Guest House Herranniemi — Hotel in Pielinen Karelia

First the good stuff. The views are magnificent and the horizon view of Koli is fantastic. The beach is sandy and nice to swim from. We stayed in the Kaisla cottage and it was very spacious, the sauna was a wood stove and worked well and the showers were good. We stayed for 1 night, 9th July 2025.||Now for the bad stuff. The staff were not interested and look tired, the reception was locked when we arrived (15:30) and when we left (12:00) and we even had to ring them up to open the door so we could pay! We were never shown the accommodation in person and they never asked if we needed anything or how we enjoyed our stay.||The cottage Kaisla was not clean. The old settee was full of hairs (dog?) and need hoovering before we could sit on it.. An old chair next to it looked like it was ready for the bin. When we cleaned the table the white cloth (ours as we could not find any in the kitchen) was black - probably from soot from last time the fireplace was used (which was full of ashes). We had to cut our own wood and search for an axe. The kitchen drawers did not open too well and had old plates which were still dirty. Underneath the oven was a drawer with a dirty pan and rotting food which looked disgusting. Fridge light did not work and TV could only be switched on or off from the mains. Old Christmas lights were dangling from the walls and there were cobwebs on the lights immediately above the dining table.||The terrace and balcony area were dirty and the fence needed painting. Next door was a smaller cottage which was now derelict. Why is this still standing? The grounds and area around the cottage are overgrown and not maintained.||The whole area needs a lot of attention and the cottage is simply not good enough. We paid 145€ + 12€ for sheets per person. So $169 is ok if the place was clean and maintained. ||So in short, magnificent scenery and views but very poor accommodation and...

Yeah this was not an ideal B&B experience. Mainly because they have not understood that what they sell here is not just accommodation but mostly an experience. Upon arrival we were not welcomed at all and the check in was done quickly while letting us know that there was large - an more important - wedding party that they were just introducing the place to. Mistake no 1: never make your customer notice that they are not as important as some other customer. |The breakfast is a big part of a B&B. Well, this time it was not good. When entering the breakfast area, the personnel said nothing but just basically tried to be as they never noticed us. No one even bothered to say good morning. The selection was very limited and they did not stack up quickly. A very small change would have made the breakfast much better: someone just simply saying good morning and asking if we would have wanted for example fried eggs. |The beach has an outdoor toilet (why there, right in the middle of the beach??) and it has a lot of small ants.|The sauna was under construction and the movable sauna does not really make up for it. |Very minor changes could make this place much better: loose the beach toilet, some attention to customer service and easy and relatively unexpensive upgrades to the...

First time in Karelia, first time in Finland. At Kestikievari Herraniemi we had the opportunity to experience a true finnish sauna, swimming in the pristine lake Pielinen, tried excellent home-made local food from local ingredients.||||Accomodation was superb, cozy warm room, clean bathroom with all the necessary things provided. We could use a common kitchen, which was also well equipped. Continental breakfast was included in the price, plus fresh local berries from their garden every morning.||||For a longer stay, they will get you a discount price. You can also rent bikes or boats or just enjoy a walk in the countryside. They had two cute dogs around, which even the cat people must fall in love with :-) The host took us to the train station for free as we were running late! Never had such an amazing experience.||||Would come back again, maybe some time during...