TOP TRAVEL DESTINATIONS of 2018: Finland

right now dude a fucking welcome to Lapland Finland where youjust have a little bit of snow Mike hell yeah come on you gotta get closer comeon I thought it was maybe up to the kneecaps there's a I'm not even at thebottom are you serious I'm here to help two idiots as you can see it's a verysnowy place in oh my gosh well we've got Mike Shepherd here we've got Jared overthere so if you have been watching me for a while welcome back to the channeland if you are new here my name is Eric I love to travel and this is why LaplandFinland is one of my top travel destinations I have ever been to okay sofirst off you can't go walking around the woods of Lapland without a pair ofthese guys on the first activity on my list is snowshoeing up Lapland onaverage gets 60 to 90 centimetres of snow and the snowpack is usually thedeepest in mid-march which was right when I was visiting and snowshoeing wasone of the best ways to fully immerse ourselves in the wilderness of Laplandand get a solid workout in so we found out the secret to this deep treacheroussnow in Finland pair of these boys snowshoes so we've been out here for twohours just out here in the wilderness of Finland snowshoeing around we come uponthis abandoned cabin okay so the cabin isn't quite abandoned but the storebehind it is pretty cool you're actually in Le'Veon we are at the ski resort andthis is actually a prop from a movie about the life of Santa this isapparently where Santa grew up in the film but if you look this way here mightturn the camera we're actually right in the middle of a ski resort I highlyrecommend going for a snowshoe hike it is a killer workout and it's a great wayto take in the area but if you're kind of lazy or you're looking for a bit moreof a thrill the next activity on my it's snow it is the jet ski of the snowis the best way to get around up here and it's actually very interestingbefore you go out and you rent this you have to have a full depth out survivalsuit so if you can see I am in a full-on winter you know if you get lost in thetundra this is gonna keep you warm just notice how quiet it is with all the snowI could literally hear the snowflakes hitting my jacket that's how fire tothis you can't find this in New York no not in New York one of the biggestquestions I get asked about my videos especially the really glossy travelvideos is where do you get your music and I know for a lot of youtubers that'sa big issue because of copyright I am proud to announce that this video issponsored by epidemics sound the platform that I use to get all of mymusic for all my travel videos they have the largest online library of sounds alot of times when I'm making these videos I just go buy a mood so onepidemic I can type in happy I can type in sad I can type in cinematic and bydoing that through the selection process I can narrow down almost exactly thetrack that I'm feeling I'm gonna play this drone clip twice notice thedifference in the feeling with this song versus this onecompletely different feel right that is how powerful music is in these videos Ihave a link in the description of this video that gives you a 30 day trial andthere is basically no commitment what you think of it honestly it is my go-totool for making these videos complete and really telling the story throughsound design so that's actually how deep the snow isif you're not an expert snowmobiler like jared is not make sure to stay on theroad if you are here in Lapland I highlyrecommend renting one of these bad boys the faster you go the easier it is whichit's a good lesson for life when you're this far up north I think the best thingto do is to just you know embrace the cold the next must-see place on my listis the snow village ice hotel let's start off with some hotel stats the snowvillage covers an area of 20, 000 square meters it's built up every year fromscratch and construction begins around late October to early November when itgets cold enough the hotel is constructed from 20 million kilos ofsnow and 350 thousand kilos of crystal clear natural ice the temperature in thesnow village remains at a I mean I guess you could call it comfortable – – -about -5 degrees Celsius the ice hotel comes complete with an amazingrestaurant a movie theater bar and even a chapel the Suites are all decoratedwith elaborate art sculpted into the ice itself it's a bucket-list one-of-a-kindexperience if you're all about making unique travel memories the Ice Hotel isfor you so you can't go all the way to Finland without doing the next activityon my list which is the smoke sauna and the Finnish River ice bath so normallywhat you do is you go into the sauna you warm up your body real nice to the pointwhere you are so hot that the only way to really appease this heat and to getrid of this heat is to run down to the river and jump into the river into thislittle hole which they call the Finnish ice bath now the tradition of the smokesauna is a massive massive part of Finnish culture there are approximately5.

5 million people living in Finland and there are an estimated two millionsaunas that is how much the Finnish people like their sauna the smoke saunais an art form at sunrise a fire is made and it is stoked for six to eight hoursuntil the rocks are heated up proper temperature normally when you dothis you go naked butts because this is going on YouTube and I want to film thewhole thing from memory we're wearing a bathing suit but this is the entrance tothe smoke sauna stop going in here shut the door behind you this is it put some water on this rockreally get that skin going in here now we just sit and marinate get niceand toasty you because in a few minutes now the air is so cold that even movingriver water can freeze in a matter of minutes I'm ready for my eyes backyou ready yeah let's go bro let's go it gets so warm in there so fastyeah like I don't even feel cold right now oh you will in a second my friendfear doesn't exist fear is a mental thing you are screaming you won just getthe hell out 15 seconds later you calm down your breathing slows you look up atthe sky through the blue the best way to start the day you're probably watchingthat like Eric what are you doing I cannot even tell you how invigorating itis to jump in ice-cold water when it's minus 8 what is that in Celsius as coldas what it is it's very cold this next activity on my list is arguably whatthis region of the world is best known for the Northern Lights and morespecifically unique hotels to view them simply put the Northern Lights arecaused by massive solar storms that rip through space and by the time the solarstorm reaches our planet the Earth's magnetic field deflects the stormsexcept in the polar regions and the gases from these storms caused theaurora they can only be seen under crystal-clear skies and very coldconditions we're on a sled on the way to our nextroom we're staying at it's called the Northern Lights Hutyou'll see in like a second it's pretty cool this evening we are staying in hutsthat have glass ceilings so you can have a perfect view of the Northern Lights this is the official tour of theNorthern Light Hut cabin you walk into this little cabin that there's a desk tothe left you walk in a bit more you know take off your coat there's a bathroom tothe right you go straight back there is a king-sized bedyou travel lights you lay back you look up and if you are lucky you will see oneof the most amazing phenomenons known to mankindthe Northern Lights oh good morning from northern Finland what a crazy place tostay oh I slept so well last night oh it's now the next morning after spendinga night in the Northern Lights Hut would I recommend spending the night here 100%you walk out of your Northern Lights Hut you come in here they have a fullbreakfast spread everything you could ever want for a solid breakfast you haveyour coffee belly rubs oh when I travel and I see a dog I miss Bubba so much ifyou don't know who Bubba is Bubba is my old English bulldog away from home thesehuts are more for the rustic hearted and if you're into something a bit morespacious our final night in Finland that we stayed in the Northern Lights sweet11 a glutes here is a tour of our Northern Lights mansion you walk intothe master bedroom and it's straight out of I mean how would you describe thisfinland is very close to Mother Russia I'm half Russian this is what you'd callRussian luxury it is decked out in gold there's little studded diamonds in thechandelier everything is gold the bed the mirror the windows the chairs thebathroom has a rocket ship in it well yeah the showers I have in the back doesit you shut this and you're in the portal so we're gonna save this room fortomorrow when the Sun is out because this is the great room and to reallyappreciate it you have to see the view this honestly looks like a portal lovelike that right now it looks like a portal to another dimension but in themorning you have the view of Lapland and the ceiling has foam Northern Lightsjust in case they don't come out we aren't gonna cook in here so I'm justgonna give you a quick flash of this kitchen very mod ordain the steel coffeemaker I mean if you lived here it'd be a pretty nice kitchen butwe're only here for one night you walk into this room and this is when itreally smacks into you that Nordic rustic vibe you have the pull-out guestcouch now this is I would call this this might even be the master bedroom as wellbecause I personally prefer this bedroom to the Russian gold luxury room this isthe cabin in the woods there's a tree in the bathroom to rest your your bum onand there's actually a branch the hole if you have a really you know whatFinnish mansion would not be complete without your own personal sauna a placelike this runs you about a thousand euros a night but honestly sitting in ahot tub with two meters of snow behind you looking up and seeing the NorthernLights if you're lucky enough tonight I mean as you can see it's kind of snowingso tonight yet we might not see them but you never know the weather can changefast here that's it for the trip to Finland ifyou're new to the channel make sure to subscribe check out the rest of theFinland Travel series make sure to leave a like and we will see you in the nextdestination I know I said at the end of Iceland the next one would be warm but Ireally think the next one will be warm we'll see you guys in the next videopeace.