Ostrobothnia

In Ostrobothnia, known in Swedish as Österbotten, you'll hear Swedish on the street more often than Finnish: this coastal landscape on the Gulf of Bothnia is the most Swedish-speaking region of mainland Finland. A vacation in Ostrobothnia takes you to the Kvarken UNESCO World Heritage Site, to wooden towns like Kristinestad, and to the greenhouses that supply half of Finland with its tomatoes.

A Coast Rising from the Sea

The region lies on Finland's west coast, across from Umeå in Sweden. Since the end of the Ice Age, the land here has been rising by almost a centimeter a year, so new islands and strips of coastline are constantly emerging. The capital is Vaasa, a university city that was rebuilt after the fire of 1852. Around 175,000 people live in the region, many of them in villages with large farms. In the south, greenhouses around Närpes shape the landscape, while Jakobstad and its harbor lie to the north.

Sights in Ostrobothnia

The Kvarken Archipelago off Vaasa has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006, together with Sweden's High Coast. Its low islands, moraine ridges, and boulders show the land uplift like a living textbook. The Replot Bridge connects Vaasa with the islands, and from the Saltkaret lookout tower on Björkö you can survey the flat, ever-changing landscape. Korsholm, near Vaasa, has churches and manor houses, while Old Vaasa preserves the ruins of the original town. Jakobstad has Skata, one of the largest surviving wooden-house districts in Finland, as well as the Jacobstads Wapen, a replica of an 18th-century sailing ship. Kristinestad in the south is a wooden town with narrow lanes and the narrowest alley in the country, and Närpes calls itself the tomato capital of Finland.

Food, Getting There, and the Best Time to Visit

The cuisine is hearty and shaped by Swedish traditions: fish soup, fried Baltic herring, and kroppkakor, potato dumplings. In summer, you can get fresh tomatoes and cucumbers straight from the greenhouses. You can reach Vaasa by train from Seinäjoki, and the airport has connections to Helsinki and Stockholm. Ferries cross the Kvarken to Umeå. The best time to visit is June through August, when midsummer festivals are celebrated with tall majstång poles and the islands are accessible by boat or bicycle.