2 Best Hotels in Savonlinna, The Lakelands

Situated on the idyllic Punkaharju esker ridge a 30-minute drive southeast of Savonlinna, surrounded by quintessential Finnish lake-and-forest scenery, this is one of the most beautifully located hotels in Finland, if not the most beautifully located. Originally built as a gamekeeper's lodge for Czar Nicholas I in 1845, the beautiful wooden manor has been modernized, renovated, and converted to a design-conscious but unpretentiously stylish hotel, with nine new rooms and suites in the exquisitely renovated Villa Czarine. The manager's passion for mushrooms and other fresh local produce is captured in the prominence of these ingredients in delicious set restaurant menus and lunch buffets, but be sure to book in advance during the opera festival season. The hotel also organizes outdoor activities such as mushroom-picking walks and hosts music recitals. More modest lakeside forest cabin accommodations are available throughout the summer, when a steamboat from Savonlinna calls in at the quay. There is a beachside sauna by the lake.

In the heart of Savonlinna overlooking the lake, this 1930s building on historic Linnankatu has small, unpretentious rooms, all individually decorated in period styles. The bistro-style restaurant has a lovely lakeside summer terrace and serves an excellent "Opera Buffet" during the festival. Sauna access is included in the room rate.