Join an epic Road Trip to Finland and its majestic southern regions. A Road Trip to endless small forest roads and lakes, beautiful islands off the beaten path, wide open beaches on the sea, small fishing villages, heartwarming hospitable locals and one of the most vibrant and interesting capital cities in Europe – Helsinki. Welcome to Finalnd. Welcome to one of my favorite countries in Europe.
The forests called us, and we went. And on the way we found lakes so big, that you can drive a boat on them for hours. We found a way of simple living close to nature, relying on what your surrounding provides. We found a place, where time sometimes seems to stand still and where the wild and civilized don’t compete but embrace each other.
00:00 Intro to our Trip through Finland
01:14 Starting the Road Trip in Germany / Pick up of our Camper Van
02:01 How to get to Finland with your own vehicle from Central Europe / Ferry from Sweden to Finland
05:17 Expectations for the Finland Road Trip
06:09 Areas of Finland and drive to the lovely town Hämeenlinna
09:05 Off the beaten track on Finnish dirt roads
10:35 Picking Blueberries and some Blueberry wisdom
13:24 About accommodations in Finland – staying at a lovely Lake Hotel
15:52 Finnish Supermarkets – Shopping experience full of surprises
16:40 Our first night ever camping in our Campervan at a secret racetrack
20:31 The finnish Lakeland – a race with time to catch a ferry to a remote island on Lake Saimaa
24:00 Adventures on a small island of the Lakeland – finnish dinners, catching crayfish, riding Quads and sweating in a finnish Sauna
28:59 Savonlinna – visiting one of the biggest towns on Lake Saimaa
30:56 Heading to Finlands southern coast
33:17 Versso Island and the Mirror Houses
36:05 Porvoo Fishing village – second oldest town in Finland!
37:38 Helsinki – Finlands capital and my highlights including the Alvar Aalto House and Studio
43:30 Grand Finland Finale
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// Time of the journey: July-August 2024
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// Driving our customized IVECO Daily 4×4 Camper Van (“The Bus”)
//Filmed with:
Drone: DJI Mavic 2 Zoom
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 rIII
2 x Go Pro Hero 8
DJI OSMO Pocket
Iphone 14
Tripod: Manfrotto BeFree
Tripod Iphone: Joby GorillaPod
Editing Program: Final Cut Pro X
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45 Comments
4:20 There's also a less crowded route from Kapellskär to Naantali, if you want to avoid the bigger cities.
As a Finn living in Belgium for the last 25 years, I'll been trying to explain the thing about the blueberry's, and the blue tong, you get from eating them here. What a great trip you had!
I'm so happy to see you back, even if you are driving instead of riding. I loved this video on Finland. I find it anything but boring. Welcome back!
Nice Finland tour -Looking forward to more Motorcycle Adventure Touring also"
This has to be the best presentation video ever made about Southern Finland!
Very interesting and informative, really glad to see there are still hidden gems to be enjoyed without tourist hordes. What a wonderful experience you have gifted your son – it is a great thing growing up learning all about the world through travel. Also, was watching this episode while feeling hungry so you actually inspired me to cook a delicious penne for lunch!
Happy to have you all back, Lea & family! And visiting my home country ❤. Waiting for the springtime to take my T7 to those glorious gravel roads!
Awesome video! My great grandfather was one of the founders of the Mäntyharju Motorsports Club. 😊
Yes – even as a Finn I can say – adventure motorbikes & dirt roads are the way to the heart of Finland 💟🇫🇮 you can swim, camp..
Blueberry and bilberry are two totally different things. What you call "blueberry", we call "shrub blueberry" (pensasmustikka) and they are super tasteless.
About the roads. Yes the main roads are incredibly booring. But I would also include Sweden and part Norway for that, Norway mostly because of the stupidly low avrage speeds and how crowded they are.
But in Finland and Sweden 90% of the time there is alternative roads the follow the "nature". So much more fun and they usually are empty. Even with a truck if you are in a hurry in busy time you might even gain time to take them instead of the main road.
Welcome back Lea ….. and Finland is great
Finnland seems to be more than worth to have a trip to. Thank you for taking us with you and your little (A😊) family .🤗
I really enjoyed this video. Hello from Estonia 🤘
I have born in Savonlinna. Nice to see familiar places. 25:29 Beeeeeer..
Welcome back! You have been missed.
🙏🩷🙏🩷🙏🩷🙏
About the "blueberry service anouncement" at 11:20
Left box:
Here you find what one would call Mustikka or "regular" blueberries being sold mostly in various town market squares and little stalls in and outside of the stores when they are in season, otherwise you'll have the best luck in finding some from the frozen foods section but like all berries they are at their best consumed fresh.
These come from the small shrub (10–51 centimetres, 4–20 in) found in the woods through the whole of Finland and are "Kangasmustikka" Vaccinium myrtillus or European blueberry.
Right box:
There are various different types of blueberries that have been "domesticated" for commercial use, the general Finnish word for them is "Pensasmustikka" referring to the larger type of bush (1.8–3.7 metres, 6–12 ft) they grow in. This species is Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry. Which is originally a North American species of blueberry. Commercial cultivation started in the early 1900's in the US but has then spread to other countries where Europe's biggest importer is Germany. First tries to cultivate it in finland were made in the 1940's and during the 60's it was crossed with another domestic type of berry "Juolukka" Vaccinium uliginosum, bog blueberry to make it survive the harsh winter & plant diseases better.
Thank you for the kind words! We Finns really apreciate it! Please come again and invite your friends to visit too. 🙂
Basically the Finnish, or European blueberries are called billberries in English (or Heidelbeere in german) in finnish. The North American blueberries, which are the species often sold in supermarkets, are called 'pensasmustikka' , something like 'bush blueberry' in English. So in a way those names kinda overlap between languages.
It is nice that you enjoyed in Finland. Welcome more northern Finland too!
A wonderful country. Finlands popularity among tourists is increasing exponentially, so it will get more crowded and restricted. In fact, certain places in Lapland are already experiencing mass tourism during the winter season and are no longer affordable to the average tourist.
About blueberries they are actually two different berries. The one that most world knows as blueberry is the american one and then the Eurasian blueberry also known as Bilberry is the one that grows in europe. Europeans just call it blueberry in english because well its a blue berry, but its real english name is Bilberry.
It's a Bilberry not a Blueberry. 🥳👍
25:05 Isäntä ite!
Discovering Finish countryside, is discovering Scandinavian countryside. It's all the same. And we all know you belong on gravel roads. So it's good you guys are out and about =)
I am so glad you are back. I have missed your exceptional videos. And I will say, you have not lost your touch at cinematography. Still outstanding. We were on a Baltic cruise and Helsinki was one of our stops. We also visited the Church of the Rock. I am looking forward to your next video. Again, thanks.
🤘😊🇫🇮💙🚐👍 Kiitos❤
Edit. You should listen 'Last ride of the day' from Nighwish Wacken-13 Party 🎇🎉🎆
Kiitos paljon. Lovely video thank you and welcome Back.
You picked up, where you left off! Worth the wait. Amazing scenery, editing, and storytelling. Thanks for taking us along.
Sulkeudun suosioonne. The best video about Finland in ages, not just touristy Santa Claus village…
Loved it!
Very beautifully filmed and narrated, thank you!
Lea is back with another great vid!
So the bigger blueberries are basically what you'd call in English as blueberries, while the smaller ones are technically called bilberries. Blueberries are native to North America and grown on bigger bushes, while bilberries are European and grow on ground-level shrubs. However the term blueberry is often used for bilberries, especially in other languages than English. So that might be cause a bit of confusion when Europeans discuss blueberries with Americans. 😀 In Finnish the European bilberries would be translated as blueberries and the North American berries as "bush blueberries."
There are some 187,888 lakes in Finland larger than 500 square metres and 75,818 islands of over 0,5 km2 area, leading to the denomination "the land of a thousand lakes".
GREAT to see you and your family again Lea! Finland is a beautiful place to begin the new journey! 😁😁
nice adventure !
Look who is back. Seems like she had found her long forgotten YouTube password … I would also recommend to do 1 or 2 shorts per week and the 1 longer video per month. The YT algorithm really likes shorts.
Jesus ⛪⛪⛪⛪✝️✝️✝️✝️
Suomi tunnetaan maailmalla korkeasta ammattitaidosta laivojen, sekä jäänmurtajien, kaasun ja öljynporauslauttojen rakentamisesta.
great ya…, everywhere is greenery…,awesome weather.., cold ..,fantastic…, people are already in heaven like..,
Welcome to Finland.
Welcome back 🎉
TRAVELLING TO FINLAND YOU SUPPORT MULTI ANIMAL CRUELTY. FINLAND IS EUROPE'S CHINA. FINNISH PEOPLE HATE ANIMALS AND NATURE. FORESTS ARE CUT DOWSN AND WILDANIMALS SLAUGHTERED EXTINCT. FINLAND KEEPS ON HAVING FUR FARMING. AND ZOOPHILIA IS LEAGAL IN FINLAND. REINDEER BREEDERS ARE KILLING THE NATURE AND TORTURING WILD ANIMALS. PLEASE. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY BY COMING HERE BECAUSE YOU SUPPORT CRUELTY AND CRIMES.