Day Description

You will take short 55-minute flight from Helsinki airport to Savonlinna, the heart of Lake Saimaa. Our driver will be waiting for you when you land. After a 45 minute drive, you’ll arrive to the beautiful Hotel & Spa Resort Järvisydän in the village of Porosalmi. This will be our base camp for the upcoming days.

Since 1685, the Heiskanen family has provided travelers visiting Porosalmi in the northern part of beautiful Lake Saimaa with exceptional hospitality and services. In the beginning, a strong incentive for establishing the resort was an agreement between the Czar of Russia and the King of Sweden to build and maintain a road (an ice road during winter) through Finland. At the time, it was stipulated that a location for feeding horses and to accommodate travelers would need to be established at 30 km intervals along the way. Järvisydän in Porosalmi just happened to be located in one of these places.

Tapio and Eila Heiskanen had four sons who all grew up in Porosalmi and one of the sons, Jari Heiskanen, developed Järvisydän with his wife Raija. Jari and Raija had two children, one of them son Markus Heiskanen, who at the beginning of 21st century started to host guests at Järvisydän. He is now keeping a guest house in 11th generation.

Markus as young and eager host has built some more villas, a hotel, Finnish Sauna World, a tepee restaurant, Restaurant Piikatyttö & Wine Cellar, new Lotjabaari – boat bar, the Lake Spa and who knows what other plans there are in the head of Markus… But despite all of this expansion, closest to the heart of the host Markus and the whole Järvisydän household is still the beautiful nature of the location – in the first place because it has been bringing people there and that’s why the household of Järvisydän still wants to take their guests to the nature to hear stories about its secrets and the lives of those in the old times in Porosalmi.

 Before getting a good night’s rest in the sky view suites, you’ll get to enjoy dinner in the Tavern restaurant. You will be served a 3-course dinner from local ingredients and delicacies. It’s time to rest and get ready for an action-packed safari day…