Summer holiday in Finland

vermes · Post by **vermes** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:32 pm

Dakkus wrote: Then.. I think you should make a short detour to Savonlinna. It's an extremely beutiful city (with a castle) in middle of the unbelieavably beautiful lake Saimaa. Very well worth spending a whole day at, I think. You will see Saimaa also in Lappeenranta (Which I, BTW, don't think is as interesting as Savonlinna - although I've never been to Lappeenranta)

The only problem in Savonlinna is that it's rather far away from Porvoo (Or Lahti, if you really want to go there). But anyway, I'd replace either Lappeenranta or Joensuu with Savonlinna. In the other hand, Joensuu might be very slightly more interesting than Lappeenranta.. There are about the same number of EBTers in both cities, Savonlinna is a bit more of a desert.

Savonlinna has the Castle of Olavi (probably Olaf by his original Swedish name ), which looks very beautiful at least from the outside. Also the road there is magnificent (_much_ nicer than the one you would normally take to Joensuu) and the city itself is quite cool. Being built on a long and narrow island there is water everywhere. And Savonlinna is of course one of the hearts of Savo (the other one being Kuopio). So, the world of talkative Finns and kalakukko can be reacher also from there. Has also nice boat trips (quite likely better than Lappeenranta could have)

If you are coming to Savonlinna, you can ask me for more information about my hometown

Ralf · Post by **Ralf** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:12 pm

@Vermes

I'm going 99,99 sure to your city.
It looks like you live in a very nice neighborhoud.
I think I'll stay there around 2 days.

Ralf · Post by **Ralf** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:03 am

I think I found the right route:
Helsinki - Porvoo - Kouvola - Lappeenranta - Imatra - Punkaharju - Savonlinna - Mikkeli - Jyväskylä - Jämsä - Tampere - Pori - Rauma - Turku - Salo - Helsinki (Tallinn - Helsinki)
I did Kuopio and Joensuu away because now we have more time for the other places and I didn't saw that it are special city's to discover.

The places where to stay are also nearly sure:
Day 1 Helsinki
Day 2 Kouvola or Lappeenranta
Day 3,4 Punkaharju
Day 5 Mikkeli
Day 6,7,8 Jämsä
Day 9 Pori
Day 10 Turku
Day 11,12 Helsinki
??Day 13 Tallinn??

I have at the moment some questions more:
Is Kotka nice to visit? because I can go Porvoo - Kotka - Kouvola or Porvoo - Kouvola
Is it better/nicer to go from Savonlinna - Varkaus - Jyväskylä or Savonlinna - Mikkeli - Jyväskylä?
I think it is not possible when I am in Imatra to go for a short visit to Russia to get a dot there?
Do you need a visum for Tallinn?
Is it easy to find there a hotel? (Because I think is prefer more to stay there 1 night than visit is only as a short daytrip)
Or is some hours enough and is there no nead to sleep/stay longer?

Thanks allready!

Phaseolus · Post by **Phaseolus** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:09 am

Ralf wrote:Do you need a visum for Tallinn?
Is it easy to find there a hotel? (Because I think is prefer more to stay there 1 night than visit is only as a short daytrip)
Or is some hours enough and is there no nead to sleep/stay longer?

Thanks allready!

No visa required for Estonia.

Tallinn is very nice, obviously, one night in Tallinn seems to me a good idea... (and it is much cheaper compared to Finland

)

tiura · Post by **tiura** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:19 pm

Phaseolus wrote:
Ralf wrote:Do you need a visum for Tallinn?
Is it easy to find there a hotel? (Because I think is prefer more to stay there 1 night than visit is only as a short daytrip)
Or is some hours enough and is there no nead to sleep/stay longer?

Thanks allready!
No visa required for Estonia.

Tallinn is very nice, obviously, one night in Tallinn seems to me a good idea... (and it is much cheaper compared to Finland )

Yes, Estonia is a member of EU now, so no visa is needed, BUT it is not member of Schengen contract, so passport is necessary. And I think Phaseolus might be right, ferry tickets + night in a hotel in Tallinn can be cheaper than plain night in a hotel in Helsinki. Shipping companies are selling packages that include tickets and a hotel room. They can be found in the web, here's some links to start with:

http://www.visitestonia.com/index.php
http://www.tourism.ee/en/

The is nothing to see in Kouvola, to my knowledge. Somebody else might have different opinion. There isn't much to see in Kotka either, but I think it's nicer place. There is one exception though, if your visit in Kotka is going to be at 27.-30.7. Then there is a Maritime Festival going on. More info here: http://www2.kotka.fi/meripaivat/index_eng2004.htm. Of course that whole region, Kymenlaakso, is full of emppu_112's and Sport-Mass' notes.

Kotka tourist information can be found here: http://www.kotka.fi/matkailu/index_e.html

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:04 pm

tiura wrote:BUT it is not member of Schengen contract, so passport is necessary. And I think Phaseolus might be right, ferry tickets + night in a hotel in Tallinn can be cheaper than plain night in a hotel in Helsinki. Shipping companies are selling packages that include tickets and a hotel room. They can be found in the web, here's some links to start with:

Actually, at least a Finn can go to all EU states without a passport, as long as he's got a rather new ID card that fills the EU standards.
I did a bus trip from Tallinn to Hannover without a passport and had no problems at all. To my knowledge all EU citizens can travel to all EU states with just an EU-compatible ID card.
You should check your country's customs office's website or mail the embassy of Estonia about it.
And then.. How to recognize if your card is suitable: If it's enough when going for example to Finland, then it should be enough also for Estonia. But, ask the embassy anyway.
The border control between Finland and Estonia shouldn't be a problem, because they see many many ID card travellers each day. So, it's nothing new for them.

The cheapest way from Helsinki to Tallinn is by Viking Line's ship Rosella. A return ticket (without a cabin) costs 24€, which means the price is 12€/direction.
If you don't like travelling for 3h, take a fast ship. Doesn't cost much more than the same route with a slow ship and is cheaper than a cabin in a slow ship. The ship operators that have also fast ships are: Silja Line, Nordic Jet Line, Linda Lines and Tallink.

arathorn · Post by **arathorn** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:50 pm

I have at the moment some questions more:
Is Kotka nice to visit? because I can go Porvoo - Kotka - Kouvola or Porvoo - Kouvola[/quote]

On behalf of Kouvola I can say that here's nothing much to see. Except Tykkimäki amusement park (3rd biggest amusement park in Finland).

vermes · Post by **vermes** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:11 pm

Ralf wrote: Is it better/nicer to go from Savonlinna - Varkaus - Jyväskylä or Savonlinna - Mikkeli - Jyväskylä?

I would prefer Mikkeli over Varkaus, but you can take closer look at those cities webpages:

Mikkeli in english
Varkaus, you can choose english, deutsch, francais, swedish or russian

Ralf · Post by **Ralf** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:45 am

@tiura and Dakkus
We have a pasport so no problems then

I watched for hotels but it looks like they are more expensive than Helsinki

I think which ship we'll choose when we know if we stay there 1 day or more.

@arathorn
That amusement parks I'll visit in Helsinki and Tampere I think.
I am still looking for the best way how to go from Porvoo to Lappeenranta.
No need for the shortest way but nice roads, nature, nice city's is more important.
As I now see on a better map there are 3 possibilities:
*Porvoo - Kouvola - Lappeenranta
*Porvoo - Kotka - Kouvola - Lappeenranta
*Porvoo - Kotka - Hamina - Lappeentanta
All 3 possibilities are nearly the same ..km and ...hours

@vermes
As I see it good:
Varkaus:
*Nice waterplaces
*bridges in the city and nice marketplace
*1km from the centre waterfall
*You can have a look in the biggest newspaperfactory of europe
Mikkeli:
*Sideseeingtower near hospital
*10km south nice park with more than thousand trees, animals etc

@all
Is it possible/easy to get a dot in Russia?

Annie_in_exile · Post by **Annie_in_exile** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:33 pm

None of my business, but what are going to do in Jämsä for three days?

I hope you're staying at a summer cottage, otherwise you'll be bored out of your brain!

And I'd also suggest skipping Kouvola, especially if you have to choose between it and Lappeenranta.

Ralf · Post by **Ralf** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:37 pm

@Annie_in_exile
Here in Netherlands in the travelbooks it is so hard to find hotels and summer houses. The few which are in that books are nearly all for at least 1 week and some 3 or 5 days. The plan was to go every day in summer houses but now it looks like we are only 1x 2 and 1x 3days in a hous and the rest in hotels. Jämsä we have planned because we can visit than 1 day Tampere and 1 day Jyväskylä the other day free.

Phaseolus · Post by **Phaseolus** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:25 pm

Ralf wrote:@Annie_in_exile
Here in Netherlands in the travelbooks it is so hard to find hotels and summer houses. The few which are in that books are nearly all for at least 1 week and some 3 or 5 days. The plan was to go every day in summer houses but now it looks like we are only 1x 2 and 1x 3days in a hous and the rest in hotels. Jämsä we have planned because we can visit than 1 day Tampere and 1 day Jyväskylä the other day free.

This is the website I used for hiring a cottage in Finland :

http://www.lomarengas.fi

It was great being in a house along the lake... In winter, it must be very enjoyable, too...

If you visit Tampere, then you can hire an appartment at : http://www.homeland.fi/

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:09 pm

For a camping site in Helsinki, see http://www.hel2.fi/liv/rastila/rastilaenglish.html . The place has cottages, so you don't need a tent nor caravan.

There's also a camping site at the shore of lake Bodom in Espoo, a small distance west from Helsinki: http://www.lomaliitto.fi/index.asp?resid=17 . The place is quite similar to Rastila.

Then some more camping places with cottages:
Porvoo
Savonlinna
Tampere

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:31 pm

And.. I don't know for sure, because I've never been in a hotel in Helsinki.. But, can you really find a hotel room with two beds for less than 40€/night in Helsinki?

Some places in Tallinn:
http://www.tatarihostel.ee/english/index.htm
http://www.stroomi.ee/eng/
http://www.hostelmerevaik.ee/vaik/index.php?lang=eng

Those are what I found with a quick search (there's a lot of info about Tallinn in Finnish :))
Ask me for more in IRC.

Oh, and if you happen to visit Pärnu in southwestern Estonia some day, I know a terribly cheap place to sleep there :D

Ralf · Post by **Ralf** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:04 pm

Thanks I'll have a look at that sites.
The hotel we've found in Helsinki is 44€.
But don't forget we are going in August than it is most of the time more expensive as the hotels now are.