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The World Happiness Report regularly puts the Finns in pole position. Learn how they perfected the art of contentment
A woman sporting a felted pixie hat ladles water onto rocks heated by the woodburning stove. Hot steam billows in a great hissing cloud around us and she waves bundles of birch into it, before handing one to each of us.
“It’s good for the circulation!” she beams, as she thwacks the leaves over her shoulders and back.
Pushing aside my very British scepticism, I join in, swatting my sweat-slick limbs with the fragrant bouquets, until the heat and sweat becomes too much and I push my way out of the door and sink into the blissfully cool waters of the Kymi River.
Saunas, I was discovering, are as fundamental to Finnish life as eating and sleeping. In a country with a population of around 5.5 million, there are apparently 3.5 million saunas – equal to the number of cars.
In times gone by, a family would build a sauna before building a house. Women gave birth in them. The dead would be prepared for burial in them. According to Jaana, with whom I shared another sauna in Helsinki, the cottages that dot the islands and lakesides where Finnish families spend their summers are often very basic. “They may not have running water or electricity, but they will all have a sauna,” she says.
“It is the place where you just switch off, where you don’t have to think about anything. When I’m staying at our family cottage, I love the ritual of preparing the sauna; of chopping the wood and lighting the fire. I read a book while waiting for it to heat up. It is very relaxing and therapeutic.”
Maybe the Finns are on to something. The World Happiness Report certainly thinks so. Earlier this year it rated Finland the world’s happiest country for the seventh year running.
According to Carlos, the Portuguese-born co-owner of the buzzing Restaurant Elm in Helsinki, there are several factors that contribute to the nation’s general sense of contentment: “Finnish society is very equal. There are no private schools, but the education system here is considered one of the best in the world. Taxes are high, but people pay them willingly and see the benefit of them.”
In 2017, the city gifted its citizens a new library – an architecturally stunning building which has rooms and resources like 3D printers available to visitors. There are even music studios, fully kitted out and free for anyone to use.
Entrepreneurs are encouraged and financially supported and most of the shops I see as I cycle through Helsinki’s streets are not big global chains, but independently owned and proudly selling products that are locally designed and made.
Food plays an important role too. In a country where the growing season is short, home cooks and restaurants like Helsinki’s Natura cater according to what is local and in season.
My visit coincided with the first of the season’s new potatoes, wild strawberries and herbs. In a month or so the cloudberries and lingonberries would be ripening, followed by mushrooms and cranberries. And Niina, the irrepressible owner of the island restaurant Vaaku, told me that “everyone has the right to forage anywhere. You are not allowed to cut any trees down, or dig up any plants, but you can pick anything you like.”
Government policy aside, Finland’s swathes of green and blue space do much to deliver a general sense of perkiness. My first couple of days were spent an hour’s drive east from Helsinki, staying at a river camp between the towns of Kotka and Hamina.
I slept in a small, A-frame cabin, the walls overlooking the river entirely made of glass, giving the sensation that the bed was actually floating on the flowing water. I ate salmon cooked on a fire, with salad and the first of the year’s new potatoes. I ran along forest tracks, canoed the backwaters and hiked amid the birch and spruce and pine, while all the time being serenaded by cuckoos.
I also took a boat out to Ulko-Tammio, one of the hundreds of islands that make up the archipelago off Finland’s south coast. A smart cookie at the local tourist board thought designating the island as “phone-free” might generate some interest. It worked, and the pleasure visitors got from obeying the polite notice on the shore by the jetty, suggesting they turn their phones off and just enjoy the natural beauty of the island, has resulted in what started as a PR stunt becoming an intrinsic part of the island’s identity.
In northern Finland, the forests are home to animals that have disappeared from much of the rest of Europe. For anyone wanting to experience the unforgettable joy of seeing a wolf or bear (or the almost-mythical wolverine) in the wild, Lassi’s camp amongst the trees, right on the Russian border, is a good place to start.
Lassi Rautiainen was an early pioneer of wildlife photo-tourism, and his hides are placed to give photographers the best chance of getting the perfect image of these iconic species. He puts food out, something I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. “But it is no different from putting out food for the birds in your garden,” he points out. “The animals only come if they want to. The food is an encouragement, but not a guarantee.”
On long summer days the animals are more active at night. I settled myself into the hide at 5pm with water, a sleeping bag and snacks in preparation for a 15-hour shift. The sky through the slotted windows was a shifting watercolour of greys and blues.
I looked out over a tree-fringed meadow, cotton grass dancing in the breeze. Then, magically, a wolf arrived. Sinuous and leggy, with intense amber eyes, it skulked, wary and alert, then gradually relaxed, allowing me a close-up view.
Then a bear skirted the edge of the woods. Two more wolves appeared. After an altercation, the bear was chased off and the wolves took charge. I sat there, entranced. How often does one ever get the chance to just sit and watch a night pass and a morning unfold, undistracted and undisturbed?
Elys and her Scottish husband Rob had just taken over at Lentiira, a hamlet of red wooden holiday cottages found between the shore of a lake and a wildflower meadow, bright with blooms and humming with bees. On midsummer’s night, I gathered with other guests and locals of all ages to sing as the Finnish flag was raised and a celebratory bonfire lit.
Rob, an astronomer, who at darker times of year takes his guests on starlit tours of our solar system, fired up a special sauna in honour of the occasion. He lit the fire in a room with no chimney, so it was quickly filled with smoke.
Then the smoke was allowed to escape and the room hosed down, leaving a steamy blanket of heat. We sat, feeling mildly kipper-like, in the soot-blackened interior, letting the smoky warmth envelope us until the cool, dark waters of the lake beckoned. Then we floated beneath the midnight sun, watching swallows still tending their nests beneath the eaves of our cottages.
Finnish writer Tove Jansson claimed in her celebrated novel The Summer Book that “swallows only honour houses where people are happy”. How right she was.
Kate was a guest of Visit Finland, Visit Kotka Hamina (visitkotkahamina.fi) and Helsinki Partners (helsinkipartners.com).
Finnair (0330 8081188; finnair.com) flies from Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh to Helsinki from £166 return, including all taxes and charges.
In Helsinki, she stayed at Hotel St. George (stgeorgehelsinki.com/), where rates start from €350 per night. For a full review and to book, visit telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/finland/helsinki/hotels/hotel-st-george/
In Kotka Hamina she stayed at Erämys Keisarinkosket Laawu (eramys.fi/en/laawu-kultaa), which offers doubles from €195 including sauna and breakfast. She also stayed at Laawu Wellsters (wellsters.fi/majoitus/laawu/) which offers doubles from €290.
In Arctic Lakeland, she was a guest of Wild Taiga (wildtaiga.fi/en/), which hosts wildlife tours and photography safaris starting from €100 per person.
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