Travelfood

Since summer is the most popular time for travel in Finland, I will write three special articles about travel hints to my home country Finland. To find the right time for your trip to Finland is essential. If you are interested in the Lappish or Sami ruska, the red and yellow leaves and bushes in autumn coloured by the night frosts, the best success probability is in September, just before snow covers the ground. If you want to experience the Lappish midnight sun before the mosquitos makes your life miserable, you need to travel there soon before Midsummer.

Some tourists use Finland only as a gateway to Tallinn and St Petersburg, but those who give a few days to Finland as well usually say afterwards that it was a good idea. Finland is the land of the thousand lakes and you cannot relax as totally anywhere else as you do in a sauna cabin by a summer lake with closest neighbours far away and nothing bothering your ears except forest sounds. If you want to experience the most beautiful lakeview of them all, you need to go to Koli close to the Russian border.

The sea is larger than the lake and it goes for Finland as well. Our archipelago offers maybe the most interesting and unique scenery for foreign tourists. From the Helsinki city center, by the Market Square, you may book an archipelago cruise for the outskirts of Helsinki and that is highly recommended. If you want to combine your cruise with a visit to a lighttower, you may choose the largest, furthest and most interesting lighttower, Bengtskär. If you have many days at your disposal for southern Finland, I would recommend a bicycle trip to the Ahvenanmaa/ Åland islands between Finland and Sweden, and you can do the trip hopping from island to island with ferries and cycling. Other recommendable day or half-day trips from Helsinki are to summer destinations such as coastal city Hanko (in Swedish Hangö), the foundry of Fiskars or to medieval town Porvoo (in Swedish Borgå).

If you want to ski in snowy scenery, the best season is January-February, because before that there is a risk of no-snow at least in southern Finland. If you want to experience the Finnish Christmas with Santa Claus and reindeers, you need to go to Lapland. Once there you need to be prepared for the darkness since at mid-winter there is no daylight and only light sources are from lamps and candles. In southern Finland we sometimes experience snowless Christmases and you need to be aware that there are non-existent services during Christmas time in Helsinki. Despite no-snow you will find sand on the sidewalks to prevent pedestrians from slipping on the iciness, and that sand is not removed until spring. This is one of the many reasons why Finns go crazy of joy when summer finally arrives!

Europe, Finland, travel, travel experiences