Hiring a car in the Finnish winter?

I will be in Rovaniemi for just over a week in March. I’ve not been before but Mrs Kilo was there last year and said she seemed to be getting a taxi every to go to some excursion or other so I am considering a cheap hire car rather than €50 or so each return trip.

Will driving in the snow in Finland be more pleasant / safe than driving in snow in the UK. Anything else I need to know about hiring / driving in Finland ?

Chances are you will be on studded tyres. Having used them in Are a couple of years back it was much much better than trying to drive in the uk in snow.
Just take your time that’s all

I would put money on the roads being hard-pack ice with grit in or, inside towns, possibly cleared. If you are on studded or friction winter tyres, it will be a lot like driving normally, just remember not to go wild and think a bit further ahead. If they give you an automatic, it may well have a winer mode; you will likely not need that.

TL;DR: The car will have the right tyres on, just drive normally (i.e. not like a kid in the snow for the first time).

I hired a car from Rovaniemi for a week over the xmas break a few years back

Driving was bloody brilliant. I might have tried to see what the limits were but I can confirm the tyres are studded and the grip is surprisingly high. I only got a bit nervous on some of the less ploughed roads that were essentially tracks heading through rarely used areas (had to use them to get to a very quiet lakeside lodge). But on all the normal roads travel was absolutely fine

It is MUCH safer driving in wintry conditions there than here. I had a normal FWD estate

Car never needed deicing, it was too dry, used to blow the snow off. I took my own car seats for the kids as I had luggage space, otherwise they need hiring.

yep – you’ll definitely be on studded tyres – it’s law to have them on in winter.

Remember there’s a minimum height rule over the jumps – at least 4ft off the ground or it’s a week in a thermal pool until you look like a prune! 🙂

Done this  a lot the last few years through work.

I used Greenmotion and Avis at Rovaniemi with no issues.

The cars were Skoda Scala and Toyota Avensis, which was all bells and whistles but was amazing in the snowy conditions. They are really popular in Lapland. The only thing with the Avensis was, during one ‘warmer’ period I got a build up of ice around the brakes, which gave me all sorts of warnings in the car. I ended up borrowing a sledge hammer and used the shaft (not the head) to break the ice off.

Main issues you might face are:

Nearly all driving will be in the dark/twilight.

Blinded by spotlights on other cars (Finns are big on spots).

Having to break rapidly for reindeer who often hang around the verges.

White outs.

On lesser country roads beware of passing other cars in the opposite direction. If the ploughing isn’t all the way to the edge of the road and you veer into the thicker snow, it can pull you into the side. This is not good as nearly all roads have drainage ditches (2-3m wide and 1m deep). A colleague had a slow motion comedy slide into a ditch. No drama as the ditch was snow-filled, but needed to be pulled out by a passing tractor with plough.

Having said all that, if you drive sensibly, you’ll have no problems.

I took myself up there and hired a car for a weekend early November – so exactly 8 years ago. camping hammock, big winter bag, thick mat underneath. Hired a car, drove about, walked a bit. 600km of rivers, roads and reindeer. It was magic, everthing was starting to freeze up and slow down. Quiet.

Driving was fine, roads were icey, but mostly chunky, refrozen stuff so pretty grippy. I remember a couple of bits of slick ice, which was practically gripless, so I think I was on winters rather than studded tyres.

One tip in addition to the above – when you get back to the airport, don’t put your flat keys in the hire car drop box instead of the car key…

yep – you’ll definitely be on studded tyres – it’s law to have them on in winter.

Only winters, no requirement for studs.
I’m just coming to the end of my second decade of winters in Sweden. Done almost all of them in a

normal FWD estate

Have done a mix of studs and friction over the years. Only time the studs come into their own is polished/slick ice. But i’ve never come properly unstuck with frictions.

Just plan a little bit further ahead and you’ll be fine.

Will driving in the snow in Finland be more pleasant / safe than driving in snow in the UK

Do you think a country that sees snow 6 months of the year would be able to operate with the chaos we see? Of course not. Every country caters for its normal weather, it’s just the 1% where it’s not worth the expense to deal with it. Same is true for Finland.

In my experience the snow stays dry (unlike UK snow), because its cold, so on most roads the snow gets pulverised and the draught of passing cars blows it away. In side streets there is packed ice, yes, but your car will have studded tyres and theres hard grit (actual stony gravel not salt) everywhere. Main routes are cleared, they have a continuous operation of ploughing then taking the piles away with diggers and dumping it in the lake/sea.

When I was there (in the South) everyone drove normal cars normally. The only incident I saw was people grounding their cars on the triangle of snow left between the routes cars normally take, when they tried to do a weird manoeuvre or a last minute change of direction.

Amazing photos @nedrapier, thanks for sharing. 

Thanks all, looks like it might be quite fun to get a car. I’m not planning on any xc skiing so may have a few days with time to kill.

So it happens that that it is my hometown where I lived for 32 years and still spend few weeks there every year…

Most of the facts were already laid out but I repeat few of them here. Rental cars will have winter tyres, studded or not, non-studded are grippier version than the ones used in e.g. Germany. In March there is already more daylight but weather can be just about anything from +10 during the day to -20C or colder during the nights. This means the roads may be bone-dry or covered in ice and snow depending on location or actual conditions.

The reindeer like to graze on sides of the roads, lick the salt from the roads, walk on the roads or just stand around, their logic is rather hard to follow. They are quite light animals so usually accidents that involve them become serious only when vehicles collide with each or with something else. However, elk/moose also live in the region and they are much more of hazard in collisions.

One more thing, March is prime season for winter fatbiking and there is groomed trailsystem starting from other side of the river in town centre.

These guys have had good bikes and they are the ones doing grooming  as well: https://rolloutdoors.com/en/

cheers nickc, nice to look at them again, so thanks @kilo for the memory jog!

Just been tootling about on Goggle earth, trying to piece together where I went! Camped just north of Rovaniemi on the first night, Drove north to Karigasniemi via a walk in Lemmenjoki NP, had an incredibl(y cold!) night with a big Northern Lights display just over the border in Norway. drove back along the border to Angeli, then back east and down, then south of Rovaniemi about 30 mins or an hour to a ski hill, then back the airport.

Those ice-covered roads are the small side-roads mind. Busy or main ones probably don’t get like that.

Can’t add much to the above but spent a month working in Kalajoki and my Finnish work colleague told me that people don’t generally travel in cars on their own. But I think that was a work policy. Did have to be aware of wandering reindeer etc across those country roads.
Had an Irish pub in the village though.

i’ve lived in a few cold places. as long as the temperature doesn’t get above freezing, you won’t get icy conditions. march may be late enough in the year to get ice. that said, the main roads and city streets will be gritted/salted/ploughed as required. if you’re in a bnb in a residential neighbourhood and get a dump of snow, you may need to help clearing a path.

i’d be surprised if it wasn’t a legal requirement to have winter tyres in finland. studs are obviously the best.

drive to the conditions and you’ll likely be fine.

edit: as above, be cautious of wildlife.

I’ll second what mmannerr said about fatbiking – Roll are a great little hire company with quality well maintained bikes, and the wide banked single-track channels that they plough are very fun (and surprisingly grippy even without studded tyres).

Those ice-covered roads are the small side-roads mind. Busy or main ones probably don’t get like that.

They do. Sorry.

Great thread – I’ve fancied getting up into the various Scandinavian countries for some time, I hadn’t considered Finland in the colder months, and I do like the idea of fatbiking in the snow. I used to ride my mountain bikes in snow if it was thick enough and packed down well, but it was bloody hard work with regular 2.2” tyres!

wow great video, nice one!

Colours at 3 minutes in the fat bike vid are something else 😮

Not talking about the northern lights neither, just that twilight pink and purple fade.

the far north is beautiful. took these pictures on the same morning. the orange one first the purple one about 15 minutes later

op, i know this was about hire cars, but fatbike some groomed trails if you get the chance.

pucs are from canada.

i miss the north. 7 months of winter aside.

the summer is beautiful, too, but i’ll spare you the pictures.

If they give you an automatic, it may well have a winer mode; you will likely not need that.

Is that like the old Borg-Warner gearboxes from the 80s that made a horrible droning noise in overdrive, or are they programmed to make it easy for you after you’ve had one too many glasses of cabernet sauvignon?

Doesn’t everyone drive like this in Finland?
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Only on the way to Alko the day before a long weekend/national holiday.

That’s where they get all these skills from. Sweden’s the same. It’s terrifying to see Olof on his way to Systemet at 16:00 on a Friday, sideways and airborne in his 40 year old Volvo…

Last 2 posts are so funny 🤣 I’d love to go to Finland, this thread has really set me off. Pics look fab, and I can do cold OK 👍

So a thread update for a bit of closure. Did go for a hire car in the end, probably was needed but handy to have. Toyota auto estate.  Winter tyres are excellent but still potential for a bit of spin on the smaller roads. In town was well cleared with the odd ice spots, out in the wilds had more compacted snow but no real dramas. Fortunately the predicted rain and ice didn’t turn up, just more snow. Would like to have done more exploring on the roads but bit time limited to do that.

As mentioned above by @mmanner fat e-bikes on snow trails are great and got a second session today.