Author: Art Merikotka

Is Iceland worth visiting?

This article is a combined opinion of several people who travelled to Iceland at different times and may help you understand whether it is worth visiting Iceland during your exchange or not.

Why is going to Lofoten a great idea?

This article is my personal experience about our travel with Timetravels and the ESN Lappeenranta section to the Lofoten islands in April 2024. To this day, I have visited 25 countries. My experience is vast and varied enough to name myself an experienced traveller. And here you can see some of the pictures I took there. The full gallery is accessible here.

Travel is a journey, not a destination, and I always try to have it as much as possible. Discovering new places, meeting people, and observing foreign cultures gives you a better life perspective. It can make you feel better by valuing what you have or understanding what you must improve in life. You can travel alone, you might go with your friends, you will pick accidentally a junkie hostel, or book a luxury penthouse. All that gives one’s perspective and experience.

Some people can’t or don’t know how to start travelling, and something stops them from booking their trip. Ignoring philosophical reasons, one of them is planning complications. Budget is crucial for students, as students usually don’t end up in a five-star hotel during peak season.

Timetravels has been doing business for years. They have a stable system of organizing events and providing local entertainment properly.

I liked our professional drivers on our trips (I also went to Lapland once), and that you sit on the bus in front of the university, and arrive at your destination the next day. A long bus ride might be exhausting, but we had regular stops, and Lofoten trips are less crowded, so we had enough space in the bus.

This semester, the cost of the Lofoten trip is only around 400€. This is cheaper than flights there and back from several European capitals, which I briefly checked right now. After getting there on your own, you must book your car or find another way of transportation, and the place itself is not cheap for such services. And we get with this amount a week-long trip with accommodation and a basic program.

I was pretty spoiled by visiting Iceland three times before the trip to Lofoten, and I have seen such or even more powerful landscapes in my life. However, I still found my places that remain in my memory.

Funny enough, due to the climatic zone of Lofoten, we experienced an enjoyable spring, while the entire Finland was under a cover of heavy blizzard that paralysed several roads. It was fascinating to feel the power of the ocean’s warm currents over the group of islands located several hundred kilometers to the North, behind the Arctic Circle.

Perhaps the most important thing about that trip was that I was there with my university buddies, and we had a great time full of positive emotions. Many of them have finished their exchange, and they are somewhere, but we will never forget how we were there together.

Don’t spoil your opportunity, take your friends, and book your trip with Timetravels and ESN Lappeenranta.

– Art Merikotka