Season Highlights
Explore the land of white nights and winters
with Santa Claus, invites Riita Resch of Finland

After nearly four years in the Philippines, Finnish ambassador Riita Resch admits, “I miss seasons. In Finland, we have four distinct seasons.” She loves summers with its 24-hour daylight, and winters when the nippy weather and snow create the landscape of a Christmas wonderland. However, “in winter you have to move fast since you can’t stay out in the cold too long. It’s made us very efficient,” she laughs.

What is your favorite vacation spot in Finland?
I like my hometown of Rauma, where I was born. It’s a little city on the west coast with 30,000 people and has a certain charm, being by the seaside. There is a wooden city center, where there are roughly 600 wooden buildings, called Old Rauma. It is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites.

What places would you recommend to first-time tourists to Finland?
Visit the capital, Helsinki. There are a lot of old buildings, some of which have Russian architecture, perhaps copied from St. Petersburg. They can fly to the Lapland Province where our indigenous Sami people stay. They have their own language and livelihood, which is more or less reindeer husbandry.
There are also plenty of lakes and islands—we have 7,700 islands and around 200,000 lakes! Drive around the lake area, and the eastern border is very beautiful. One can picnic or go fishing or boating. You can also take a boat from Turku to Stockholm through the Archipelago Sea, the largest archipelago in the world. You ride on these huge ferries and see people in their summerhouses.

Are there any off-the-beaten-track places to visit?
There are some remote places in the Lapland Province; one can just experience nature there—forests that have been around forever, that sort of thing. There’s one town not too far from Helsinki, Hanko, and it’s a summer city, really. One major event is the Hangon Regatta, a sailing competition.

What local food should one try?
Sometime in October, Helsinki has a four-day weekend where fishermen around the islands sell Baltic herring cooked or prepared in different ways in a market square by the seaside. They have their own special recipes. There is also Finnish rye bread, a very dark bread that tastes a little bit sour, but is very healthy. You normally have it with butter or cheese.

What can visitors bring back as souvenirs from Finland?
I think marinated herring would be nice for those who like fish. You can also find dried reindeer meat, even at the airport. What I would like to bring back, but it’s difficult to, are wild berries—Finland has strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. Oh, and Finlandia Vodka—I mustn’t forget that (laughs)!

When is the best time to visit Finland?
I recommend the best parts of summer in June and July as the weather is really nice and you can experience 24 hours of daylight. In the summer, Helsinki is empty of Finns, as most have summerhouses outside of the city. My favorite time is May, because then things start to get warm, nature wakes up and everything is so fresh and green. Visiting in winter—December to February—you have a different kind of world. There is the whole experience of the cold and snow.

What do you love best about your country?
I appreciate the clean air, and the fact that you can go out and walk everywhere. Nature is nearby, even in the cities.