What to expect on the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi

Last updated on September 12th, 2024

Planning to take the Santa Claus Express overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi? In this guide we’re sharing what to expect on the ride, plus helpful tips.

Rovaniemi, Finland is said to be the official home of Santa Claus. So what better way to get there than on the Santa Claus Express overnight train?

What to expect on the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi (Santa Claus Express)

This almost 12 hour train ride takes you from the Gulf of Finland all the way above the Arctic Circle. And with two levels, multiple seating and cabin options, showers (the coolest part!), a variety of food options, and the ability to bring both pets, bikes, and vehicles, it makes for a convenient, memorable, and much more comfortable way to get to Finnish Lapland.

And in this guide we’re sharing everything you need to know before taking the Santa Claus Express overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. Including your cabin options, how to book tickets, what to expect on the train, and more!

Important note: While this guide is about our experience on the Santa Claus Express train in the winter, this overnight route runs during other seasons as well. So whether you’re taking the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi in the winter or summer, we hope this guide can help!

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Should you take the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi?

Overnight train travel may not be for everyone. So before we begin, we think it’s important to share some pros and cons to taking the Santa Claus Express overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. That way, you can decide if it’s right for you!

Pros

By traveling on an overnight train you combine travel and accommodation together. Depending on the fare, this can be the same price (or even less!) than booking flights and a hotel for the night.
Since you travel overnight, you will arrive early in the morning and have a full day of travel!
According to the VR website, traveling by train to Finnish Lapland is the most eco-friendly mode of transportation you can take.
We found the Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train to be very nice. It’s not luxurious, but it was clean, modern, and had everything we needed. And unlike our Vietnam overnight train, we didn’t have any unwanted guests.
If you have a rental car, you can take it on the train! For an extra fee you can drive your car onto a train car and it’ll get pulled along to Rovaniemi. Driving from Helsinki to Rovaniemi is only 2.5 hours quicker, so why not save yourself the driving and just take the train instead?
You can SHOWER on the train! How cool is that?

Cons

Taking the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi is a time commitment. A flight from Helsinki to Rovaniemi is less than 2 hours. The Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train is about 12 hours, so it’s quite a bit longer. However, since it’s overnight and you can sleep, it does go by quickly. Plus, it doesn’t take away time from exploring.
You might not get the best night of sleep. Even if you follow all of our tips at the end of this guide, you’re still traveling on a train that will make noise and bump in the night. Unless you’re a deep sleeper, don’t expect amazing sleep.
Normally one perk of taking a train is getting to see more scenery. However, with limited daylight in the winter in Finland, it may be dark the entire time. During our ride on January 1, it was completely dark. However, the later trains will have some daylight in the morning!
Despite the name Santa Claus Express, Santa is NOT on board. 😞 But if you’re like us, he’ll be your first stop when you arrive!

Types of cabins on the Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train

Before booking your tickets for Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train, it’s important to know what cabins you can choose from!

Upstairs cabins

Upstairs cabins are the most luxurious (and expensive) cabins on the Santa Claus Express!

These sleeper cabins fit two people and are like a mini hotel room on rails (emphasis on mini, they are very small!). Not only do they come with a bunk bed, but also an ensuite bathroom and shower. That’s right…a shower! On a train!

When you first enter the bathroom you will see a toilet and sink. And you may wonder “where is the shower?” To access the shower you pull the wall of the sink area towards the toilet, sectioning off that area, so it gets less wet. And the shower will appear! We thought this design was a great use of space.

Besides the beds and bathroom, your cabin will come with:

Blankets
Pillows
Bed linens
Bath towels
Shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel
Small table in the room (with a fold down chair)
Outlets
Lights
Blackout curtains
Temperature controller

There is also a good amount of storage, both below the bottom bunk and in the wall of both bunks.

The upstairs cabin is only for you and your group. Even if you are traveling solo, you will not have to share the cabin with a stranger. Which is a great perk!

Downstairs cabins

The downstairs cabins are almost identical to the upstairs cabins, except they don’t come with their own dedicated bathroom and shower (they do have a sink though!). Instead of a private bathroom, you’ll instead use a shared bathroom and shower that is located in the train hallway. You will need your key card to access the shower, so only those with downstairs cabins will be able to use it.

Because they lack private bathrooms, these cabins are cheaper. So they make for a more budget friendly option, without sacrificing too much comfort.

Traveling with more than 2 people? For the downstairs cabins, you can book cabins downstairs that have an adjoining door!

Accessible cabins

In addition to the other cabins, the Santa Claus Express also offers accessible cabins. These are similar to the downstairs cabins and offer an SOS button, support rails, and wheel-chair anchoring point. They do not have their own private bathroom, but there are accessible toilets in the hallway. However, there are not any accessible showers.

Pet friendly cabins

There are also cabins available for those traveling with a pet, both upstairs and downstairs! You will have to pay a little bit extra for your pet to join. Before bringing your pet, make sure you read all of the rules.

Compartments

If you want more space than a regular seat, but don’t want to splurge on a cabin, you can book a compartment! These are closed off, small rooms that come in either 2 or 4 person options. They have outlets, wifi, air conditioning, and tables.

Similar to the cabins, they do not sell individual seats. So the entire compartment will be for you and your group, even if you do not fill it up.

Note: This option is only available on some overnight trains from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.

Regular seats

If you want to save money, there are also regular seats available. While this won’t be super comfortable for sleeping, it’s the cheapest option on board. The seats have a power outlet, wifi, storage space for your luggage, and access to the restaurant car and public toilets.

You are also allowed to bring your dog in this area. There is a designated seating area for passengers with pets on board.

Cost of the Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train

Finland is known for being a more expensive country to visit. So you may be wondering “how much does the Santa Claus Express cost?” And the answer is: it varies!

The cost seems to depend on the train date and time, plus availability. But to give you a general idea, regular seats start around €23 (per person), downstairs cabins start at €49 (per person), and upstairs cabins start at €74 (per person). However, most fares we have seen are higher than this.

If bringing a vehicle onboard, motorcycle spots start at €29 and car spots start at €39. And if you bring a pet, it costs between €4-8 per pet.

For our overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, we paid €239 for two people in an upstairs cabin on a holiday (January 1). Which felt like a good deal, considering flights and a hotel for a night in Rovaniemi would’ve likely cost more!

To get the cheapest fare, we suggest booking early. We have noticed that once trains start to fill and it gets closer to the departure date, the pricing goes up. To see the exact pricing for your trip, check the VR website.

How to book Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train tickets

The Santa Claus Express overnight train is run by the VR group, which is a government operated railway company that operates hundreds of rail services every day across Finland. During the winter, there are typically 2-3 departure times per day for this route:

Depart Helsinki at 7:29 PM, arrive in Rovaniemi at 7:20 AM
Depart Helsinki at 9:14 PM, arrive in Rovaniemi at 9:58 AM (this route is only offered some days)
Depart Helsinki at 11:13 PM, arrive in Rovaniemi at 11:03 AM

We took the earliest option, so that way we had a full day once in Rovaniemi and could maximize the limited daylight.

The best place to book tickets for the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi is directly on the VR website. Reservations are open 10 months in advance. And not only should you book early to secure better pricing, but cabins do sell out!

We booked our tickets for January 1 on September 13. But when writing this post in late August, we noticed that several late December trains are already running low on cabins or sold out.

Once you select your dates and number of people, you will be taken to a page where you can choose your seats or upgrade to a cabin or a compartment (if offered). You also have the chance to pre-order breakfast, which we will share more about in a bit!

What to expect on the Helsinki to Rovaniemi overnight train

Arriving at the Helsinki train station

The Helsinki train station is located right in the heart of town, making it very easy to get to. Inside you’ll find several cafes and restaurants if you need a bite to eat before you depart. Thee is also a waiting area inside (which is key during the cold winter!).

Make sure you get to the train station at least 30 minutes early. While our train was a little late, we hear that they typically run on time. Make sure to look at the marquee to see which track your train will be arriving at.

Once your train arrives, it’s time to find your train car! Your ticket should tell you which car to look for.

Boarding process

Once boarding your train car, you’ll either go up or downstairs to find your cabin or seat. It is important to know that they do not check your ticket as you board. They will come by after boarding to check it.

If staying in a cabin, you will find a cabin specific key card waiting for you in the door. Make sure to hold on to this!

Our experience in our cabin

For our journey from Helsinki to Rovaniemi we booked an upstairs cabin for our trip. While technically we didn’t need to shower, having a private shower and bathroom was too cool to pass up!

Our first impression of the cabin was that it was tiny. However, they made great use of the space and it was 10x better than a seat on an airplane. And it was very clean!

By the time we boarded and stored our luggage, it was after 8 PM. So our main goal was to get food! There is a restaurant car on board, which we will cover in a minute, that we headed to for dinner.

Since we wanted to take full advantage of the room, we got our dinner to go and ate it as we watched the darkness pass outside our window. And then it was time for a shower!

It took us a few seconds to figure out how to convert the bathroom into the shower (you can watch Kathryn struggle here!). Kathryn decided to shower first and…

….the water never got hot. We heard this could have been due to it being an extremely cold night, so this may be a common issue on many rides in the winter. However, we do have friends who took the train in the winter as well and had hot water. So perhaps we were just unlucky!

But I (Kathryn) suffered through the cold and took my shower. Adam, however, opted not to stand in the cold water. I don’t blame him!

After taking a shower, it was time for bed. The bed itself was pretty comfortable, but the motion of the train definitely woke us up a handful of times. Overall it wasn’t our best night of sleep, but we don’t expect to sleep well on a train.

In the morning, we had a little bit of time left on the train, so we headed to the restaurant car to grab coffee. And then, we arrived in Rovaniemi!

Overall, our experience in the upstairs cabin was super positive! Minus the cold water, it went super smoothly and we wished we had even more time to enjoy it!

Amenities on board

Regardless of which cabin or seating type you choose, there are a couple of amenities onboard that are accessible by anyone.

And first, you have the toilets! These toilets are primarily for those in downstairs cabins or in regular seating, but can be used by anyone. The ones that we checked out had nice forest wallpaper and were super clean!

The other main amenity on board is the restaurant car, which is super nice! During the overnight train the restaurant car stays open until 2 AM (serving snacks and dinner) and then reopens at 4 AM for breakfast.

For dinner, you will need to go to the restaurant car to order. You can see the current menu here, but some of the meals offered are pasta carbonara, pesto pasta with chicken or salmon, lohikeitto (Finnish salmon soup), cheese omelets, and meatballs and mashed potatoes. You can either eat in the car at one of the booths or counters, or do takeout.

We ordered the meatballs and mashed potatoes, which is their bestseller. And it was surprisingly very good! It reminded us of a much more expensive IKEA meal 😉.

If you would like breakfast you must pre-order it at least 5 days before your departure. But they do offer smaller items without pre-order, like premade pastries, and of course coffee! We opted to just get coffee, as we planned to grab food at Coffee House Rovaniemi once arriving in Rovaniemi.

A+K Tip: Download the VR app in advance, which is not only an easy way to show your tickets, but it also gets you small discounts at the restaurant car!

Exiting the train in Rovaniemi

When the train gets about an hour from Rovaniemi we suggest starting to pack up. As the train approaches, the conductor will start to give announcements over the PA system. Make sure to be ready to get off the train well in advance and find the nearest exit. You will likely see lots of people waiting by the door, so it’s not hard to figure out where to go.

Rovaniemi train station

The Rovaniemi train station is very small and a bit chaotic, especially when a whole trainload of people are in there at once. Inside you’ll find one restaurant, plus multiple rental car companies. And if you’re like us and arrived well before check in time for your Airbnb, there is a luggage storage area where you can pay to lock up your bags.

What to bring on the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi

Here are a handful of items you should bring on the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. Including a couple items that might help you catch some z’s!

Eye mask and ear plugs

If you want to block out any light and noise, bring an eye mask and ear plugs. There is a blackout shade in every cabin which helps with light. But there’s a good chance it’ll be dark the entire ride anyways!

Water

The tap water in the cabins is not safe to drink or even use to brush your teeth. Each cabin comes with a 0.35 liter bottle of water and you can purchase more in the restaurant car. But the best move is to bring your own water in a reusable bottle!

We love using our hydroflask water bottle! It allows us to carry more filtered water than if we just carried plastic bottles and we use less plastic!

Outlet adapter

Make sure you bring an outlet adapter so you can charge your phone and other electronics!

Entertainment

There is wifi on the train, but it’s not powerful enough for streaming. Be sure to download some podcasts, movies, and music, or have a deck of cards with you.

Portable battery charger

In the busy season you may be on an older train with cabins that only have one electric socket. This socket charges slower and might not keep up with your needs. We always recommend traveling with a portable battery charger for times like this!

Snacks

We recommend going to a grocery store before you get to the train station to pick up some snacks. Grab some karelian pies, some Fazer chocolate, and some salty licorice for the journey! Looking for more ideas? Check out our guide to the best Finnish foods to try!

Pack an overnight bag

To avoid having to drag your big suitcase out every time you need something, try to keep your toiletry items and clothes for the next day in a smaller bag!

What to expect on the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi (Santa Claus Express)