Fabulous Finland taught me – don’t worry, be happy

Sauna, forest and amazing wildflie make my visit unforgettable

Just what is the key to a happy life and do Finns have it? These were the two things at the forefront of my mind as we arrived in the stunning, heavily-wooded Arctic Lakeland in the north of the Nordic country.

Finland has been named as having the happiest people for the past seven years. It’s a country of 5.5m people and 2.5m saunas, so they clearly know how to relax. But we were heading to Finland’s Arctic Lakeland, which sits 350 miles north of Helsinki. While not quite being in the Arctic Circle it sits just beneath it and has the moniker to designate it from the Lakeland area further south.

We flew into Helsinki from Heathrow on Finnair before transferring to a propeller plane, that provided a taste of what was to come, with stunning views. Forest as far as the eye could see, punctuated only by huge lakes.

The area – globally renowned for its wildlife – is the size of Belgium (pop 11m), with just 70,000 people living there and is known for its Big 5 – bears, wolves, wolverines, lynx and elk.

And as we sat, silently in our hide, it only took moments for the first of them to appear. A brown bear appearing from the woods to one side, homing in on meat treats left to lure him out. A mesmerising sight, he calmly sat down taking his time and eating his fill, while ravens jealously looked on and skittish wolves came ever-closer, waiting their turn.

Later our guide from Wild Taiga, Janne, took us to the home of Kerttu and Michail-Angelo Tzoumas, a snug wood-built cabin a few kilometres down a track in the woods. They told us how they lived a relatively simple life. Yes, they have wifi, but they also have a lake 50 yards away where they can swim, fish, boat and generally enjoy life. Over coffee in beautiful traditional Finnish cups and home made cake, we heard how they’d made their life work in such a remote location.

Kerttu spoke so infectiously and enthusiastically about living out here it was hard not to call up Rightmove there and then. The couple enjoy a beautiful, peaceful low-impact life that makes living in even the quietest of parts of the UK look like a metropolis.

She spoke of freedom and happiness, living in the moment, whether that’s packing snow around the house to keep it warm or swimming in the lake to cool off in summer.

We pressed on to Lentiirra – a hamlet of 100 people, 45km from the nearest shop – remote in a way it’s hard to even imagine in the UK. There Elise Heikkinen-Johnstone runs a holiday village with her astronomer Scottish husband Rob Johnstone.

The area has some of the darkest of dark skies and is a hot spot for those want to – literally – look into the past using Rob’s huge telescope. Alas for us the weather was our enemy and stargazing was off.

But lunch was very much on – elk stew with carrots, potato and onion, crunch came from toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds. This was just the ticket – wholesome, traditional, a perfect match for the setting, and the people. It was served with tar bread, the tar being tree sap extracted from burning wood.

The holiday village is small lodges dotted around the lake, for a maximum of 43 people, who come for solitude, dark skies and sauna. Before hitting the heat, we went on a walk into the surrounding forest with Elise. The forest floor was coated with crowberry, lingonberry, blueberry plants and mushrooms – nature’s harvest there for the taking. We were given Kuksa cups, beautiful traditional small wooden bowl-like cup with a handle. Mainly used for drinking from, we used them to find our very own forest floor haul.

There was every shade of green, yellows and orange. Already beautiful but the moment the sun came out it was as though the colour flicked to extra vivid – absolutely stunning.

Surrounded by pine and birch trees, it was almost spiritual – like living, breathing mindfulness. Feeling my feet sink into the deep mossy ground, while holding on to a pine trunk, it was impossible not to feel an intense connection with nature, switching off, living in the moment.

Elise said: “Forest and nature is everywhere – it’s what makes us so happy.” She told us that as well as the health benefits, it’s a form of meditation/mindfulness. It’s not hard to see why – the peacefulness, tranquillity and beauty were there to wash over you. All I had to do was let it.

Sauna is built into every aspect of Finnish culture. There’s a deep-rooted belief in the health benefits – physical and mental – of the heat of the sauna, followed by the plunge into cold water. And historically, they played a key part in society as the place where babies were born and those who had died were taken to be cleaned.

Elise told us: “Sauna is deep in our DNA – it’s a necessity in Finnish life. It gets -40C here!”

We were about to experience the very oldest kind of sauna (and believed to be the best by Finns) – smoke sauna. Now few and far between in Finland, they were once ubiquitous. Wood is set alight in a ‘furnace’ beneath large rocks, which heat up over a period of hours. The smoke is allowed to fill the room – there’s no chimney – then released and it’s ready for use.

The soot-blackened room looked like something you’d find in Mordor. It was so hot it made my ears hurt and my eyes sweat.

The tricky thing was the only solution was to make the 10m dash to the neighbouring lake (a bracing 11C) to get ‘refreshed’. The first time I waded in to thigh-depth. But second time, I got my shoulders in for one (very) brief moment, then back to the furnace.

After an hour of this hot/cold contrast, I came out feeling – and smelling – lightly smoked but with a noticeable lightness in my step and clarity of mind.

Our final stop was a night and day in Helsinki. The contrast of arriving at a busy, cosmopolitan city has never quite been as stark. But the hotel was beautiful – an old building given new, luxurious life.

Drinks in the cupolo cocktail bar with panoramic view across the city was quite the way to settle in. A boat tour of the archipelago outside the city harbour shows just how closely nature and calm can sit to city life. And after a couple of hours taking in the city sights, that was it.

It was that that will stay with me, as well as the smell of smoke. The pace of life, the closeness to nature, there was more than a little bit of Finland for me to bring home and boost my own happiness.

Factbox

We flew with Finnair from Heathrow to Helsinki and on to Kajaani. Return fares from the UK to Kajaani start at £236 in Economy and £626 in Business Class, including taxes and charges.

The Hotel Kalevala, Kuhmo, which has facilities, including saunas and an outdoor jacuzzi. Rooms start at €101 per night.

Wild Taiga is an association of approximately 50, in the main, family businesses working to drive sustainable tourism.

At the NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa, there are 224 luxury guest rooms offering comfort, convenience and modern luxury. Rooms start at €121 per night.