Tourists often go north when they want to enjoy the Finnish Nature, but you can do the same even when visiting Helsinki, all year round. Porkkalanniemi is a peninsula located south-west from Helsinki. By car you can make it there in roughly 45 minutes, which is also the only way to get there as there's no public transportation heading to the peninsula. There are no northern lights or reindeers but there is the sea and, well, normal deers, the ones without Santa. And a magnificent landscape! To top it all, its completely free - you can hike, camp, swim, make a fire or pick wild berries and mushrooms without permits or entrance fees. It's also a very popular area for bird watching.
"Around the corner" from Porkkalanniemi, it's almost mandatory to drive to Linlo, another beautiful spot to enjoy the nature. Linlo has a slightly different landscape as it's further from the open sea and is surrounded by tiny islands. It's a fantastic destination for kayaking.
When we lived in Finland we visited this area all the time, all year round and it's one of the things we miss the most from Finland. The best memories include sliding down a cliff into the sea, barbecuing during a sunset, sunbathing and swimming in July, watching deers and moose in August, making baked potatoes in the barbecue hut in January and walking on the frozen sea in February.
Here's a few of the reasons we miss it so much!
March (same spot as below)
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