Finnish Lakeland highlights

1 Bear watching

Whether you opt to spend the night in a simple shed-like hide, go for a group excursion at dusk (then return to your hotel) or stay in a new luxury hide (complete with underfloor heating and hot showers), seeing bears at close quarters in the wild is an experience that can never, adequately, be put into words.

2 Kayak camping with huskies

It doesn’t need to be winter to head out with these bouncy, excitable pooches. In summer you can journey into the wild taiga in Finland’s Lakeland on a kayak, then give your fourlegged friends a ride to a remote peninsula before camping with them snuggled up beside you. It’s then a harness walk back to base. wildtaiga.fi

3 Relaxing in a wood-fired sauna

With the number of saunas outnumbering the people in Finland, no visit to this Scandinavian enclave would be complete without a visit to one of the ubiquitous human smoke houses. In Helsinki it’s worth heading to Löyly (which translates to the evaporating steam that rises from hot stones once water is applied), where you can follow a sauna session with a dip in the Baltic Sea.

4 Feeding reindeer from your bedroom window

It’s hard to believe that in less than an hour from landing in the Finnish capital of Helsinki you can be bedding down in your own private hut while reindeer lick the window, begging for food. During the day the Nuuksio Reindeer Park can get a bit crowded, but by night it’s just you and your horned friends for company.

5 Teetering on Russia’s border

It’s easy to forget just how close Finland is to the former USSR, but while in bear country you are literally within spitting – and certainly within walking – distance to the Russian border. Crossing it demands pre-planning and expensive visas, but standing on the edge looking through the trees to this secretive and seductive country costs nothing at all.