Varkaus



Varkaus is a town in North Savonia. The adjacent municipality of Joroinen is also handled in this article.

Understand
Varkaus is an industrial town with about 20,000 inhabitants (2021), best known for its paper factories. The name of the town translates to "theft" in modern Finnish, but it's more likely that the town got its name from the old Finnish word for strait.

By car
Highway 5, one of the major roads between southern and northern Finland, passes through Varkaus. The distance from Helsinki is a little more than 300 km.

By train
Trains between Pieksämäki and Joensuu stop in Varkaus.

By bus
Varkaus is at the crossroads of highways 5 and 23. Buses between Helsinki to Kuopio, among others, stop in Varkaus.

By plane
There are no longer any scheduled flights to Varkaus airport. The closest airports with regular passenger traffic are in Kuopio, Jyväskylä, Joensuu and Savonlinna. All of these entail at least an hour on the road, and only have flights from Helsinki anyway, so flying is not a practical alternative for getting in.

By boat
Varkaus is situated on the shores of Lake Saimaa which is accessible from the sea via Saimaa Canal. The shipping fairway from the Gulf of Finland to Kuopio passes Varkaus, size limits should suffice for any yacht (onwards from Kuopio to Iisalmi the height limit may get critical).

Get around
There are a few local bus lines operated by City of Varkaus in the town center (map) if you don't want to walk or drive. Matka.fi and Moovit route planners include local buses of Varkaus. Matkahuolto Routes and Tickets app is able to first plan the route and after it sell the right ticket for it.


 * Smartphone apps: Valopilkku, 02 Taksi, Taksi EHT, Taksini

Do






Go next

 * Kuopio – The largest city in North Savonia is one hour away by car or bus.
 * — Nature trails leading through a gorge, called one of the Seven Wonders in the Savo Region (16 km east from Leppävirta centre).