Finland holidays
Saunas, thousands of lakes, the northern lights in Lapland and world-class design and food. Welcome to the world's happiest country.
Finland: a travel guide to the world's happiest country
No other country has been named the world's happiest as many years in a row as Finland. That happiness is not about noise and pace, but about three million saunas and forests that cover three quarters of the country. The Finns even have their own word for quiet perseverance: sisu.
The country is also surprisingly varied. In the south lies Helsinki, with its design district and a sea fortress offshore. Off the southwest coast begins an archipelago of around 20,000 islands, and in the east Europe's largest lake district awaits. At the top of the map is Lapland, with the northern lights, huskies and Santa Claus himself. From Helsinki, the night train takes you north while you sleep.
Visit Finland
The best places to visit in Finland
A journey through Finland naturally runs from south to north, from the capital's saunas to the fells above the Arctic Circle. Start where most people land.
Helsinki: the capital on the Baltic
The capital sits on a peninsula in the Baltic, surrounded by around 300 islands, with the sea never far away. The Suomenlinna sea fortress is fifteen minutes away by ferry, the Temppeliaukio Church is carved into the rock, and the saunas have steps straight down into the sea. Read everything in our guide to Helsinki, including the best museums and saunas.
A boat trip from central Helsinki
The ferry to Suomenlinna takes fifteen minutes from the South Harbour and gives you a great view of the Helsinki skyline.
Porvoo: the old town with red riverside warehouses
An hour by bus east of Helsinki lies Finland's second-oldest town. Its rust-red riverside storehouses were built for merchants, and today they are the town's most photographed sight. Behind them, cobbled streets climb towards the medieval cathedral, through narrow lanes full of small shops, workshops and cafés. In summer you can also arrive by boat from the capital.
The storehouses on the Porvoo river
From the riverside you get the classic Porvoo view, with the storehouses and the cathedral above.
Turku: Finland's oldest city and gateway to the archipelago
At the other end of the south coast, along the River Aura, lies the city that was Finland's capital until 1812. The medieval castle and cathedral tell of 800 years of history, while the riverbank today is full of restaurant boats and student life. From here, the Archipelago Sea stretches west with thousands of islands that you can cycle between on the 250-kilometre Archipelago Trail, linked by bridges and free ferries.
Turku Castle in autumn
Turku Castle is one of Finland's most visited museums, with Renaissance halls, chapels and a courtyard dating back to the 13th century.
Savonlinna and Lake Saimaa: a medieval castle and 188,000 lakes
From the archipelago in the west, the journey turns east to Europe's largest lake district, where there is more water than land. Saimaa is Finland's largest lake, the fourth largest in Europe, and a maze of more than 13,000 islands. It is also home to the Saimaa ringed seal, one of the world's rarest seals and one of the few that live in fresh water. In the middle lies Savonlinna, with Olavinlinna Castle from 1475, one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the Nordic region. Every July its courtyard fills with the opera festival.
Finnish Lakeland: the heart of Finland
From Saimaa to Kuusamo the lake district stretches across half the country, and you are rarely more than a stone's throw from the nearest lake, cabin or sauna.
Rovaniemi and Lapland: Santa Claus and the wilderness
In the far north, Finland changes character. Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland and has called itself the official hometown of Santa Claus since 1985, with the Arktikum museum explaining life in the north. The city is the starting point for husky safaris, reindeer rides, snowmobiling and nights in glass igloos under the stars. Further into the wilderness are the ski resorts of Levi and Saariselkä and the fells around Kilpisjärvi.
Things to do in Finland
Lapland is also the right place to start when it comes to experiences, and no season shows it off better than winter.
Winter in Finland
Snow lies from November to April in Lapland, and from December to March in the rest of the country.
A magical Christmas in Lapland: Santa Claus Village and a snow hotel
Eight kilometres northeast of Rovaniemi lies Santa Claus Village, open all year and free to visit. Here you can meet Santa in his office every day and send postcards with his own postmark from the main post office. Come in December, when snow lies heavy over the cabins and reindeer sleighs glide between the spruce trees, and you will understand why families travel here from all over the world.
Santa Claus and his reindeer in Lapland
The reindeer around Rovaniemi are owned by Sámi and Finnish herders, and they pull sleighs for visitors all winter.
Half an hour's drive away, the Arctic SnowHotel is rebuilt from snow and ice every winter, complete with an ice bar, ice restaurant and ice chapel. You sleep in a warm sleeping bag on a bed of ice and can warm up afterwards in a sauna made of snow, followed by an outdoor hot tub under the northern lights. The hotel stands from mid-December to the end of March, and in Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia they even build a whole castle of snow.
Northern lights and midnight sun in Finland
In the northernmost part of Lapland, the northern lights can appear on around 200 nights a year, and the season runs from late August to early April. Conditions are similar to Tromsø, with one advantage: the inland climate often brings clearer skies than the coast. In summer everything turns around, and north of the Arctic Circle the sun doesn't set for weeks, so a hike can just as easily start at 11pm as at 9am.
Saunas in Finland: heat, ice swimming and everyday happiness
After an evening out in the winter night, or a hike under the midnight sun, the Finnish day ends in the same place. With more than three million saunas for 5.6 million people, sauna is not an activity in Finland, it is a way of life, and Finnish sauna culture is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. The real thing is found in the countryside: a wood-fired sauna by a lake, birch whisks and a jump into the water between rounds. In winter, swap the lake for a hole in the ice.
Cabin life, hiking and national parks
The wood-fired sauna usually comes with a lakeside cabin, and with around half a million holiday homes, the cabin is the symbol of the Finnish summer. Everyman's rights let you pick blueberries, cloudberries and chanterelles freely in the forests. Of Finland's more than 40 national parks, Nuuksio is the most accessible, less than an hour from Helsinki, while Koli in the east and Pallas-Yllästunturi in Lapland offer some of the country's most beautiful hikes.
Skogstur
With forest covering three quarters of the country, hiking is one of the most accessible Finnish experiences. Marked trails through the national parks lead through pine, birch and berry-filled bogs.
Moominworld: the world of Tove Jansson
If you are travelling with children, or want to wake up the child in yourself, the Finnish summer has one more treat. Moominworld is on the island of Kailo off Naantali, just over an hour west of Turku. It is not an amusement park with rides but a storybook park to explore on foot: walk through all five floors of the blue Moominhouse, visit Snufkin's camp and meet the Moomin family in costume.
An open-air theatre puts on daily shows, and a barefoot trail winds through the forest. The park is open from June to late August, and Café Pappa's Hat serves waffles shaped like Moomintrolls with jam and cream.
Finnish food
Finnish food is shaped by the forests and lakes, built on rye, fish, game and berries. The best-known snack is karjalanpiirakka, the Karelian pasty with a rye crust and rice porridge filling, eaten with egg butter. Rye bread is served with every meal, and a fishing trip often ends with muikku, small vendace fried crisp in butter. Lohikeitto, a creamy salmon soup, is found everywhere from market halls to mountain lodges, and leipäjuusto, a baked cheese served with cloudberry jam, is a classic dessert. In Helsinki and Turku, New Nordic restaurants have taken the same ingredients to a level that draws food lovers from all over Europe.
Market halls and the Baltic herring market
To taste Finnish food in one place, visit one of the country's market halls, or kauppahalli, found in the centre of cities such as Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Kuopio, with smoked fish, cheese, berries and pastries under one roof. Every autumn, the Baltic Herring Market takes over Helsinki's Market Square in early October, as fishermen arrive from the archipelago with boats full of herring, a tradition dating back to 1743.
Tampere market hall
Tampere's market hall has been in business for more than a hundred years.
Coffee culture: the world's biggest coffee drinkers
No nation drinks more coffee per person than the Finns, with around four cups a day and a word for the coffee break: kahvitauko. The standard cup is lightly roasted filter coffee, served with korvapuusti, a cinnamon and cardamom bun. Specialty cafés and micro-roasters are found all over Finland, and in Lapland coffee is still brewed over the campfire in sooty copper kettles.
Travel tips for Finland
A little planning determines what kind of trip Finland becomes, because the seasons are two completely different journeys.
Best time to visit Finland
Winter, from December to March, is high season in Lapland, with reliable snow, the northern lights and Christmas magic in Rovaniemi. Summer, from June to August, belongs to the lakes, the archipelago and cabin life, with light nights all the way south to Helsinki. September colours Lapland yellow and red for a few short weeks, with fewer visitors than winter or summer.
Getting to and around Finland
Finnair flies directly from London to Helsinki in around three hours, and to Lapland in winter. A more relaxed option is the overnight ferry from Stockholm through the archipelago, a classic journey between Sweden and Finland. Within the country, the train is best: the Santa Claus Express night train runs from Helsinki to Rovaniemi in around twelve hours. To explore the lakes or the archipelago, a rental car is the most flexible option.
By train through Finland
The train is the easiest way through the Finnish landscape, with frequent services in the south and a night train to Lapland.
Prices and currency in Finland
Finland uses the euro, and prices are similar to the rest of the Nordic region. Cabin rental and activities in Lapland push the budget up in winter, but nature is free: the national parks cost nothing to visit and the berry forests are open to all. The only thing you have to decide is whether to meet Finland in the snow or under the midnight sun. Both are worth the trip.
Finland holidays: frequently asked questions
Where is the best place to go in Finland?
Helsinki is great for design, food and saunas, while Porvoo and Turku offer historic small towns and the archipelago. The Lake Saimaa area is perfect for cabin life, and Lapland, with Rovaniemi, Levi and Saariselkä, is known for the northern lights, Christmas and the wilderness.
When is the best time to visit Finland?
June to August brings light nights, the midnight sun in the north and lakeside cabin life. December is peak season for Christmas in Lapland, and from September to March it is northern lights season in the north. March is lovely for skiing and winter sunshine.
Why is Finland called the happiest country in the world?
Finland has topped the UN World Happiness Report several years in a row. Explanations often include high levels of trust, safety, strong welfare and closeness to nature, and many Finns would add the sauna to the list.