I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels, but only a few have genuinely made me giddy. This is one of them!

We’d booked a transfer from Levi to the village (€40 return), which arrived about 15 minutes early. The minibus was quite swanky with seats for 8 plus space for luggage. The journey took about 15 minutes and despite arriving an hour before check in time, our cabin was ready.

We stayed in cabin 4 and we were instantly amazed. The wood panelling, black floor and furniture with the massive, heated glass roof creates a spectacular look. The cabin is plenty spacious for 2 but might be a squeeze for more. The bathroom is luxurious with Rituals toiletries. There were no issues with wifi, which achieved better speeds than we get at home!

You can see a walkthrough video of the cabin on my Facebook page – it’s amazing!

We settled in for a little while before heading to the bar for a drink and dinner.

Bar prices weren’t too expensive, around €10 for a glass of wine or G&T. I had an aperol spritz.

I was having the buffet for dinner and the other half had ordered from the a la carte menu. Despite preordering a week before, the message hadn’t reached the kitchen and we waited nearly an hour between starter and main course. To be fair, the food was excellent and they comped a round of drinks to apologise for the mix up. 

The salads on the buffet were excellent, 2 different types of salmon with Greek salads too. The other half had the biggest bowl of Caesar salad you’ve ever seen.

For mains, the other half had porcini and fig ravioli and I had salmon in crayfish sauce. Both were delicious but think the ravioli was the better of the two. Likewise, his dessert of cloudberry cheesecake was better than the Baileys pana cotta. The dessert choice on the buffet was a bit weak. 

We’d booked on half board basis so the a la carte options came at a supplement, but I think it was worth it. Having said that, the breakfast isn’t great with tinned fruit salads and quite limited choices. 

We didn’t do any of the activities on site but were lucky to see the northern lights. They were very low in the sky so had to sit right up in bed to see them. Having been to Golden Crown igloos on a previous visit to Levi, I would say the Northern Lights Village is a better experience and I would definitely return. The only thing I would give Golden Crown over Northern Lights Village is their mechanical beds allowed you to sit up and watch the lights much easier. The beds at Northern Lights Village were very comfortable though, with memory foam mattress topper.

One tip – make sure to bring an eye mask. If the moon is very bright (like it was for us) or you want to sleep past sunrise, you’ll need one! They do sell them in the bar if you forget one.

Date of trip: February 2023

Price paid: £435 including breakfast and buffet dinner

Cash back: £44 from hotels.com via Topcashback (plus 1 reward night credit)