10 Things for your family to do in nature, just an hour from Helsinki
It’s common for families visiting Finland to spend time in hip Helsinki or fly north to visit Santa Claus inside the Arctic Circle. Maybe you even have a once-in-a-lifetime sighting of the Northern Lights from your very own glass-topped igloo. But if you never set foot in a Finnish forest – whether in the summer when it’s carpeted in every shade of green imaginable or in the winter when its blanketed in a fresh coat of snow – it’s seriously a “travel fail.” Honestly. To have a true Finnish experience, you need to connect with nature as the Finns do.
Fortunately, it’s easy for international visitors to access one of Finland’s 40 national parks. Nuuksio National Park is a short, 45-minute drive from Helsinki. I recommend renting a car so that you can easily explore on your own, or you can take public transportation. I also recommend that you spend two nights here, but even a short day trip is better than nothing at all.
Here are 10 ways that your family can connect with nature at Nuuksio National Park.
1. Start with an introduction
Near Espoo
Haltia The Finnish Nature Centre (Nuuksiontie 84) is a good place to start your Nuuksio adventure. The nature center is small but well done and is really geared toward hands-on exploration. The main exhibit area is dominated by huge multimedia screens that showcase Nuuksio as well as other Finnish national parks. As you make your way into the bear den, don’t miss the opportunity to touch the fur of a real brown bear. It’s incredibly soft! Then spend a few quiet moments in the Nature Mother’s Sounds room. Listen to birds, water, and perhaps a rare wolverine call. The museum also has rotating exhibits. When we visited, it was a collection of hysterical animal photos, part of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards competition. Admission cost: Youth (under 7) Free; Youth (7-17) about $9; Adult about $14; Family (2 adults, 4 kids) about $28, depending on the exchange rate. Your ticket includes an audio guide, available in English.
Haltia Ravintola is a good place to grab a coffee and pastry. The restaurant also serves a hearty lunch buffet. Sit on the outdoor terrace and enjoy the fresh, crisp air.
KidTripster Tip: The nature center offers some rentals, including backpacks, child carriers, strollers, and rubber boots.
KidTripster Tip: Outside of Haltia, you’ll find fat tire bikes and canoes for rent.
2. Go for a hike
With little elevation gain, hiking in Nuuksio National Park is quite easy. You can access family-friendly hikes right from Haltia Nature Centre, but I’d also encourage you to explore other areas of the park that can be accessed by car. On nearly every hike, you’ll find yourself walking next to scenic, tree-lined Finnish lake.
By the way, there’s a law in Finland called Everyman’s Right. It gives all Finns and visitors the right to roam in nature, regardless of whom may own the land. You can forage, fish, and recreate without permission and at no cost.
3. Go for a guided hike
Lake Poikkipuoliainen or Haltia Nature Centre
Especially if you have younger children, elevate your hiking experience by spending a morning or afternoon with Nuuksion Taika, or Nuuksio Magic (Paratiisintie 115). Owner Satu will guide you and your kids through the Finnish wilderness, imparting the myths and traditions of ancient Finns along the way. Satu provides capes for everyone, adding a bit of fantasy. (Who doesn’t love a cape!) The experience can be further enhanced with a folk musician and guide who’ll lead you in a cleansing and drumming ceremony around a campfire plus teach you some Finnish folksongs. It’s reminiscent of Native American traditions in the USA. The hike ends with a sausage cookout in a Lappish tent. You can book a Magic of the Woods experience from two locations: either Nuuksion Taika’s headquarters on Lake Poikkipuoliainen or from Haltia Nature Centre. Cost: Youth about $50; Adult about $72, depending on the exchange rate; minimum four people.
KidTripster Tip: If you’re traveling in a group, consider staying at Nuuksio Taika’s Villa Paratiisi. Located alongside the lake, the villa and accompanying cottages can sleep 13 people. During summertime, the villa and cottages are booked together, but in the wintertime, you can rent just the villa. Watch the video here.
4. Pack a picnic
It’s really quite amazing how user-friendly Finland’s national parks are. Throughout the parks, including Nuuksio, you’ll find picnic shelters in scenic locations. At each, there’s a campfire ring with a grill for cooking sausages over an open fire – a very Finnish thing to do. The park system even provides chopped firewood at no cost! That’s something that you won’t find in the USA.
KidTripster Tip: Often there’s a wood-splitting station at the picnic area, so you can chop your wood into smaller kindling. You simply place the firewood upright on the cutting blade and then strike it repeatedly with a small rounded log. Rope your teenagers into doing it for you!
5. Hit the bike trails
Lake Haukkalampi
If you have athletic kids who crave a little more excursion, rent fat tire bikes from Natura Viva (Haukkalammentie 32) at the Hawk Nest outpost on Lake Haukkalampi, only a few miles from Haltia Nature Centre. You can choose to do a 27-mile loop of the park or a considerably shorter track close to Hawk Nest. Cost: Starts at about $33/2 hours, depending on the exchange rate. While Natura Viva has bikes for teens, there are no bikes for young children.
KidTripster Tip: Make sure to listen closely when getting directions regarding bike trail locations. We didn’t and ended up on an uphill, rooted trail that wasn’t meant for bikes. Our bad!
6. Paddle a placid lake
Lake Haukkalampi
Natura Viva also organizes guided canoe and hiking tours from the Hawk Nest outpost. Canoeing on the glassy waters of Lake Haukkalampi is one of my favorite memories from my time in Finland. The way the forest reflects on the water here is a photographer’s dream. Our guide Eemil lead us across the lake to a dock where we ditched the canoes for a short hike to a viewpoint. There, we had lunch on a cliff. We used the time to question Eemil, who was 19 years old, about life and schooling in Finland. It was a really interesting conversation. Eemil then introduced us to sea buckthorn, a citrus drink favored by Finns. One shot packs the vitamin C of 20 oranges! Tour cost: about $97/person, which includes transport from Helsinki. If you don’t require transportation, you may be able to negotiate a reduced rate.
It’s possible to simply rent a canoe from Natura Viva and do the paddle and hike on your own. The lake is easy to navigate, and the trails are well-marked. Cost: about $22/hour, depending on the exchange rate. A canoe holds two adults or one adult and two children.
7. Forage for your own food
Nearly all Finnish children grow up knowing how to forage for food in a Finnish forest. Again, because of the Everyman’s Right law, you can forage in any natural area, regardless of whether its public or private property.
Before you do it on your own, it’s a good idea to participate in a tour first to ensure that you know exactly what you’re picking! We spent a delightful afternoon with guide Anna foraging for berries – blueberries, cloudberries, cranberries, and lingonberries (depending on the season) – around Hawkhill (Haukkamäentie 100), her family’s property where she rents luxury cottages on Lake Kaitlampi. If you visit during summer or early fall, some berry is likely to be ripe. We also foraged for a type of chanterelle mushrooms. But be careful, there are hundreds of kinds of mushrooms in a Finnish forest, and many of them are poisonous. You’ll want to rely on Annu’s expertise.
After your hike, we returned to Hawkhill where Annu cooked up the mushrooms over an open fire and served them with rye bread and sausages. We added the berries to our salads and drinks. A tour like this is a great way to connect kids to nature. Cost for group (up to four people): starts at about $323/2 hours; additional person about $22, depending on the exchange rate.
KidTripster Tip: Hawkhill rents six lakeside luxury cottages plus a traditional house, each fully equipped for international visitors. Each cabin comes with its own rowboat and sauna. Read more here.
8. Jump into a Finnish lake
If you truly want to embrace being a Finn, you’ll need to jump in a lake – for real. And it doesn’t matter the season. These crazy Finns carve holes in the ice during the winter for ice swimming! If you get up the courage to take the leap, make sure you’ve located the nearest sauna in advance so that you can make a mad dash afterwards. I speak for experience! It’s Finland, so that sauna won’t be too far away.
9. Stay overnight someplace unusual
While a visit to Nuuksio National Park can be a day trip from Helsinki, I’d strongly recommend spending a night or two in or near the park. When you do, take advantage of some of the more unusual glamping options: lakeside luxury cottages, tents suspended in the trees, wilderness huts with no running water or electricity (but they do have saunas!) or hobbit-like huts where you feed reindeer out the window. Read more about all these options here.
10. Take a deep breath
If you travel like me, this suggestion may be the most difficult to accomplish. When I’m exploring a new place, I tend to go, go, go. But a place like Nuuksio National Park begs to be appreciated in quiet moments – preferably alongside a still lake with a cup of coffee in hand.
Stop. Breath. Sip. Repeat.
This writer received some complimentary activities for the purpose of this review. However, all opinions expressed are solely her own.
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