VALO Finland

Set directly against the slopes of the Saariselkä Ski & Sport Resort, Europe's northernmost ski area, VALO Ice Cube Villas offers a genuine ski-in, ski-out base in Finnish Lapland, roughly 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. Each villa runs to 141 m² over two floors, built in stone and solid wood with an exterior styled on blocks of ice. The open-plan living room sits upstairs, its south-facing window framing the edge of Urho Kekkonen National Park, Finland's largest. Downstairs, a ground-floor bedroom with en suite bathroom sits beside a spa room holding a jacuzzi, double rain shower and Finnish sauna, hand-built by local carpenters. Two further studios upstairs each sleep two beneath a heated glass skylight, useful for tracking the aurora without leaving bed. The kitchen holds a dishwasher, oven and coffee maker, plus a dining table for ten. It's a compact village geared to switching between activity and stillness: guests can arrange husky safaris, snowmobile tours or cross-country skiing by day, then return to a wood-burning fireplace on the terrace. Two fireplaces run through the villa in total. Saariselkä's village centre, with its restaurants and the Sámi museum Siida nearby, sits a short drive away. Free Wi-Fi runs throughout, and mountain views hold from nearly every room.