Lapland, why are you telling me to pack sunscreen??” you are right. But also, snow reflects UV rays and you can get sunburnt even in winter!

So it’s best to protect yourself, especially, if like us, you use retinol.

Something else to think about? The water problem we mentioned here. 

And yes, it does seem like your options are either getting burnt or having your skin frozen.

To be perfectly honest with you, we haven’t got an ideal solution.

Stick, oil or powder sunscreens might be a solution, but do take into account their cost, especially if doing Lapland on a budget.

Oh, and make sure you also pack a lip balm with UV protection, to keep your lips safe!

Tangle Teezer 

All we are going to say here is that if you don’t know what a Tangle Teezer is, read this.

Also, if you want a travel-friendly hairbrush, which won’t get its teeth damaged when tossed about in your luggage, check out this travel Tangle Teezer.

Teabags

Yes, we are the mad travellers who travel with teabags.

If you are wondering why, since pretty much all accommodation comes with complimentary tea and coffee, read this. We’ve got a very good reason (that we think you’ll agree with. Actually, you’ll probably add teabags to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland too, after reading that!).

Torch

We hope you haven’t skipped this section thinking you have a torch on your phone, so this is pointless.

Because hear us out.

The problem with using a flashlight on your phone

A flashlight on a phone is such a convenient invention, right? 

Gone are the days of scrambling for candles, lighters or the forgotten torch (and batteries!!) when the power goes out.

Just grab a phone and you’re good to go (to the bathroom. Cause let’s face it, someone always needs to go to the bathroom when the power goes out).

The issue with doing this in Lapland?

The arctic cold drains power fast.

Now add to that having a flashlight switched on and you’ll be lucky if your phone is still working after an hour of use.

Why a torch is essential on a Lapland packing list

Here are just some situations you might find yourself in:

• The power might go out and it might be a while before you can contact the accommodation owner/night time receptionist and have the power restored
• You might be trekking through darkness to a good aurora-viewing spot, needing to shine some light on your path
• Are you planning on using a big camera for capturing the stunning Northern Lights? Think about setting it up in the middle of the night, in darkness. You will need light to build your tripod and set up the camera, and you will not wanna be wasting your phone battery on that
• Using a torch feels a lot more adventurous, than using the flashlight on a phone. If you have kids, it might be an entertaining game for them, especially when standing around in the darkness, waiting for the Northern Lights to show up

Basically, just pack a torch.

Make sure it’s not heavy (packing light!). 

Make sure it works. 

Make sure you don’t forget batteries and then discover this fact when the power goes out.

Towel

Don’t worry, we stayed in really good accommodation during our whole wedding/Lapland trip.

In fact, we treated ourselves to awesome 4* hotels, WHILE still doing the trip on a budget—read all about that here.

So yes, towels were included in the hotels.

The reason we took our own was, because we were planning on visiting a public sauna and a pool in Finland!

If this is something you’re considering, here’s what you should do:

• Check out the different options here
• Once you pick the right sauna for yourself, check whether towels are included in the price
• If towels are not included and you want to save money, make sure to add them to your Lapland packing list
• Don’t pack big, fluffy towels. Get thin, packable, microfiber ones that are ideal for travelling

Tripod + clicker

When it comes to Northern Lights photography, we are no experts.

Here are 3 tips we can give you though:

1. You can contact Mirka’s sister on her photography Instagram if you want to ask specific questions—she was responsible not just for the aurora photography on our trip, but also for our wedding photos. You can see her work in all our Lapland articles (the photos which have 📷 @za_ostrene underneath them)
2. The northern lights resort we stayed at? The owner, as well as the guides, are experienced aurora photographers, so if you are after amazing pics, this is the place for you. They even offer a photography workshop as one of their experiences, so you can learn how to capture the Northern Lights yourself! (This is exactly why we picked the resort, it’s so awesome!)
3. Everyone agrees that to capture the Northern Lights you need a tripod*. Get a good packable one that you will be able to use on your other trips—to take couple or group photos without having to talk to strangers! (ew!) That’s how we got all our group pics in Lapland!

If you are planning on using a tripod to shoot the Northern Lights, make sure to check the torch section info too.

*Not the exact tripod we got, since ours came from a market in Vietnam, but a very similar one.

Waterproof bag & waterproof phone bag

Waterproof phone case and a waistbag are the secret to keeping our stuff safe at the beach. We wrote a whole post about that here, including all the tips and tricks.

If you are planning on visiting a public sauna and a pool (or just taking a dip in the sea, like we saw some crazy brave people do in Copenhagen), this is a must-have travel hack.

With a waterproof phone case and a bag, you’ll be able to relax in the water without worrying about someone stealing your stuff.

Wait.

Did we say relax in the water?

In the 0 DEGREE water or below?

Yeah, scratch that.

What we meant was: you’ll be able to fully focus on the feeling of million needles being stabbed into you as you try to lower yourself into the freezing cold water with a fake smile because it’s getting captured on a camera and you don’t wanna look like a wuss.

Btw, do let us know how that went. 😂

These were the things from the “other” category. Now let’s talk more about the hand luggage essentials to pack for Lapland. Extra tips incoming!

Emergency cash

You might do research on Finland/Lapland and find out that all you need when paying is a card.

Which is true.

We never needed cash.

HOWEVER.

You should always be prepared.

That means:

• Travel with really good debit cards. Really good as in they don’t charge you foreign fees. We use Monzo and Starling, because – and this is our second point – you should always have at least two cards. Just in case. Always cover your butt. Double. (P.S. if you open an account using one of the links above, you get a freebie. And we will too, so it’s a win-win!)
• Ideally, travel with a credit card too. But again, make sure it’s a good, travel-friendly one.
• Lastly, always always carry some cash with you when you travel. It might be a cashless economy, but that old lady selling from her stall on a street might not have a card machine. Just saying. To Lapland, we took euros. When we were full-time travelling, we took USD, because that’s the most commonly-accepted currency.

Btw, if you have any questions regarding managing money, book a call with us and we can chat through it together! We are not financial experts, but we know a thing or two about saving money, investing and managing finances on the road.

Medication 

This section is pretty self-explanatory, but we wanted to include a little warning.

Because despite us thinking our Lapland packing list was a banger and we didn’t forget anything, it turned out we did.

Well, not forgot, but misspacked.

True story about a packing fail

We did take: painkillers, diarrhea-stopping medication, antihistamines and Lemsip (cold and flu medication).

What we didn’t take is enough of it.

Specifically, enough painkillers and Lemsip.

Because, despite dressing well for aurora watching, Mirka and her sister got so ill in Lapland, they spent the end of the trip stuck inside our apartment in Helsinki (watching Totally Spies on YouTube. Did you use to watch that as a kid? Let us know, because when we asked on our Instagram, not that many people actually knew it! 😮).

What was Daniel doing?

Running around Helsinki in the snow (and -7°C temperatures. Thankfully, he is Scottish, so he didn’t mind), trying to find a pharmacy that wouldn’t bankrupt us.

Because Finland is expensive, so even buying painkillers and throat medication will cost you an equivalent of a week’s salary. 

It was a painful packing mistake for us, because:

• We were doing this holiday on a budget
• We had all the medication at home – we just didn’t pack it

So.

Don’t make the same mistake.

Add medication to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland.

And then take enough of it.

Because you are heading to the Arctic.

And it’s easy to get ill there.

Especially if you feel the cold a lot, like Mirka and her sister.

Power bank

We’ve already covered a bit about this here, but what you need to know is, devices lose their power faster in cold temperatures.

We’ve seen a lot of people saying their phones were dead within a few hours—something you’re probably not used to.

This is what you should do:

• First of all, make sure you protect your phone when you travel. For example, with this £1.34 hack that can literally save your phone. 
• Second, keep your phone near a source of heat. Yes, it’s not recommended to keep your phone near your body, but in this case, it might be the best option.
• Third, be prepared. Take a good, reliable power bank with you. But do remember to keep it charged and check its power when outside—a power bank is also just a device that will be affected by the cold!

Sunglasses

Remember our tip on adding sunscreen to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland?

Make sure to also pack sunglasses.

Snow in Lapland is beautiful.

So so white.* 

Which means it’s also very bright.

You can probably see where we are going with this.

Also, if you choose the dates of your Lapland holiday well, and don’t go during cloudy November/December, you will even get glorious, blue sky and sunshine days, so you will need sunglasses even if the snow wasn’t trying to blind you with its whiteness.

Add the sunscreen. And the sunglasses. As contradictory as it seems, when building a Lapland packing list.

*Unless climate change strikes, like it did when we were there, and it rains and the snow turns brown. Thankfully, that happened as we were leaving. We felt so bad for the poor people arriving after us, but we were glad that for once our luck turned around. 😅

Tote bag

We always take at least one tote bag when travelling.

Why?

Here are the reasons why a tote bag should be on your packing list:

• To quickly repack into if you are dropping your luggage off at accommodation for storage. Check in not available yet? Just put your suitcases and backpacks into luggage storage and quickly throw the essentials like a water bottle, tissues and a spare jumper into a tote bag.
• To always have a shopping bag handy (and stay sustainable). You never know when you will find something you want to buy as you travel. Or when you’ll pass a supermarket where you’ll end up spending 2 hours and half of your travel budget (do you also love sightseeing foreign supermarkets??). We always have a tote bag (or a reusable plastic bag) in our backpack for these situations.

And for this trip? We added two tote bags to our list of essentials to pack for Lapland, because we were taking the famous Santa Claus Express sleeper train!

And while your cabin will have space for luggage, you won’t be able to access it easily, because, well, the cabin is tiny.

So repacking the night essentials (pjs, toothbrush, slippers, snacks) into a tote bag before getting onto the train is a smart move and one of our travel hacks when taking Santa’s Express.

If you don’t have a tote, a reliable shopping bag will do—fold it into your luggage and see if it comes in handy on your Lapland trip (and becomes a staple on all your packing lists!).

Travel Tap – x1 with filter, x1 without

Yes, Finland does have one of the cleanest and best tap waters on the planet. And you can top your water bottle up even at small airports, like Ivalo.

So why did we take Travel Tap, our travel filter bottle on the trip?

Because of the Santa Claus Express night train! You cannot use the water on the train—not even to brush teeth! And since we were doing this trip on a budget, we didn’t want to waste more money buying expensive water on the train. So we took one water bottle with a filter and used it to filter the water into the other water bottle.

That way we had an endless source of free, clean and safe-to-use water!

Any questions? Remember you can always shout us on our Instagram or book a call with us here.

Waterproof covers for backpacks

This is one of the travel hacks that is so awesome and yet so little talked about, we had to write a full post about it.

If you don’t own a rain cover for your backpack yet, whether you travel with a backpack or just use it in your everyday life, go read this.

And then add a waterproof backpack cover to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland, because it will (hopefully) snow and it might (though hopefully not) rain too, and you will want to keep your things protected.

Wet wipes 

We know we already have an antibacterial hand gel on our list of essentials to pack for Lapland. 

But you should also take antibacterial wet wipes with you.

Here is why.

Why you should pack wet wipes for Lapland

• Liquids are problematic in the Arctic. We already spoke about that in the face cream section. So if you can avoid them, do so. Your skin will thank you.
• We don’t know how about you, but we almost always get more hand gel than we need, coming out of the bottle. And in the Arctic, where the temperatures are, well, freezing? Having a lot of liquid running all over your poor cold (or already broken-skin) hands is the last thing we fancy.
• We were doing Lapland on a budget. Which often meant eating on a budget too. Or eating on the go, because we had to catch an early flight, and so we got the hotel’s breakfast to go. Either way, hands (and other things) get messy. And wet wipes are a lot better to wipe with than trying to use a hand gel + tissue combo. 

What not to pack for Lapland

We thought it might be useful for you to know which things we considered adding to our Lapland packing list, but, eventually decided against.

Maybe you will conclude you need to pack them.

Or maybe we’ll help you confirm that you really don’t need them.

Things we didn’t pack for Lapland

Here is the list, plus a little explanation why we decided against packing each thing:

• Hand and feet warmers. These seemed like a good idea, but when we saw how bulky and heavy they were, considering we’d need x6 of each to cover just, for example, our hands (3 adults, remember), we decided to dress warm enough instead. Many people, especially with kids, swear by them though.
• Marshmallows for roasting. Fire pit marshmallow roasting sounds pretty Christmassy and magical, right? Sure, till you think about having sticky fingers in -10°C. If you don’t mind that, check out the public cabins/huts dotted all over Lapland where you can use the fire pits free of charge.
• Telescopic roasting sticks. If you are planning on doing the whole marshmallow/sausages bonanza, remember to pack some extendable roasting sticks with you. 
• Snowflake kit. Did you know there is a way to preserve a snowflake from Lapland? As a cool memory? We were thinking of doing this, but then concluded we weren’t fussed enough to put the effort in—it’s not the easiest process, apparently. We did regret it a bit once we got to Lapland and saw how beautiful the snowflakes there are, to tell you the truth, so don’t make the same mistake.
• Flask for hot drinks. We considered taking Daniel’s thermal travel cup, but ultimately decided against it. When the aurora alert goes off in the middle of the night, nobody will be wanting to waste time brewing tea. We talk more about that here. Plus it would be another quite bulky item, which is not packing-light-friendly.
• Fancy clothes. We full-time travelled with nicer clothes and shoes. It was one of our biggest mistakes and packing regrets. These days? We are a lot more chilled. We even got married wearing snowboots! Note: being chilled doesn’t mean disrespecting dress code rules. Always research this in advance, but also pack light and save space (and money) wherever you can.

Bonus tip: add this to your Lapland essentials packing list

The one big mistake you could make when planning your trip?

Not adding travel insurance to your list of essentials to pack for Lapland! Even if you can’t actually pack it!

The Arctic can be a dangerous place, so you will want to be covered by a great travel insurance provider.

We recommend True Traveller—they have such good prices and such amazing customer service, we sometimes can’t believe they’re a real company.

Don’t risk ruining your Lapland holiday. Add travel insurance to your list of things to sort out before you go.

Need help with your Lapland packing list?

Got any questions about the essentials to pack for Lapland? Drop us a message on our Instagram!

Also remember that we have more posts to help you with packing for the trip:

🧳Ultimate Lapland Packing List: What Actually Matters at –20°C

🧣 Clothes to Pack for Lapland: Arctic Winter Packing Guide

💡Lapland Packing Hacks: Winter Travel Made Easier (COMING SOON)

And if you want help planning your Lapland adventures, book a call with us and we can chat through your ideas together. Unhinged humour and travel fail stories are included as a bonus!

Congratulations! You have made it through this giant list and now you know what essentials to pack for Lapland—and what you can safely leave at home.

We hope packing goes well and you manage to stay sane during the whole process.

Remember, if anything, we’re just a message away.