Best What to Do in Helsinki Finland 2023

Greetings Internet Stranger and welcome to this best what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary. I have a tendency to think of Nordic countries as always having been wealthy and prosperous. Of course, this is far from the case. The many Swedish and Norwegian immigrants who came to the United States in times of famine can attest to that.

But perhaps no Nordic country has had a more complicated history than Finland. And what better way to learn about Finnish military history than with a visit to the Suomenlinna Fortress? Join me for this what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary, and we will tour Suomenlinna Fortress, find some ghosts, and smell what the Rock Church is cooking.

Want to cut right to the chase, Internet Stranger? The best activity in Helsinki is this fabulous walking tour with tons of great reviews!

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what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

Where to Stay?

It can be very expensive to have a what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary. Not because the city is dirty or dangerous, as it’s clean and incredibly safe. The problem is that Helsinki, like many other Scandinavian cities, is quite expensive. And I wanted to spend all my money on Michelin star restaurants, not hotels.

So if you’re on a budget, but don’t want to share a room with strangers, I suggest the Yard Hostel. The rooms are clean and comfortable, and the staff is extremely friendly. They even helped collect my bag when AirFrance lost my bag. Also the location couldn’t be more convenient. You don’t want to waste any of your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary commuting.

Click here for a great deal on this hotel! And if you’d rather explore tons of other hotels in Helsinki, click here. This search engine will help you find the perfect place to stay during your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary. With plenty of options to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find something for your schedule and budget.

what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

Morning: Suomenlinna Fortress

Suomenlinna Fortress is a World Heritage Site that dates back to the 18th century. Just wandering around, you’ll learn how Finland transferred from Sweden to Russia back to Finland again. And one of the best parts of visiting Suomenlinna is getting there! For this what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary, you’ll take a 15 minute ferry ride that leaves from the centrally located Market Square.

You can basically see the whole city from here!

Once you arrive at Suomenlinna Fortress, I recommend stopping in the Suomenlinna Museum and buying a ticket for the walking tour. A ticket for the Ehrensvard Museum is included with the price of admission. Your friendly Finnish guide will teach you much more than…

approximately top 5: suomenlinna fortress

1) Fortress Walls

You really can’t miss the walls at Suomenlinna Fortress during your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary. They are all around you! Suomenlinna was originally constructed by the Swedes back when they were occupying Finland in the 1700s. The Swedish name for the place was Sveabard.

When the Russians took over Finland in the early 1800s, they kept the name, even though Sveabard means “Sweden’s Castle”. However, when Finland finally got control over their own country, they renamed it Suomenlinna, which means “Finland’s Castle.”

As with any fortress, these walls have seen a lot of drama in their day. They were even used as Russian defense against the British during the Crimea War. Our guide pointed out that they were also used as defense against a more common enemy: the wolf.

I definitely would see a movie about a group of Russians and Finns trying to keep a bunch of zombie wolves at bay during the Crimean War. It could be called Crimean and Punishment.

2) Piper Park

And now we come to the most amazing ghost story ever told. Apparently there was a rich girl and a poor boy on Suomenlinna Fortress who fell in love. But their love could never be! So they did the really sensible thing and tried to drown themselves in this park.

The boy drowned straight away, but the rich girl was kept afloat by her poofy skirts. She was rescued by a gentleman, and apparently he was a dashing one because she…fell in love with him and married him instead. Now apparently the park is haunted by the ghost of the poor drowned kid.

I have so many thoughts! The first is that I bet this was that rich girl’s plan all along. Second, does that ghost haunt the park just singing “Love Stinks”? If not, he should. Also, why has no one made a movie of this story? It’s basically Titanic if Kate Winslet had only been pretending to be in love with Leonardo DiCaprio so she could drown him and get rescued by a dashing sea captain and have his babies.

3) Ehrensvard Museum

Once the tour is over, take advantage of the free admission to the Ehrensvard Museum. Ehrensvard was a Swedish commander who tried to improve conditions at Suomenlinna fortress. Apparently there were no Swedes who wanted to come here because there was nothing to do except fend off wolves and get drowned by mean, rich girls.

So Ehrensvard livened up the place by having dances and inviting artists. He is buried in a place of honor on Suomenlinna Fortress. Many Finns don’t speak very highly of the period of Swedish occupation, so it’s impressive that Ehrensvard is well-regarded by many Finnish people as being a decent and cultivated man.

Sadly, as you can see from my photo above of the interior of the Ehrensvard Museum, his family very tragically had no faces. It’s amazing that they were able to accomplish so much despite not having basic things like a nose or eyes.

His son was the only member of the family born with a face. No one knows why. Maybe it skips a generation.

4) Cafe Vanille

At this point on your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary, if you are anything like me, you’ll be getting hungry. Cafe Vanille, on Suomenlinna Fortress, is an affordorable (affordable/adorable) place to get a bite to eat. I partook of a flaky meat pie and a buttery apricot cookie.

These are both convenient treats to wrap up and take with you, so I imagine that the people patrolling Suomenlinna could have taken them as snacks to go as well. (Except for Ehrensvard and his family because they didn’t have mouths.)

I’m much luckier than the patrolmen on Suomenlinna though, even if they did have meat pies, because I get to eat mine on these heart shaped plates. Also I don’t have to worry about being eaten by wolves every night.

5) Suomenlinna Church

The Finns sure love their churches! This was the fourth church I had seen in Helsinki. (And the best is yet to come.) Suomenlinna Church used to be Russian Orthodox, but it was converted into a Lutheran Church after the Russians left.

It was designed by the same architect who designed the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. And since who knows when we will ever see Moscow again, it’s a lot easier to come to Helsinki to admire his work instead. One fun fact about this church is that it also doubles as a lighthouse. That seems like a metaphor somehow.

You can definitely go inside the church, but I spent most of my time trying and failing to get a good picture of the exterior. Sadly this dumb tree kept blocking my way. Stupid tree! I wish a wolf would eat you!

what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

Afternoon: Temppeliaukion Church

Suomenlinna Fortress is a pretty big attraction, so you’ll probably spend more like a morning and half the afternoon there. But what can we possibly do with only a half-ternoon on our Helsinki Itinerary? Well, no attraction in Helsinki can pack a big punch in a short amount of time the way Temppeliaukion Church can.

This baby, which is explicably known as the Rock Church, is hands down the most intriguing of Helsinki’s many churches. Allow me to intrigue you further with…

three fun facts: Temppeliaukion Church

1) How Old Is This Church?

The Rock Church (I get tired of typing Temppeliaukion over and over) dates back to the 1960s. However, the Helsinkians had tried to build it much earlier in the 20th century. Unfortunately little things like “losing all their money in World War II” got in the way.

Even in the 1960s, there were some people who felt that Helsinki shouldn’t build such an expensive church. Students protested by writing Biafra on the building site. (Biafra was a location in Africa that was experiencing famine. The students felt that the money should go there instead.)

Finnish student protesters are so polite! All the political graffiti I saw in college was way more angry and graphic. You would never find anything more polite than Buck Fush.

2) Is that really a rock?

The Rock Church is no optical illusion. It’s actually carved out of the rock itself. The church is lit only by natural light, which is very eco-friendly. Going inside the church feels like entering a secret tunnel. Perhaps it’s how the early Christians felt, meeting in caves with only the natural light to guide their services.

Of course, the early Christians didn’t have a giant copper ceiling or 500,000 visitors every year like Temppeliaukion Church does, so there are some key differences.

3) Are you ready to Rock Church?

Not only does the Rock Church have amazing natural light, it also has flawless natural acoustics. That’s why Temppeliaukion Church is such a popular place to hold concerts.

I guess it brings new meaning to Rock and Roll! HAHAHAHA! (Actually, I think all the concerts here are classical or religious music. But I can never pass up a terrible pun.)

what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

Evening: Fine Dining

Nordic cuisine has come such a long way since the days of eating cured reindeer meat whilst holed up in a fortress, praying that the wolves would not slay you this night. I could not resist the opportunity to try the freshest Finnish produce at Juuri.

Note: Juuri has since closed, so I suggest dining at a different Helsinki fine dining restaurant instead, like Gron.

Allow me to take you through a journey of Finnish ingredients, as I take you through my tasting menu. We begin with a cocktail made from lingonberry and vodka. This is the most Nordic cocktail possible. Lingonberries are a tart berry that are insanely popular in Nordic countries. The lingonberry even features prominently in the Finnish epic Kalevala.

Next came a leek and potato amuse bouche. This was like a vichyssoise if you took out all the soup. A mild and pleasing start to the dinner.

The first sapa was an egg served with buckwheat and fennel. Before I went to Finland, I wasn’t aware of the history between Finland and Russia, so I didn’t know it’s not surprising to find ingredients in Finland, like buckwheat, that are so popular in Russia. I thought it was cute to serve it with a chicken egg when buckwheat is normally served with fish eggs.

24 Hour treat: horse meat

This next dish will be the most controversial. That’s right, it’s horse meat. You can’t eat horse in the United States, so this is my first experience with this dish. It was completely delicious! The meat is very low in fat and flavorful. It was served with a rhubarb pickle that added just the right sour note.

I was never one of those little girls who liked horses because a horse bit my shoulder once at a petting zoo. (I didn’t see it come up behind me.) Now I am the one who bites the horse!

The soup course was a cauliflower soup served with an omelette. This was very soothing, and is also as white as a marshmallow caught in a snowstorm. Or as white as all the white on white art I saw in the Ateneum Museum.

24 Hour Treat: Arctic Char

I was so excited to find arctic char in Finland because I love its vaguely salmony taste. I had never eaten it outside of the West Coast of North America before. It was served here two ways: tartare and cooked.

Alongside it was salsify, which is a kind of root vegetable found in Finland that tastes like an oyster. The main kinds of produce that grow in the wild in Finland are berries and roots because of the climate.

The meat course was an upscale twist on a Finnish comfort food: pork belly. Instead of being served with mashed potatoes, this was presented with semolina and a celery puree, which made the whole dish much lighter.

I don’t understand why the upscale versions of things always seem to have less fat in them. If I’m paying more money, I want more fat! That’s just science.

24 Hour Treat: Finnish cheese

I was delighted by this tiny cheese course because after all the sapas, I couldn’t handle a full sized version. I’m afraid I don’t know the names of these cheeses except that none of them are Finlandia. One cheese was hard, white, and milder, while the other was a stinky blue. They were served with a carrot and mustard jam, which I really dug.

I’m a big fan of surprising flavor combinations, and I liked the sweetness of the carrot with the slightly bitter and tangy mustard and salty cheese. If I tried to replicate this at home, I’d probably just smear mustard on a Babybel cheese and stick a carrot into the whole thing because I am lazy.

I mentioned that there’s not a ton of fresh fruits in Finland, so they get a little creative with the dessert. This is spruce sprout served with yogurt and a cucumber sorbet. I had never eaten spruce sprout before, though I imagine it’s a less controversial ingredient than the horse flesh. It had a pleasantly citrusy taste.

And I was also a fan of the cucumber sorbet. You eat with your brain as much as with your mouth, especially if you’re like the Ehrensvard family and you were born without a mouth. So that’s why I like to eat surprising dishes, like sorbet made from odd ingredients. (Though technically a cucumber is a fruit. That’s just science.)

what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

What to Pack?

• A cell charger so that you’ll be able to keep taking photos all during your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary
• The best international travel adapter because if you’re American like I am, or British like I am not, you’ll need one to be able to plug in electronics in Finland.
• The most reliable travel umbrella that is small enough to fit in my purse, but strong enough to stand up to powerful winds during your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary
• These great TSA approved clear toiletries bags, so I can always keep spare toothpaste and travel sized toiletries in any carry-on.
• My book Get Lost, that I wrote myself with all my best travel tips. This book will show you how travel can take you on a journey of self-discovery.
• My favorite guide to Finland.

what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

How to Get There

Now, I wish I knew where you lived, Internet Stranger, because I could send you a box of the finest reindeer ears. But sadly, I do not, and so I can’t tell you exactly how to get from your home to this one day Helsinki itinerary.

But I can tell you that you can use an airplane to get to a large city like Paris London, and then take a shorter flight to Helsinki. I recommend Expedia for the best way to find the cheapest flight to Helsinki at the best time of day.

You can even use Expedia to rent a car so you’ll be all set when you arrive at your destination. (I can’t drive, but if you can, this must be helpful.)

Just click here to start looking for the best possible deals on your flight, so you can head out on your what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

That’s a what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary

What would you do with a what to do in Helsinki Finland itinerary? Are you ready to start booking your hotel in Helsinki? Did that rich girl murder that poor boy, yes or yes? And how did that family of Swedes survive for so long without faces? Please email me at stellajane@aroundtheworldin24hours.com and let me know!

Note: If you want to know how I put my travel itineraries together, just click here. Keep in mind that while each article is about how to spend 24 hours in a place, that doesn’t mean you should ONLY have a one day in Helsinki itinerary. If you have time to add another one day in Helsinki itinerary, try this itinerary.