Karelia and Finnland - Route Highlights?!
 

Hi,

we are planing a trip from Helsinki to St. Petersburg and up north to Murmansk, crossing over to Finland and back south to Helsinki.

We can´t find many informations about Karelia, so anyone has ideas where to go?! There is one "big" road, the M18 but maybe it´s nicer to go on smaller roads?! Gravel would be fine....What´s about Camping, is it possible/allowed?

Altogether we have about 4 weeks.

We are looking forward to get some informations!!

Thanks a lot,

HENNO+ALEX

bikes-on-tour.de

Lot of trails and little gravel paths available almost all the way.
Wild camping is Ok just avoid to be near of towns / villages it's lot more quite and safe. You can found lakeside camping every night. Only some official camping places in that area and with out any facility's can be found.
Gasoline available most of the villages / towns range up to 500km recommended.
Little shops for bread, cheese, sausage etc. can be found daily.
From lake Ladoga up to Murmansk can be done easily in one week depending of weight of the bikes and enduro skils Russian side overall distance will be some < 1500km.

In Finnish side you can do it also on gravel if want it. Lot of camping sites etc. All facility's can be found round 50-100km. :thumbup1:

Thanks for your answer! I forgot to ask for a good map! We don´t have a GPS, we still prefer riding with a map, so any suggestions which one is good for Karelia (maybe english and/or russian?!). Finland sholud be no problem...
What about Tour-Highlight´s (nature, towns, villages, culture...) in Karelia, or is it more riding through great landscape?!

Thanks a lot!!

HENNO+ALEX

bikes-on-tour.de

I normaly search all available information charts / maps and do route variotions on GPS an print maps in tank bag.
Try MAP

Highlights ???
Karjala used to be part of Finland before WW II after it has been destroyed during Soviet era and rebuild by Finns in Russian era. So you should have good knowledge of history that you can understand the region / nature / culture, etc.
You can found nice tiny villages through area with very friendly people and there is still some old buildings left era before WW II.

Some photos

http://kuvablogi.com/nayta/prev/img599865.jpg
Karjala Tour Route 2007