This is a great place to stay in Ruka. The location can't be beaten - right in the middle of Ruka Village and literally a few yards from the Gondola and ski hire shops. We've stayed here twice now and picked the superior rooms to get access to the balcony, as the views on to the skiing area are spectacular. The rooms are comfortable and large, with a sizeable modern bathroom, a drying cabinet for ski gear, and ample desk and wardrobe space. The "double" rooms are actually twins with two smaller beds pushed together. The rooms are well-heated, even when it's well below zero outside, and we made use of the screened vents and the balcony door to moderate the temperature. There's a TV, good quality Wifi and a Chromecast in the room, along with the usual things like a kettle and tea and coffee. Although we didn't use them, there are Sauna facilities. There's a nightclub downstairs, which meant some late-night noise at kicking-out time , but it wasn't intrusive. The food was a Curate's egg - breakfast is wonderful, a great mix of Finnish and international breakfast food, served in a separate area at the back of the hotel. There's a great restaurant and bar at the front of the hotel that serves amazing local dishes. We usually book the half-board option, and in 2022 in the wake of the pandemic, we got a subset of the terrific food on the restaurant menu - reindeer and salmon soup, cloudberry desserts, reindeer and fish main dishes. We were so looking forward to this again when we returned in 2023, but this time there was a separate area at the back reserved for half-board with a hot-and-cold buffet laid out. The selection of half-board dishes was plain, missing out the local dishes, a little reminiscent of school dinners, and obviously cooked to a budget. It's obvious that the hotel is not getting paid a lot for it, so has to economise, but I wanted to go into the kitchen, roll up my sleeves and show them how to make a proper apple crumble after trying the tray of cooked apple pie filling covered with crunchy oatmeal cereal. We gave up after a couple of days of it and tried some of the local restaurants instead. It would be nice if there was an upgrade option that you could pay at the hotel to get a subset of the local dishes, rather than a choice between the buffet and paying full-price at the restaurant. The staff are great - courteous and really helpful. They can't do enough for you. The rooms are kept spotless and clean, as are the interior areas, and we had a couple of nice chats with the cleaning staff. We were allocated a ski locker behind reception. which is very handy for the start and end of the day. The location cannot be beaten. Ruka is split between the Village and the Valley, with the majority of shops, eating and entertainment in the Village. The Scandic is right in the middle of everything and a few steps away from the ski bus, gondola, ski facilities, outdoor excursions, shops, cafes, bars, supermarket and several
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