Nature

North­ern nature from arch­i­pel­ago and sea­coasts to hum­ming bore­al forests and lush riverbeds – Oulu offers you a high­er grade of close­ness with nature. Whether you are a tal­ent wish­ing to relax after a hard day at work or on hol­i­day look­ing to take it easy, Oulu has a pleas­ant sur­prise in store for you.

In Oulu, the nature is close to you even in the city cen­tre. You must have already seen the fish­er­men right at the heart of town, the won­der­ful parks just a stone’s throw from Rotu­aari, and the love­ly islands in the estu­ary that offers enjoy­able expe­ri­ences and places for the busy city peo­ple to calm down. No? Well, get crack­ing!

Whether you are look­ing for more extreme activ­i­ties or a flat land­scape, you will have easy access to a suit­able des­ti­na­tion. Recre­ation, hik­ing in the wild, sports, and oth­er activ­i­ties are easy to arrange in the Oulu region. Sea, rivers, rapids, lakes – check! What about spend­ing time in the woods, sit­ting by camp­fires, wan­der­ing in the marsh­es, and climb­ing edgy rocks – we can pro­vide! You do not have to go far even for down­hill ski­ing, for the south­ern­most fell in Fin­land is right around the cor­ner.

And hey – you must be famil­iar with everyman’s rights? They are the foun­da­tion for spend­ing time in the Finnish nature. Refresh your mem­o­ry about everyman’s rights at luontoon.fi (opens in a new tab).

Acces­si­ble activ­i­ties

The City of Oulu has list­ed the nature trails and nat­ur­al reserves for hik­ing and enjoy­ment around the year. See more about the nature trails in ouka.fi (opens in a new tab).

Accord­ing to pub­lic rumours, the best camp­fire sites in the region can be found in the Sang­in­jo­ki and Pil­pa­suo areas, while bird­watch­ers will cer­tain­ly find one that they like among the 24 tow­ers and plat­forms made for the pur­pose.

For a list of ski tracks and fit­ness trails vis­it the City of Oulu pages (opens in a new tab). In the win­ter, 350 kilo­me­tres of main­tained ski track will delight cross-coun­try skiers of var­i­ous lev­els, and more than 200 kilo­me­tres of year-round fit­ness trails and routes enhance the selec­tion. Nat­u­ral­ly, in Oulu bik­ing on the trails is also a must. Read more about cycling.

By the water

If you favour the surg­ing sea, you might have your mind set on shores where even the wind is salty. For such a crav­ing, we rec­om­mend you head out to Vir­pinie­mi recre­ation area, known for its cross-coun­try ski­ing ter­rain and golf cours­es. Check out this pdf doc­u­ment for more infor­ma­tion about Vir­pinie­mi (pdf). For sandy beach­es and hik­ing in the woods, dis­cov­er Hietasaari Island and Nal­likari Beach – the sea­side liv­ing room for all of Oulu. Read more about Hietasaari (pdf).

You can hear the roar of the rapids a long way away – well, that is Koiteli, a unique des­ti­na­tion for relaxed hik­ing, swim­ming, and fish­ing. See more about the Koiteli rapids on koiteli.fi (opens in a new tab). For swim­ming, you can go almost any­where in Oulu – even in the win­ter­time! Find the spots for swim­ming on the City of Oulu pages (opens in a new tab).

Park fun around the cor­ner

A cool oasis in the sum­mer heat, a love­ly place to hang around through­out the year – it is a park! Oulu is a city of parks, and we are par­tic­u­lar­ly proud of our well-main­tained green­spaces that will cheer any­one up! A few notes for quiz enthu­si­asts: Oulu has 160 play­grounds for chil­dren, 13 camp­fire sites, 18 dog enclo­sures, and about 2 400 garbage bins in the parks! These are rather good facil­i­ties for spend­ing time with the whole fam­i­ly (includ­ing the small­est and fur­ri­est mem­bers).

The Hupisaaret City Park – more com­mon­ly known as Ain­o­la Park – will charm every­one: the love­ly islands from Kiikkusaari to Parati­i­sisaari are part­ly in their nat­ur­al state. Tuiran­puis­to has an acces­si­ble park full of rhodo­den­drons, and Kar­jasil­lan­puis­to has the Kaupungi­no­ja brook run­ning through it. The park in Hol­li­ha­ka offers a vari­ety of activ­i­ties from skate­board­ing to an out­door gym, and the his­toric Kuu­sisaari Island is a great recre­ation ground for every­one! Find all the parks in Oulu on the City of Oulu pages (opens in a new tab).