Hi All,

Does anyone have a recommended route covering the entire length of Finland (or part if not), places to visit on-route and suggestions on places to stay to meet others? My partner and I are just about to start riding from Sweden into Norway and will be riding into Finland from the Nordkapp, down south into Estonia. (We plan to also visit St Petersburg on route either from Helsinki area or from Estonia side).

We do not have any time restriction to travel through Finland (its a short leg of our 5-10 year RTW trip), riding 2x F650GS. Like most, we're looking for great windy roads with spectacular view. We're wild camping as much as we can to keep funds in check but we'd like to meet/stay with others where possible.

We'd appreciate any help and advice from any fellow adventure riders out there

Rog

Hi, did you already ask this at advrider.com? I´ll see, if I have time to spread out the map, and think of some routes/places for you guys. Might take me a few days.

In general, if you want more exciting roads, stay up north, or when you ride towards the south, keep more to the east while doing it. The lake district in the southeast is one of my favorites. Side roads can be on a surprisingly bad condition (bumpy and holed, broken tarmac) nowadays, I had my bike stored in Imatra a couple years ago and went all around the lakes, and was surprised many times, how bad they were (not like 3rd world roads, but bad for a Scandinavian country!)... then again there is an abundance of nice gravel roads, but you need a good map.

I´ll get back to you on this. Ride safe!

As a norwegian Im not a Finland expert but I have been riding through the country a couple of times and can give a few advices.

Start with riding east after Nordkapp and almost all the way to Kirkenes (the norwegian bordertown to Russia) There are a small bordercrossing from Norway to Finland near the little settlement of Neiden on the norwegian side. Its around 40 kms before Kirkenes. The road from Neiden and down through the northern parts of Finland - R971 are winding and narrow but paved all the way - and you will reach E75 and the town of Inari. Its a quite nice ride. Watch out for reindeers though - as in all of northern Norway.
Then ride E75 from Inari to Ivalo and further down to Sodankyla. Then turn left there and continue on E63 to Kemijarvi, Kuusamo and Suomsalmi where you again turn left on R912 and ride this down to Kuhmo. Then R75 to Nurmes, then R73 to Joensuu, then R6 to Lappeerantaa and further eventually into E18 to Helsinki - if thats where you want to end.

Much of the southern half if this route is called "Via Karelia" - The Karelen road. After a part of land that used to belong to Finland but at one stage taken over by Russia. And most of that road are as you can see - near the border to Russia. Its not very winding - except from the far north route 971 but I do think its one of the better options through Finland north-south or opposite. I have been riding this route two times and enjoyed it - although there are lots of deep woods to ride through.

I hope some finlanders can correct me if I made some errors and also give some more advices.

__________________
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Theres a Ace Corner cafe thing in Lahti and nearby are a motorbike museum...
I havent been there but it seems like a nice ans interesting place.

http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/finland.aspx

__________________
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

I had been in Finland for year and a half.Even though the landscape was flat,thousands of crystal clear lakes,lush green forests and numerous offroad trails made my stay worthwhile.I visited castles/ruins mostly and everything in between and you can check the account of it on below link if that interests you.

Finland Archives - My Nomadic Travel Tales

Regards
Rohit