Golf courses and places to stay: Pohjois-Karjala

A spa hotel on the shore of Lake Pielinen in Nurmes, set beside the Karelian Bomba house and its Karelian village, with accommodation in hotel rooms and log cabins. The Pielis-Golf course is just under a kilometre away.

A youth and holiday centre on the shore of Lake Pielinen in Nurmes offering hotel and hostel accommodation, holiday apartments and a campsite with cabins. The Pielis-Golf course lies right beside the centre.

Soinilan lomamökit rents three cottages on the shore of Lake Rikkavesi at Outokumpu, along the road between Joensuu and Outokumpu. Laura and Pirkonlahti are winterised and sleep four plus two extra beds; the 74-square-metre Laura has a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a WC, a sauna and a washroom, along with its own boat and jetty, while Ahosaaren mökki is an island cottage for four that is used in summer only. The cottages can be booked all year round, and the Maarianvaara ski centre is a short drive away. The Outokummun Golfseura course is about 14 kilometres away.

Kosmos-tilat is an ensemble of wooden architecture run by Field Studies Oy at Kontiolahti, combining accommodation, meetings and celebrations. The main building, Usva House, measures 370 square metres and is built from CLT panels and a digitally cut solid timber frame using traditional mortise joints, without nails or screws; the facade is charred by the Shou Sugi Ban technique and the design is by Ateljé Sotamaa. It holds four bedrooms for up to ten people, a 70-square-metre grand hall and four meeting rooms for four to six, a full kitchen and a sauna; meetings are held for 6 to 30 people, private dinners for 5 to 30 and cocktail events for 80 to 100. The grounds also hold the 28-square-metre relocatable Ufo mini house for one person, with underfloor heating, a landscape window and a composting toilet but no running water, and the Meteorite House completed in 2020, twelve metres high and 700 cubic metres in volume, which can be visited on a guided tour. Joensuu airport is 25 kilometres away. The Karelia Golf course is about 2.6 kilometres away.

KontioLomat lets eight furnished apartments in the former Kontioniemi school at Kontiolahti. The school closed in 2014 and the building was renovated for accommodation in 2021. The apartments are studios and one-bedroom units for one to six people, available for both short and long stays. They come with bedding and towels, a fridge, a kettle, a microwave, a stove and dishes, air conditioning, a television, a shower and toilet and a hairdryer, and the house has free wireless internet and parking. In the yard there is a café and restaurant serving lunch, and twelve electrified places for motorhomes; a sauna can be hired separately. Pets are not allowed. The Karelia Golf course is about 1.9 kilometres away.

Haikolan talo rents summer storehouse rooms in Kohtavaara, Nurmes. Five furnished storehouses stand in a row, each sleeping four and each with electric heating, a fridge, a microwave, a kettle and a coffee maker, tableware and a bookshelf of its own; they are 12 to 16 square metres and the house wifi reaches them. A sixth storehouse is a shared service building with a kitchen with a stove, a small oven and a microwave, a toilet and a shower, and guests may also use a shower and two toilets on the ground floor of the main house. The storehouses were thoroughly renovated in 2020, and in summer solar panels and batteries make the electricity supply nearly self-sufficient. Rates are 50 to 60 euros a night for one or two people, an extra person 10 euros a night; in one of the storehouses pets are allowed for a 10-euro pet fee. The renovated sauna in the basement of the main house costs guests 10 euros a person. The owner says the season begins in May depending on the weather and ends at the end of September, though for a group the storehouses can still be heated in October. The Pielis-Golf clubhouse is about 4.6 kilometres away as the crow flies.