Plan Kokkola: Neristan, one of the Nordics' largest preserved wooden old towns, the 1854 gunboat in the English Park and boats to the Tankar lighthouse island.
Wooden Old Town on the Ostrobothnian Coast
A historic seafaring town with the English Park and its boat captured in 1854.
A bilingual seaport in Central Ostrobothnia built around Neristan, one of the largest preserved wooden old towns in the Nordics. Its English Park guards a captured British gunboat from 1854, and the lighthouse island of Tankar lies offshore. A relaxed coastal stop on the long drive north.
June–August for Neristan, Tankar island and the coast. Year-round as a road-trip stop on Highway 8.
Direct flights to Kokkola-Pietarsaari from Helsinki (about 1 h). Main-line trains from Helsinki (about 3 h 45 min). Drive from Helsinki (480 km, ~5 h) up Highway 8.
One of the largest preserved wooden old towns in the Nordics: hundreds of low timber houses in narrow lanes on the north side of the river.
A waterside park sheltering a captured British gunboat from the 1854 battle of Halkokari, the only Royal Navy vessel held as a war trophy in Finland.
A small fishing and pilot island off the coast with a red-and-white lighthouse, an old chapel and seal colonies. Summer boat tours run from the harbour.
The regional museum spread across historic merchant houses in Neristan, including the 18th-century Roos House.
A villa restaurant on a small island by the marina, a summer dining institution reached on foot across a causeway.
A wooden cruciform church from the 1600s on the edge of town, one of the oldest in the region.