I am a Millennial Traveler: This Is the Most Costly Place I’ve Visited

FG Commerce Latin / Getty Photographs

Dedication to Our Readers

GOBankingRates’ editorial crew is dedicated to bringing you unbiased critiques and data. We use data-driven methodologies to judge monetary services and products – our critiques and scores are usually not influenced by advertisers. You possibly can learn extra about our editorial guidelines and our services and products review methodology.

20 Years
Serving to You Stay Richer

Trusted by
Thousands and thousands of Readers

From planning her sixteenth birthday journey to England to now operating a travel weblog full time, Michelle Jensen, founder and editor at Travel HerStory, has traveled throughout a lot of Europe and the U.S. whereas combining her self-proclaimed love of nerd tradition, journey and historical past. Whereas lots of her journeys and content material deal with lower-cost activities, that hasn’t stopped her from exploring high-cost locales. 

The costliest place she’s visited is Rovaniemi, a metropolis in Northern Finland that claims the title of being the official hometown of Santa Claus. As such, this metropolis will get significantly dear round Christmas but additionally within the winter as an entire, given its many seasonal sights.

Jensen took the journey in January 2024, simply after New Yr’s, when a buddy requested her to go for a birthday journey to see the Northern Lights. The issue was that Jensen had just lately left her job in tech in an effort to discover one thing higher for her psychological well being — it wasn’t till later that she determined to deal with journey writing — so she was going through earnings uncertainty in an costly metropolis. 

Nonetheless, throughout her practically two-week journey, Jensen was in a position to find some balance between indulgence and affordability. Right here’s what a few of her prices appeared like.

Lodging

Jensen’s most costly keep was on the Arctic SnowHotel and Glass Igloos, a well-known resort that will get partially rebuilt yearly as a consequence of components of it being fabricated from snow and ice. There, Jensen mentioned a two-night keep ran her and her buddy a complete of $1,127.20. 

Provided that they cut up the room value, that works out to $281.80 per individual per evening, which is a little more inexpensive however nonetheless provides up shortly, particularly with different prices all through the journey. 

Their different stays included seven nights at Scandic Rovaniemi Metropolis resort for $2,387.04 whole, which works out to about $170.50 per individual, per evening, and so they additionally opted for 3 nights at Ski-Inn PyhäLinna exterior town for a extra inexpensive $455.55 whole, or $75.93 per individual, per evening.

“Scandic is within the metropolis middle, so it was very handy to do lots of the excursions, as they depart from there. Ski-Inn was nearer to the climbing that my buddy wished to do,” defined Jensen.

Altogether, the pair spent practically $4,000 on resorts for 12 nights of lodging. As a tough comparability, a keep throughout those self same dates in January in Oslo, the capital of Norway, at a three-star resort — akin to their costlier stays in Rovaniemi —  may at present be booked for round $1,000-$2,000 whole.  

Actions

The resorts in Rovaniemi could be dear in winter, particularly in comparison with another European stays, and the slew of seasonal actions also can make this an expensive vacation. For Jensen, some extra exercise prices included the next, damaged down as a per-person value:

• Husky sled tour: $217.17
• Reindeer sleigh experience: $136.73
• Snowmobiling: $141.32
• Snow sauna: $102.94 
• Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) searching tour with a photographer: $179.89
• Ice floating tour to see the Northern Lights: $94.99

These excursions alone added as much as round $873 per individual.

Discovering Stability

As a result of Jensen was between jobs throughout this journey, she “was a bit hesitant to do among the expensive experiences,” she defined. Nonetheless, being conscious about what she valued helped with decision-making.

“I bit the bullet on those I’d actually wished, such because the snow sauna, however did discuss my buddy out of among the very costly experiences, just like the icebreaker cruise, which was over $300 per individual. As a substitute, I discovered us the ice floating tour at evening, which offered the possibility to see the northern lights as she’d wished,” mentioned Jensen.

“I have a tendency to love more cost effective issues like museums, so Rovaniemi was a bit tough for me,” she defined. In that regard, she was solely capable of finding the Arktikum Museum close by, which is a science middle and museum in regards to the historical past and tradition of that area in Finland, known as Lapland. A ticket there, primarily based on present conversion charges, prices about $23, so it’s a way more inexpensive expertise than among the extra adventurous actions.

On the identical time, Jensen and her buddy had been in a position to do some adventurous climbing whereas staying on the Ski-Inn PyhäLinna, essentially the most inexpensive lodging throughout their journey.

So, though touring to Rovaniemi can have many costly facets, not every little thing needs to be dear. For budget-conscious vacationers — whether or not you’re visiting this space of Finland or anyplace else on the planet with an costly fame — you’ll be able to equally discover some stability by specializing in what you actually worth.

“Spend on the stuff you really need, however attempt to save on issues that don’t matter as a lot. In case you’re not an enormous foodie, discover cheaper locations to eat. In case you’re not planning on spending a lot time utilizing a resort’s facilities, take into account a three-star or four-star resort as an alternative. Basically, decide and select your battles by doing analysis and contemplating your preferences,” mentioned Jensen.