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The Savalen Winter Experience
Savalen’s location encapsulates the winter dream. It overlooks a frozen, snow covered lake and is surrounded by fells and winter forests.  It’s not the most accessible place in the world but believe us, the journey is well worth the effort.

Savalen really is the perfect place to spend a family winter holiday. The accommodation is excellent, the activities varied and fun and the whole place encapsulates winter perfectly. There are even some ski slopes and an ice rink within walking distance of your accommodation. Once you are here you have everything at your fingertips.

This holiday is designed for families with children aged 4 years and over so the activities have been tailored to ensure that the whole family can participate together - it is not unusual to see three generations of one family on a husky safari.  This holiday creates family memories to last a lifestyle.

A Genuine Father Christmas Experience
Our holiday is designed as a fabulous Christmas time experience that incorporates Norwegian and English traditions into a family activity holiday. This of course wouldn’t be complete without visiting Father Christmas.

Thankfully for us, the great man lives just a short walk away. His large log built house is Savalen’s centrepiece and is home to the elves’ workshop, toy factory, and Father Christmas’ own office.

There’s no “whistle stop” Santa experience here. Each family will spend a minimum of ten minutes with the big guy in red and it’s often difficult to know who is more delighted, the parents or the children.

This is an authentic Nordic Christmas experience and not Santa at Hamley’s. At Savalen the experience provides you with lasting memories and an insight into Norwegian Christmas traditions that have captivated our families over the years. Please see our website for previous clients' reviews, we think they speak for themselves.

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"I really can’t fault the holiday. It was my first cold weather/snow holiday and my first activity holiday. I went as a single parent with my daughter and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I phoned and spoke to the boss before booking and he was genuine and knowledgeable. I’ve told everyone how fantastic both the holiday and Activities Abroad are."
Gaynor Newman – December 2010

Day 1: Flights, arrival and introduction
At Oslo Airport you will be greeted by your Norwegian elf who will accompany you during your journey North.

Family DVDs will be played during the journey and the elf will be on hand to keep everyone entertained. On arrival at Savalen you’ll collect your cold weather clothing and be shown to your accommodation before a welcome dinner.

Day 2: Father Christmas
Santa’s log built house is steeped in Norwegian tradition and legend. Throughout the morning one of Santa’s helpers will help the children make Christmas decorations. Then 3 or 4 families at a time will be collected by the elves (everyone will be given an invite detailing their alloted time) and will be shown to Santa’s house. Each family will have a 10 minute private visit with Father Christmas and there will be a guided tour of his house. Drinks and snacks will be served and the children can draw and play. It’s simply magical.

In the afternoon one of Santa’s elves will come and take everyone to a nearby forest to collect a Christmas tree which everyone will help to decorate.

Day 3: Snowmobile safari and horse-pulled sleigh ride
This morning you’ll go on a snowmobile safari exploring the area surrounding Savalen. This is an easy paced safari with the children riding in a covered sled behind the guide’s skidoo.

After lunch the elves will arrange informal fun and games in the snow before an evening horse-pulled sleigh ride. With tinkling bells and flaming torches it really doesn’t get more “Christmassy”.

Day 4: Husky safari and ice fishing
As you walk down to the lake you will hear the impatient huskies long before you see them.  They are desperate to get running!  Being pulled by a team of willing dogs across a frozen lake is an unforgettable family experience especially in terrain as pristine and beautiful as this.  Whilst on the lake you will also meet our ice fisherman who will help you feed your hook through the ice and into the water for a spot of family ice fishing.

This evening there’s a magical candlelit hour in the spa before dinner. The perfect ending.

Day 5: Departure
All good things must come to an end. Sorry!  Today it is time to head home.

HOW THE SNOW GOT ITS COLOUR
It was summer, the world was created and all the colours were given out. The grass was given green, the roses red and the squirrel brown. Everybody was happy, but nobody thought of the snow. When Autumn came to an end and the snow started to fall, there were no colours left. All the colours were used!

The snow had to go out into the world to see if anybody wanted to share their colour with him. Firstly the snow met the rose. “Red rose, red rose” said the snow, “will you share your colour with me?” “No, no I will not” answered the rose “don’t come near me cold snow!”

The snow left, but then he noticed the buttercup. “Yellow buttercup, will you share your colour with me?" “No, no I can’t do that, I need all the yellow myself.”

So the snow had to wander on. After a while he noticed some bluebells. “Bluebells, bluebells, can I share your colour”? But when the bluebells realised it was the snow, they got frightened and bent deeply into the grass and said ”no, no, no”.

The snow understood that he wouldn’t get any colour here either and wandered on from flower to flower. He asked stones, grass, trees, clouds, people and animals, but nobody wanted to share their colour with him.

Then there was only one flower left and this flower was more beautiful than any flower he had seen before. It was small and white.

“White flower, white flower, will you share your colour with me?" asked the snow. “Oh yes, I would very much like to do that” said the white flower. The small white flower scraped off a little bit of white colour from it’s petal and gave it to the snow. “Thank you small flower” said the snow. “You gave me colour and as a sign of my gratitude you shall be the very first spring flower, your name will be snowdrop and I will never damage you!”

This is how the snow got its colour.

And if you look very closely, you will find a green patch on the white petals of the snowdrops. And that is the spot from where the snow got its colour!

Tourism has become the main source of employment and income in and around Savalen, replacing traditional industries such as farming and forestry. Working within this vital growth industry in rural and remote areas means that we must take a great deal of responsibility; socially, environmentally and economically.

Activities Abroad fully appreciate the impact of tourist visits on local communities and their residents and strive to ensure that we are having a positive effect. We always encourage all of our clients to respect and embrace the lives and culture of local and to respect their traditions. We always encourage cultural exchange by urging clients to learn a few important words in Norwegian such as: hello, goodbye, please, thank you etc.

At Savalen, as with all of our other destinations, we ensure that we use local suppliers where possible, enabling locally owned businesses and the economies in which they work to benefit directly. This reduces the leakage of financial benefits meaning that the tourism income, generated by our presence, stays where it should, in the local economy. We firmly believe in paying a fair price for all the services provided by our suppliers regardless of where they are in the world and this is extremely important when dealing with small rural communities. Through the tourism multiplier effect, this all helps to generate incomes and employment where the drift might otherwise be towards larger employment areas such as towns and cities

Savalen also sources ingredients for its restaurants locally. This includes local products the majority of the meat which is produced organically and locally (reindeer, elk, lamb), potatoes are local, as well as some of the dairy produce. But as this area is in the Norwegian Highland evidently not all con be grown in the region!

The whole resort including the aqua wellbeing centre and SPA is heated with green energy either hydro electric power or bio power (wood pellets/ wood shavings) thus ensuring minimal pollution of the environment. They have also installed heating control systems throughout the resort which reduces the use of energy to a minimum whilst still keeping guests nice and warm.

The resort was mainly built using sustainable timbers. The units are well insulated to ensure maximum efficiency.

The resort has installed LED lights as outdoor lighting. This has a double effect, firstly it gives a 70 – 80 % reduction of used energy and secondly it allows you to enjoy the starry night sky because you can direct the light down in a very good manner. The resort is also now in the first stages of keeping account of our own environmental emissions.

The majority of the activities at Savalen are nature based. Naturally we wish to maintain the natural settings in which we work, not just for the future of our company, but also for future generations.  We always make sure that these activities have a minimal negative effect on the surroundings. The trails we use are trails used by the locals for hundreds of years either for farming, hunting or exercise. Our alpine area is used during summer as a grazing area for sheep. During winter the skiing trails are well managed and the snowmobiles we use are as fuel efficient as possible.

Our holidays rely on visiting a beautiful and unspoilt area where you can recharge your batteries. We do appreciate that some may feel that snowmobiles should not be included in such itineraries. However in areas such as Savalen they are a way of life, and are a necessary way of transport for the farmers during winter as the road infrastructure is not extensive. The alternatives to snowmobiles would in most cases be large, gas-guzzling off road vehicles. All snowmobiles are regularly serviced and kept as fuel efficient as possible. The snowmobile service industry is also another vital source of employment in these remote areas. We do however strictly limit the tourist use to the winter roads by the lake.