Quiet, between forest and water.
Finland has been the happiest country in the world for nine years running. We live here, and we think we know why: 188,000 lakes, forest to the horizon, and a sauna round the corner.
Why Finland
Three things that are entirely ordinary here, and hard to come by in Britain or the Netherlands.
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188,000
lakes
More than any other country. Most of them sit well away from any town, surrounded by forest, with a jetty and an upturned rowing boat on the shore. Water here isn't somewhere you drive to — you live beside it.
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70%
forest
The highest share in Europe. And thanks to everyman's right (jokaisenoikeudet) you may walk through it, camp in it and pick berries — even on someone else's land.
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3.3m
saunas
For 5.6 million people. Nearly every cabin has one. Heat up, into the lake, back to the heat. In winter we cut a hole in the ice.
Three ways to come
Each season asks for something different. These are the shapes we're working on — the details we agree with you.
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June — August
Summer by the lake
- A week in a mökki on the water
- Sauna, rowing boat and kayak at the cabin
- Swimming from your own jetty
- Evenings that never go dark
Length and price by arrangement
Ask about it -
January — March
Winter on the ice
- Five nights with the sauna every evening
- Cross-country skiing across the frozen lake
- A hole cut in the ice, if you dare
- Snowshoes for the forest
Length and price by arrangement
Ask about it -
September — October
Ruska in the forest
- Five nights as the forests turn
- Picking berries and chanterelles
- Walking routes you choose yourself
- The quietest time of the year
Length and price by arrangement
Ask about it
Photos in this section: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen) and Tiia Monto, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 — cropped and resized.
The practical side, sorted
The idea is simple: we handle the arrangements, you decide how the days go. Nordic Escape isn't a tour with a timetable — it's somewhere to base yourself.
- Where you stay: a mökki — a Finnish cabin — between the forest and the water.
- Getting there: the route in, and how you get around once you've arrived.
- While you're here: suggestions and local tips, never a fixed programme.
This is how we intend to work. Exactly what a stay includes is something we agree together; the offering is still taking shape.
Nine years running as the happiest country
Finland has topped the UN's World Happiness Report every year since 2018. In 2026 it did so again, scoring 7.764 — ahead of Iceland, Denmark and Sweden.
Researchers point to trust, equality and a country that simply works. But live here a while and you notice something else: Finns go outside. Into the forest, the water, the sauna. Not as an achievement or a bucket-list tick, just because they can. That's the part we want to show you.
Who we are
We're Joey from the Netherlands and Lee from England. We both have a Finnish wife and moved here to be with her — and then stayed for the country as well.
By now we know where the ice still holds in March, which lake stays calm when it's blowing everywhere else, and which sauna you end up sitting in longest. That's what we share with people from Britain and the Netherlands.
Tell us what you're after
Got a season in mind, or no idea at all? Send us a few lines and we'll think it through with you: which spot suits, when to come, and what there is to do at that time of year.