by Emilie West

Created on: November 18, 2009

What makes a destination great for New Year's Eve? Great, to me, is something one-of-a-kind, something unique and fun. An unforgettable, unusually awesome celebration of the passing of the year. Going to a place that you normally wouldn't ever have thought of going. Pinning down a location on a map with your eyes closed. After all, the best moments are the spontaneous ones.

Giving myself as an example, I will spend New Year's Eve in a, for me, very uncommon place, where I happen to be due to complete coincidence. Me and my friends will head on over there a few days earlier and head back on January 1st, after said the big celebration. So the big question remains; where to? Finland, that's where.

The Scandinavian country in the north of Europe is well-known for its very cold climate. The winters in southern Finland have a consistent temperature below 0 degrees Celsius and snow covers the land for over 4 months without melting. That's what I call a real stereo-typical winter-winter. Some people might be scared off by the prospect of possibly having their fingers frozen off, but I see that entirely different.

Something the Scandinavians invented and regularly have in their houses is the sauna. Not only are these hot-houses very relaxing, going out into the cold afterwards is very good for your health. After getting completely relaxed and easy, there's many other things to do in Finland, like skiing or boarding, whichever you prefer.

Finland, being situated so far north, has very short days and very long nights. The farther north you go, the longer nights you get, and at a certain point there's the polar night. Even farther north, Aurora Borealis, the atmospheric fluorescence, is regularly seen, which is amazing, but not recommended for a New Year's Eve celebration, because that's so far north, the only living things you will run into are reindeer. So stay south, because that's where it all happens.

Every place has its own culture and its own ways of celebrating, so the evening will have an entirely fresh and original feel to it. Whether you spend it with your friends in the snow and the sauna (and in my case there's also a pool and a jacuzzi involved) or in the exiting and very cultural city of Helsinki, one thing I have learned from my Finnish friends is that the Finns know how to party.

They gather in great groups of friends (possibly to huddle up and keep themselves warm because it's really cold out at night) and celebrate like there's no tomorrow, which there almost isn't, looking at how long the 'Eve' actually lasts.

So, rather than spending your regular-sized night at some big city where millions of people are making it impossible for you to navigate, communicate and enjoy yourself, head out to the most unique place you can find with the people you love the most and spend your endless evening 'in style', meaning an unforgettable party where every experience is, to you, a new one.

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