Travel tip: Finnish car museums

Juho Peltomäki wrote on January 16, 2021 -- 2min read

Images by: saabisti.fi

We have about 20 car museums in Finland, but as a travel tip for your IntSaab2021 journey, I’d like to introduce three of them. The first one is The Uusikaupunki Automobile Museum, located next to the Valmet Automotive car factory. The second one is Mobilia, which is more than a car museum, and the third one is Vehoniemi, which was last year ranked as the best car museum in Finland.

The Uusikaupunki Automobile Museum

You’ll find this museum right next to the Valmet Automotive car factory. Today the factory is building cars for Daimler, but they used to build Saabs, too. And not only build, but they also designed cabriolet models (excluding the last 9-3) and some other models plus some cool prototypes. Those prototypes are on display at the museum including for example the 9000 V8, the 9000 Cabriolet, the NG900 Coupé, the Opel Calibra Cabriolet… The museum is not only about those prototypes, though: there is also a huge collection of more ordinary Saabs and also some other brands.

Uusikaupunki is a small coastal town and during summer those towns come to life because of such a short boating season. The centre of town is split by a canal from the Baltic Sea and there are restaurants in old wooden buildings along it. The Bonk Museum and Children’s Innovatorium is a fantastic journey into the world of imagination. And it is located along the canal, too.

If the old Nordic wooden town is something you like to see, remember that Old Rauma is on UNESCO World Heritage list and it is only 50 km north of Uusikaupunki.

Mobilia

Mobilia is in Kangasala, next to the Tampere. It’s not only a car museum, it is an automobile and road traffic museum that exhibits both individual vehicles but also the whole history of road traffic in Finland. In summer, Mobilia is a great excursion destination for the whole family. There is its own beach, restaurang, tracks for pedal cars, a lot of different exhibitions including road construction site huts and the list goes on. It is also an established meeting place for local car clubs.

Kangasala is a small town that is known for its beautiful ridges surrounded by lakes. There are also many observation towers available. And because it is next to Tampere, there is also the Särkänniemi park and Finland’s longest road tunnel. Tampere is such a big city (in Finnish scale) that it is easy to search travel tips by yourself.

Vehoniemi

The Vehoniemi car museum is also located in Kangasala, only a few kilometers from Mobilia. It’s located on top of a protected ridge that is part of the Natura2000 network. That museum has free entrance and it has an awesome cafeteria. There is also an observation tower next to it. In 2020 it was ranked the best car museum in Finland!

 

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