Hotel Levi Panorama: A Complete Review By Flashpacking Family
We recently organised a DIY Lapland holiday with the kids and for part of our trip we stayed in the Hotel Levi Panorama in Levi, Lapland.
We booked and paid for the Hotel Levi Panorama ourselves and wanted to give you a through review of the hotel to help you make an informed decision as to whether it could be the right Lapland hotel for you.
If you are skiing in Levi with kids, we would highly recommend this hotel. You can read our guide to Levi Ski Resort with kids here.
We also stayed at the Northern Lights Village in Levi if you are considering a glass igloo stay.
Before you go – make sure you check out our essential packing list for Lapland and avoid the packing mistakes we made as well as our guide to the top things to do in Levi with kids!!
This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and book something, we may earn a small commission but this is at no extra cost to you.
It may not look much from the outside, but there’s so much to love about the Levi Panorama hotel!
How to book Levi Panorama Hotel
If you are booking Levi Panorama Hotel as part of a DIY Lapland holiday, here is where you can book:
Lapland activities
Before we go into our review of the hotel, we wanted to let you know that GetYourGuide has a huge selection of winter activities in Levi.
Most, if not all, have free cancellation policy up to 24 hours in advance of the activity. Here are some of the most popular ones.
3.5 hour Northern Lights hunting in a heated sledge (meet at Zero Point).
1 hour snowmobile excursion (includes hotel pick up and drop off).
2 – 2.5 hour private husky sledding (meet at Zero Point).
3 hour Snowmobile with ice fishing (hotel pick up included).
3 hour family reindeer tour with reindeer ride (pick up at hotel included – also include mini snowmobiles for kids and a 2km husky ride).
Where is the Hotel Levi Panorama?
The hotel sits high up above the town of Levi at the top of the Express Gondola on Levi Summit. The hotel address is:
Tunturitie 205
99130 Levi
Finland
It is a 4 star hotel with 170 rooms (if you include the chalets), 2 restaurants, a bar and saunas.
How do you get to the Panorama Hotel in Levi?
From the airport
Bus
The bus departs from Kittila Airport after each scheduled flight. You can find out more about the airport bus service here. The bus costs EUR 8 per adult and EUR 4.20 per child (ONE WAY).
Taxi
You can pre-book taxis by calling one of the main taxi companies.
TaxiLevi: +358 200 99200
Levi Kittilän : +358 200 99800
We didn’t pre-book and just took one of the taxis waiting outside in the taxi queue. It cost EUR 45 for 4 of us with luggage.
From Levi centre
By Express Gondola
The Express Gondola departs from Zero Point in Levi and takes you right up to the hotel in around 5 minutes. The gondola runs from 9.30 am to 9pm. Outside of these times there is a shuttle bus that you can take if you don’t want to walk.
If you are staying at the hotel, you will receive gondola tickets to use during your stay. Between 6 – 9pm, the gondola is free to use. If you aren’t staying at the hotel, the gondola will cost EUR 8 per adult and EUR 4 per child (6 – 11 yrs) and under 6 – FREE for a return trip.
There are three cabins per ride with about 24 person capacity so you shouldn’t ever have to wait too long to get up or down the mountain.
By Foot
Despite having gondola tickets (and ski passes), we opted to walk up the 766 steps from Levi centre to the hotel a couple of times. The steps are located just behind Levi Spa Hotel.
We walked once at night after a meal because the gondola was no longer running after 9pm. We also walked up on our last morning after we checked out. We need to drop our skis and our ski pass had run out.
The hotel offered to give us another pass to do this but we wanted to take in the view that you cannot see at night. It was beautiful.
Just one word of warning. The steps can get very slippery and you really need suitable footwear to walk up. We had our own snow boots with us. The kids had these Sorel boots which we found on Amazon at a hugely reduced price to the Sorel website. They were utterly amazing!
By taxi
You can take a taxi from the centre of town to the hotel which will take around 5 – 7 minutes and cost between EUR 20 – 25.
Why choose the Hotel Levi Panorama?
The main reason we chose to stay at the Levi Panorama is because it is a ski in / ski out hotel with ski storage. When we took our first family ski holiday to Zakopane in Poland, we didn’t have this and transporting our skis about was a hassle!
There was a little blue run right with a button lift right outside the hotel which was perfect for getting a few practice runs in at the start of the holiday.
One of the things we loved about our room was that it overlooked the ski slopes and the town of Levi. Check when you book whether your room has a view because not all of them will.
Our room also had a sauna which was just perfect after a day of skiing. We also had a drying machine which was invaluable when visiting Lapland with kids.
We also loved that there were always sledges next to the hotel that were free to use. We would use them on the slopes by the hotel or take them down into town on the gondola.
If you have heard of the Secret Café then you will be pleased to know that the hotel is just a short 10 minute walk from the café.
Rooms at the Hotel Levi Panorama
There is a great choice of rooms at the hotel. They are comfortable and warm. Standard facilities include tea and coffee making, a mini bar and extra blankets and pillows.
Standard Room – rooms have 2 large single beds and a sofa bed to accommodate up to 4 people.
Superior Room – rooms have 2 large single beds, a sofa bed and a balcony and can be connected to other rooms for large families.
Junior Suite – rooms have 2 large single beds, a sofa bed and a living room. Some have a balcony and sauna.
Standard Suite – rooms have a bedroom with 2 large single beds and a separate living room with a sofa bed.
Deluxe Suite – rooms have two twin bedrooms, a living room with a sofa bed, two bathrooms and some have a sauna.
Sky Suite – rooms (there are only 2) have 2 large single beds and a sofa and a bathroom with a bath tub. It can be connected with a standard room for larger families.
Sky Suite Deluxe – room (there is only 1) has a separate bedroom and living room with sofa bed, a sauna and two bathrooms. It can be connected with a standard room for larger families.
Deluxe Suite at the Panorama Hotel in Levi
Hotel Levi Panorama Sky Suite
If you are looking for an igloo experience but don’t want to leave the centre of Levi, the Hotel Panorama Levi Sky Suite could be for you.
We didn’t stay in the Sky Suite because we had other igloo plans at the spectacular Northern Lights Village. They look really lovely from the photos and can be a great option if you aren’t going to separately book an igloo.
They should also be a slightly cheaper option to booking an igloo and will give you more space an a traditional igloo.
Panorama Chalets
If you want a self catering option, you should check out the Hotel Levi Panorama & Levi Chalets. They are located right next door to the hotel and have access to the hotel facilities, including ski storage.
Food at the Hotel Levi Panorama
I have left this until last because I was really quite uninspired by the food at the hotel. We had only booked to stay on a Bed & Breakfast basis, so we didn’t feel obliged to eat at the hotel for the whole time and this was a good choice in our eyes.
The breakfast buffet was OK. It was the same every day and there was enough choice even for our sometimes fussy kids.
We tried the a la carte restaurant on our first night because our flight had been delayed and we didn’t want to go into town at 10pm. We found the food was ok but again, not very inspiring.
You might want to check out our post on child-friendly restaurants in Levi for inspiration on where to take the kids.
Entertainment at the Hotel Panorama Levi
If you are booking with the hotel direct or through a booking website like Booking.com, then there won’t be any kids’ entertainment as such.
If you are booking a package holiday with TUI, they have a gala dinner at the end of the holiday which is held in the main dining room and is very loud.
There are games and elves galore leaping around. Our kids were happy to watch the goings on whilst we sat and enjoyed a drink in the slightly quieter bar.
Be warned, it can get quite loud. You can also watch the fireworks that are set off outside the main entrance if you aren’t part of a package holiday.
Final thoughts on the Hotel Levi Panorama Lapland
Personally, having the ski in / ski out option in Levi was priceless. It made our ski trip so much easier. We loved the location for that reason, but we also liked the feeling of being out of town.
It was easy enough to get into town for dinner when we wanted to so it wasn’t an issue. The hotel is a little more expensive than some of the other options but still cheaper than some of the other hotels.
The hotel staff were friendly and always helpful. They made a dinner reservation for us in one of the restaurants in town one night when we couldn’t get through ourselves. They also ordered taxis for us.
One niggle would be the cuddly Fox in the room. The kids spotted him straight away and thought he was included in the room. We didn’t realise straight away that he cost EUR 15.00 as the tag was hidden at the bottom of the bag he comes in. At this point, it was hard to explain to the kids that we couldn’t keep him. We thought it was a bit sneaky!
Overall – would we stay at the Hotel Levi Panorama again? Yes – absolutely!
