Adventure holidays in Finland have much to offer

Finland is ripe for adventure holidays, as the Scandinavian country offers a wide range of potential activities, including tracking one of nature's most majestic mammals.

Rosalind Sykes, writing in the Financial Times about an adventure holiday she took, highly recommends that travellers try the exhilarating experience of bear-watching, as she describes her first encounter.

"[There is] a collective intake of breath – two lugubrious masses are lumbering our way," she writes.

"The bears stop – our hearts do too – about 10 metres away. They lower all their rippling brawn to the ground, extend their front legs, bury their snouts and begin to chomp concertedly."

Any time over the next few months is ideal for going bear-watching, says Ms Sykes. The mammals begin to emerge from hibernation in April and the optimum season for tracking them ends in August.

Brown Bears, of which there is an abundance in Finland, are huge animals which can grow anywhere between 1.7 and 2.8 metres tall.