Inspired by the writer Tove Jansson, visitors can spend the long, slow days of summer amid woods and secret cabins
What makes a summer? To Finns, it’s access to a cabin (owned, borrowed or rented), water nearby (a lake or the sea), being able to disconnect and, of course, a sauna. Yes, even in summer. With temperatures in Southern Europe soaring, and more of us choosing “cool-cations”, Finland feels like the perfect summer escape.
The artist and writer Tove Jansson did much to introduce Finnish culture to a wider audience through her Moomins books, as well as her novels for adults.
Her first and best-known novel, The Summer Book, has now been made into a film starring Glenn Close, which should introduce it – and the slow summer living that it depicts – to new audiences.
Finns take getting away from the daily grind seriously; this is a country with around 500,000 holiday cabins for a population of 5.5 million, after all.
Intrigued to experience a bit of this for myself, I take a trip east along the coast from Helsinki to the islands that inspired Jansson – starting with Pellinge. The author, who was born in 1914 and died in 2001, spent her early summers here, in one of the red and yellow cottages that still dot the shoreline.
Local resident Erika Englund has introduced a puzzle trail in the woods where Jansson played as a child. “Tove and her friend Abe had the job of collecting fresh milk in a pitcher every day,” says Erika. “They turned it into a game, with lots of hopping, jumping and physical challenges, including a big rock which you have to run past, which Abe’s grandchildren still do.”
The Pellinki Archipelago in Finland
This childhood challenge inspired Jansson’s The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My, and in turn Erika’s Island Riddles trail – a gentle, dreamlike way to spend a few hours in the woods.
I solve a puzzle that involves pouring water into a well, allowing the next clue to rise to the surface, and then hunt for a red umbrella among the trees. Only one group at a time takes on the challenge and has the whole afternoon to complete the riddle-based tasks.
Many groups take picnics and make a day of it. “Tove didn’t like a lot of fuss, so we respect that and try to be gentle with her legacy,” says Erika.
Once I leave the woods, I can see the tiny island of Klovharu where, later in life, Jansson built a cabin with her partner, Tuulikki Pietilä. The two artists spent 28 summers here in near isolation, working, swimming in the sea and relaxing in their tiny sauna. Together they even wrote a book about their time here, entitled Notes from an Island. The cabin and island are now owned by Pellinge Hembygdsförening, a local heritage association, which hires out the location as an artists’ residence.
Kaunissaari is a popular holiday spot for Finns (Photo: Julia Kivela)
While Jansson would catch her own fish, I don’t have the time or equipment, so instead I head to the smart restaurant at Pellinge Marina for toast skagen – an open sandwich with shrimp, red onion and salmon roe. It’s followed by flaky fresh fish from the archipelago, served with potatoes, capers and pickled cucumber, before I hop on the free ferry back to the mainland.
I’m staying nearby in Porvoo, a beautifully preserved old city where the residents are hugely proud of their connection to Jansson, and Moomins merchandise peeks out of many shopfronts. I stay at the handsome Art Nouveau-style Runo hotel in the centre. Once a library, it now has 56 art-filled bedrooms, an attic sauna and regular jazz nights.
I take a walking tour with Birgitta Palmqvist from Porvoo Tours to learn about the history of Finland’s second-oldest city. The historic centre was rebuilt after a fire in 1760 and has been lovingly preserved ever since; to live in one of the colourful wooden houses lining the cobbled streets is to be invested in maintaining it – and the locals are proud to do so. From Honkala restaurant, where I stop, there are views of the iconic red wooden warehouses by the river, once used for the salt trade.
The colourful homes of Porvoo
Winding along the coast, I pass through Loviisa, which claims to be the “best small town in Finland”, where residents are preparing to open up their traditional wooden houses and gardens to the public for the annual Loviisa Heritage Homes event.
From the port of Kotka, I catch a boat to Kaunissaari – a popular holiday destination (the name means “beautiful island”), with a long sandy beach. I’m there before many of the summer residents arrive and I look enviously at their idyllic cottages, wishing I too could spend the whole season here.
There’s not much to do – but that’s the point. I spend time walking, swimming and eating salmon soup.
On the boat back to Kotka, I spot Rankki, where The Summer Book was filmed, and the tiny cabin that was built for the production. The island, which has private homes on it too, is larger than it looks on screen; Jansson’s own island would have been too small for filming.
The old town of Porvoo (Photo: Subodh Agnihotri/Getty)
Back on the mainland, I visit the Maritime Centre Vellamo, where an exhibition called Courage, Freedom, Love! A Moomin Adventure launched this year to mark 80 years since the first Moomins book was published (running until March 2027). Children can play inside a replica Moomin house and clamber on rocks surrounded by an animated sea.
My accommodation for the night is, fittingly, a cabin. A few miles from Kotka, Santalahti resort is a collection of cabins, cottages, camping pitches, apartments and even glass igloos, all dotted along a pine-studded stretch of shoreline.
After a peaceful walk in the woods, I join friends in a glass sauna, from which we watch the water as the temperature rises, cooling off with icy dips in the sea, reached via a wooden walkway.
Summer may be short but the days are long and, like a Finn, I’m squeezing in all the light, salt water and sauna that I can. I think Jansson would approve.
Getting there
Ailsa Sheldon was a guest of Visit Finland and Finnair, which flies from London, Manchester and Edinburgh to Helsinki from £168 return. Porvoo is an hour’s drive east of Helsinki. finnair.com
Staying there
Runo in Porvoo has doubles from €171 (£148), B&B, runohotel.com
Self-catering cabins at Santalahti resort start from €89 (£77) (sleeping two) and sauna cottages from €198 (£171) (sleeping four), santalahti.fi
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