The Great Lakes District - Join us on the water!

In a scarcely populated country there's scenery and shoreline for all, satisfying scope to lose yourself in thought. Especially inspiring are the vast clear lakes, intricately splintered by islands, isthmuses and green spits.

Look into their eyes, and you might in an instant surrender your heart to the Finnish panorama and its winding waterways. Finland's changeable climate only strengthens this bond.

And how do you talk to a lake? Best across the surface. In the way that feels right and without complication, as is the habit in Finland. There's little telling who may answer, and we make little certain claim. In summer the answer carrying over the water may be given by a feathered diver, an elk, a summer-cottager out in a boat, an echo, or a silence that speaks volumes. Once the frosts breathe an icy sheen over the waters, the lakes answer in a different way. The winter wonderland continues to beckon swimmers and fisher folk to holes scored through the ice, or to exercise on foot or by ski.

The lakes of the Great Lakes District, the largest lake district in Europe, were wrought into their fascinating form in the wake of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. Their contours serve as a reminder of the route carved by the ice. In this part of Finland there is more water than land, which makes the region a natural fisherman's paradise. Cities of varying size and full of character are situated by the waters as if scattered by a great hand, and the rural cultivated lands and forests are parted by often meandering village roads. Diversity blooms in this rich encounter between east and west.

Right here, services and dealings between people flow in a more homely and accommodating way than with the feigned sophistication of the grandiose. You'll feel this reflected everywhere, forever amid the glistening lakes.