UPDATED July 22, 2026 BY Guest Author IN Road to Valhalla no comments The Road To Happiness? What Scandinavia Is Teaching UsArjuna Boucher-Pertuisot is the Content Creator on the 2026 Road to Valhalla Cycling Tour.I have always wanted to visit the Scandinavian countries. For years, I have wondered what they do differently to consistently rank among the happiest places in the world and whether some of their habits could be brought into my own life. Is it their connection to nature? Their strong communities? The balance between work and personal time? The saunas, cold plunges and endless coffee breaks?Now, cycling 3,000 kilometres through Finland, Sweden and Norway on the Road to Valhalla, I finally have the chance to experience this way of life from much closer. At first, however, happiness was a little difficult to see through rain-covered glasses. We left Helsinki beneath a grey sky, cycling through steady rain with soaked gloves and water finding its way into places we had hoped would remain dry. It might not sound like the beginning of a story about happiness. Yet Finland, Sweden and Norway all sit near the very top of the global happiness rankings. Three of the worlds happiest countries, connected by one long bicycle journey.The World Happiness Report is not simply counting smiles. It asks people to evaluate the overall quality of their lives, taking into consideration factors such as social support, health, freedom and trust. Those ideas can feel abstract when viewed on a chart. But after cycling through Finland and into Sweden, slowly, and quite literally kilometre by kilometre, I am beginning to understand what some of them might look like in everyday life.Nature Is Part of LifeHere, nature does not feel like somewhere you escape to on the weekend. It is built into daily life. Forests begin at the edges of towns. Lakes sit beside homes, parks and bicycle paths. Islands are connected by small ferries, while docks and swimming platforms appear almost everywhere there is water. Even the cities make room for it. Helsinki opens onto the Baltic Sea, Turku gathers around the Aura River and Stockholm spreads across islands with parks and water woven throughout. People are not necessarily doing anything extraordinary outside. They are walking, cycling, swimming, sitting beside the water or sharing coffee. Nature does not need to become an expedition before it can be enjoyed.Finlands Everymans Rights and Swedens Right of Public Access also give people the freedom to walk, cycle and spend time across much of the countryside, as long as they respect the land, wildlife and those living there. The idea is wonderfully simple: nature should be part of everyones life, but that freedom comes with responsibility. Our rainy departure revealed something else. People here do not seem to wait for perfect conditions before going outside. The rain arrives, jackets come out and life continues. Plans are adjusted rather than abandoned. I am fairly certain no happiness survey asks whether you enjoy putting wet socks back on in the morning, but the weather is not treated as an obstacle standing between you and life. It is simply part of life.Time for FikaOnce we reached Sweden, another part of Nordic culture began appearing in cafs and village bakeries: fika. At its simplest, fika is a break for coffee, usually accompanied by something sweet. But calling it a coffee break does not quite capture the idea. Fika is also about deliberately making time for other people.On a cycling tour, this makes immediate sense. Helmets and gloves collect on the table. Coffee arrives. Someone orders a simple pastry or a slice of cake to go with it. Stories from the morning are exchanged and the group reconnects before returning to the road. Connection does not always require a major event or an elaborate celebration. Sometimes it is built through an ordinary ritual repeated often: coffee, something sweet and enough time to be present with the people around you.Heat, Cold and the Finnish SaunaAnd then there is the sauna. In Finland, sauna is not simply a spa treatment or something reserved for a holiday. It is part of ordinary life, found in homes, apartment buildings, lakeside cottages, hotels and public spaces. After a long cycling day, its appeal is easy to understand. You sit. You breathe. Tired legs begin to relax. Nobody needs to be productive, and there is nowhere else to go.Then, for those willing, comes the cold lake or sea. The first contact with the water removes every thought from your mind except one: this is extremely cold. A few moments later, however, you feel intensely awake. You return to the heat and begin again. There is something distinctly Nordic about finding pleasure not by escaping the cold, but by moving between cold and warmth.Maybe We Already Know the RecipeOf course, it would be too simple to say that forests, fika and saunas explain why these countries rank so highly. Happiness is also influenced by economic security, health, freedom, trust and strong social systems. But after spending time here, the everyday recipe does not seem quite as mysterious as I expected. Perhaps it is not so far from what many of us already know. Good company. Good food. Time and space to be quiet. Staying close to nature. Moving your body. Going outside even when the weather is far from perfect. Sitting together around a table. Sweating in a sauna before jumping into water cold enough to make you question every decision that brought you there. It all sounds remarkably simple.And the more I think about it, the more I realize that TDA might have already understood at least part of the recipe. Every day, we go outside and move, whatever the conditions. We share meals, coffee stops, difficult climbs and long stretches of road. There is time to talk, but also plenty of time to be quiet. Time to think while riding alone, followed by evenings spent laughing around a table with people who may have been strangers only a few weeks earlier. Maybe this helps explain why so many riders return for a second, third or even thirteenth tour. They may come back for the countries, the roads and the next big adventure. But perhaps they are also returning to this particular rhythm of life: moving every day, sharing simple moments and becoming part of a small community travelling together.A cycling tour is certainly not a perfect model for happiness. There are sore legs, mechanical problems, headwinds and moments when the next destination feels impossibly far away. But even those difficulties create connection. Someone waits at the top of a climb. A rider helps another with a flat tyre. Coffee tastes better after hours in the rain, and dinner feels more meaningful when everyone has worked hard to reach the same table. Perhaps happiness is not only about comfort. Maybe it also comes from challenge, purpose and the feeling that you are moving forward with other people beside you.For now, I am still beginning to make these connections while riding every day through Scandinavia. Maybe it is only the honeymoon phase, the long summer evenings or some kind of Nordic placebo effect. But I do feel very happy here, happy enough that six weeks is beginning to feel a little short, and part of me is already wondering what it would be like to stay longer. We will see whether I still feel the same way by the time we reach Trondheim.RELATEDTOURRoad to Valhalla Valhalla, also known as the Hall of Heroes, was the goal for all real Vikings. Ruled by the Norse God, Odin, only the bravest and fiercest of warriors... Related Posts:Leave a Comment for "The Road To Happiness? 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