We stayed at the Rauhalahti Spa Hotel for 4 nights in August 2018. It cost €495 for a double room. It is NOT a 4 star hotel.
On check-in, the staff were very friendly and our room was ready right away.
The hotel itself is quite old and badly in need of a refurbishment.
The room was small, with two low, twin beds with separate linen on each bed. There were two decorative cushions and a blanket over the end of the bed. These were quite old and the fabric reminded me of an old curtain!!
The bathroom was small with a shower with a shower curtain and one sink. Bathrobes are provided. If you want to go to the pool, you need to bring your towel from your room with you. However we did this one morning, used our towels to dry off while we were at the pool, and when we came back, the room had been tended to by housekeeping, but they had not replaced our towels.
Another thing to note about the room is that the curtains did not pull the whole way across the windows....in a country which has really long hours of daylight during the summer, this is a bit of a problem!!!
The swimming pool area is OK. There are a few pools here, a few children's ones, a slide, one big heated pool which goes outdoors and then another pool more suitable for swimming lengths in. There are some jacuzzi sections in the heated pool, but no separate jacuzzi tub. The saunas are segregated and are part of the changing rooms, and swimsuits are not allowed! However I believe this is the norm in Finland.
Breakfast was not great. There was a very poor selection, considering it is supposed to be a 4-star hotel.
We found sound to be an issue in the bedroom. I found it difficult to sleep (also due to the bed which was not comfortable!) but in the mornnings, especially, we could hear quite clearly, everyone who passed by our door. On the Sunday morning we were awoken by a baby screaming in another room!! It would not be so bad to hear what happens right outside your door, but you should not be able to hear sounds from other rooms!! Also there is a nightclub in the hotel and we could hear the noise from there in our room on the nights it was open.
The number 7 bus runs from right outside the hotel and it's about 20 mins to the centre of Kuopio which is quite handy.
There is also a holiday park as part of Rauhalahti, and you can rent cabins, or camp there. I think this might be better value than staying in the hotel.
In general, the hotel is OK but it was not worth €495 and it is certainly not a 4-star hotel. It desperately needs to be refurbished.
