Owned by Luxury Action (founded by travel pioneer Janne Honkanen and Formula One World Champion Mika Häkkinen), the award-winning Octola Private Wilderness is steeped in environmental and social sustainability. In fact, it’s the first accommodation in the Arctic and Nordics to have a negative carbon footprint.

All stays here are fully bespoke. The lodge has ten bedrooms that can be booked all together, or as separate six- and four-bedroom wings or a two-bedroom villa. For a very special gathering, you can even book the entire property (lodge and villa) with its 12 rooms.

Location and activities

Twenty minutes from Rovaniemi International Airport (which is also the official airport of Santa Claus) by road, Octola Private Wilderness has a blissfully secluded setting deep within pine forests in the Arctic Circle. There’s even a private helipad for guests who don’t fancy the drive. This isolation means it’s perfect for all kinds of snowy activities (with or without the in-house guide), including snowshoeing, off-piste and cross-country skiing, sledging, ice swimming in the private lake, e-snow biking, and nature walks (including foraging excursions during certain times of year).

There’s also a reindeer enclosure where you can feed these majestic creatures, plus the opportunity for ice-driving, downhill skiing, and horse riding in the surrounding area. From the end of August to April, there’s a good chance you may spot the Northern Lights dancing across the sky during your stay.

The spa in the wild

The Octola Spa & Health Clinic is as cutting edge as the rest of the resort, with an innovative Finnish-designed temperature-adjustable ‘cold pool’ to simulate a plunge into a frozen lake or river (part of a traditional sauna bathing session), a custom-built high-end swimming pool with a resistance current similar to that used by Olympic athletes, along with wilderness views through its floor-to-ceiling windows, and an outdoor hot tub.

There are also treatment rooms, plus a traditional log-lined Finnish sauna and a separate cabin for fireside relaxation and yoga sessions. Pure bliss!

The private chefs and Karhu Bar

Your stay at Octola includes meals prepared by its chefs, along with selected drinks, butler service, and daily housekeeping. The Arctic cuisine here is so good that the property even has its own cookbook ‘8 Arctic Seasons: discover - taste - experience’, which was launched at the North Pole in 2016 and won an award for best Scandinavian cookbook. This is full-on Nordic cuisine based on ingredients that grow naturally in the region, hand-selected by the chefs.

The bar also stands out from the crowd; built with stones from the forest and hand-carved wooden walls, Karhu (‘Bear’) Bar has fur-lined seating, a roaring log fire, and a tempting comfort food menu.

Sustainability

Octola’s impressive eco-credentials include the use of wind-generated electricity, geothermal heating, water from its own spring, and use of locally sourced food. Together with the management of the surrounding wilderness, including forest and wetland, this results in a ‘carbon sink’ effect that offsets the minimal carbon emissions created by the resort. Octola also makes generous donations on behalf of each guest to the Private Wilderness Fund to protect Arctic animals.