I loved it. Yes, I slept in hotels or catered accommodation every night (although camping is also possible). I didn’t total the budget but you can expect to pay around €120 a night for hotels (depending of course).

You’ve sleeped every knights in a hotel? what was your budget for your 18 days ?

Thanks

Thank you Olga, I hope so too!

@David – Excellent! And I won’t say a word to your wife, my husband thought I was crazy ;). I stayed in hotels and cottages which were ~ €100 a night, but if you wanted to camp, in Finland you can camp almost anywhere, as long as it’s not private property so that would be cheaper. Breakfast was usually included where I stayed, and I bought lunch from a grocery store most days, since there aren’t restaurants/stores along the entire trail. I usually went out for dinner and that was ~€12-€20 on average. I have a couple of 7-8 day hiking trips planned, but no cycling trips at the moment – need to change that :). Please let me know how your trip is, I would love to hear about it!

@Bruce – Thanks for your message and for the tips. Great thing about camping in Finland is that you can do it almost anywhere. Your bike trips sound fantastic. Despite being Canadian, I’ve cycled very little in Canada – didn’t really take it up until I moved to Europe.

Like the Little Old Lady, I’m in my 70s too! I plan to ride from Kirkenes south starting in June next year. You can fly to that start point from Edinburgh in Scotland where I live, via Oslo. (I’ve done it before when I rode from Kirkenes down the Norwegian coast to Bergen in 2012). I really enjoyed your lovely photos which only whetted my appetite for the ride even more. I will be camping much of the time, so will be carrying more baggage than you. There are some really good paper maps on which are overlaid the EV 11 & 13 and National & Regional Routes. These are the Retkeily GT maps, 4 of which cover the whole of Finland at the scale of 1:400,000 for the most northerly section and at 1:250,000 for the other 3. The publishers are Karttaskeskus OY http://www.karttakeskus.fi. I do have a GPS device but have so far been unable to download the maps shown on the Outdoor Finland site which, as you say, are excellent as my computer says that the site is not recognised. (Incidentally, I read that you are Canadian. One of my daughters lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island and I visit once or twice a year. I have done a couple of big bike tours in the Pacific North West last year and this. In 2014 I rode from Anacortes down to Mexico through the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, and this year up Vancouver Island and then by ferry to Prince Rupert & Haida Gwai, then back to the mainland and across the Yellowhead Highway to Prince George & over the Rockies to Jasper. Then down the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise & Banff, then back over Kicking Horse Pass to Golden and on to Kamloops. Then into the desert country of central BC, to Cache Creek and down the Fraser River Gorge and back by ferry to the Island. With some time to spare I did another ride round the Olympic Peninsual in WA). Thanks for your very helpful blog.