Ice Force Pro (Levi, Finland)

Four nights at Levi in Finnish Lapland, guided, ice driving in a Porsche 911 GT3, with the price quoted on application.

This is the step up from the entry-level programme, and the car explains why: a GT3 is rear-wheel drive, naturally aspirated and set up for a circuit, which on ice is a considerably more demanding proposition than the four-wheel-drive Turbo S.

Kittila airport opens it, with a shuttle to the Hotel Levi Panorama and a welcome dinner at Cloud11. Three driving days follow, each starting with breakfast and a briefing, then instructor-led training across several models and drivetrain layouts, which is the useful part: feeling the same exercise in a rear-driven car and then a four-wheel-drive one teaches more than either alone. The tracks here include narrow forest routes, which are closer to a rally stage than a circuit, and extra-long handling courses that allow a corner sequence to be strung together properly.

The 911 GT3 is provided for the driving sessions; the full inclusions were not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. The price is given on application. The programme runs in the depths of the northern winter. Some previous low-grip experience is assumed here rather than taught, and anyone coming to ice driving for the first time should look at the entry-level programme before this one. Five days with three on the ice is a course rather than a holiday, and the forest sections are the part that separates this level from the one below it: narrow, tree-lined and unforgiving of a wide line.