Zelenogorsk used to be Terijoki, a Finnish resort town on the Gulf of Finland, and it belonged to Finland until the Winter War of 1939 to 1940, when this stretch of the Karelian Isthmus passed to the Soviet Union. Before that, Terijoki was a place where Russian aristocrats and artists kept summer houses, and the wooden villas that survive among the pines still have some of that air. The Primorskoe highway runs north-west from Saint Petersburg along the shore to Vyborg, and this is the part of it where the road threads a sandy, forested coastal strip with dunes on one side and wet pinewoods on the other.
The road is a good one for an easy run. It is wide, mostly well surfaced, and passes through a series of resort settlements, with long straight stretches and a few gentle curves through trees. At weekends it is busy with day trippers and cars heading to dachas, and in summer it can be slow. The best time is early in the morning, when the air smells of resin and the sea glints through the trunks. In winter the sand freezes, the sea becomes a white plain, and the road is sometimes icy.
Zelenogorsk has about fifteen thousand people and has fuel and cafes, while smaller places like Roshchino and Molodezhnoye are near. Between them the forest is thick, and wild blueberries and mushrooms are picked in season by people who park on the shoulder and wander in with baskets. It is a landscape that locals love, and they will tell you which pine has the best view. Watch for crossing elk in the dusk.
The isthmus has a long and heavy history of wars and border changes, and the old Finnish frontier lay not far north. Visitors should check the current rules for entering the area, since they have changed, and the situation near the border can be complicated. If you are able to go, the quiet beach in the evening is the best place to be.