Caravaning in Finland

[Mick_price]

Hi All

I am thinking of taking a holiday with my caravan to Finland, and wondered if anyone else had ever undertaken such an adventure. It's a bit of an unusual destination for us Brits, but our son lives there and we have made several trips by air to Helsinki, but would like to tour some of the more scenic bits of the country.

We have just come back from a week there in a hotel and we did take the opportunity to look at a 3 star site near Tampere - what a disappointment. The "grass" looked like a bit of wasteland, there were no marked pitches and the roads were just dirt tracks. There also seemd to be an abundance of Transit sized vans for towing so I did wonder whether I has stumbled upon a traveller site by mistake, but it was definitely a proper site.

So, questions for anyone who might have experience of the country:

1. Was this site typical of the standard in Finland, or were we just unlucky?

2. What is the best route to get there? There are countless crossings to Scandanavia, so we could go via Sweden and cross from Stockholm to Finland, or go via Germany, or drive all the way to Tallinn and take the 4 hour ferry to Helsinki. The permuatations seem pretty endless.

3. Any other thoughts or tips on the journey and the overall concept of caravaning in Finland.

This is still in the "idea" stage, and I know I would need a minimum of 3 or 4 weeks to make it worthwhile so it's a project for my retirement (that keeps getting put back with every nose-dive of the FTSE)

Thanks for reading this and for any ideas.

Mick

 

[Jennifer2]

Hi there, we have been in Finland a couple of times, most recently, briefly, in 2007 as part of a 3 month trip to Scandinavia. We crossed Hull/Rotterdam, drove across Germany to the Baltic and took the ferry from Sassnitz to Trelleborg in Sweden. We then drove right up the Baltic coast, with a small detour to Uppsala, and into Finland at Haparanda/Tornio.

We drove north via Rovaniemi, Lake Inari and Ivalo before crossing into Norway at Neiden. We then went out to Kirkenes and the Russian border before going west to Nordkapp and then south all the way down the Norwegian coast,with a few detours, and right round and up to Oslo. Then back south in Sweden to Malmo, bridge to Denmark, south across the islands, ferry from Rodby to Puttgarten and across Germany to Hull. About 7500 miles in all!

The previous time in Finland was when the ferry from Hull to Goteborg still operated, it doesn't anymore. We drove across Sweden and took the ferry from Stockholm to Turku. Then to Helsinki and north in Finland, mainly along the coast, and into Sweden at Haparanda.

Another possibility is a ferry to Esbjerg, across Denmark and over to Sweden. Or a Channel crossing and a lot of driving. Do not consider going on a ferry to Norway, the cost is astronomical with a caravan!

As to campsites, the one we were on in Rovaneimi was OK, but not up to CC standards. It had nice grass and marked pitches. The one at Lake Inari was more basic. We have all our own facilities so we are not that bothered if the site is basic.

Biggest problem we found on the trip was grey water disposal, mostly there was no disposal point so you had to use the chemical toilet point, which meant a lot of lifting, or sometimes you could use the motorhome dump point.

We had a great trip!