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Valtimo is a small municipality in Northern Karelia. It is a municipality I started to love not only because of its quiet and simple lifestyle but because of the people who live in there. This is one of the places that are close to our heart. So here I am writing about our family travel about Valtimo Finland.

I remember my first visit, we were in Kuopio visiting relatives when my husband decided to bring me and our eldest daughter who was then just 4 months for a road trip to Valtimo. We stopped in one pizzeria where there was a lot of reindeer in the yard. I was so mesmerized to see reindeer that close knowing that we are not in Lapland.

Valtimo Summer Day

The next time we visited there, we are visiting a family friend and that was just the start of us coming back in Valtimo. Do you know that there is Valtimo summer day or simply “Valtimon kesäpäivä” in the local language? It is usually arranged during July for three days event. There are different programs for the whole family. It is common to have people gathering and meeting up in the centre where most of them who grew up there but lives in different cities around Finland see each other again. They are selling different foods as well and shops are just so close beside each other.

Playground

There is a very beautiful and safe playground with a fence around beside the centre. If kids got bored and need some play, it is so easy to just bring them there.

Church & Municipal hall

These two are just a walking distance between each other. I like the Church and the environment there. Full of trees around and so close to the lake. This is one reason why I like Finland, they preserve natures beauty. They don’t cut all the trees just because it is in the centre of the municipality.

Where to stay if you are visiting Valtimo? If you are travelling with family it is always wise to reserve accommodation in advance especially during summer, it can be very full.

Laitilan Lomat Countryside Holiday

This is a very nice farmland accommodation place. There is a modern main building where there are a restaurant and bedrooms but there are many small cottages outside. It is a big land area outside with a river and a grilling cottage. They are hosting events for special occassions as well as they have a beautiful place for that. There is a big sauna cottage where there is also the smoked sauna on the other side, but we didn’t use the sauna during this trip.

We wanted to feel a unique Finnish summer accommodation so we reserved one granary style cottage with two bedrooms. Our two girls occupied one and the rest of us in the other one. The girls loved it! They feel like we are camping even though they have own bed each. It was like a normal cottage room inside except outside its a granary.

We stayed so late in the night because we stayed longer in the grill cottage. We lost track of the time, as you probably know the Finnish summer is very light. You will sleep when the sun is up and wake up that sun is also up. Midsummer, there is no sunset.

The breakfast is prepared and cooked specially for the guest. It was soo good and so much! The owner is very friendly and accommodating. Her daughter also played with our girls, which makes it difficult to leave the place for all the beautiful experience we have. We will surely go back there when we visit there again and hopefully can have the picture of the whole area.

Puukarin Pysäkki

This is a restaurant and a guest house where you can taste the authentic Karelian food. They have very delicious breakfast too where the bread they are baking fresh from their own oven. When I entered the reception area and smell the fresh bread, I can’t resist looking at how amazing they are making the bread and definitely I need to have one. Yes, I did buy the Finnish rye bread. They are baking it there and serve for breakfast and part of their menu too.

They have accomodation bedrooms upstairs in the main house but we rented a separate cottage. There was this one yellow big cottage which is two floors. We occupied the first floor which is very big. It has just two bedrooms but there are extra beds too. There is a fireplace, a big living room, a big kitchen where we can cook our meal and the shower room of course. Then there is the separate sauna located outside. It was so good to have a sauna after a long day.

Outside the place, they have sheep, a vegetable garden where they are growing what they are cooking too, how cool is that? They also have souvenirs if you want to buy before leaving the place and most of all, you can buy their baked bread.

This post doesn’t have new pictures, I will take a new one when we visit there again. Have you been to Valtimo? If you are planning to, hope this post help you where to go.

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