Helsinki Travel Guide

Helsinki travel guides shows you granite churches, golden hour ferries, and light that lasts past midnight.

Ten days door to door, JFK to Helsinki to Stockholm, with eight nights actually based in FInland's capital formed the basis of this Helsinki travel guide. That's enough time to fall into a rhythm. Mornings happen at a market hall. Afternoons drift between granite churches and design shops. Evenings watch the light hang on until 11pm and never fully fade. The sky stays a dim glow through the night, and it's fully light again by 4am. It's also enough time to leave the city entirely, for a fortress island, a medieval town, a stretch of wilderness, and even another country.

Getting There to Helsinki

We left JFK at 5:30pm EST on Air France, business class, lie flat seats, booked entirely on points. A 5 hour layover at Charles de Gaulle ran long enough to actually clear EU immigration and leave the airport loop. Ninety minutes before landing in Paris, my view caught a sunrise in deep reds over the Atlantic. (Full story: Flying Air France Business Class on Points)

From HEL airport, a straightforward ride leads into the city center. One early snag came up, though. Helsinki's HSL transit app refused to create an account with a US phone number, every single time, the whole trip. So we just used the ticket machines on the platform instead. We tapped a card and never touched the app again. Within a day I was moving around Helsinki on trams and buses like a local anyway.

The U14 Hotel

Home base was the U14 hotel, a Marriott property well positioned for walking to nearly everything on this Helsinki travel guide. I paid for the cheapest room. With my Marriott status, I still received an upgraded room, larger than expected with its own couch and chair for slow mornings, plus free breakfast.

The City Itself

Helsinki rewards slow walking. Over a few days I covered:

• Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral, the white neoclassical landmark that anchors most postcards of the city
• Temppeliaukio Church (the Church in the Rock), carved directly into bedrock, unlike any church I'd been in before
• The Sibelius Monument, a striking steel pipe sculpture honoring Finland's most famous composer
• The design district, for shopping streets, VAT refund stops, and stores like Stockmann
• Market Square (Kauppatori) and the harbor, food tents lining the wharf, and the ferries to the islands departing right alongside them
• Hietalahti Market Square, the old Palace Hotel across from ours (built for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics), and the city's two churches and cathedral in the historic core
• Observatory Hill Park, two blocks from the hotel, with dog walkers out early, harbor and cathedral views, and three monuments worth knowing by name. Torso, a sculpture in the park's own pond, Haaksirikkoiset ("The Shipwrecked"), by Robert Stigell, 1898, and the Finnish Soldiers' Grave, inscribed simply "Fallen in the liberation of Helsinki, 12 April 1918"

 

A handful of only in that week moments stuck with me. Ukrainian flags flew across the city. In fact, they've flown all over Finland since the war with Russia began, taken down only for Finnish national holidays. CERN's conference exhibits still sat set up in a nearby plaza, left over from an event weeks earlier. The Changing of the Guard happened outside the Presidential Palace. Then, without realizing it going in, we arrived on Eino Leino's birthday. People were quietly laying flowers at his statue in the Esplanadi. (Full story: Helsinki City Center)

Day Trip to Suomenlinna

A 15 minute ferry from Market Square gets you to Suomenlinna, a UNESCO World Heritage sea fortress spread across a cluster of islands. We got there the long way first, on a boat cruise past the small islands ringing the city. Afterward, we wandered the stone tunnels and coastal artillery, learning the fortress's Russian era history along the way. After a late afternoon nap back at the hotel, we couldn't sit still. So we took the ferry out and back again around 7pm, just to catch the golden hour on the water. That turned into one of the best twenty minutes of the whole trip, and it cost the price of a ferry ticket. (Full story: Suomenlinna, Helsinki's Sea Fortress)

Day Trip, Porvoo

About 50 minutes east by bus, Porvoo is Finland's second oldest city, and it looks the part in the best way. Cobblestone lanes, red riverside warehouses dating to the 1760s, a 15th century cathedral, and a genuinely strong food and chocolate scene all wait there. (Full story: Porvoo Day Trip)

Day Trip to Nuuksio National Park

Continuing with this Helsinki travel guide, for a full change of pace, Nuuksio delivers real Finnish wilderness about 1 an hour from the city. Just take the commuter train to Espoo, then a connecting bus. Hiking trails, lakes for canoeing, open fire pits for cooking, and the Haltia Nature Centre all add context on the landscape. (Full story: Day Trip to Nuuksio National Park)

Day Trip to Tallinn, Estonia

And then, an entirely different country for an afternoon. A quick Uber from the hotel to the ferry terminal costs about $10. A 2 hour crossing of the Gulf of Finland then puts you in Tallinn's Old Town, one of the best preserved medieval walled cities in Europe. Toompea Hill gives the view over red rooftops. From there you can also reach the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the 13th century city walls, and Telliskivi Creative City for something more modern. Locals told us Helsinki residents make this same crossing just to stock up on cheap cider. Apparently it's a real enough habit that it's practically an open secret. Six to eight hours there is enough for a full day without rushing, and the last ferry gets you back to Helsinki by evening. (Full story: Tallinn Day Trip)

Eating in Helsinki

Markets carried a lot of the food experience. The Old Market Hall by the harbor and Hakaniemi Market Hall both delivered. In fact, a lunch stop inside the market on the Suomenlinna day turned up moose dumplings and reindeer on the menu. The real trick, though, was lunch. Between 11am and 2pm, most restaurants run a lounas, a buffet or set menu for roughly €11 to €15 that includes salad, bread, and coffee. It's the best value window of the day, every day.

One thing is worth knowing before you land. Finnish liquor laws restrict purchase hours, and grocery stores only sell beer, wine, and cider. Hard liquor only comes from a government Alko store, and ours was conveniently just a block from the hotel. First night in, jet lagged and still in daylight at 9pm, we settled for a quick pizza at a well reviewed spot nearby and called it a night. (Full story: Eating in Helsinki)

The Shape of the Trip

• Day 1. Depart JFK at 5:30pm EST on Air France, overnight flight with the CDG layover en route
• Day 2. Arrive Helsinki, settle in, quick pizza dinner
• Day 3. Observatory Hill at sunrise, hop on hop off bus, city walking, Presidential Palace, Eino Leino Day
• Day 4. Temppeliaukio (the Church in the Rock), more walking, and a rainstorm that sent me straight into a shop for a rain jacket
• Day 5. A deliberately slow day, the old Palace Hotel, inside Uspenski Cathedral, Esplanadi park stage
• Day 6. Suomenlinna by cruise, a late nap, and an evening ferry back out for golden hour
• Day 7. Porvoo
• Day 8. Tallinn, Estonia (day trip)
• Day 9. Espoo and Nuuksio National Park
• Day 10. Depart Helsinki, arrive Stockholm same day, first stop, Gamla Stan (Stockholm's Old Town)

Nine days, or eight nights, gave enough time to feel like I'd actually seen Helsinki rather than skimmed it. It also left room to get out to the archipelago, the forest, and across the water to another country entirely.

A Note on the Two Cathedrals

Helsinki has two buildings both commonly called "cathedral," so it's easy to mix them up.

• Helsinki Cathedral, the white, domed Lutheran cathedral overlooking Senate Square. This is where our relaxing Day 4 was centered.
• Uspenski Cathedral, the red brick Orthodox cathedral, grouped with the Suomenlinna outing on Day 5.

They sit a short walk apart. Still, they stay visually and denominationally distinct, so it's worth knowing which is which before you plan around them.