Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hiking
The superb system of national parks offers memorable trekking throughout Finland in the
summer months. The routes are backed up by resources for camping and overnighting in
huts, so it's easy to organise a multiday wilderness adventure.
National parks offer excellent marked trails, and most forest and wilderness areas are
criss-crossed by locally used walking paths. Nights are short or nonexistent in summer, so
you can walk for as long as your heart desires or your feet permit.
It's important to remember what the Finnish landscape does and doesn't offer. You will
get scented pine and birch forest, low hills, jewel-like lakes and brisk, powerful rivers.
Don't expect epic mountainscapes and fjords; that's not Finland.
The trekking season runs from late May to September in most parts of the country. In
Lapland the ground is not dry enough for comfortable hiking until mid-June, and mosqui-
toes and horseflies are an irritation during July. The first half of September is the ruska
(autumn hiking) season, when the forests are alive with a glorious palette of autumn col-
ours; it's a very popular time to take to the trails. The insects have long since disappeared,
and if there's a bit of a chill in the air in Lapland, all the better for ruddy-faced treks
through the forests.
If heading off trekking on your own, always advise someone of your route and intended
arrival time/date, or note these details in trekkers' books in huts and hostels.
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