Republic of Finland: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

Finland is a land of water and forest. Scraped flat by sheets of ice across several ice ages, it carries 188,000 lakes and a similar count of islands, with boreal forest covering most of the ground between them. The north reaches into the Arctic.

There the Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun draw travellers up toward Lapland, where Rovaniemi keeps a Santaland below the mythical mountain of Korvatunturi, said to be the home of Santa Claus.

Finland lies in northern Europe, between the Gulf of Bothnia and Russia. The land was scraped flat by sheets of ice across several ice ages, so it lacks the mountains and fjords of its Nordic neighbours and instead holds 188,000 lakes and a similar number of islands, with boreal forest spread across most of the ground between the water. It is low country.

The Gulf of Bothnia closes the west and the Gulf of Finland the south, opposite Estonia, while the long eastern edge runs the whole way down against Russia. The north pulls the country into another world. Beyond the lake belt the land rises gently into Lapland, reaching into the Arctic where the Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun mark the turning of the year.

Finland borders Sweden to the northwest and Norway to the north, and shares its longest land frontier with Russia in the east. From the southern shores at the Gulf of Finland to the fells of Lapland, it is one of the most water-laced and forested countries in Europe, a flat realm of lakes, islands, and trees rather than peaks.

The Republic of Finland has roots in the 20th century, declaring independence in 1917. Before that the country lay long between two larger powers, held first within the Swedish realm to the west and then taken into the Russian empire to the east, the two histories meeting in a land of forest and water along the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. The pull ran both ways.

Swedish centuries left the second official language and a settled western law, while the long eastern frontier against Russia shaped the century that followed and still marks the country's longest border. A modern state grew up in the north. From the southern shores opposite Estonia the new republic spread its institutions through the lake country and on into Lapland and the Arctic, knitting a scattered, forested land of 188,000 lakes into one nation.

Independence held through hard years. Finland kept its footing between Sweden and Norway to the west and north and Russia to the east, and out of that exposed position built a prosperous Nordic country whose capital, Helsinki, looks south across the Gulf of Finland toward the Continent.

Finnish culture grows out of forest, water, and long winters. Life across a land of 188,000 lakes and dense boreal forest has long turned on the sauna, the summer cabin, and a quiet, self-reliant temper shaped by distance and the dark months, and the two official tongues, Finnish and Swedish, both run through the country's towns. The language sets Finland apart.

Finnish belongs to a different family from the Nordic neighbours, the mark of a people who came to their land by their own road, while the Swedish heritage keeps a second voice along the western and southern coasts. The far north carries its own world within the country. Lapland holds the Arctic rhythms of the Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun, while the south around Helsinki faces across the Gulf of Finland toward Estonia and the Continent.

Food and life follow the seasons closely. From the southern harbours to the fells of Lapland, the country is bound less by a single landscape than by water, woods, and a shared habit of meeting the long winter on its own terms.

Finland's climate runs humid continental in the south and boreal in the north. The southern shores along the Gulf of Finland stay milder, warmed a little by the sea, while the long reach into Lapland and the Arctic brings deep cold and the swing between the Midnight Sun and the dark polar winter. Snow lies long here.

Across the lake country the 188,000 lakes freeze hard each winter and the boreal forest holds the cold, giving short, light-filled summers and long, white winters that lengthen with every step north.

Most travellers arrive through Helsinki in the south, the country's busiest gateway by air and the hub of its southern rail lines. Ferries cross the Gulf of Finland from Estonia and the wider Baltic, while land routes run in from Sweden in the northwest, Norway in the north, and along the long eastern frontier with Russia. The north takes longer to reach.

Rail and road climb on through the lake country into Lapland and the Arctic, where distances stretch out across the boreal forest toward Rovaniemi.