The courtyard of Savonlinna that has been covered and transformed to the opera festival venue is one of the greatest buildings in the world? Have you actually seen it or are you possibly blind? Finland certainly has its share of beautiful architecture, but as European medieval castles go, Savonlinna is a pile of rocks. Ok, it sits on a nice spot and is important to Finns for historical reasons, but it's hardly a famous building outside the the country. As setting for opera it is unique, there is only one other regular opera festival in Italy that is staged in (the ruins of) an ancient building.

I thought for a moment that you might have meant the opera house in Helsinki, but that looks like a giant bathroom on the outside (interior is ok). Aalto's Finlandia Hall would actually be a good contender in the world class, but there is no opera there.

Mikko

In fact, from all I've heard, Finland's cheaper to visit in the summer since that's off season, tourist-wise. Finland's a bigger draw for its winter sports, reindeer visits, and its northern darkness than for its lovely, clement summer weather with extraordinary amounts of sunlight.

All the hotels we contacted during the summer said they were having off-season sales.