Santa Claus Express Review: What’s the Sleeper Train Really Like?

Thinking of hopping on Santa’s Express but wondering if it’s magical… or just an uncomfortable night on a train?

We took the Santa Claus Express sleeper train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi (aka Santa’s official hometown, not just a gift shop with good PR). Thankfully, this wasn’t a Murder on the Orient Express scenario – no murders, no mystery, no rogue elves – but it also wasn’t quite the Christmas fairy tale Instagram sells you.

This is our honest Santa Claus Express review: what we liked, what we liked a lot less (spoiler: unhinged lady at 4am), and what you should know before you step into the ensuite shower in your cabin.

Do you have your ticket ready? Okay, then let’s go, the train is about to depart!

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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!

An unusual Lapland holiday

First, here is a short background on our Lapland holiday, because it was rather unconventional, and we want it to make sense to you:

• The travel party on this Lapland trip was 3 adults – the two of us and Mirka’s sister.
• This wasn’t your classic Lapland holiday. We first had a secret wedding in Copenhagen with no one else aside from Mirka’s sister as a guest (and she didn’t even know we were getting married! We told her the day before! And no one else knew either. 😄).
• After our wedding (still can’t believe we pulled this off), we took the Santa Claus Express train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.
• Our adventure continued in Lapland with more bucket list activities: meeting the real Santa, riding with the reindeer and huskies, braving an ice pool and, most importantly, seeing the Northern Lights!!
• We did all of this on a budget, including staying in an aurora hotel, so if you are interested in saving money in Lapland, check out this post.

Got any questions about our wild Lapland trip/wedding? Give us a shout on our Instagram!

And if you need help planning your winter wonderland holiday (or an unhinged wedding), book a call with us and we can chat all about it!

The ultimate guide to the Santa Claus Express train

We’re keeping it real in this Santa Claus Express review—what we liked, what we weren’t fans of, and the fun stuff in between!

But if you’re looking for a full guide for the sleeper train, with cabin types, buying tickets and extra tips, head this way.

Want to avoid making silly (but expensive) mistakes on Santa’s train? Read this post!

Santa Claus Express review

We’ll spoil things a bit.

All in all, we loved our journey on Santa Claus Express.

And we absolutely think the sleeper train is worth taking.

In the next section, we’ll share what we enjoyed about the train.

But, we’re all about keeping things real, so we’ll also share the parts that were not so fun, so that you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Deal?

Santa Claus Express train – what we loved

Let’s start with the positives. These are the things that surprised us about the Santa Claus Express—in a good way!

1. Comfortable sleeper train

If you are worried about a bumpy journey on a thin, dirty mattress, fear not.

The train was clean and the beds were comfy.

Of course, you can’t be expecting 4* hotel standard, but, considering this is a train, it’s honestly better than we’d expected.

Side note here: it has to be said that we are considered “crazy” travellers, so for us, anything better than sleeping at an airport is luxury. 😅

The most important thing, though, was that we were able to get a decent amount of sleep.

We took the 19:29 night train from Helsinki, arriving in Rovaniemi at 7:20 the next day.

That meant we had enough time to enjoy the train, get some sleep and be up early to get ready for our day at Santa Claus Village—without feeling like zombies.

2. Showering on the Santa Claus Express

The other mindblowing thing about the Santa Claus Express train?

Not only do you get a private cabin, even if you are a solo traveller.

But, if you book an upstairs cabin, you also get your private sink (!), toilet (!!) and a shower (!!!).

Now that’s pretty much Orient Express level of luxury, right?

If you disagree, we recommend you take a sleeper train (or a bus) in Southeast Asia, sharing the sleeping area (and sometimes even a bed) with strangers, and then try the Santa Claus Express. We’re sure that you’ll appreciate it as much as we did after that. 😄

Don’t make this mistake on the night train

A word of warning:

Don’t be us.

Before taking the Santa Claus Express train, we read that if you wait too long to take your shower, there might be no water left, because, well, this is a train, so water isn’t unlimited.

Worried about this (and wanting to get into pjs and be comfortable), we went to shower pretty early.

The issue?

The water hadn’t had the chance to heat up at that point, so it was rather cold when Daniel showered (first guinea pig) and a bit warmer for Mirka (second guinea pig).

By the time Mirka’s sister went to shower (waiting for our reviews first), the water was nice and warm.

Lesson learned: don’t wait too long, especially if you’re travelling in high season, but also don’t be too keen—unless you’re Daniel or Wim Hof, and don’t mind cold water! (And make sure you pack wipes.)

That aside, it was so good, being able to shower before bed, especially since we spent the whole day exploring Helsinki and had a full day in Santa Claus Village ahead of us.

As we said, we loved the whole train experience. But there were some things we weren’t that keen on. Let’s talk more about those.

Santa Claus Express train – what we didn’t love

A little disclaimer: these are all minor things, we, thankfully (and surprisingly, given our usual 💩 luck), didn’t have any big issues. What we mostly worried about was a significant delay (this is how to prepare for that possibility) and having no water (again, come prepared).

Neither of that happened, but since this is a Santa Claus Express review, we wanted to keep things objective, and not make it sound like the train is just pure magic. None of this is a reason not to take it, though.

1. Noise and other passengers

Yeah we know. This is a train, with other passengers, so you can’t expect it to be quiet.

And, to be honest, we didn’t have any issues. We had Mirka’s sister in her private cabin on one side and quiet neighbours on the other.

But Mirka’s sister?

She ended up being woken up at 4am the next morning by someone hammering on her door and shouting. 😬

Despite ignoring it for a good while, the hammering didn’t stop, so, she got up and opened the door.

Turns out, a grandma of the family from the next door’s cabin got the cabin wrong, and was set on delivering the coffee she picked up for them, even if she had to break the door down. 😅

So what did she do when she realised she had the wrong door and just woke someone up in a, let’s face it, not the calmest manner?

She didn’t apologise and just went away, to the next door cabin.

But that’s people for you and you know what? Santa probably put her on a naughty list for it anyway. 😄

How to prepare for noise on the Santa Claus Express

There are 3 things you can do, to be prepared for random ladies hammering on your door at 4am:

• Bring earplugs or noise cancelling headphones.
• Choose a cabin at the front or back of the carriage. That way you only have neighbours on one side, plus it’s less likely someone will mistake your cabin for theirs.
  
  Warning here: consider the fact that the end cabins might actually turn out to be nosier, since they’re next to the stairs, so everyone will be passing them on the way.
• Remember that while you can’t change people’s behaviour, you can change your mindset. And believe in Santa’s Nice and Naughty List. 😄

2. The cost of Santa Claus Express sleeper train

We’ll be honest with you, the price almost discouraged us from taking the train at the start.

We paid €123 per person, for upstairs cabins with the shower. Since we were doing Lapland on a budget, this was quite a lot in total, for 3 people.

Add to that the cost of dinner, drinks and breakfast, and you’re talking €500 upwards, just for one train journey.

Yikes!

Here is what you can do, if the cost of the Santa Claus Express train is making your stomach get all stressy.

What to consider if the Santa Claus Express feels expensive

Book as early as possible
Prices go up the closer you get to the travel date. If you’re set on taking the train, make sure you book it as soon as you can—we talk more about this in our Santa Claus Express guide. 

Get info from other travellers
The best people to ask your questions about the train? Other travellers who’ve done the journey! That’s why we wrote this Santa Claus Express review, to help anyone who’s deciding whether the train is worth it.

Remember, if you have any questions, give us a shout on our Instagram or book a call with us, so we can help you plan your Lapland adventures.

Manage expectations (this one matters)
One thing that helped us big time?

Mirka’s sister.

She was the one who was instantly on board with the idea of the night train, despite the fact she’s not a mental traveller, like we are.

That made us stop thinking of it as an expensive train journey and look at it as a bucket list experience.

Because it is.

Mirka’s sister had never done a sleeper train before.

And we’d never showered on a train before.

Best of all? This is the freaking Santa Claus Express! And we could have the experience of riding it together, as a family.

How could this not be on our bucket list?

Ultimately, it’s who you are with and your mindset that matters the most.

Even if the train had been delayed and there was no water, we knew we’d make it work.

After all, this is Lapland. It doesn’t get more magical than that.

This was our Santa Claus Express review. What do you think? Will you take the train to (or from) Santa’s village? Let us know in the comments or on our Instagram!

And if you do go on the sleeper train, we hope you have the most magical journey, without anyone trying to break your door down. 😅