The glacial valley in the north with the neighbouring municipality of Niederfinow separates it from the adjacent Uckermark region.

The historic village centre is surrounded by extended fields, meadows and pine forests.

A fortress overlooking the Finow valley and a ford across the river was erected about 1220, after the area settled by Polabian Slavs had been conquered by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg.

Temporarily held by Count Henry Matthias of Thurn, the estates were sold to the Pfuel noble family in 1614.

In the last days of World War II, a unit of the "Army Detachment Steiner" rested near Hohenfinow before the troops withdraw to Eberswalde.