We might only be an hour away from Helsinki and yet it’s so different. The lovely Raasepori / Raseborg area invites us to relax immediately. Eknäs boasts a beautiful harbour with a massive playground right by the marina. I just love how playground in Finland are almost always in locations where the parents can enjoy the view.

From here, it’s only a very short trip to Fiskars. The town that is home to the famous knives and scissors with their trademark orange handles also offers a few high quality craft, design and art shops, a museum in the old factory (currently featuring the Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale) and a great flea market in the main square where we find a very useful aluminium kettle for the van so we can have a proper pour-over coffee.

We continue our drive to Hanko; a beach resort with beautiful wooden villas. This is one of Finland’s busiest summer destination yet we find a beach a bit further down the road that we have almost to ourselves.

After a quick road stop for petrol, fruit and a massive amount of french fries at the only place open on a Sunday night we drive on towards Salo.

A shower in the morning sounds like an awesome idea so we decide to stay on a small campground this time. Vuohensaari is a tiny island that consists of a few fishing grounds, the campsite, a remote beach and yet another playground.

We’ll save that for the next day though and head to bed a bit earlier.