Finland - ideas beyond Helsinki, June?

[Astrabees]

DH and I are exploring Scandinavia and the Baltic bit by bit. Last year we started with Denmark. This year is Finland with a few days in Estonia to conclude. We will be travelling by train and ferry to Helsinki, think maybe 4 days there, then off to Turku for a couple of days. We would like to go somewhere scenic with good walking routes and lakes/water for the middle part. There seem to be so many national parks it is hard to choose somewhere. We could hire a car for this bit. Any ideas that would help us gladly received.

Go and see the real Finland, the land of lakes and forests. From Helsinki I would get a flight to somewhere like Kuusamo or maybe Rovaniemi. Internal flights are not expensive.

Hire a car when you get there and book a log cabin somewhere to stay. There are loads in that part of the country. It's an incredible part of the world with very few people.

If you go to Turku, then you must visit Naantali too. You could do island hopping in the archipelago, hire bikes and cycle around the individual islands. Driving on and off the connecting ferries is very easy and the scenery is stunning.

https://visitparainen.fi/archipelago-trail/

https://visitnaantali.com/en/front-page/

Out of interest, when in June are you going? Mid-summer (Juhannus) falls for June 20th this year, it’s the second biggest event after Xmas in Finland. A lot of places will be shut from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st.

Another suggestion to look at, this is an hour from Turku. https://harjureitti.fi/en/

We hired a car and did a tour round Porvoo, Savonlinna, up into Lake Saimaa to see the seals and rock paintings, across to Hameenlinna then Turku and Naantali.

One of our best ever holidays although for it was May so pre holiday season and importantly pre midge season.

Someone has suggested a flight up to Rovaniemi way. You can also take a sleeper train with VR for around 49 euro for the two of you with a private cabin. About 20 euro more would make it en suite. It goes to both Kolari, Kemijarvi and Rovaniemi.

I’ve always done Levi as we go in winter. That means I get the promo stuff for summer too from Levi .fi and it looks stunning without the snow. Lots of hiking and scenery. Kolari is the nearest train option

We are going at the start of June for just over 2 weeks. Thank you for all the suggestions, I will be getting out the map and putting together some provisional plans tomorrow. I did want to go in July but arrangements for our dogs were difficult then, so I have less time to plan than I'd hoped. If you have any other recommendations I'd love to hear as I don't know anyone at all who has been to Finland.

Right got home and have brought up Google Maps to remind me what we did.

First of all we rapidly realised there is a lot of Finland and a lot to see and do so you have to be pretty ruthless.

Our route roughly was Helsinki
Porvoo
Lappeenranta - nice lakeside resort
Savonlinna - sadly before opera season but is an amazing castle
Oravi - seal safari, yes we did see the ringed seals but June is not seal season
Mikkeli - DH wanted to go to a war museum so I humoured him and it was actually very good
Side trip to Astvansalmi for the rock paintings, I think there is a museum there now but not open when we went
Lahti - brief stop to break up the drive but seeing te ski jump centre is cool
Hameenlinna - another castle
Turku - castle, open air museum with the wooden house one of the best museums we ever been to, also nearby is a farm preserved from the 1950s
Naantali - warning, everyone else there has toddlers and is going to Moominland
Back to Helsinki

We were worried that the driving would be boring but Finland is just endlessly stunning so even time on the road was great.
Equally we worried about food - OK, elk pizza was not a highlight. However there is a big local foraging culture, almost all the food was outstanding and we missed having salmon for breakfast when we got home.
Language is not an issue as Google Translate images works wonders. You can't guess what the Finnish means.

If you do go to the rock paintings, you can walk to them but they are best seen by boat. The ferry will be running in June - however we went on a day trip with Asta from Uhkua Oy which was incredible, right down to the home made lunch of fish from Lake Saimaa

uhkua.fi/

You’ll get to experience the midnight sun in early June 😍

I hardly ever come across anyone who wants to travel to Turku. It’s always just Helsinki or Lapland. Turku is great, I was born there .

I hope the weather will be great and that you’ll have a great trip.

@AnnaMagnani Sounds like you had amazing trip there!

Thank-you @WendyFromTransvisionWamp we only went because I went to a work conference. I can't recommend Finland highly enough.

I should also mention that DH did a day trip to Talinn while I was at the conference and he thought that was brilliant too.

Even in May the sun was amazing. Didn't really matter what time we would walk home, it would still be light!

Just a quick update. We are going Eurostar/sleeper train and ferry to Helsinki. 3 days in Helsinki, 3 days in a little lake house at lake Saimaa, 4 days in Turku in an apartment by the river and then off to Tallinn for 2 days before we fly home. I’m really quite excited about this. Totally new place for us. Thanks for the help.

Wow, that sounds brilliant

@Astrabees For the 3 days in a little lake house at lake Saimaa make sure you have weapons-grade mosquito repellent. I can't stress enough how huge, aggressive and numerous they are. They could cause you real pain if a number of them bite you.

Will do, mosquitos seem to find me very attractive.

Great itinerary! Please come back to update afterwards 😀

This is a really nice restaurant in Turku, just behind the cathedral. https://rosterturku.com

Will do.