This Rural Tourism Product manual is aimed to help you discover rural destinations in South of Finland, Estonia and Latvia beyond traditional touristic routes. The tours and sites in this manual are based around small-scale accommodation, open farms, local producers, living traditions and sincere people. The people here have a close relationship with itsnature and annual cycle. Each season has its own specific activities like mushrooming, berry picking, collecting herbs, ice-fishing and different agricultural jobs as well as traditional and seasonal celebrations. The countries are a haven for the tourist who loves nature, respects traditions and would like to experience the countries and their cultures more deeply.
Behind this manual there is a team of professional countryside tourism organisations and tour operators. For many years we have carried regular inspections of our accommodations and sites, have closely cooperated with national parks and nature experts, researched and developed new routes.
In this manual we present examples of group and individual touring routes, full day packages based on accommodations in the countryside, nature experiences in national parks, visits to farms and craftsmen. All of these can be linked with the traditional touristic routes and city experiences to bring more variety and attraction.
Travelling options between the countries are shown by air, ferries and bus. The list of tour operators that can help to arrange tours and services group and individual customers is provided in this manual. Some of the tour examples include optional extensions to Lithuania and Sweden.