Santa Suites – apartments for 10 guests

The interiors of Santa Suites are inspired by Finnish nature and the work of leading Finnish nature photographers. Each apartment has been individually designed around its own nature theme.

The apartments feature a total of 42 nature photographs by 18 Finnish nature photographers. The interior design combines nature photography, Finnish landscapes and comfortable holiday accommodation.

The six Santa Suites nature themes are Meadow, Forest, Fell, Sea, Marsh and River.

If you’re not sure if you are really in Finland or if it’s really summer, go to a meadow to find out. Ask the first butterfly you meet, or the first grasshopper: They will know the answer. Birds may also answer with their singing, even if you don’t understand the language of their twittering. Take a blanket with you and lie on your back. Look at the sky and read the flight patterns of the larks, and you can guess what season it is. And if you happen to fall asleep, your dreams will provide the answer.

The charm of Finnish nature has been captured in the pictures on the walls of your holiday apartment. The scenes have been shot by leading nature photographers in Finland. The shore-side meadow in front of your apartment represents a rare type of natural meadow.

There is an old proverb in Finnish: Niin metsä vastaa kuin sinne huudetaan; the literal translation of this is “The forest answers in the same way as one shouts in it.” An English proverb that conveys the same idea is “The world you get is the world you give away.” If you wish you hear something other than your own voice, you must learn to listen.

If you sit down on a tree stump to marvel at the beauty of nature, you will often be rewarded by a grouse sitting atop a tree. And if you tread carefully, you may come across a mother elk and its fawn grazing in a forest meadow. In Finnish woods there are many dwellers that are even blinder and noisier than man – you do not really need vigilance, but simply a bit of luck to spot grouse displaying in the springtime.

Life in the Finnish woods is displayed in photos on the walls of your apartment. To enjoy a live experience of Finnish woods, all you need to do is to take to one of the sign-posted nature trails in Santalahti.

How can the landscape of the fells, which is so beautiful and gentle, at the same time be so bare and harsh?

When exploring the Finnish fell landscape in the autumn, you can marvel at how the night frost brings plants and trees alive with colour. In winter, the landscape is decorated with snow sculptures and the Northern Lights. Spring brings on the sun, which soon creates patches of snow-free areas, forming a beautiful contrast with the remaining snow blanket. In the Lappish summer you can bathe in endless sunlight, day and night.

There is, however, a price to be paid: Will you be able to withstand the attacks of mosquitoes, high winds and biting cold? What about the darkness of winter, which seems to be never-ending? Would you trade sandy beaches for the rugged fields of jagged stones in the fells?

If you’re not sure, you can simply opt to stay indoors and enjoy the beauty of the Lappish fells, captured by top nature photographers, on the walls of your apartment.

Only when at sea can you uncover the true nature of your friendship—at least if you believe the lyrics of a Finnish song. You will find that there’s a grain of truth in the words when dangling your rod from a fishing boat in a ruthless autumn storm.

Luckily enough, the Gulf of Finland has many facets. Its innumerable islands offer a haven for boaters and yachters with lots of peaceful opportunities for hiking and camping. The sea horizon quickly makes you forget about the hustle and bustle of the towns and cities just a few miles away. Lying in the sun on shore-side cliffs smoothed by the ice and the waves of the sea makes the thought of rough seas and the true nature of friendship seem quite distant.

The charm of the sea and the archipelago has been captured in the pictures on the walls of your holiday apartment. The scenes have been shot by some of the leading nature photographers in Finland. Seaside scenery can also be enjoyed live by taking one of the nature trails of Santalahti or by setting out on a water bus cruise in the Eastern Gulf of Finland National Park.

Marshland – a little world of its own. When you go into a wood, you leave your everyday world behind – but when you take to the marshland, even the wood feels familiar. A marsh has its own specific smells and sounds, it even feels different underfoot. Tasting a yellow cloudberry that you’ve just picked makes you realise that some of the finest things in life require little effort.

You can enjoy the peace and mystical ambience of the Finnish marshes, in pictures shot by some of the leading nature photographers, on the walls of your apartment. For a live experience of Finnish nature, we recommend a tour of one of the nature trails at Santalahti or at the marshes in Valkmusa National Park in Pyhtää, just 28 m from Santalahti.

It is often said that the journey of life is like the flow of a river. Few people can, however, say that their lives resemble a Finnish river. Just imagine that after a summer bubbling with life and energy you would more or less go into winter sleep, where the hibernation would be broken only when the strongest peaks of current manage to break through the ice. In spring, huge boulders of ice roll along the course, causing destruction and floods, and turning gentle streams into mighty white-water rapids.

Would you able to withstand the current year after year? Or would you rather go the way the of the trout – swimming against the current – just to make sure your offspring may have the chance to be among the finest around?

The true nature of Finnish river life is revealed in the pictures on the walls of your apartment. And for a live experience, we recommend that you start your exploration at the Imperial fishing lodge at Langinkoski.