Kymenlaakso, Republic of Finland — Towns & Travel Guide

Kymenlaakso sits in south-eastern Finland. The region, Kymenlaakson maakunta in its Swedish form, lies east of Uusimaa along the south coast, a span of shore, forest, and inland water that carries the traffic between the capital region and the eastern border of the land. It is one of the smaller maakunnat of Finland.

People know Kymenlaakso as the south-eastern corner of the southern coast, the country between Uusimaa and the frontier where the road and rail east run through.

Kymenlaakso lies in south-eastern Finland, a region of coast, forest, and inland water set east of Uusimaa. The shore runs along the south of the land, broken into bays and low islands, and behind it the country rises through forest and lake into the interior, a span of rock and water that carries the road and rail east toward the frontier of the country where the land grows quieter and the towns thin out. The region forms the south-eastern face of the southern coast.

West of it lies Uusimaa and the pull of the capital region, and to the east the land runs on toward the border of Finland, so Kymenlaakso sits as the corner where the south coast bends toward the frontier. Forest covers the higher ground. Water threads the valleys between.

Kymenlaakso keeps a coastal and border identity. The region grew along the south-eastern shore of Finland, where harbour towns and forest country shaped a life of water, timber, and the traffic that runs east between the capital region and the frontier. The coast sets the rhythm.

Boats, summer cottages, and the open shore mark the warm season east of Uusimaa. The land carries the long history of a borderland, set at the eastern edge of the southern coast where routes and peoples have crossed for centuries between the interior of the country and the sea. Festivals and harbour gatherings fill the summers, and the forests and lakes draw people inland through the bright months.

Kymenlaakso anchors the south-eastern corner. Its towns keep their own fairs and traditions through the year.

Kymenlaakso is old border country. The south-eastern shore was settled and traded along for centuries, set at the edge where the southern coast of Finland bends toward the frontier and routes crossed between the sea and the interior. Land east of Uusimaa long carried that traffic.

The present maakunta of Kymenlaakso was drawn in 1994, binding the harbour towns and forest country of south-eastern Finland into one administrative whole at the eastern corner of the southern coast.

Kymenlaakso has a cool coastal climate by Finnish measure. The sea tempers the winters along the south-eastern shore, though snow settles for months and the inner bays freeze through the dark season of the year. Summers turn warm and long-lit.

The bright days draw people out along the coast and inland toward the forests and lakes of the region east of Uusimaa.

Kymenlaakso lies on the road east. The region sits on the main lines and roads that run from the capital region toward the frontier, so trains and traffic pass through the south-eastern shore on the way out of Uusimaa toward the border of Finland. The coast is easy to reach.

Roads thread inland from the harbour towns into the forest and lake country of the region.