The Aurora Zone - Newcastle upon Tyne

Kerry G.

Really impressed with the service from Aurora Zone. They arranged everything for our break to Finland. A full package holiday including transfers, accommodation, flights, all meals, various activities during our stay, all scheduled so that we could arrange free time around them. Great communication, nothing was too much trouble. Would definitely used again as it taken away the stress of doing this myself. It was my hubbys birthday during our stay and they even arranged for a bottle of bubbly to be sent to our room, which was a lovely surprise and well appreciated. Thank you for arranging such a great experience. We’ve had the best time ever! Can’t wait for our next adventure.

Arlene D.

Glad i did not book a trip with them.

Got in touch with them, they took weeks to reply to my email. Then they told me they cant customize the packages.
After a week, they got back to me and said they would connect me to another agent who had more experience (Rachel).
At first she provided me a rough itinerary, to which i just shared with her a package (itinerary) i received from another agent.
After that happened, she flipped and kept saying she couldn't help me anymore even though i told her she misunderstood my sharing another itinerary with her (did it only for her to see the activities we were interested in) and she refused to help me any further saying they have their fixed vendors and places and cant provide what i am looking for. She kept forcing me to take the other package that was offered me by the other agent even though i kept asking her to share her package with me. Then she went on to say i already shared but we don't provide internal flights and we don't provide transfers etc.
Very unprofessional behavior given that she completely flipped just cause i shared another itinerary with her. I did not even ask her to match that itinerary or route or activities.
At least i dodged a bullet there.

Anne M.

The Aurora Zone arranged our recent holiday at Brandon Lodge in Swedish Lapland. Customer care was excellent from the outset: great local knowledge, took time over our specific arrangements, gave useful advice and inspired confidence that it would be wonderful. And it absolutely was - and then some. Travel, accommodation, activities, people all contributed to a phenomenal experience. The Aurora showed up too just to make it perfect.

Barry F.

We enjoyed the holiday in Lapland but there are 2 items you should be made aware of.

Firstly, when my wife and I arrived at Ivalo airport we expected to be met by a courier or someone to guide us to our transport to the Wilderness Hotel Inari.

In fact there was no one to meet us at all and we had no idea how we were supposed to get to the hotel. Fortunately after 20mins walking around the exit from the airport we saw a man holding a sign for one of the other Wilderness Hotels who rang to Wilderness Inari and they advised us to take a taxi to the hotel (at their cost ) which came to +/- EURO 100.

Secondly, the reindeer sleigh ride was clearly not part of the itinerary at the reindeer farm at Wilderness Inari and should not have been advertised as such.

Visiting the farm was interesting but the reindeer sleigh ride was what we were really looking forward to and so we’re rather disappointing to find it was not to included and clearly was not part of the farm’s program for visitors since they had no facilities for the sleigh rides.

The sleigh ride advertised as part of the visit to the farm is most definitely not in fact part of the visit at Inari. When we informed Aurorazone about this they told us it was cancelled “for safety and health reasons” without their knowledge.

The coach to take us to the farm was full with +/- 60 people. The farm would have needed a whole herd of reindeer to accommodate so many people. Very disappointed. In any case; are n’t the snowmobile and dog sleigh rides equally unsafe. Their excuse does n’t ring true.

We were offered no refund even though we paid for the rides.

After further discussions with Aurorazone we eventually received a full refund for that reindeer farm activity.

paul R.

We did a 4-day Inari Wilderness trip, featuring a hugely enjoyable and wide range of activities. Great stuff, loved it, aurora activity on the first two nights.

But, we were a bit disappointed by Aurora's customer service. On my first encounter (via phone) I enquired about doing a Helsinki stopover as part of the package. When asking the CS rep whether he would recommend the Finnish capital, the response was he'd never been there, so couldn't really say. So, a Nordics specialist, but unable to offer any insight into the third largest city in Scandinavia? Hmmmm. .

Our bigger issue was that a couple of weeks before departure, we discovered via a Finnish acquaintance that lockdown restrictions in the country meant that hotel/restaurant amenities were 'off limits' in the evenings. This was a surprise to us as we assumed (not unreasonably) that if there were these restrictions, Aurora would/might have notified us. I had a 'pointed' phone discussion with a member of the CS team after suggesting it was incumbent on them, courteous even, to keep clients briefed on this. The response was that (1) the lockdown restrictions are/were subject to change; and (2) the company didn't want to bombard clients with emails. So, on the one hand, a few weeks before departure Aurora saw fit to bombard clients with an email about winning a fifty quid John Lewis voucher, but complete radio silence about clients not being able to buy a drink after 5pm while holidaying. On this specific point we were rather patronised about the (fully understandable) no-alcohol ruling for using the snowmobiles, which kind of missed the point.

As it turned out, the day we arrived, against expectations (we'd assumed curfew conditions for the first two nights), the hotel resumed 'normal' operations.

Dave M.

A couple of friends and myself recently booked a tour and activities with Aurora Zone to Abisko in Sweden to see the Northern Lights. From my very first contact with the company I was impressed. Every staff member that I spoke to/emailed was above average in customer service. We were provided with a secure account page which was kept up to date with all the information for the trip. We stayed at the Abisko Mountain Lodge and the IceHotel in Jukkasjärvi and booked a number of activities. Every activity and transfer went like clockwork. I would highly recommend Aurora Zone as a very professional, efficient company with a personalised touch. Thank you Aurora Zone for a fantastic holiday.

Tim R.

I booked the Ultimate Arctic Aurora Holiday in February 2019 in Inari and Saariselka through Aurora Zone. Their administration was superb. They answered all my queries personally and swiftly so that I felt fully briefed before I went and they put together an excellent package of two resorts and activities. The Wilderness Hotel was particularly good.

Bj W.

Just got back from 4nights in Rovaniemi Finland, booked through Aurora Zone. The whole process was so simple and the team were so helpful with any questions we had. Would definitely recommend using them to anyone and we will certainly be using them again in the future.