Finland rail holiday, tailor made

Planet

This tour is one of our low carbon tours with a carbon footprint lower than 29.12kg CO2 eq/person/day. The tour takes place ecologically by trainmaking a roundtrip in the lake district and showing our guests the variety and beauty of the Finnish landscape with lakes, ridges and hills, forests, swamps and small cities surrounded by lake nature.
The hotels have been selected based on their location so that no hotel transfer is required. The hotel in Savonlinna has a Green Key certificate. Hotel night there includes bicycles. The hotel in Kuopio is a B&B located at the railway station and renovated in the old building of the railway station.
In this tour, we have no physically exhausting activities but instead a lot of peaceful walks and some cycling if wanted. Special attention has been paid on food and vegetarian of pescatorian food can be served. Every client is informed about things they can do in order to behave sustainably (drinkable tab water, locally produced food) during their tour in Finland. You will also get information on "every man's law" allowing you to pick up berries and mushrooms in any forest but without causing any harm to the environment.

People

Savonlinna castle is a historical site which once played an important role in the defence of the Kingdom of Sweden against its Russian adversary. Nowadays it is the scene of opera once a year in July-August. The lively market place represents small-town summer at its best. We'll take our guests either to a lake nature museum or to a local brewery there. In Kuopio, we'll concentrate on food as there are many local specialities served here. A local guide will take our guests on a food walk on which they will taste for example "kalakukko", like baked bread with fish inside.
On the way between the train, it is possible to add extras. We are able to include a visit to Verla, an old board mill or the mystical and the most unique Parikkala statue park created by a local self-learned sculptor.
It is also possible to lenghten duration by adding 2 extra nights. Hotel Punkaharju is an old state hotel, which used to serve travellers already during the Russian era. Another night can take place in a hotel based on mythology about giants.
All the hotels used are family-owned.