When driving away from the rain in Heinola and via their ABC, we found ourselves in a beautiful little town by a lake called Kangasniemi. It’s in the middle of the lake district and maybe 60 kms southwest of Jyväskylä. The place doesn’t have any famous sights as such but we had a good time there. Not to mention how beautiful the drive was with lakes everywhere!
Kangasniemi had a cute little harbour downtown with the market place, fire station (“big truck!!!”) and a good restaurant right next to it. There was also a lovely little garden with all local traditional flowers. Even more exciting: the children were able to search the park for animal statues out of rock. Quite in the middle of the town there was also a cool playground.
The only thing I didn’t like about Kangasniemi (we had some sun too even though all pics seem to be taken when it was cloudy or raining) was the Kiviniemi campsite: it was filthy. The location was great, also by the lake Puula, and the whole layout had great potential, but the facilities were just not cleaned. Also, the summer worker in the reception was not the slightest bit helpful, just sat there playing on his mobile the whole day.
When I saw the owner I had to enquire if they had just opened for the season. The owner responded by asking if I’m one of those people nothing is good enough for. Apparently some women had cleaned the place two days earlier, and it is not his job to keep an eye on the facilities and that they stay tidy. (Who cares that the kitchenettes stink, rubbish bins are full, there is mud on the toilet floors and the spider webs and filth on the walls in the shower cubicles?)
We’ll, we were done driving for the day and pretty self-sufficient in our tent. We only used the fire place for cooking on fire in the wooden teepee shaped shelter (that also could have been great if…), so we stayed, but I definitively do not recommend the place to anyone.
Free But Fun 
[…] Lovely to spend lots of time outdoors and in the nature as well as cook on fire. […]
[…] campsite on our 9 day roadtrip through the lake region in central Finland (Helsinki-Heinola-Kangasniemi-Lievestuore-Jyväskylä so far), we drove west. We passed the famous and unique church in […]
My goodness, what a jerk! It’s never a good thing when a polite complaint is met with a bad attitude. Makes the whole experience less fun. The playground looks nice though, at least the kids were happy right? Haha. 🙂
Kids were very happy. Less so when we came home and they had to sleep INDOORS and in a BED. We are such horrible parents 😉
Hm. Never good to get attitude when flagging a problem. Sounds like they might have had a few complaints! I get that there are people who just can’t be pleased, but you’ve got glowing reviews of other camp sites, so it doesn’t seem you’re one of them!
But anyway, it looks very scenic and lovely playground.
What really turned my off was the attitude. I would have understood, if he’d say that they were fully booked over midsummer and hadn’t made it yet or had just opened for the season, many campsites have very limited staff resources so… But the idea that it had been cleaned 2 days ago and clearly he didn’t think there would be a need for a new clean in the near future. Eg in Heinäsaari they cleaned the common facilities at least in the morning and evening (that I saw), I can see the need when there are several people using them!
Anyway, we had a good time in the area, and I hope some ideas will grow in the mind of the owner and the campsite will be cleaned to welcome next visitors! 🙂
Looks like a beautiful spot – anywhere with lakes is good in my book! Shame about the camp site seems like looking after customers is not their thing!!
I agree.
Is this in India?
It’s always nice to catch up on your blog 🙂 Check out my travelogue too at http://www.5feetroundtheworld.com
Hi, thanks for stopping by. No, it’s in Finland. Hope you get loads of readers and enjoy your blogging! 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, there really is a town in india called Kangasniemi or roughly the same spelling anyway!
Really?! That is funny 🙂 Now I know that too, and might have to try to find it whenever we get to India!