Things to do in Helsinki
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Klippan
There’s no better way to appreciate Helsinki’s seaside location than by heading out to the myriad of island restaurants. The most famous is the stylish, spired Klippan, which is set in a villa on Luoto island, and famous for society weddings and crayfish parties.
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Suomenlinna Island
An ideal day or half-day trip from Helsinki is to pack a picnic and take the regular ferry to the island fortress of Suomenlinna. A great deal of Helsinki's history was shaped here - the World Heritage Listed fortress was founded by the Swedes in 1748 to protect against the Russians but following a prolonged attack, Sveaborg was surrendered to the Russians in 1808.
There are several good cafés on Suomenlinna, but many locals like to picnic among the fortress ruins with a few drinks - it can get pretty boozy here on summer weekends. At around 17:00 it's worth finding a spot to watch the enormous Baltic ferries pass through the narrow gap.
HKL ferries depart every 20 minute…
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Seurasaari Open-Air Museum
West of the centre, this island is best known for Seurasaari Open-Air Museum with 18th- and 19th-century traditional houses, manors and outbuildings from around Finland. Guides dressed in traditional costume demonstrate folk-dancing and crafts such as spinning, embroidery and troll-making. While you’ll see other museums like this across Finland, Seurasaari definitely has the best. There are guided tours in English at 11.30am and 3.30pm.
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Porvoo Old Town
Porvoo Old Town district north of Mannerheiminkatu was largely built after the Great Fire of 1760. It's an alluring warren of narrow, winding cobblestone alleys and brightly coloured wooden houses. Craft boutiques and antique shops line the main roads, Välikatu and Kirkkokatu. For a glimpse of less touristed bits, head for the streets east of the cathedral; Itäinen Pitkäkatu is one of the nicest.
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Zetor
Ever wondered where the Leningrad Cowboys would park their pointy shoes? This whacky restaurant and pub has a kitschy Czech tractor theme from the mind of Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismäki. Cabbage rolls, salmon soup and other traditional dishes complement the Finnish booze including sahti (traditional ale flavoured with juniper berries), but ease off if you’re finishing the night with a tractor ride.
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Café Engel
This heavenly spot in the Senaatintori hums with tourists and university students alike. There’s always a good selection of cakes and enticing meals often of a vegetarian bent such as a beetroot lasagne. It’s a cultural hub with films shown in the courtyard during summer, irregular piano recitals and a plump English-language magazine selection.
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Ooppera Talo
Opera, ballet and classical concerts are held here, though not during summer. Performances of the Finnish National Opera are subtitled in Finnish.
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National Gallery
The Ateneum houses Finnish paintings and sculptures from the 18th century to the 1950s. There's also a small, interesting collection of 19th- and early-20th-century foreign art, including a copy of Auguste Rodin's bronze The Thinker, and paintings by Van Gogh, Gaugin and Cezanne. The building itself dates from 1887.
The list of painters at the Ateneum reads like a 'who's who' of Finnish art. It houses Finnish paintings and sculptures from the 18th century to the 1950s including works by Albert Edelfelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, the Von Wright brothers and Pekka Halonen. Pride of place goes to the prolific Gallen-Kallela's triptych from the Kalevala depicting Väinämöinen's p…
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Sibelius Park
At lovely Sibelius Park you'll find a steel monument to the great Finnish composer. The organlike cluster of steel pipes is said to represent the forest.
This kinetic modern sculpture was created by artist Eila Hiltunen in 1967 to honor Finland's most famous composer, Jean Sibelius. Born in 1865 in Hämeenlinna, Sibelius wrote music for the glorification of his own people and in defiance of the oppressor, Russia. His most famous composition, Finlandia, came to represent Finnish patriotism and pride.
Hiltunen's innovative abstract structure was designed to blend with the natural surroundings. Appropriately for a monument to a composer, the sculpture creates its own music -…
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Tuomiokirkko
One of CL Engel’s finest creations, the chalk-white neoclassical Tuomiokirkko, presides over Senate Square, though as it was not completed until 1852, the architect, who died in 1840, never saw it. Given Finland’s Lutheran sensibilities, it was created to serve as a reminder of God’s supremacy over the square. Its high flight of stairs, however, has become a meeting place for canoodling couples, and a setting for New Year’s revelry. The interior features statues of the Reformation heroes Luther, Melanchthon and Mikael Agricola; true to their ideals, there is little other ornamentation under the lofty dome. There’s a cafe in the brick-vaulted crypt in summer.
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Uspenski Cathedral
The eye-catching red-brick Uspenski Cathedral is equally imposing on nearby Katajanokka Island. The two opposing cathedrals face each other off high above the city in a contest for its soul. Built as a Russian Orthodox church in Byzantine-Slavonic style in 1868, it features classic onion-topped domes and now serves the Finnish Orthodox congregation. The high, square interior has a lavish iconostasis with the Evangelist flanking panels depicting the Last Supper and the Ascension. Orthodox services held at 6pm on Saturday and 10am Sunday are well worth attending as a discreet visitor for the fabulous chorals and candlelit atmosphere.
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Mannerheim Museum
This fascinating museum in Kaivopuisto Park was the home of Baron Gustav Mannerheim, former president, Commander in Chief of the Finnish army and Finnish Civil War victor. The great Field Marshal never owned the building; he rented it from chocolate magnate, Karl Fazer, until his death. The house tells of Mannerheim’s intrepid life with hundreds of military medals and photographs from his Asian expedition travelling 14,000km along the Silk Road from Samarkand to Beijing. Entry includes an informative one-hour guided tour in six languages, plus free plastic booties to keep the hallowed floor clean.
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Espoo Museum of Modern Art
The city’s top sight is Espoo Museum of Modern Art, which holds over 2000 works, ranging from the early 20th century to the present. It’s definitely Finland’s most significant private art collection and worth the trip from Helsinki. Sharing the same address and opening hours, and visitable with the same ticket, Espoo City Museum and Finnish Toy Museum Leikkilinna can round out a day trip. You can catch buses 106, 106T, 110, 110T or 110 TA from the Kamppi.
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Kansallismuseo
Impressive Kansallismuseo resembles a Gothic church with its heavy stonework and tall-steeple tower, but actually opened in 1916. Inside the museum is divided into rooms covering different periods of Finnish history, including a large collection of prehistoric finds, church relics and cultural exhibitions. Look up for the vivid frescoes by Akseli Gallen-Kallela depicting scenes from the epic Kalevala, including one of the hero Väinämöinen plunging a stake into the giant pike.
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Helsinki Tour Expert
Organises city tours and specialises in travel around Finland and to Tallinn and St Petersburg. There's a desk at the city tourist office and the train station. It also runs worthwhile 1½-hour city bus tours in summer on the hour from 10:00 to 14:00 (11:00 and 13:00 in May & September, 11:00 in winter). Ask which tours are free with the Helsinki Card. They depart from the Esplanade Park, near the tourist office, and taped commentary (in 11 languages) comes via a headset.
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Nuuksio National Park
In the northwest district of Espoo, Nuuksio National Park is an excellent opportunity to experience a bit of Finnish wilderness if your visit won't take you beyond the Helsinki area. Although so close to town, it's a typical slice of Finnish forest, with a multitude of lakes and ponds, and several walking trails. You may see rare ospreys, grey-headed woodpeckers or black-throated divers on your strolls; the park is also a habitat to elk and nocturnal flying squirrels.
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Rymy Eetu
Fancy a beer? Then you’re after a 1L pint of a genuine German pilsener or one of the huge array of brews at this Bavarian beer hall. You can order some dumplings, or bread and sauerkraut, to soak up the booze while tapping your foot to Finnish humppa (jazz-based music). The pub’s namesake is, ironically, a modest, chubby Finnish cartoon character, who is known for his nonchalant resistance to the Nazis during WWII, and who you’ll see throughout the bar’s decor.
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Natural History Museum
Recently renovated, the Natural History Museum is known for its controversial weather vane of a sperm impregnating an ova. New exhibitions like Story of the Bones, which puts skeletons in an evolutionary context, bring new life to the University of Helsinki’s extensive collection of mammals, birds and other creatures, including all Finnish species. The dinosaur skeletons and the saggy African elephant in the foyer are hits with kids.
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Manege
One of two museums that retells Suomenlinna’s military history and can be visited with a combination ticket (€6). Manege commemorates WWII and displays heavy artillery. Finland was forbidden to possess submarines by the 1947 Treaty of Paris and the WWII-era U-boat Vesikko is one of the few submarines remaining in the country. You climb inside and see how it all worked – it’s not for the claustrophobic.
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Ehrensvärd Museum
Ehrensvärd Museum preserves an 18th-century officer’s home with dozens of model ships, sea charts, portraits and blue-and-white-tile Swedish stoves. Opposite Ehrensvärd Museum is the shipyard where sailmakers and other workers have been building ships since the 1750s. As many as two dozen ships are in the dry dock at any given time. They can be from 12m to 32m long and from as far away as the UK.
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Tori
Buzzing with a bohemian crowd and recognisable by the vinyl record on the door, this is the city’s anytime favourite. The decor is snappily revamped in 1950s interior kitsch, complete with period fittings, while the menu runs to beetroot-and-blue-cheese pasta, and a reinvention of meatballs with a brandy sauce. Breakfast is a build-your-own adventure or go for the porridge, while lunch sandwiches are good for the cash-strapped.
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Temppeliaukio Church
Hewn into solid rock, Temppeliaukio Church was designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen in 1969 and remains one of Helsinki’s foremost attractions. The church symbolises the modern innovativeness of Finnish religious architecture and features a stunning 24m-diameter roof covered in 22km of copper stripping. There are regular concerts, with great acoustics; the entrance is at the northern end of Fredrikinkatu.
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Café Delicato
At the cornerstone of Helsinki’s Little Italy (OK, it’s really just this place and a restaurant across the road), this deli makes an ideal ciabatta grab. You have to make the tough choices between fresh fillings like olives, gravadlax with spring onion and dill, or gutsy salami and Roma tomatoes, but otherwise there couldn’t be a better Italian job in town. There’s also authentic strong coffee plus a selection of slices.
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Porvoo Historical Museum
Porvoo Historical Museum is in two adjacent buildings on the beautiful cobbled Old Town Hall Square. The more interesting of the two is the Art Museum, with paintings by Albert Edelfelt and sculptures by Ville Vallgren, two of Porvoo’s celebrated artists. Porvoo Historical Museum, in the town hall building across the square, reproduces a 19th-century merchant’s home.
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Juuri
Who has time to sample every Finnish dish and risk having a plate of yuck to finish? Juuri’s sapas (Suomi tapas) gives you a chance to sample the classic in tiny portions, such as lingonberry marinated salmon on slivers of maltbread, or cabbage leaves stuffed with crayfish. The mains aren’t bad either and include grilled wild-boar ribs and raspberry-marinated Arctic char, which stay true to Finnish roots.
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