Helsinki, Finland, is where you’ll find me most days… and I have some tips for you if you’re visiting.
Since I love walking, summer, and food, that’s mostly what my tips are about! For anything more detailed, please drop a line in the comments, I’d be more than happy to assist.
Where to go once you’re here
Since it’s a seaside town, the prettiest areas are located by the water. Take a walk from the Senate Square along the seaside and you’ll end up in Kaivopuisto park, which is a popular spot for locals to hang out. There are cafes and ice cream stands in the park – you won’t go hungry!
The Suomenlinna fortress island is a Unesco World Heritage site, you can go there by ferry – it’s worth a visit! Once there, in the summer, you can go for a swim in the sea but it might be chilly (consider yourself warned!). Also, watch out for seagulls while waiting for the ferry – they will eat your ice cream, whether it’s on the cone or on the ground!
There are many other islands you can visit right off the shore of Helsinki. One of them is Pihlajasaari, which has fireplaces for grilling sausages (popular here). The Pihlajasaari island has sandy beaches as well as smooth, large rocks which many Finns actually prefer to sunbathe on (not me -they’re too hard!)
The Helsinki Samba Carnaval is my favorite summer event. This year, it’s programmed for June 18th. Watch the parade advance along the esplanade (Pohjoisesplanadi) and yes, they are wearing proper carnaval clothes!
There are lots of art museums and little galleries everywhere. There’s some interesting architecture, best seen by wandering around the central residential areas by foot.
Take a boat to Tallinn, Estonia for an easy day trip or a 3-day cruise to Stockholm, Sweden with Tallink Silja Line.
If you come all the way to Finland, why not visit Finnish Lapland? It’s a very unique kind of environment – silent and peaceful. Other areas of interest: the lakes, Nuuksio National Park, the small town of Porvoo, the archipelago towards Sweden.
Cafes and restaurants
There are lots of cafes around the center of Helsinki. I’d recommend Cafe Esplanad, Cafe Regatta, and Café Sininen Huvila (also written as Sinisen Huvilan kahvila). Besides sweet pastries, cafes in Helsinki usually offer salads and filled baguettes for lunch.
For a rooftop view of downtown Helsinki, enjoy a drink at Hotel Torni’s top floor. Part of the hotel looks like a little princess tower from one of those stories where she climbs down knotted sheets from the top window – hence the name Torni which means tower in Finnish.
Finnish cuisine consists mainly of traditional, potato-based home cooking and it’s not really served in restaurants as such. When Helsinkians go out for dinner, they usually choose from the foreign cuisines on offer. The city has plenty, including Japanese, Korean, Thai, Nepalese, Greek, Spanish, and Mexican restaurants… there’s even a Hawaiian restaurant.
The best department store is Stockmann – they also have a good grocery store in the basement floor. (I’m not even going to defend calling it the best one, it just is!)
You can find most of these places online or with apps like Yelp.
What to expect
Dress for the weather (check out the weather beforehand), the four seasons really do differ a lot over here. Helsinki is generally a very windy town, being located by the Baltic Sea.
You can pay by credit/debit card pretty much anywhere, I rarely even carry cash. Of course you should still check in advance that your card will work here. The currency is euros.
A lot of things are written in both Finnish and Swedish. Finnish isn’t related to any major language families so it would be a hard language for most travelers to decipher, but English and German speakers might be able to guess some of the Swedish if they’re feeling adventurous or creative. This might come in handy if you go to a grocery store and are wondering about the labels.
If you arrive in the summer
During summer, the sun only sets for a couple of hours; during winter, it barely rises (both have the same result: chronic sleepiness.)
People take advantage of every moment of the short summers and you can see lots of picnics everywhere. Sunbathing in little more than a bikini in a park in the center of town is quite normal. The parks are popular places for jogs, too.
During Midsummer, this year June 24th – 25th, Helsinki is always very quiet. Many shops will be closed and most of those who are lucky enough to have a summer house somewhere by the lakes will have left town by then. July is the main vacation month.
Traffic and transportation
Bicycles are a popular form of transport in the summer (in all seasons, actually). There are bicycle lanes everywhere in center, located right next to the pedestrian lanes. The two are separated by a painted line on the ground.
Finns don’t really jaywalk (rules are taken seriously!) and so car drivers aren’t used to jaywalkers: they might not expect you to, so be careful.
Public transportation is great. Finns rarely take taxis for short trips since they’re quite expensive. Take the tram, metro, bus, or a local train! The tram system is much more complex than the metro, which is just a single line with a little fork at one end.
There’s now a train from the airport to the center. If you prefer, you could also opt for the airline Finnair’s direct bus service, which is quite comfy.
66 replies on “An Introduction to Helsinki”
Love those little island with buildings, red houses and monuments: they remind me Venezia 😀
Waiting for more news!
Ciao
Sid
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Venezia seems so much prettier to me, but it’s probably always like that- the exoticly foreign always seems so much more alluring… Thanks Sid, for your lovely comment, as always! 🙂 Happy Easter weekend, ciao!
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Thank you, SSW, spoken like a true Helsinkian. 🙂 First time I hear this word, by the way. So many useful information for anybody who plans to visit. I cannot help but notice a variety of blues and greens. Who knows… maybe one day…
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Let me know if you do visit! 😉 These pictures are from several recent years (and I have many hundreds more), hopefully summer 2016 will be a good one! With blue and green 🙂 I’m not sure if Helsinkian is an actual word, by the way… well, now it is!
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Great post! It’s been ages since I’ve been to the Sinisen Huvilan kahvila – I must make a point of visiting. I have never experienced the Samba Carnival, maybe this year. I so look forward to summer 🙂
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How could you have missed the samba carnaval!? 😉 You really need to write that date down this year! 🙂
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Beautiful photography. It has the dreamy vintage look! Love it. I am tempted to go there now.
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Thanks! I’m always tempted to edit photos even when they don’t really need it 🙂 Maybe someday you will visit, who knows? 😉
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I’d love to visit sometime. My mom was born in Helsinki.
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Then you have even more of a reason to! 🙂
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LOL chronic sleepiness wahahaha. Suicidal stuff haha. Their summer just look glorious!!
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Oh yes, you have to live it to believe it! 😉
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Very nice! I enjoyed seeing Helsinki looking green, especially Suomenlinna Island. When we were there in January, everything was brown. But we still had a great time!
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Were you here this year or another January? It really does look very different in the winter compared to summer. Needless to say, I prefer summer (that’s the whole theme of my blog! hahah) Happy to hear you still enjoyed yourselves! 🙂
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January of 2015, so over a whole year already! I am a summer lover, too, but being in Finland in the wintertime was kind of fun.
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The grassy fortress is cool, well all of the pictures are cool, but I really liked that one LOL.
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Thanks 🙂 I like how green it is – and that’s not just because of editing, hahah. It’s an interesting, relaxed place to visit
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I loved the article! It was very detailed and the pictures are amazing! Now i want to book a flight to Helsinki!
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Happy to hear you liked the post and pictures! Maybe one day you will visit, who knows, right?! 😉
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This is just what I needed to read SMS… Excellent info for my forthcoming trip. I think zi have 2 days to explore the city. As I have been to Talliin, I was thinking of taking a trip up to Porvoo. What would you suggest for the best way to get there. I will be there at end of May.
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Happy if this was useful 🙂 For Porvoo, I’d suggest a bus company called OnniBus because their prices are exceptionally good. It’s only a 45 min drive from Helsinki. http://www.onnibus.com/EN/index.htm
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Thanks so much.😆 I wonder if their schedules are regular? I had seen a tour tgat had some kibd of cruise that stops there and buses you back but my travel agent was unable to book it from here. He suggested trying down at the harbour cruise booking office when I get there…..
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Oh yes, there are cruises, too. That might be a nice idea actually, if the weather’s nice (May could go either way). The ones that I know of leave from the central market place (“kauppatori”) right next to the Senate Square and some of the cruise companies have little ticket stands there. If the cruises aren’t full, you can almost certainly buy tickets when you get here. Some of the cruises’ websites are in Finnish but here’s one in English http://www.msjlruneberg.fi/cruises/helsinki-porvoo/ and Porvoo’s tourism site has a link to a blog on day trips http://www.visitporvoo.fi/en. The cruise schedules for May might not have been published yet since not all of them operate during the winter so you can check back later, but the bus company’s schedules should be pretty regular.
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Again, thanks so much!!! You have been so helpful!!! I like the idea of the blog so I will also check that site.
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You actually just inspired ME to go to Porvoo one weekend for a day trip (by bus) with my camera. I haven’t been there in ages.
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☺ It sounds like a delightful place I hope you decide to write about it
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If I go, I will 🙂
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Porvoo does not seem to be listed an an end destination on that bus site, SMSOMEWHERE . Is it an intermediate stop and if so, do you know the name of the terminating stop?
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It’s there when I have a look – did you choose the generic “Helsinki” option as the start point of the journey?
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It only seemed to give me several substations options in Helsinki and I tried all three. But perhaps I missed it. I will try again, SmS.
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Ok… I can see 4 options, the first being the general option. Maybe try a different browser? Strange.
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Yes, I see it now on my desktop pc format. That sounds just perfect. And so cheap. Thanks for the information.
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Happy you found it! 🙂
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I’d love to explore Finland some day. Good info. 👍🏻
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Hope you get the chance to!
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Thanks for the post. It brings back so many great memories of my year there.
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Did you move back home now? Happy that you enjoyed your year here 🙂
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I was there for a year of exchange studies. I’m back in the US. But I absolutely loved Finland and would gladly move back someday.
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I haven’t tried Cafe Sininen Huvila. Are you referring to Hoku as the Hawaiian restaurant? I’ve been yearning to go there for ages! Our favourite dining out is usually Japanese. The hubby has been wanting to take me to Pastor (Peruvian/Japanese) but somehow we end up being this old boring couple going to our same old favourites 🙂 I’ve heard Southpark is good. Looking forward to more reviews from you! x
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You should definitely try Cafe Sininen Huvila (=blue villa), it’s at a beautiful spot at Töölönlahti. Open depending on the weather because you’re seated outdoors 🙂 I used to eat at a lot of the Japanese places, too. Never heard of Pastor, sounds very interesting, will write it down for later! Nowadays I don’t eat out that much anymore but a couple of years ago I was more active. Never tried Southpark either! Yes, I meant Hoku. I used to love Meze Point but it closed down.
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Yes, I loved Meze Point too! I think they had a lunch buffet back then.
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🙂
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Excellent post. Samba carnaval is my favorite happening in Helsinki.
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Thanks so much for the comment! Hopefully we’ll have nice weather this year for the samba carnaval!
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I hope also. We are staying one month in Oulu in June, but there so much see there and its surroundings. 🙂
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Yes there is… The riverside, Nallikari… 🙂 Have fun!
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We have been in Nallikari various times. Look at how it looked in winter 2016 and compare my summer photos from it:
Arctic beach in winter.
Happy weekend!
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Looks serene in the snow! 🙂
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I love to visit Finland someday..you surely wrote it so invitingly..:) the sun rises only for 2 hours? this something that I would like to experience!
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It’s quite depresing when you don’t see the sun for months, but for a visitor just stopping by I’m sure it’d be interesting! Let me know if you decide to visit! 🙂
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Do you live in Helsinki? 🙂 Great! I knew from your bio that you lived somewhere in the Nordics but never assumed it to be Finland for some reason. I used to live in Finland until I moved to Poland a couple of years ago, in a quiet student town called Kokkola in the Central West part of Finland.
I have been to Helsinki multiple times and have fond memories from the city. I was lucky enough to see Samba festival one summer, it was so, so lively! People say that Helsinki is so boring compared to other Nordic capitals but I think it’s quite nice. Fantastic post, by the way! 🙂
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I didn’t realise you’d lived in Finland, either! Small world! I’ve never been to Kokkola, did you like it there? The samba carnaval is great, though unfortunately the weather keeps getting worse and worse each time, it seems. This year it was freezing, windy and rainy. I felt sorry for the dancers who’d gone to all that trouble with their outfits and dance routines. Helsinki is quite small for a capital, but it’s growing! 😊
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Kokkola was so small and quiet that sometimes I just wanted to get out – and would wonder what I was doing in the middle of nowhere. Same few pubs, same faces, same stores etc. But there were perks: seeing Northern lights, experiencing frozen sea nearby, walking/biking everywhere. There are things that I so miss about Kokkola now. 🙂
Oh that’s a shame – when I was there, the weather was really nice and it just added to the beauty of the colors, the dance and the celebration mood. Finnish summers are so unpredictable aren’t they.. We’re enjoying last few days of hot weather here before the autumn kicks in.
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I’d love to visit Poland one day! Have a beautiful autumn! 🙂
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Reblogged this on On the Road Cooking and commented:
Adding to my bucket list!
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I used to life in Helsinki for half a year and this post just brought back so much memories of that awesome time, thank you for that!
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Thank YOU for reading my post! 😄
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It was an absolute pleasure reading it! 🙂
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Living on the coast in Queensland we don’t really get to experience all four seasons, summer seems to go on forever. I would love to visit Helsinki and experience a different climate, your photos are lovely and make the city look extremely inviting 🙂
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Thank you! Happy you found this post, after this one I’ve posted lots of complaining ones 😂😂 Four seasons aren’t really all they’re hyped up to be but I do understand the feeling of wanting to experience them 😊
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You’re welcome. I’m lagging behind when it comes to reading of late, so many wonderful blogs and too little time. The long hot summers here get so tiring, I think that is why the different (and cooler) seasons appeal so much 🙂
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Understandable, and actually the exact same and opposite to over here: the winters are 7 months long and soooo dark. The other seasons divide the 5 months that remain, so that’s about 6 weeks per season. It seems like it’s always winter. And dark as night even in the middle of the day… 😊 Can’t wait til spring! 🌻 Enjoy your weekend!
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We are now checking for our accommodation for our transit night to Japan – we have found a fairy good offer in Kamppi. It seems to be central. Any good you think?
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Oh you’re flying thru Helsinki? Cool! Kamppi is very central yes, a good choice!!
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booked!
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Yay!! Let me know if you need any other tips or info!!
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