Request Proposal

CONNECT · Team retreat & team offsite · Ivalo, Finnish Lapland

Company Offsite
in Lapland.

A team building retreat for departments, sales teams and remote teams that rarely meet in person. Three nights at Hotel Kuura in Finnish Lapland, with a Team Challenge, a wilderness day at Rahajärvi and meeting space for the kick-off or the quarterly plan.

From €1,390 pp · 3 nights / 4 days
8–24 people · price falls as the group grows
Meals, meeting space & transfers included
Hotel Kuura · 15 min from Ivalo airport

Hotel Kuura, the Rahajärvi camp, the guides and the transfers are all ours, run by our own team in Ivalo since 2014. One supplier, one invoice, and the core programme run by our own people.

Get a scoped proposal

Tell us about the team and roughly how many. Stefan replies within 24 hours.

Prefer to talk first? Ask for a 20-minute call →

No commitment. We do not share your details.

What it is

A three-night company offsite for 8 to 24 people.

CONNECT runs at Hotel Kuura, our own 15-room hotel in Finnish Lapland, 15 minutes from Ivalo airport. Prices start at €1,390 per person and cover the rooms, every meal, meeting space for your group, all transfers and the whole programme. Teams book it as a team retreat, a team building trip or the annual sales kick-off. The four days are built around a Team Challenge, a wilderness day at the Rahajärvi camp, and evenings at the Kuura sauna and fire. Your agenda runs inside them, in meeting space set up for your group, so the kick-off or the planning session happens on the trip. What we do not run is classroom training: a facilitator, a DISC workshop or leadership coaching can be added, but nothing is built on them.

Booked for

  • Company offsites
  • Team offsites
  • Team building retreats
  • Team retreats
  • Sales kick-offs
  • Annual kick-offs
  • Department retreats
  • Work retreats
A husky team running a snowy forest trail into low golden sun, seen from the sled
Three colleagues laughing around a campfire in a snowy forest, snowmobiles parked behind
Group size
8–24 (sweet spot 16–19)
Standard length
3 nights / 4 days (shorter or longer on request)

Dates, length and group size are confirmed in your proposal. Groups above 24 are quoted separately.

Team building

What four days together change.

  • The team building is a Team Challenge outdoors, on snow in winter, not an exercise in a meeting room.
  • A wilderness day at Rahajärvi where the whole group is a beginner at once.
  • In a Finnish sauna nobody has a job title.
  • Every meal together for four days, so the people who never talk at work end up talking.
  • Nobody on your side runs anything, including the person who booked it.
  • The kick-off or the planning session comes home done, not postponed.
15
rooms at Hotel Kuura

ours, not a room block

15 min
from Ivalo airport

private transfer included

2014
hosting from Ivalo since

own hotel, own camp, own guides

24 h
to a reply from Stefan

he reads every brief himself

4
seasons, all year

Winter, Spring, Midnight Sun, Ruska

Sample agenda

What the four days look like.

The standard programme is three nights and four days, and it runs the same shape whether the group is eight or twenty-four. Day two is the working day, so a sales kick-off meeting or a department planning session sits inside the plan instead of being squeezed into the week before. Days one and three are the shared part. What follows is the Signature version at €1,890 per person; the note under each day says what Essential leaves out at €1,390.

01

Day 1 · Arrive, settle, eat together

Arrival

Private transfer from Ivalo Check in at Kuura Welcome dinner Evening by the fire

Essential keeps the arrival simple: no Welcome Home reception and no Fireside Stories.

Flights land at Ivalo and a private transfer brings the group to Kuura in about fifteen minutes, so nobody spends the first afternoon on a coach. Three nights works either as a midweek company offsite or as a Thursday-to-Sunday team building weekend. The first evening is dinner at one table with nothing scheduled after it, which is deliberate: people who have only ever met on video get an hour or two before anything is asked of them.

Nothing on day one is compulsory except dinner.

02

Day 2 · Your session, then the Team Challenge

Work and play

Breakfast Your meeting session Open-fire lunch Team Challenge outdoors Free time Sauna Dinner

Essential runs a Team Challenge and the Kuura sauna. Signature upgrades both and makes dinner the Signature dinner.

The morning is yours, in the meeting space at Kuura with refreshments included. This is where the sales kick-off meeting, the annual kick-off or the quarterly results session happens, on the trip rather than before it. The Team Challenge runs outdoors after lunch, in the snow in winter and on the water or the fells in summer. The rest of the afternoon is free, and the sauna is hot before dinner.

The business is done by lunch and the rest of the day is not about work.

03

Day 3 · A full day at Rahajärvi

Wilderness

Breakfast Rahajärvi wilderness camp Bushcraft Open-fire lunch Tent sauna A cold dip Dinner at Kuura

Winter runs ice fishing and ice swimming; other seasons run a lakeside cold-water experience and a seasonal nature programme. Signature adds the Private Aurora Camp in the evening. Essential has no aurora programme.

The whole day is at our own wilderness camp at Rahajärvi. Ice fishing or a seasonal nature experience, bushcraft, lunch cooked over an open fire, a tent sauna, and a cold dip for anyone who wants it. This is the team building day, and it works because almost nobody in the group has done any of it before: the newest hire and the managing director are equally bad at bushcraft. It is also the day people describe when they get home.

Nobody is made to get in the water, and plenty do anyway.

04

Day 4 · Close it off and fly home

Departure

Breakfast Check out Closing session Private transfer to Ivalo

Signature includes the team photography from the trip.

The last morning has room for a short closing session, if you want one. It is the difference between a work retreat and a nice holiday with colleagues. Then breakfast is cleared, bags go in the van, and a private transfer runs back to Ivalo in fifteen minutes, so late-morning and afternoon flights both work without a dawn start.

Time to write down what was agreed, if you want it.

What's included

What the price covers.

Everything below is in the price of a CONNECT company offsite. Items marked Signature come with the €1,890 level rather than the €1,390 entry price.

Stay and eat

  • Hotel Kuura, three nights
  • Full board: breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • Individual beds (private rooms at Prestige)
  • Kuura sauna
  • Nordic Sauna Ritual (Signature)
  • Signature dinner (Signature)

Team building

  • A Team Challenge outdoors
  • A full day at the Rahajärvi wilderness camp
  • Bushcraft, ice fishing or a seasonal nature experience, and an open-fire lunch
  • Tent sauna, and ice swimming in winter (confirmed in your proposal)
  • Private Arctic Team Challenge (Signature)
  • Private Aurora Camp (Signature)

Your business day

  • A private meeting and gathering space at Kuura
  • Refreshments through the day
  • Room for a sales kick-off, a planning session or the quarterly results
  • A closing session on the last morning

Hosting and transfers

  • Private airport transfers both ways
  • All transfers inside the programme
  • A journey coordinator on the ground
  • A dedicated Experience Host (Signature)
  • Welcome Home reception and Fireside Stories (Signature)
  • Team photography (Signature)

Not included: flights to Ivalo, alcohol beyond an agreed drinks package, and personal travel insurance. Private rooms and exclusive use of Hotel Kuura are Prestige only.

When to go

A company offsite in any season. Here is what changes.

A group walking together up a snow-covered fell in low winter sun Winter

November–April

Deep snow and dark skies

  • Team Challenge on snow
  • Ice fishing and ice swimming
  • Tent sauna at Rahajärvi
  • Private Aurora Camp (Signature)

Snow · short days · strongest aurora season

A group walking out along a jetty into a steaming ice hole in spring sunshine Spring

April–May

Snow with the light back

  • Team Challenge on spring snow
  • A full day at Rahajärvi in bright light
  • Forest walk and open-fire lunch
  • Sauna and a cold-water plunge

Snow still down · long bright days

Two canoes paddling across a lake into the midnight sun Midnight Sun

June–August

Days that barely end

  • Canoes on the lake
  • E-bikes and fell hiking
  • Outdoor cooking at Rahajärvi
  • A campfire at midnight, in daylight

Twenty-four-hour light from late May to late July

A group sitting around an open fire inside a timber lavvu, one person working at a whiteboard, autumn birch through the open door Ruska

Late August–October

The forest turns red

  • Hiking through the autumn colour
  • Foraging and wild food at Rahajärvi
  • Open-fire dinner
  • Aurora returns from late August (Signature)

Autumn colour · aurora back after dark

Prices

Three levels. What each one costs.

Prices are per person for a three-night company offsite and fall as the group grows. Groups of 25 and above are quoted individually. Prestige, with a private room for everyone and Hotel Kuura to yourselves, is priced for groups of up to 14; larger groups are quoted. Flights to Ivalo are not included.

Why us

We own the hotel, the camp and the guides.

Most of the companies you will compare us with are agencies. They find a hotel, book activity suppliers and coordinate between them, which is real work and is not the same as running it. Hotel Kuura is ours. The wilderness camp at Rahajärvi is ours. The guides, the hosts and the drivers are our own staff, working out of Ivalo since 2014. You sign one contract and get one invoice. It also means that when the weather turns, and in Lapland it does, we rebuild the day ourselves rather than ringing three suppliers to ask what is still possible.

In practice

  • The hotel is ours Fifteen rooms at Kuura, fifteen minutes from Ivalo airport, not a room block in somebody else's property.
  • The wilderness camp is ours A full day at Rahajärvi is our own site and our own staff, not a supplier booking with a fixed slot.
  • The people are ours Guides, hosts and drivers are employed by us and live here, so the same team runs your four days from arrival to departure.
  • One contract One supplier, one invoice, one person who answers the phone when something changes.
  • Weather is our problem Every outdoor moment has a sheltered alternative, and we rebuild the running order ourselves when conditions ask for it.
  • Your agenda is not an add-on Meeting space and refreshments are in the price, so the kick-off or the planning session never becomes a separate booking.

Options

What you can add to the four days.

Facilitation and workshops

  • Professional team facilitator
  • DISC or personality workshop
  • Communication workshop
  • Leadership coaching
  • LEGO® Serious Play®, through a partner

Arctic experiences

  • Huskies (winter)
  • Snowmobiles (winter)
  • Electric snow scooters (winter)
  • Ice floating (winter)
  • Reindeer experience (winter)
  • Fatbiking, most of the year

Food and evenings

  • Chef's tasting dinner
  • Cocktail evening
  • Wine tasting
  • Local brewery tasting
  • Live music
  • Beverage package (included at Prestige)

Add-ons are priced in your proposal rather than per head on a list, because most depend on group size and season. Anything here can go on top of any level of a CONNECT company offsite, and a few are already in the Prestige price.

FAQ

Before you send the brief

How far in advance should we book a company offsite?
Winter dates at Hotel Kuura are the most sought after and go first, so the earlier you write, the more choice you have. Spring, Midnight Sun and Ruska have more room. If your dates are closer than you would like, send them anyway and we will tell you what is still possible.
What is included in the price of a team retreat?
Three nights at Hotel Kuura, every meal, meeting space and refreshments, the Team Challenge and the Rahajärvi day, and all airport and programme transfers. Essential includes a journey coordinator; Signature upgrades that to a dedicated Experience Host. Flights to Ivalo, alcohol beyond an agreed package and travel insurance are separate.
What group sizes do you host?
CONNECT is built for 8 to 24 people, with 16 to 19 the sweet spot for price and for the way the days run. Exclusive use of Hotel Kuura comes with the Prestige level. We do host larger groups, up to a hundred and more, but at other properties rather than Kuura.
Can we do a team building trip outside winter?
Yes. CONNECT runs in four seasonal editions: Winter from November to April, Spring in April and May, Midnight Sun from June to August, and Ruska from late August to October. The Team Challenge and the Rahajärvi day run in every one of them; only the weather and the daylight change.
What happens if the weather changes?
Every outdoor moment has a sheltered alternative. We watch the forecast continuously and rebuild the running order ourselves when conditions ask for it, which we can do because the hotel, the wilderness camp and the guides are all ours. The purpose of the day stays the same whichever version you get.
How do we get to Ivalo?
Ivalo is the closest airport to Hotel Kuura and connects through Helsinki, a short domestic flight north. A private transfer meets the flight and takes fifteen minutes. If your group lands at Rovaniemi or Levi instead, we quote a private transfer or an experience bus with stops on the way.
Is this team building?
Yes. CONNECT is a team building retreat, and the team building is a Team Challenge outdoors, a full day at the Rahajärvi wilderness camp and a sauna where nobody has a job title. It runs over three nights rather than an afternoon, which is the difference that matters.
How much does a company offsite like this cost?
From €1,390 per person for three nights at the Essential level, €1,890 at Signature, for sixteen to twenty-four guests, and €2,890 at Prestige for eleven to fourteen. Smaller groups pay more per head: Essential is €1,590 at eight to ten. Meals, meeting space and all transfers are in the price. Flights to Ivalo are not.
Can we run our sales kick-off or planning session there?
Yes. Meeting space and refreshments are included at every level, so the session is part of the price rather than an extra line. Day two keeps the morning free for it, and it takes a sales kick-off, the annual kick-off, quarterly results or a department planning session.

Get a proposal

Three lines is enough to start.

Dates or a rough month, how many people, and what the trip is for. That is enough for Stefan to come back with a price and a shape for the four days. Anything else you want to tell us is welcome, not required.

Stefan replies within 24 hours. No commitment, and we do not share your details.

Stefan Carrizo, Key Account Manager at Xwander Nordic

Who reads your brief

Stefan Carrizo

Key Account Manager

English / Español / Suomi