Has anyone been to Finland on holiday? Need tips

[raininjune]

I have flights booked to Helsinki in early Aug for 10 days. I want to do a couple of days in Helsinki and either do the lakes or the archipelago (we'd take the train to Turku and ferries from there). I keep having a look at where to go and there is so much choice it's really confusing me. I have a 16 year old, he's very into hiking and photography and DH is the same, I am quite happy to have a relax while they're doing that ;) Happy to hire a car in Turku.

Anyone have any suggestions?

TY

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Book a mökki (summer cottage) by a lake and enjoy sauna and dips in the lake. We rented one near Tampere because we were visiting family but it also meant that if the weather was grotty we could go into the city and visit museums etc. it does usually mean you need to hire a car though.

Thank you.

We've been to Finland in summer and winter but both times in Lapland. That's another flight on normally. We went to Arola Bears in the summer for brown bear watching but season stops in August. And Ruka for summer toboggan and reindeer. Did some white water rafting. We went to Oulu and Kuusamo as well.

You coukd take the ferry to Talinn from Helsinki. It takes about 2.5 hours and Talinn is a fascinating city to spend 1 or 2 days in

If you do the lakes, you need the strongest mosquito repellent you can buy. They are huge, numerous and super aggressive!

@redboxer321 yes I have heard about the mosquitos! I'll have my 100% DEET at the ready ;)

Weirdly I've never been bothered much by mozzies in Finland and I'm normally a mozzie magnet. Amalfi coast, on the other hand, was so bad I looked like I had a bad case of chickenpox.