FAMILY ROAD TRIP TO HANKO

I always wanted to visit Hanko, Finland. And so glad that we finally did. The city was so peaceful and beautiful and a lot of things to see and explore. Have you been to Hanko, Finland? If you haven’t I recommend to visit the place.

We woke up early and left the house early. Our goal was to drive early to arrive at the destination early too. The earlier the better. So it was just a 2.5-hour drive from home. Not very far but still a long and quite challenging ride with little kids. We left around 8:30, okay not very early. We planned to leave by 7:30 but it’s just hard to be early with little kids.

Anyway, it was a great ride. I love road trips around Finland. I enjoy mostly the view and the scenery. As we know Finland is a beautiful country and everywhere you can see green fields, trees and I love that kind of scenery. On the way, the kids behaved and they were so excited to arrive. They thought that we were going to the beach, so they were so happy and excited.

I honestly did not know what to expect but I saw a few photos of Hanko and they all look nice. So I was a little excited to visit the place. We arrived around 11. Though it was not very early anymore, the city was very quiet and no people around. The first thing I wanted to check was “Coco Hanko”. It was still empty. But the shops were already open. We took a few photos with the sign Coco Hanko and after realizing that the restaurant was still closed, we decided to walk around.

We walked around and just explored the harbour. They had a food festival, but again not so many were open yet since it was still early. We checked some shops too!

It was so beautiful there. There were so many nice boats and you could only just dream about having one. Okay, I honestly not dream of having a boat, but I guess it is nice to have one. After walking around and taking pictures, everyone was hungry so we decided to grab lunch. We found this restaurant nearby. They had a lunch buffet and we went there. The food was good and the kids ate so it was good. We had a long day ahead of us so we needed to eat.

We then started walking again and the kids asked for an ice cream. So we bought some.

We walked towards the red tower. It was a long walk but worth it. The tower was very high and nearby it was also a church.

The entrance of the tower was 5€ per person. There was an elevator to take you to the top and from there you can pay for the entrance. The view from up was so nice. You can see the whole city from up there. Quite scary to look down but it was beautiful. It was nice that there were not so many people at that time. So it was not crowded.

After checking the red tower, we walked again this time our destination was the beach. We found this beautiful wide beach. It was so nice there and again not so many people which was nice. In front of the beach was a big old building and I think it was a restaurant too. We stayed a little while, took pictures and then we walked again.

We found another beach and this one has a playground nearby. My 4-year-old was so happy playing there while I was nearby watching her play. Here at this place were already very crowded and a lot of kids. It was 2 PM and the city now became a busy city. The weather was so perfect that day. Sunny but not very hot. It was 18 degrees. When my daughter got tired of playing, we decided to head back to where we parked the car. We were very far from where we parked the car and not even sure where we were. But we just walked and thankfully found the place where we left the car.

We were supposed to go home already, but my daughter remembered why we hadn’t been swimming yet. So we decided to drive to the beach where you can go swimming and we did. It was a few minutes drive. We arrived at the beautiful place. Quiet place and not crowded. Meu and the two younger kids went swimming. I was too lazy to go swimming, so I was just there taking their photos and videos.

We had a picnic blanket and had a little picnic at the beach. We brought some snacks with us. It was so nice to end our trip. We have done a lot of things in a short time there.

It was already late and around 5 we drove back home. We spent 6 hours in Hanko and for me, it was enough to explore the city. We did not check all the places but we have seen a lot. I am delighted that we visited Hanko finally. And I am looking forward to more road trips like this around Finland again.