We were looking for a place to book a huskytour where the dogs are treated well and really cared for - which is what we definitely found! Tinja & Alex love their dogs so much and could tell us plenty of stories about them. Both of us had pretty much zero experience with dogs and we told them so in the beginning. We have also asked them the day before if the mushing will take place because there was way less snow than expected this year. They told us it will. During the stay we both felt overwhelmed with making sure „our“ dogs stay in their place because we were afraid of hurting them for example if they got tangled up in their leash. After the introduction we started a ride on the frozen lake (which was, based on their explanations, the skill-wise easier trail than in the forest). Within the first ten minutes we fell over more than once because the trail was quite narrow and had lots of snow on both sides - we never did mushing before and the controlling of the sledge is really hard. We were visibly struggling a lot (crying) but had to handle it on our own. We noticed the leash being quite thin in front of one of the dogs and told her, she said we had to tie a knot (which was quite difficult because the dogs of course were tearing from both sides). The leash then tore at some point and two dogs took off which is when Tinja came to help us. After maybe 30 intense first minutes we got the hang of it (more or less) but the other couple that was on our tour struggled a lot which is why we had to stop every two to five minutes. Only one of the two hosts was on the trail with us and because she had to take care of her sledge, she couldn‘t really help us … The dogs were amazing but the rest of the experience was disappointing. We did not feel comfortable because there was barely any help on the trail, we could not enjoy most of the ride and to be honest we‘re not sure if we will ever do it again due to the bad experience. In addition we think it was not worth the money in these hard conditions (frozen river with a lot of slush-ice, uneven trail, etc.) because it is not the same experience as if there is a lot of snow with nicer trails. Its not fair to pay the full amount of money in these conditions, also because we asked beforehand if the tour will take place. It would have been better to cancel the tour. In conclusion we would have wished to be looked out for too because in the end it is us who pay for an experience - they should not forget that they are also hosts that sell an experience to people.
Thank you for sharing your feedback with Lapland Royal Adventures. We’re truly sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations and understand how stressful and uncomfortable the situation must have been for you. While we’re glad to hear that you appreciated the care given to the dogs, we sincerely regret that you felt overwhelmed during the activity and did not receive the level of guidance and support you expected on the trail. This is not the experience we aim to provide, especially for guests with little or no prior experience. We also understand your concerns regarding the trail conditions and overall value of the experience in those circumstances. Your feedback about safety, guidance, and decision-making in challenging conditions is taken very seriously and will be reviewed internally with our team. Thank you again for your honest and detailed feedback.
