'I visited EU country to see why they're so happy and found one big reason'

Just what is the and why do the have it? These were the two things at the forefront of my mind as we.

has had the happiest people for the past seven years. And it has 5.5 million people and 2.5 million saunas, so they know how to relax. But we were heading to ’s Arctic Lakeland, which sits 350 miles north of Helsinki. While not quite being in the Arctic Circle, it is just beneath it and has the name to distinguish it from the area further south.

We flew into Helsinki from Heathrow on Finnair before transferring to a propeller plane that provided a taste of what was to come. Forest as far as the eye could see, punctuated by huge lakes. The area – renowned for its wildlife – is the size of Belgium (population over 11 million), with just 70,000 people living there. It is known for its own

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And as we sat, silently, in our hide, it only took moments for the first of them to appear. A brown bear arrived to one side, homing in on meat treats left to lure him out. He calmly sat, eating his fill, while ravens jealously looked on and skittish wolves came ever closer.

Later our guide from Wild Taiga, Janne, took us to the home of Kerttu and Michael-Angelo Tzoumas, a snug wooden cabin a few miles down a track in the woods. They told us how they lived a relatively simple existence. Yes, they have wi-fi, but they also have a lake 50 yards away where they can swim, fish, boat and enjoy life. Over coffee in traditionalcups and homemade cake, we heard how they’d made their life work in such a remote location.

Kerttu spoke so enthusiastically about living out here it was hard not to call up Rightmove there and then. The couple enjoy a peaceful, simple life that makes the quietest parts of the feel like a metropolis. She spoke of freedom, living in the moment, whether that’s packing snow around the house to keep it warm or swimming in the lake to cool off in summer.

We pressed on to Lentiira – a hamlet of 100, 28 miles from the nearest shop – remote in a way it’s hard to imagine. There Elise Heikkinen-Johnstone runs a holiday village with her astronomer Scottish husband Rob Johnstone.

The area has some of the darkest of dark skies and is a hot spot for those who want to literally look into the past using Rob’s huge telescope. Alas for us the weather was our enemy and stargazing was off. But lunch was very much on: elk stew with carrots, potato and onion with crunch coming from toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds. Wholesome, traditional, a perfect match for the setting, and the people. It was served with tar bread – the tar is sap extracted from burning wood.

There are small lodges dotted around the lake at the holiday village, for a maximum of 43 people, who come for solitude, dark skies and saunas. But before the heat, we went on a walk into the forest with Elise. The forest floor was coated with crowberries, lingonberries, blueberry plants and mushrooms. We were given kuksa cups, a traditional small wooden bowl-like cup with a handle. Mainly used for drinking from, we used them to find our forest haul.

We saw every shade of green, yellow and orange, already beautiful, but the moment the sun came out it was as though the colour flicked to extra vivid. Absolutely stunning. Surrounded by pine and birch trees, it was almost spiritual – like living, breathing mindfulness. Feeling my feet sink into the deep mossy ground, while holding on to a pine trunk, it was impossible not to feel an intense connection with nature.

Elise said: "Forest and nature is everywhere – it’s what makes us so happy". She told us that as well as health benefits, it’s a form of meditation/mindfulness. It’s not hard to see why – the peacefulness, tranquillity and beauty were there to wash over you.

. There’s a deep-rooted belief in the health benefits – physical and mental – of their heat, followed by the plunge into cold water. Elise told us: "Saunas are deep in our DNA – they’re a necessity. It gets to -40C here". We were about to experience the very oldest kind (and believed to be the best by Finns) – smoke saunas. Now few and far between in Finland, they were once ubiquitous.

Wood is set alight in a "furnace" beneath large rocks, which heat up over a period of hours. The smoke is allowed to fill the room – there’s no chimney – then released and it’s ready for use. The soot-blackened room looked like something you’d find in Mordor. It was so hot it made my ears hurt and my eyes sweat.

The trickiest bit was the 10-yard dash to the neighbouring lake (a bracing 11C) to get “refreshed”. The first time I waded in thigh-deep. But the second time, I got my shoulders in for one (very) brief moment, then back to the furnace. After an hour of this hot/cold contrast, I came out feeling – and smelling – lightly smoked but with a lightness in my step and clarity of mind.

Our final stop was a night and day in The contrast of arriving at a busy, cosmopolitan city has never quite been as stark. But the five-star NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa hotel was beautiful – an old building given new, luxurious life.

Drinks in the Kupoli cocktail bar with panoramic views across the city was quite the way to settle in. A boat tour of the archipelago outside the city harbour shows just how closely nature and calm can sit to city life. And after a couple of hours taking in the city sights, that was it.

That will stay with me, as well as the smell of smoke. The pace of life, the closeness to nature, there was more than a little bit of Finland for me to bring home and boost my own happiness.

Book the holiday

• Finnair flies from Heathrow via Helsinki to Kajaani, Finland, starting at £236 return.
• Rooms at the Hotel Kalevala in Kuhmo start at around £84 a night.
• Rooms at the NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa hotel start at around £101 a night.
• More info at