Where to Stay in Lahti, Paijat-Hame Region

Lahti is known for winter sport and lakeside life, the regional capital of Päijät-Häme on the shore of Vesijärvi in southern Finland. The ski jumps above the city draw the crowds of the Finnish Lakeland, and the Hiihtomuseo tells the long story of Nordic skiing here. Skis made its name.

The Ristinkirkko stands over the centre, the Lahden taidemuseo and the Radio- ja tv-museo Mastola gather its collections, and the long ridge of the Salpausselkä esker runs along the southern edge of the city through this part of southern Finland.

The Ristinkirkko is the landmark that marks the centre of Lahti, a modern church rising over the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. Skiing crowns the skyline too. The ski jumps and the Hiihtomuseo stand on the Salpausselkä esker, the Lahden taidemuseo and the Lahden Historiallinen museo keep the city's art and past, and the Radio- ja tv-museo Mastola at the old radio masts tells the story of Finnish broadcasting.

Other sights gather the local story, from the Orthodox Pyhän Kolminaisuuden kirkko and the Lutherin kirkko to the Mannerheimin patsas, set among the streets of this lakeside city of southern Finland.

Lahti is a young city by Finnish reckoning, raised where the lake and the ridge meet. A village by Vesijärvi at the foot of the Salpausselkä esker, it grew swiftly once the railway came through and was chartered as a town in 1905, in the country that would soon be southern Finland's own. Rail and water built it.

The new town spread out from the shore of Vesijärvi, the Ristinkirkko rose over its centre, and the timber and furniture trades of the Päijät-Häme forests gave the place its early industry. Winter sport became the city's signature. The ski jumps on the Salpausselkä esker drew national and international meets, the Hiihtomuseo grew to keep the record of Nordic skiing, and the city took its place as a capital of Finnish winter sport.

Broadcasting left its mark too. The radio masts that became the Radio- ja tv-museo Mastola carried the nation's signal, the Lahden taidemuseo and the Lahden Historiallinen museo gathered art and memory, and Lahti settled into its role as the regional capital of Päijät-Häme on the edge of the Finnish Lakeland.

Lahti sits at the southern end of Vesijärvi in the Finnish Lakeland, in southern Finland. The long sand-and-gravel ridge of the Salpausselkä esker runs along the southern edge of the city, while the lake opens to the north toward the wider waters of Päijät-Häme. Water and ridge frame it.

The harbour and shore of Vesijärvi mark the lakeside, the ski jumps stand on the esker above the streets, and the forests of the region spread out around the regional capital of southern Finland.

Lahti has a cold inland climate softened a little by the water of Vesijärvi. Winters are long and snowy, the lake freezing hard and the ski jumps on the Salpausselkä esker drawing the winter-sport season through the dark months until the late thaw. Summers are warm and bright.

The long northern daylight warms the lake and the forests of Päijät-Häme through the short growing season, drawing boats onto Vesijärvi before the snow returns to this part of southern Finland.

Lahti is well connected as the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. The fast rail line carries most travellers in from the capital region to the south, and the motorway brings cars across the lakeland country in under an hour from the largest cities of southern Finland. Many arrive by train.

Buses fan out across the region, and visitors bound for the lakes step off into a city set on the shore of Vesijärvi below the Salpausselkä esker.