Ruka Sneeuwverwachting

Visited mid January 2018 and was blown away by the resort. Few things to note, English tour companies don't tend to do holidays there from early to mid Feb onwards due to the resort becoming too popular for them to secure competitive prices, as well as the resort being too busy for them to want people to visit. We visited mid Jan and there were no queues at all which really helped with the pistes being relatively short, so we never had to worry about queues at the bottom, so weren't left wanting longer pistes. We were surprised at the variety of terrain and fun off-piste wooded areas kept us busy for the whole week. The whole resort, including the pistes, were almost like a ghost town, so don't go expecting a lively atmosphere. The short daylight hours meant the whole resort needed to be lit up, so plenty of 'night skiing' opportunities which was great, especially with their lengthy lift opening hours. Only downsides were they didn't make an effort to open the half pipe early which left a whole piste closed next to it for the duration of the trip. We found out they didn't open it until the peak season for them in Feb onwards, which is something to be aware of. They also don't operate all lifts every day, which can become a bit of an inconvenience, but generally all the terrain is still accessible, just more likely to be on a T-bar in some areas where there is both. Everything else about the whole trip was just perfect, and we've booked to return this coming season!