FINLAND

Geography: Finland is the seventh largest country in Europe and shares borders with Sweden, Russia and Norway. Forests cover two-thirds of the country with one-third in the arctic zone. 

Climate: Finland can get cold - in the south, down to -5°C in January and February. In the north below -15°C during the winter months when it is also dark most of the day time. In summer the midnight sun brings it up to about 15°C in the north and around 20°C in the south. So, you'll probably have a better time in the warmer months, either in summer or say May to September when summer is the time of the midnight sun. Despite snow falls from November, it stays pretty sludgy until late winter; so skiing isn't great until February, the coldest month, and you can ski in Lapland right through to June.

Language: Finnish & Swedish (English is widely spoken in tourist places) With 6% of the population speaking Swedish, Finland is officially a bilingual country. Finnish is a language that is closely related to Estonian and Karelian; with common origins with languages spoken in the Volga basin. The most widely spoken of the Finno-Ugric languages is Hungarian, but similarities with Finnish are few.

Currency: Markka