Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi is the junction of Finnish Lapland: the end of the main railway from Helsinki, the airport the winter charters use, and the point where the E75 north to Inari and Norway parts from the road west to Kittilä and Levi. For a route it is the first and last full town, and the place to collect a hire car with winter tyres rather than drive one up from the south.

The thing everyone stops for is on the way out. Santa Claus Village sits on the Arctic Circle on the airport road; its own site says it is open every day and that the circle line is painted across the central square, which means the photograph takes ten minutes and the rest of the stop is optional. The site does not price entry to the village, only the activities inside it, so budget the latter by operator. The same site places a snow hotel 30 km away, a useful reminder that distances outside town add up quickly in winter.

Timing: three hours covers the village and the Arktikum museum; a night here is sensible if the next leg is the long drive to Kilpisjärvi or on to the Norwegian coast. Quiet is any weekday in September and October, between the summer and the Christmas charters; December afternoons are the opposite.

Practical line: fuel and supermarkets are plentiful and the last cheap ones before the north; fill the tank and the boot here. The E75 and the Kittilä road are maintained all winter, but Finnish rules put studded or winter tyres on the car from November, and darkness arrives early. Check Fintraffic's road-conditions map for the day; the authority's own site refused the connection today.