Helsinki Travel Guide
Travel guide to Helsinki, Finland with comprehensive information about events, shopping, and major Helsinki sporting events to help you enjoy your visit more.
Helsinki Overview
Split between the mainland, and an archipelago of islands in the Baltic Sea, Helsinki, Finland's picturesque is home to just over half a million people, and visitors find that it is unlike the rest of the country, indeed due to the proximity of Russia and Sweden, and the naturally outward looking city Helsinki is more like its neighbours than the country it rules.
The older part of the city is centred upon the harbour and the main market square, and is in the centre of a rapidly growing urban area where no building exceeds 12 storeys, and over half of the area has been designated as parkland. All of this has the result of making Helsinki feel almost provincial rather than capital.
As a short break destination, or a place to stop off before beginning a touring holiday around Finland, Helsinki has plenty to offer and to interest visitors including several galleries specialising in modernist art, well thought out and intelligent museums and a good - if expensive shopping area.
Helsinki was devastated by merciless bombing during the Second World War and this left few of the older buildings standing, and much of the new city was designed by the architect Alvar Aalto along the principles of his new architecture - modernism and functionalism. This dominance of one designer has led to Helsinki having a unique cohesive feel that borders on uniformity that becomes instantly apparent when you begin to explore it.
Top Helsinki Attractions
Helsinki is justifiably proud of its most successful sons, the composer Sibelius and Aalto the architect, and there are a couple of museums dedicated to them. Other highlights include Kiasma - the Museum of Contemporary Art, where you can see typically cool Scandinavian artwork in a stunning sculptural building designed by Stephen Holl.
For a chance to see the stunning Snow Leopard, make sure you visit Helsinki Zoo - the most northerly zoo in the world, and home to a large population of these beautiful animals.
No visit to Helsinki is complete without having a traditional Finnish Sauna, and the best place to have one is at the Kotiharju Sauna - a landmark of Helsinki for more than 70 years.
Shopping in Helsinki
An important thing to note about shopping in Helsinki is that most of the locals don't. For the price of a ferry trip to Tallinn in nearby Estonia, it is possible to cut your shopping bill by more than half when compared to the prices of goods in Helsinki. That is not to say however that shopping in Finland's capital is a total bust, and in truth many goods including reindeer related items are very good value for money, it is just that most everyday items are far pricier than in the UK.
Helsinki Sporting Events
Finland is one of the world's most beautiful countries, and once you get out of Helsinki, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the landscapes. Whether you want to go mountain biking through national parks, ski on some of the best mountains in northern Europe, or even try your hand at salmon fishing in gin-clear icy rivers, Finland has something to entertain you.
The Finnish wilderness extends for hundreds of miles, and is very popular during the summer months - especially with hikers looking for clean beautiful countryside to enjoy. In winter, the bitter cold and inclement weather makes it dangerous although still rewarding.
