Helsinki: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
In 1812 the tsar moved the capital of Finland here and built a new centre that deliberately looks like Saint Petersburg — he wanted the Finns pulled away from Sweden and towards Russia. Over the next twenty years one German architect put up the whole square. Hollywood filmed Moscow here in the 1970s, because it could not film in Moscow. Two hours.
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A short history of Helsinki
In 1550 the Swedish king Gustav Vasa founded Helsinki as a port to rival Tallinn across the gulf. In 1748 the Swedes began building the fortress of Suomenlinna on the islands off the city. In 1809 Finland came under Russian rule, and in 1812 the capital was moved from Turku to Helsinki. After a great fire the architect Carl Ludvig Engel designed the neoclassical centre around Senate Square. In 1917 Finland declared independence, and in 1952 Helsinki hosted the Olympic Games.
The ten best sights in Helsinki
1Helsinki CathedralWhite on a hill, and the square below is the whole city plan
2Uspenski CathedralThe largest Orthodox church in western Europe
3Temppeliaukio ChurchBlasted into solid rock in 1969. The acoustics are the reason
4Kamppi ChapelA wooden egg on the busiest square, for silence. Free
5SuomenlinnaA sea fortress on six islands, and people live on it
6AteneumThe national gallery, and Finnish art starts in it
7KiasmaContemporary, and the building caused a national argument
8Amos RexUnderground, and the roof domes rise through a 1930s square
9Design MuseumFinland exports design the way others export oil
10Oodi LibrarySewing machines, 3D printers and a kitchen. All free
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Helsinki →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Helsinki:
Free walking tours in Helsinki
Built to Look Like Somewhere Else
In 1812 the tsar moved the capital of Finland here and built a new centre that deliberately looks like Saint Petersburg — he wanted the Finns pulled away from Sweden and towards Russia. Over the next twenty years one German architect put up the whole square. Hollywood filmed Moscow here in the 1970s, because it could not film in Moscow. Two hours.
- Senate Square · Carl Ludvig Engel designed every building on it — the cathedral, the university, the government palace — as one composition, and the tsar sat in bronze in the middle until Finland took him down in 1917 and then put him back.
- Helsinki Cathedral · Finished in 1852, white, Lutheran and almost empty inside — three statues and nothing else. The twelve apostles stand on the roof rather than in the nave, which is the only decoration the building allows itself.
- Uspenski Cathedral · The largest Orthodox church in western Europe, red brick and gold domes, built in 1868 on the hill facing the white Lutheran one across the harbour. The two were meant to be seen together, and they were meant to argue.
- Market Square · The market is on the quay because everything arrived by sea. In August the stalls sell berries picked that morning in forests anyone may walk into — under Finnish law you may pick and keep what grows on any land.
- Esplanadi · A park laid between two carriageways in 1818 so that the new Russian officials would have somewhere to be seen walking. Helsinki now sits on its grass from the first warm day, which in Finland is a public event.
- Temppeliaukio Church · Blasted straight down into a granite outcrop in 1969 and roofed with a copper disc on concrete ribs. The walls are raw rock, and the acoustics are so good that it is booked for recordings more often than for services.
The Sauna and the Sea
Finland has about three million saunas for five and a half million people — more saunas than cars. It is not a treat: it is where people were born, where the dead were washed, and where deals are closed. The public sauna nearly died out in the 1990s and has come back hard. Two hours, and bring a towel.
- Kotiharjun sauna · Opened in 1928 and the last wood-fired public sauna in Helsinki that never closed — there were a hundred and twenty in the city before the war, and flats had none. Men and women have separate sides, and the stove is lit by hand.
- Kallio · The workers’ quarter, built fast around 1900 for people who came off the land to the factories, with one sauna to a street because the flats had no bathrooms. It is still the cheapest place in Helsinki to drink.
- Löyly · A public sauna built in 2016 out of slatted pine on the shore, where you walk out of the heat and down a ladder into the Baltic. Löyly is the word for the steam that rises when water hits the stones, and Finnish has no other use for it.
- Allas Sea Pool · Three pools floating in the harbour beside the presidential palace: one heated, one filtered sea water at whatever temperature the Baltic is, and one for children. It is open at seven in the morning all year.
- Suomenlinna · Sweden began this sea fortress in 1748 against Russia and lost it to Russia in 1808 without a real fight; it became Finnish in 1918. Eight hundred people live on the islands now, and the ferry is an ordinary tram ticket.
- Kaivopuisto · The oldest park in Helsinki, opened in 1838 around a spa the Russians built, and the rocks at its edge are where the whole city goes to watch the sun go down over the islands on the first of May.
What Finland Designed
Finland came out of the war poor, owing enormous reparations to the Soviet Union, and with no raw materials. What it had was wood, glass and people trained as engineers — and out of that it built a design industry that became the national identity. There is now a whole quarter of small shops, signposted in the street. Two hours.
- Oodi Library · Opened in 2018 facing the parliament, which was the point: the building says what the state is for. It lends sewing machines, drills, 3D printers and a kitchen as readily as books, and nothing in it costs anything.
- Amos Rex · The whole museum is underground beneath a 1930s square, and its skylights push up through the paving as grassy domes that children slide down. The square stayed public, which was the condition of building at all.
- Kamppi Chapel · A curved spruce drum on the loudest square in Finland, built for one purpose: to be quiet in. There are no services and no symbols, anyone may go in, it costs nothing, and the walls take the noise out of the street completely.
- Design Museum · The chair, the scissors, the glass and the mobile phone — Finland sells design the way other countries sell oil, and the museum shows why: everything here was made to be cheap enough for a worker to own.
- Design District · Twenty-five streets with about two hundred shops, studios and galleries, each with a black sticker in the window. It was organised in 2005 by the shopkeepers themselves, and the map is free in any of them.
- Finlandia Hall · Alvar Aalto clad it in Carrara marble because he wanted a southern material in the north; the frost cracked and bowed the slabs within a decade, and the city has replaced the whole facade twice since.
Getting to Helsinki and getting around
- Helsinki Airport · The ring rail runs both ways to the centre, 30 minutes, €4.10
- Central Station · Four stone giants hold the lamps, and they are from 1914
- Kamppi · Buses to Lapland and to Saint Petersburg
Cheap eats in Helsinki
Eight counters where Helsinki eats standing. A market hall from 1889 on the quay where the fish soup queue starts at eleven, a 1930s café whose chocolate the country treats as a national possession, and a beer hall that has not changed its menu or its waiters in decades.
- Old Market Hall · About €12 a bowl, standing at the counter
- Hakaniemi Market Hall · Lunch under €12, and closed on Sundays
- Karl Fazer Café · Queue at the door, and the cinnamon bun is the order
- Sea Horse · Open since 1934, and the herring has not changed since
- Zetor · A tractor in the dining room, and the food is farm food
- Levain · The bread queue, and the cardamom bun goes by ten
- Teurastamo · The old abattoir yard, and the kitchens open at noon
- Market Square stalls · Salmon grilled upright on a board, €15, by the water
Museums in Helsinki
- Ateneum · €22, closed Mondays, and the golden age is upstairs
- Kiasma · €22. Finland argued about the building for a decade
- Amos Rex · €20, underground, and the square above it is free
- National Museum · €18, and the ceiling in the entrance is free to see
- Design Museum · €15, and it explains the whole country in an hour
- Seurasaari · An island of wooden buildings moved here from all over
- Helsinki City Museum · Free, and the 1960s flat upstairs is the best room
Nature and day trips near Helsinki
- Suomenlinna · Ferry every 20 minutes, and a city ticket covers it
- Nuuksio National Park · Free, and the bus from Kamppi takes 40 minutes
- Kaivopuisto · The oldest park, and the rocks face the sunset
- Hietaniemi Beach · A city beach with a sauna at one end, open all year
- Lapinlahti · A former asylum in a park, now open to anyone
- Töölönlahti · A bay in the middle of the city, and a path all round it
Things to do in Helsinki with kids
- Linnanmäki · Free to enter, and open from late April
- Korkeasaari Zoo · On an island, and the ferry in summer is part of it
- Oodi Library · A whole floor for children, and everything is free
- Suomenlinna · Tunnels to walk through and cannon to climb on
- Allas Sea Pool · A heated pool for children beside the cold one
- Seurasaari · Squirrels take food from your hand, and it is free
Live music in Helsinki
- Tavastia · Tickets from €20, and the floor holds seven hundred
- Musiikkitalo · The concert hall, and students pay €10
- Finlandia Hall · Aalto’s hall, and the marble has been replaced twice
- Kuudes Linja · In Kallio, electronic, and open until four
- Kaiku · A basement by the sea, and the sound is the reason
- Bar Loose · Rock downstairs, portraits of rock upstairs
Nightlife in Helsinki
- Kallio · The cheapest beer in Helsinki, and the most mixed
- Punavuori · The design quarter by day, bars by night
- Teurastamo · A yard of red brick, and in summer it is all outside
- Hakaniemi · Where the unions are, and the bars are old
- Kappeli · A glass pavilion in the park since 1867, and the terrace
- Jätkäsaari · A new quarter on the old cargo port, and the sauna is in it
Frequently asked questions about Helsinki
What is there to see in Helsinki?
The top sights in Helsinki are Helsinki Cathedral, Uspenski Cathedral and Temppeliaukio Church. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Helsinki?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Helsinki without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Helsinki?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Helsinki, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Built to Look Like Somewhere Else.
How do you get to Helsinki and get around?
The main ways are Helsinki Airport, Central Station and Kamppi. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Helsinki, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Helsinki that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Helsinki for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.