Finland hiking vacation

Our company has the environmental policy which we follow. The land where we walk is mostly owned by government. We have the cooperation agreement with Forest and Park Service of Finland and we follow their principles of sustainable tourism. We only use marked hiking trails and designed spots for the campfires. We are paying a compensation for each visitor to the Forest and Park Service, which is responsible for the nature conservation and hiking areas visited.

We carry all the waste with us, nothing is left in the forest. The participants are told to carry the waste back and they are advised the recycling rules at the lodges. Disposable products are avoided as far as possible.
On the picnic lunch the coffee is brewed by the open fire which is a very natural and traditional way to prepare coffee in the country which is full of wood. Coffee is served in wooden cups instead of disposable coffee cups. Plates are usually re-usable plastic plates. Cutlery is disposable but eg. tea spoons are wooden which is eco-friendlier choice as plastic ones. Tap water is drinkable throughout Finland and we recommend participants to bring re-fillable water bottles. Then there is no need to buy bottled water which on the other hand is not even available in all the lodges.

This is not mass tourism. All the accommodation places are small with limited number of beds available and during walks we seldom see other hikers. On these tours the maximum group size is 13 persons. The departures are international and we often have a great mixture of different nationalities. "The record" is 8 different nationalities in a group of 13 persons. The small group size gives the participants the possibility to get know each other pretty well and the good group spirit is one of the things people usually mention in the feed-back.
We also believe that the small group size minimizes the environmental impact.