We had a great time on our ski week with Minna, and highly recommend it. The skiing was relatively easy, the guides were great, and the food was outstanding. it was a great Karelian experience which gave us a good feel for the area. We enjoyed the whole week immensely and recommend it to anyone wanting a nordic winter vacation.

I've booked a women group travel over New year's eve in Minna's guest house and it was excellent! Minna is a lovely, warm-hearted, funny and relaxed host. The place is a house with history, with oven and sofa places for cuddling up during the winter hours and not to forget about the daily sauna sessions. Minna's program included playing Kykkää, cross-country skiing, hiking, snow-shoe hiking, visiting Nurmes and Kali national park, archery, smoke sauna with camp-fire barn, small Finnish lessons and serving every day more than mouth-watering, excellent Finnish-Karelian food! Her summer tour offer has now landed on my travel list for next year. Kiitos - Missä Minna!!

We were on a Ski tour organized by the propietress, Minna, and booked to stay at her guest house for 2 days prior to the start of the tour. The tour also included this guest house as the third of four such places when we arrived from the north, via a 28 km route from Guesthouse Laitalan Lomat. This reviews both the Guest House and the ski tour.

The house was the largest of those at which we stayed and accommodated all 14 of the tour participants in the main building. The accommodation is next to a large sports hall, also owned by Minna, in which the skis can be stored and prepared.

Minna herself lives across the adjacent lake where on one evening we all went for a traditional smoke sauna, considered by the Finns to be a luxury, though we found the optional dips in the ice hole not to be something for which we would otherwise volunteer! Whilst some were participating in the sauna the remainder gathered around the fire in the Kota where the local salmon like fish was being smoked for our dinner back in the main accommodation. Again, food was locally sourced and traditional. A nice feature was the plentiful supply of fresh fruit.

The main house has a very large sitting and dining room with a large number of very comfortable sofas and armchairs, much appreciated after our 28 kilometre trek. There was also a sauna and we also took up the option of a 30 minute each massage, also something very much appreciated after a number of days of ski-trekking.

Our bedroom was upstairs, again with shared toilets and shower facilities. Our bedroom was large, although the sloping ceiling on my side of the bed was challenging. The room had plenty of storage space. The Wifi signal was strong in all areas of the house.

We had arrived two days before the beginning of or planned ski tour. There are no permanent prepared skip tracks in the vicinity, but Minna (or rather her husband) created two routes for us, with Minna accompanying us on the first day (we suspect to ensure we were safe!) but leaving us to follow the tracks laid that morning on our second day.

Which leads nicely to the ski tour. We were part of a multinational group of 13 participants. We spent two nights at each Guest House, except the last where we were for one night. Luggage was transported for us between the guest houses whilst we followed a freshly prepared track. A guide, Janni, led at the front with Mina bringing up the rear and all able to travel at their own place. Long days were interspersed with short local days, and the long days had a stop int he middle. For us who were used to the wide prepared classic ski tracks of the large resorts some of the narrow tracks were a challenge, but as we were under no time pressure we felt able to progress with care! The guest houses on the route are reviewed elsewhere but had in common a very welcoming hostess (for some reason never a host), locally sourced food and traditional meals. All in all an excellent tour includinging extremely welcoming guest houses.