Orilammen Maja — Hotel in Kouvola sub-region

Orilampi Holiday Center is no place to come and expect luxurious surroundings, but if you want short distance to Repovesi national park, lakeside residence with sandy beach and good food, this is your place. ||||Rooms are more or less outdated, or "retro", if you like. I have stayed in the "Rinnemajat" and the "Kartanomajat". In both of them the furniture is very basic, and in the case of our room in Rinnemaja, the sofa was horrible to sit. However, with 95e per night for two in that room, I would not go expecting four-start hotel interior. Bed linen was clean and even though the bed made noise every time I turned (same for the hubby), I slept really well.||||In my two experiences cleaning leaves a lot to hope for. First time we came in 2015 the Kartanomaja room smelled to strongly on sweat, that I was afraid it would stick to our clothes. The next time (2017 July) the Rinnemaja room was otherwise clean and non-smelling, but the cleaners had left milk cartons to the fridge, apparently by the previous visitors. ||||The main building is as outdated as the rooms, but serves its purpose. There is a bar, restaurant and you can get coffee and cake throughout the day and read daily newspapers; there is even a small shop. ||||Food is good (we ate a'la carte three days in a row) and the Chef seems to make an effort. Avoid the fish soup though, it is made to water, not milk/cream like traditionally in Finland, and it did not taste that good. They make their own bread for breakfast (sämpylät) and the bacon was the best ever: crispy and not limp like in most places in Finland. ||||There are three saunas: electric with swimming pool in the main building, free for everyone staying daily; traditional smoke sauna by the pond on the other side of the road; and thirdly the sauna by the lake Vuohijärvi. ||||NOTE: Anne T. who writes the review "Retrohenkinen paikka..." (in Finnish) is mixing the saunas. What she calls the "Orilampisauna" is actually the sauna by the lake, and unfortunately it is as she describes, a bit messy and the shower is rather awful. But the smoke sauna by the Orilampi is very nice - I recommend you to try it if you get a chance. ||||There is a nice beach by the lake Vuohijärvi (,main site) and a possibility to go for a boat ride to the lakes, coffee and pulla included :-) But the main attraction I guess is the Repovesi national park, which is definitely worth the lack of luxury in the rooms. We were there for kayaking, and felt safe to leave the kayaks outside our room when not using them. ||||There are a lot of visitors, regulars staying at their caravans, and other staying for a day or two. Additionally we saw a busful of people joining the boat ride. Why the owners (the place is family-owned) don't invest in remodeling the rooms is beyond me, but maybe it is easy not to care if people only stay once 1-2 nights. ||||I still recommend the place especially if you plan to visit the Repovesi. Just leave high expectations home and find satisfaction in good weather and fresh bread in...

I have stayed in Orilampi Cottage and Holiday Center (also known as Orilammen maja or Orilammen lomakeskus) several times. This place is very earthy and close to nature. It is far from luxury but it is a very charming family-run company. They serve delicious homemade food buffets.||||They arrange very interesting waterbus cruises (M/S Tuuletar II) named Kultareitti (The Golden Route). The boat trip goes to Repovesi National Park and you see extremely beautiful lake views. The boat stops on the island of Mäntysaari. There you can visit a small wooden chapel and you see the oldest island cemetery in Finland. It is over 700 years old. There are two very low bridges on the route and then you have to come inside from the sun deck.||||Kultareitti departures are on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the summer (also on Sundays in July). Check possible changes. There are a toilet and a bar (coffee, refreshments, beer, wine, snacks) in the waterbus. They tell about the route and sights in Finnish but there are monitors with English texts inside the waterbus (but not on the sun deck). The cruise takes about two hours.||||The cruise, buffets and the small sandy beach are good for day...

Astonishing location between smaller and bigger lake. We had the cheapest room, a small camping cottage. First we were given a cottage that was under direct sunlight far into the evening making rest impossible. We managed to exchange it to one that got into shadow earlier. The cottage itself was ok but design of the bed was poor. Adult can not sleep on the upper bed with knees up and folded as they hit the roof and the upper parts of the cottage were unbearably hot far into the night. I slept on the floor instead. It would be better to have two ordinary beds in the cottage. Breakfast was a buffet style, there was porridge, omelettes, sausages, sandwitches and muesli etc. available, shortly a continental breakfast with Finnish influence. We forgot our sunglasses to our room and they refused to send them even us paying...