In what municipality your time share is? 325 miles north of Helsinki is a bit vague...

TB

we loved driving Finland several years ago..did not drive in Helsinki..rented car upon leaving to do a wide circle of Southern Finland...a beautiful countryside...these are some of my pre-digital scanned photos..they can be enlarged by clicking on magnifying glass icon and mouse-ing over them.
Wish these could have been better pics...but it'll give you a feel for the place... Happy travels...

stu tower

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/Finland#

The timeshare is in Nurmes. Thanks for any info!!!!

TB:
Ah, Nurmes. On the sun-drenched north shore of Lake Pielinen. Some of my pics above are taken in the lake country (birch-tree lined) north of Jyvaskala, not too far south of Nurmes, Jyv is a nice sized town to spend the night in..we stayed at The Cumulus Hotel..comfortable, nothing fancy...also bumped into a passable Italian resto in town...ate there for a change in diet.."Rosso's Pizzeria"...we also lke the feel of Mikkeli, and its nearby Ristina village ...and just a short motorway drive east of Helsinki, Porvoo (see my pix above..very colorful fishing town.

So, you might want to chart a course for Porvoo, tiny quaint Ristina, big town Mikkeli, then on to Nurmes....should be able to do it in two days of driving and sight-seeing...overnight in Mikkeli then on to Joensuu and into Nurmes... coming back to Helsinki, go a little different route to take in Savonlinna...handsome historic small city with a majestic old castle. The entire lake district is eye-catching.

Happy Finn Travels, TB

stu tower

Stu,
Thanks for the pics and info. It is all helpful. Any other ideas, keep them coming.

Savonlinna is my favourite too. And you should visit the Lake Saimaa (eastern part of Finland), unless you feel it is too much driving.
We did some canoeing in Saimaa (3 days) a few years ago and it was fantastic.

If you have only 4-5 days you really don´t have time for Savonlinna & co, too much driving. Just RELAX and enjoy nature. One place is a must, and that is Koli on the other side of the Lake Pielinen. I don´t know if there is a boat from Nurmes, but there is a boat from Lieksa (next municipality). It is a place that is usually described as "national scenery". Climb the hill (there are steps) and watch the scenery over the lake. That inspired for example composer Sibelius so much that he even had his honeymoon there. (He took his grand piano with him. I don´t know how he managed that in 1800´s.) The "capital" of the area is Joensuu. There is a lively marketplace and a museum named Carelicum. I like that one, my roots are in the part of Karelia that now belongs to Russia. I know that it has special importance to me, but also my husband with no ties to Karelia whatsoever found it fascinating. He said that it was the first place where he really understood what those 500 000 people went through in WWII.

I forgot. I was supposed to give you a link to North Karelia tourism website. It might give you some ideas. Here: http://www.kareliaexpert.fi/en/frontpage/

Thanks to those who have repled to my questions. This is all so helpful.