Ask an international traveller to name somewhere in Finland and there is a good chance you will get one of two answers:

Helsinki. Or Lapland.

Helsinki has design, restaurants and Nordic city life. Lapland has snow, reindeer, northern lights and a certain gentleman with a large white beard.

And between them?

Well… Finland.

A rather large amount of Finland, actually.

At Best of Nordic, we realized there was a slightly embarrassing gap in our own knowledge. We knew Helsinki and we knew Finnish Lapland, but how well did we really know Finnish Lakeland?

Not nearly well enough.

So we went to investigate.

We travelled through Kuopio, Tahko, Bomba and Vuokatti, inspecting hotels, trying activities, travelling the actual routes, tasting the food, meeting the people and discovering considerably more about Finnish sauna culture than strictly necessary.

It was exhausting.

We suffered bravely.

But there was a serious reason for going.

You can research a destination online. You can study hotel websites, look at maps and make very impressive spreadsheets.

But until you have actually travelled the road, walked into the hotel, seen the distances, tried the experiences and spoken with the people who live there, there are things you simply don’t know.

Now we know considerably more.

And ultimately, that benefits our clients.

Apparently, the Finns Have Been Keeping This to Themselves

One of the first things we learned was that Finnish Lakeland is not some newly invented destination waiting for international travellers to arrive.

Quite the opposite.

Finns have been holidaying here for generations. There are hotels, cottages, restaurants, spas, ski resorts and a well-developed network of outdoor activities.

In fact, Visit Finland describes Finnish Lakeland as the part of the country where Finns themselves come to recharge and reconnect with nature.

So when we call Finnish Lakeland undiscovered, we mean internationally.

The Finns clearly discovered it some time ago.

They simply forgot to tell the rest of us.

And that is actually rather good news.

It means we are not suggesting that our clients become guinea pigs in an undeveloped destination. The tourism infrastructure already exists. What does not yet exist on the same scale is international mass tourism.

That is a rather attractive combination.

Easier to Reach Than You Might Think

Another thing we learned was how the region fits together.

You can travel from Helsinki into Lakeland by train and watch the city gradually disappear behind forests and lakes.

Or you can fly.

Several regional airports make different parts of Lakeland surprisingly accessible, often with around an hour in the air from Helsinki.

But knowing there is an airport is not enough.

Travelling through the region ourselves taught us the useful part:

Which places combine naturally?

Where should you spend two nights rather than one?

Which transfer looks short on a map but feels longer in reality?

Where is there enough to keep a family busy?

Which places work better for couples?

And where would adding just one more stop turn a relaxing Finnish holiday into a small military operation?

Google Maps cannot always tell you that.

Experience can.

And that is precisely the sort of destination knowledge we want to bring into the tailor-made journeys we create across Finland.

Summer: Lakes, Forests… and Wild Bears

When we visited, Finland was green.

Very green.

There were forests around lakes, lakes behind forests and occasionally another lake just in case anybody felt the country was running short.

Summer in Finnish Lakeland is made for being outdoors. You can hike, cycle, kayak, fish, take a boat onto the lakes, swim, enjoy a lakeside sauna or discover the strangely addictive pleasure of sitting beside the water doing absolutely nothing.

That last activity is highly underrated.

But eastern Finland also introduced us to something we had never really associated with a Finnish holiday.

Wild brown bears.

Not bears in a wildlife park.

Not Bruno waiting behind a fence for somebody to bring lunch.

Actually wild bears.

In the forests of eastern Finland, particularly around Kuhmo and Suomussalmi, purpose-built wildlife hides make it possible to spend an evening or night quietly observing brown bears in their natural surroundings.

And this is not simply a local claim. Finland’s official tourism organization describes wildlife watching in Finland as one of the country’s great nature experiences and highlights eastern Finland as a particularly important region for seeing brown bears, wolves and wolverines.

How many international travellers planning their first trip to Finland even know this is possible?

We didn’t.

But now we do.

And that is exactly why travelling through a destination ourselves matters.

We came home knowing about experiences we would never previously have thought of suggesting.

More importantly, we now have a much better understanding of who they might suit and how they could fit into a wider journey.

For a wildlife enthusiast, photographer, adventurous couple or repeat visitor looking for something genuinely different, a night watching wild brown bears could suddenly become one of the highlights of the entire trip.

Our client does not have to stumble across that possibility by accident.

We can now tell them about it.

And we can help decide whether it actually belongs in their itinerary rather than simply adding it because bears sound exciting.

That is the difference between knowing that Finland has bears and knowing how to turn that information into a great travel experience.

Winter: Wait… You Can Do All That Here?

Winter taught us something equally interesting.

Before visiting, we had perhaps thought of Tahko and Vuokatti primarily as Finnish ski destinations.

That seriously undersells them.

Both can deliver a full Finnish winter holiday, with far more than downhill skiing.

Depending on where you stay and what interests you, winter can include skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, winter hiking, fat biking, snowmobiling, skating, ice fishing, husky experiences, reindeer encounters, sauna, ice swimming and adventures through snowy forests and across frozen landscapes.

Even Visit Finland’s general overview of winter experiences in Finnish Lakeland highlights frozen lakes, cross-country skiing, skating, snowshoeing, ice fishing, snowy cabins and, naturally, sauna.

In other words:

Snow + huskies + snowmobiles + sauna does not automatically equal Lapland.

That was useful for us to learn.

Previously, a client asking for a classic Finnish winter experience might have sent our thoughts immediately north.

Now we have another possibility.

Not necessarily a better one.

Not necessarily the right one every time.

But an option we understand well enough to consider.

And having more good options is rather useful when you specialize in tailor-made travel.

No, It Is Not Lapland Lite

There is one thing we definitely do not want to do.

Pretend Finnish Lakeland is simply a cheaper version of Lapland.

It isn’t.

Lapland has the Arctic atmosphere, Sámi culture, reindeer traditions, vast northern landscapes, Santa Claus and some of Finland’s most famous winter scenery.

There is a reason travellers love it.

But Finland’s winter does not suddenly begin when you cross the Arctic Circle.

Lakeland gives us another type of Finnish winter.

Perhaps the client wants skiing and activities but doesn’t particularly need Santa Claus.

Perhaps they want more space.

Perhaps Lapland availability during their dates is difficult.

Perhaps combining Helsinki and Lakeland makes more geographical sense.

Or perhaps, after discussing everything, Lapland is still absolutely the right answer.

Our job isn’t to sell Lakeland instead of Lapland.

Our job is to know enough about both to recommend the right one.

And after this trip, we know considerably more.

Then We Met the People

The scenery was beautiful.

We expected that.

The people were the bigger surprise.

Everywhere we travelled, people smiled, helped, answered questions and took time to explain their part of Finland.

Again and again, somebody recommended another place, another view, another local tradition or something we absolutely had to taste before leaving.

And there was a very noticeable sense of pride.

Not loud pride.

This is Finland, after all.

Nobody climbed onto a table waving a flag.

It was quieter than that.

More like:

“You have come all this way. Let us show you our Finland.”

That became one of the strongest impressions we brought home.

You did not feel processed.

You felt welcomed.

And those conversations gave us something else that is difficult to find online.

Local knowledge.

The experience that works particularly well with children. The place worth allowing extra time for. The activity that sounds like two hours but actually needs half a day. The combination that works brilliantly. The one that perhaps looks better on paper.

Those little pieces of information matter.

Because a great itinerary is rarely made great by its biggest attraction.

Quite often, it is the small decisions between the attractions that make everything work.

A Different Kind of Luxury

Lakeland also made us rethink the word luxury.

Beautiful hotels matter. Good food matters. Comfort matters.

But luxury does not always mean marble bathrooms, designer boutiques and somebody waiting outside with a black Mercedes.

Sometimes luxury is space.

Silence.

Privacy.

A lake outside your window.

A forest without twenty other people photographing the same tree.

People who have time to talk to you.

For travellers arriving from New York, Toronto, London or Paris, having an entire view almost to yourself can feel considerably more luxurious than another gold tap.

Finnish Lakeland is rather good at that.

And after experiencing it ourselves, we now understand better which travellers are likely to appreciate it.

That matters too.

A destination does not have to be right for everybody.

It just needs to be very right for the right people.

Then Somebody Suggested We Take Our Clothes Off

Naturally, this is Finland, so eventually somebody will suggest removing most of your clothing, entering a wooden room heated to something approaching casserole temperature and afterwards jumping into cold water.

This is considered wellness.

We investigated professionally.

And beside a Finnish lake, sauna suddenly makes complete sense.

Heat.

Water.

Forest.

Silence.

Then back inside before somebody notices you can no longer feel your feet.

It does not feel like an attraction invented for international travellers.

It is simply part of Finland.

That is why sauna culture in Finnish Lakeland feels so natural here. The sauna, the lake and the surrounding forest are not three separate tourism products.

They belong together.

And that is something you understand much better after experiencing it rather than reading about it.

The Finland We Almost Missed

At the beginning of our journey, we were asking:

Is there enough here for international travellers?

By the end, we were asking a much more useful question:

Which of our travellers would absolutely love this?

That may be the most valuable thing we brought home.

We discovered places and experiences we did not know before.

But we also learned how they connect, when they work, who they suit and where Lakeland genuinely adds something different to a Finnish itinerary.

Summer can mean lakes, forests, long evenings, outdoor adventures and watching wild brown bears.

Winter can mean skiing, huskies, snowmobiles, frozen lakes, snowy forests and sauna.

And throughout the year there is space, nature and a remarkably warm welcome.

Undiscovered internationally. Proven locally. And now known personally by us.

Having travelled through Kuopio, Tahko, Bomba and Vuokatti ourselves, Best of Nordic can now advise from experience rather than from a brochure.

We have seen the hotels.

Travelled the routes.

Tried the experiences.

Met the people.

Asked questions.

Found things we did not know existed.

And learned where this part of Finland works — and where it doesn’t.

That knowledge comes home with us.

And our clients benefit from it.

So if you are curious about the Finland between the famous places, talk to Best of Nordic.

You don’t need to know whether Tahko, Vuokatti, Kuhmo, Bomba — or somewhere completely different — belongs in your itinerary.

That’s our job.

We went there to find out.

And now we are very happy to share what we learned.