A pioneer of sustainable tourism

Haltia Lake Lodge is a boutique nature hotel located in the heart of the magnificent Nuuksio National Park, yet only half an hour from the hustle and bustle of Helsinki. The hotel offers accommodation in both lodge rooms and glamping tents, also organising a variety of nature experiences for its guests. All activities are local and strongly based on the principles of nature conservation and sustainability. Woodio products can be found in all hotel rooms and guest toilets of the lodge, in the form of washbasins, decorative panels and hooks. 

Opened in 2021, the hotel has a strong profile as a pioneer of sustainable tourism and has already won several awards in its short history. These include the World Boutique Hotel Awards 2022 Best Sustainable Hotel: Europe as well as the Finnish Travel Gala 2023 Responsible Tourism Operator of the Year.

The spaces of Haltia Lake Lodge 

The nature hotel’s accommodation spaces are comprised of 20 stylish hotel rooms and five luxurious glamping tents. In addition, the hotel offers a living-room-like Forest Lounge & Bar serving drinks and snacks, the NOOX conference room, the Design Shop and, of course, the Sauna & Vilpola facilities for sauna experiences. 

Haltia Lake Lodge was designed in an existing building that had previously served as a student residence for the Solvalla Sports Academy. The nature surrounding the building inspired the design of the hotel on many levels, and as the process progressed, the concept of the hotel’s facilities became based on the idea of “wilderness elegance”, which can be experienced for example in the hotel’s lounge. 

The hotel rooms are elegantly minimalist, thanks to the use of clear and easily accessed materials and colours. The rooms exude a sense of peace and quiet, and everything unnecessary, including the TV, has been stripped away. The interior is layered and uses new and old design and upcycled items, such as furniture and cutlery. 

On the floor where the hotel rooms are located, the colour scheme reflects the environment and the amount of natural light. The side of the shady forest and rocks is reflected in the hotel rooms’ entrances and showers in a greyish colour scheme. As the bedrooms are located on the more scenic lake side, lighter tones such as white and light pine slat have been used on the wall surfaces. 

In nature, the amount of light varies, so the lighting level in the hotel rooms can also be adjusted or blocked completely with dimmers. The nature photographs by Markus Varesvuo, selected for the rooms, beautifully complement the overall concept of the nature hotel, where the guests can stay and live like a bird in its nest, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. 

Sustainable choices are prioritized in the nature hotel 

At Haltia Lake Lodge, environmental values and sustainability are reflected in many ways: in the renovation project itself, in the choice of materials and products, as well as in the use of colours and lighting. The hotel has taken into account the materials’ durability and ease of maintenance, but also the fact that the surface treatments can be renewed several times and spare parts are available for repairs. The products’ recyclability and the proportion of recycled material in them play also a part in the procurement criteria. 

The environmental certification for accommodation establishments, Green Key, guides all hotel operations and processes. Local products are prioritised, and the restaurant favours organic and vegetarian food and avoids food waste, for example through the breakfast plate model. Electricity comes from renewable sources and no single-use plastics or containers are used. 

Why Woodio?

All bathrooms of the hotel rooms have a wall-mounted Woodio Cube40 washbasin, and the wall-mounted toilet seat enclosure is topped with a shelf made of the Woodio Wall interior panel. There are Woodio Hooks on the walls, and one of them also serves as a pull for the bathroom cabinet. Woodio washbasins and the Wall panels bring natural and warm feeling to the otherwise dark-coloured bathroom space. The washbasins in the guest bathrooms in the hotel lounge are Woodio Soft60, in the forest green shade Moss that looks like it was made just for Haltia Lake Lodge. 

The minimalistic design of the Woodio washbasins matches the interior design style and colour scheme of the hotel rooms, and the Woodio products fit in with the concept of the hotel. Their wear resistance, the sustainability and the environmental friendliness of the wood composite material also favoured their selection, as did their compact size and strong and stable wall mounting brackets. 

“We have been very pleased with our choice. The impression of quality is an essential part of the hotel concept and Woodio’s products are a perfect fit. Especially the foreign guests, who will be even more numerous in the future, have been absolutely delighted and have also been curious about the origin of Woodio’s materials and products,” says Teemu Tuomarla, the CEO of Haltia Lake Lodge. 

Photos: Haltia Lake Lodge

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