What is your experience like camping in Finland?

24 comments

1. What? Why would you go outside when you can do that indoors

2. In Finland you’re allowed to set up a tent pretty much anywhere you want in the forest. You are however not allowed to make a fire unless you have the land owners permission. In national parks there are designated places for tents and quite nice fireplaces for you to use.

3. >What is camping like in Finland?

   You should define what “camping” means. Don’t confuse camping with hiking/backpacking, and especially don’t talk about the wilderness in the same sentence.

   What you are used to in “camping” would mean that you go somewhere, e.g. Kalajoki camping area. Usually caravanners or families with children go there. **This is something that almost every Finn dreads**.

   Above all, Finns want to enjoy nature and not play some games in a tent. Finns also have summer cottages where they can live in “simpler conditions” than at home. Japan clearly doesn’t have this culture, which is why it’s popular to take electronic devices with you in your tent to the campsite

   It is very popular in Finland to go to a nearby national park on weekends, walk maybe 5-10 kilometers and sleep in a tent in a designated camp area. You must understand that, for example, you just can’t go to Nuuksio and camp anywhere there. It is allowed only in designated camp areas. And “camp area” means that there are spots for tents and maybe an outhouse toilet, sometimes a campfire place, never electricity.

   ​

   >Are you allowed to create a bonfire?

   Yes and no.

   Finland is one of the few places in the world where there are still genuine wilderness areas. You are allowed to make a campfire in the wilderness when there is no forest fire warning.

   Elsewhere, you need permission from the landowner for a campfire. In national parks, only at designated campfire sites it is allowed to make fire (if there is no forest fire warning in effect).

4. Camping in Finland https://www.youtube.com/@AliLeinio

   The channel has, from basic few hour trips to hard core hikes.

5. What you described isn’t considered camping (ie. hiking and staying over the night in forest) in Finland. Camping can mean so many different things to so someone could consider their pimped out RV to be camping.

6. I would laugh when they realize the nearest electrical outlet is 3 days walk away.

7. Anything you mentioned banned in this post is completely fine and even recommended here in Finland. You can light bonfires on designated places and even set up tents without restrictions. Most national parks even have campsites dedicated for this stuff.

   The only thing you really need to keep in mind is that bonfires are banned if a forest fire alert is in force in the area. Littering and damaging the plants in the park is also frowned upon.

   Portable electronics are fine and dandy. They are, well, portable, so it is expected that people carry them everywhere. Anything bigger that runs on grid power is not banned per se, but it will cause a lot of staring since mentioned campsites rarely have any kind of electricity.

8. By the Japanese idea, camping in Finland would be closest to renting a cottage.

9. It sucked. But it’s probably cuz’ I hate camping.

10. People would laugh at you if you would take electronics with you. You wouldn’t laugh after carrying them through a forest and bushes. Even if you would carry them you would need to set them inside a tent.

    Let’s say that you and your friends could get all the equipments to the forest and set them up. You could play single player only due high ping (if you even has internet at all). You have just carried tens of kilograms through some pretty rough environment just to get eaten by mosquitos when playing single player game for a couple of hours. Then you would need to worry that there isn’t wild moose who would see all your lights and hear the voices from game, because after that it’s bye bye for the tent and all your stuff, after that insurance company would laugh at you.

    Yeah, people would probably respect your stubborness but at the same time laugh at you even in middle of nowhere.

11. There are private “campsites” that are similar, but usually nearer to the city/some common attraction, they are for more touristy things or people who want to visit cities without the money for hotels, they tend to have electricity, buildings with showers/toilets etc, likely even sauna usable for guests.

    I’ve used these when going for fishing trips to northern norway as a way to get a shower/sauna to clean up and they are affordable and clean.

    “wild camping” is more of the walking around with a tent/backpack strapped to your back, it means no real luxury and as others said, you can camp anywhere as long as you don’t damage the enviroment and no open fire without permission(either by landowner or on public fire place).

12. There is quite a bit of information in the thread already, but some of it might be a bit confusing to follow. Finland (like the other Nordics) has a right usually known as freedom to roam (Jokamiehenoikeus, lit. Every man’s right). This gives everyone (not just Finns) the permission to travel, forage, set up temporary shelter, etc. in the nature, unless otherwise denied in the area.

    Pitching a tent for a day or two would be fine.

    Fires are not covered under the freedom to roam. They need a permission from the land owner. For a ransom piece of land, asking for said permission is usually difficult enough, that it isn’t done. Instead, the more common scenario is, that the land owner had given general permission (with restrictions).

    National parks usually have designated locations for campfires, which may be utilized. Often these areas even have a firewood supplied by the park. The biggest restrictions, as had been mentioned in the other responses, is a forest fire warning. Some fire places can be utilized even under such circumstances, but those are rare.

    Then there are the designated wilderness areas in the northern Finland (erämaa-alue), where campfires are allowed more broadly.

    Also given the terminology used in the OP, it’s worth discussing bonfires vs campfires. The rules, etc usually talk about “fire making”, but what this in practice refers to are campfires. If your idea of a bonfire is something with flames visible to orbit, people are going to get annoyed. I don’t think there are rules specifically against that, but it might fall under being reckless. Also in places, where you the firewood is supplied by someone else, it’s considered rude to waste it with giant fires.

13. As you can see from the post, it would be nice if you defined what you mean by camping. We do have camp grounds for mostly caravans, but I think some of them might have spots for tents? Maybe? I’ve never been to one. A lot of people rento cabins for holiday stays. Some of them are pimped out to have everything you could ever want in a house, some don’t even have an indoor toilet.

    But If you talk about camping, most people assume you take a tent and camp in a forest. With no amenities. There is rules and regulations for that, but you can legally do it in most places. You can read more here: https://www.visitfinland.com/en/articles/finnish-everyman-rights-the-right-to-roam/

14. Why not add portable toilet for the gear if you are bringing all that with you?

15. What you described camping in japan it sound more like going to summer cottage in finland. Except many don’t have running water there but most cottages i have been has tv and i have personally taken ps2 there when i was a kid for rainy days and because i was there for almost whole summer.

    But camping here? I’m not some super outdoorsy camper but i do go occassionally during summer. You can set up tent almost everywhere, except in if the place is protected and then there is designated spots. You need a permission from land owner if you wan’t to make open fire (and if there is fire hazard then you can’t make one at all so you need to check that). Plenty of places have fire places where to go cooking. I do get if people wan’t to stay be comformatable but still be alone in the woods. But doesn’t sound like camping, more like just staying in a cabin in woods.

16. If you are staying in a solid framed structure, i wouldn’t call it camping. Even sleeping in a car out in the woods isn’t camping.

    That is my opinion.

17. Been camping a few times.

    You either do it in a cabin or in a tent.

    Jokamiehenoikeus helps a lot here. But it also helps that my parents own land where I can camp in peace.

    If life gets better, one day I wish to renovate that small almost rotten log hut with my siblings.

18. What the actual?

19. Bonfire: no, unless you ask for the land owner’s permission or are at a designated area where lighting a fire is allowed. The idea is that you don’t accidentally set someone else’s forest on fire.

    As for the rest of the stuff, I’d be super confused if I ran into a camp like that. I have a feeling they’d come away from that encounter telling stories of a local cryptid that was lurking at the edge of the forest staring at them before scampering off into the night. As it should be. ;D

20. Thats not camping.

    Camping here means, to go to wood and have a tent.

21. Depends what you’re looking for really. What you describe with all the technology doesn’t sound camping to me but more like going to someones summer house (or renting one) with a designated fire place and sauna near a lake.

    To me camping is going with a tent to somewhere with no electricity. Bonfires are not allowed so you don’t accidentally set someone elses forest on fire unless there is a designated place for it. (You can quite literally destroy someones livelihood if you do fire just randomly anywhere.) So with that in mind, lots of hikers and campers I know, have small portable gas cookers for warming up their food. Lots of them also buy these dry vacuum packed lunches to take with them because they’re easy to fit with everything else you need and light to carry.

22. >What would be your reaction if you saw Japanese campers in Finland taken the following:

    >* Flat screen, UHD or 4K TV
    >* PS5, XBOX or Switch
    >* Collection of PS5, XBOX or Switch games
    >* Extension cord
    >* Full on PC gaming set up: PC, Laptop, Gamer chair, etc.
    >* Household appliances (eg. kettle, microwave, portable oven)
    >* Portable generator

    To be perfectly honest, I’d laugh a little at this. But I’m polite, as are most people around here, so I’d laugh privately.

    You should absolutely do what makes you happy, but if you’re going to bring all kinds of entertainments from home what’s the point in going? It gives a feeling of not wanting to go in the first place, like a teenager forced to go on vacation with the parents and they plan to spend the vacation in front of a screen instead.

    To me, the word “camping” implies spending time in nature.

23. Being a long time boyscout in Finland, watching Yuru Camp∆ was pretty damn big culture shock…

24. LOL