Lively Lempäälä and its idyllic lake landscapes offer a range of fun activities from shopping to canoeing and from hiking to visiting museums and theme parks.
Lempäälä canal, which connects Lake Pyhäjärvi with Lake Vanajavesi via several locks, is a fascinating attraction. There can be up to 3,000 lock operations every year. The Hopealinja (Silver Line) boat route between Hämeenlinna and Tampere travels along the canal, allowing you to take a cruise towards Visavuori or Tampere.
Lempäälä is worth a visit for the sake of its major landmark: Ideapark, a shopping centre that is always full of special offers and fun things to do. Whatever the weather, Funpark, an indoor theme park, offers enjoyable activities, while HopLop, an indoor play centre, offers jungle-themed adventures. The whole family will have fun with a range of activities and when it's time for dinner, Ideapark's restaurant world has almost 20 different cafés and restaurants.
There's also plenty of fun to have at the PiiPoo youth centre, including arts, crafts, music and acting. And Ideapark is not the only place to shop in Lempäälä: the boutiques in the old town are full of delights such as beautiful handicraft products.
Lempäälä offers a wide range of activities and experiences: try your hand at white-water flotation, riding a flying fox, archery, Segways, gyroscopes, Disc Golf, paintballing and canoeing or go for a steam on a sauna ferry or in a smoke sauna. Or go for a round of golf in beautiful shoreside landscapes!
The signposted Birgitta nature trails are a great destination for nature tourists. There are over 30 miles of routes, so you can choose an outing to suit your timetable and fitness level. Along the route, hikers will find eight bonfire sites, a traditional kota hut, three lean-tos and two lean-to huts. The Birgitta trail also includes sites with unobstructed access, such as the Saarikonmäki lean-to in Hakkari and the Vähä-Kausjärvi lean-to hut.
A holiday in Lempäälä can be surprisingly diverse: try your hand at flotation on the Kuokkalankoski rapids, walk on water inside a water ball, enjoy the varying scenery aboard a sauna ferry or try a charming log raft! Taitokeskus Vanha asema is a handicraft centre specialising in gifts and Lempäälä-related products. Join a workshop and create decorations or use a loom at Taitokeskus. If you would like to go horse riding, head to Lempäälä riding school Ratsuniitty or Pelto-Einola stables.
The grey-stone St Bridget's medieval church in the centre of Lempäälä is more than 500 years old and is well worth a visit. It is the final resting place of several important people.
The Pyhällönvuori observation tower was built as the result of a community effort by the villagers of Mattila. It is also known as the Mattila bird-watching tower. The tower was built at the top of Pyhällönvuori, a hill overlooking Valkeakoski, Hervanta and, on a clear day, Näsinneula tower in Tampere. You can climb the tower and observe the water birds on the open areas of Korteselkä. Lempäälä's Birgitta trail passes close by the tower with a nearby bonfire site.
Trips to Lempäälä combine making and doing. But if you'd rather take it easy, you can head to the traditional museum of local heritage. The Kuokkala museum lane hosts a wide range of interesting attractions: the merchant's museum, workshop museum, hairdresser's and barber's museum, cobbler's museum and the Sakkola museum. The icing on the cake is Villa Hakkari, an idyllic mansion on the shores of the Kuokkalankoski rapids, offering fantastic dining experiences.
