Helsinki

Europe

After a great fire destroyed a third of the town in 1808, Carl Ludwig Engel (1778-1840) was commissioned to rebuild it, and the resulting Neoclassical city center is laid out in wide handsome streets and boulevards with plentiful parks.

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About

Helsinki is the capital of Finland and its largest city and sits on a granite peninsula on the north coast of the Gulf of Finland, facing the Baltic Sea. King Gustavus Vasa of Sweden founded Helsinki in 1550, and in 1808 the town was incorporated in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. After a great fire destroyed a third of …

Helsinki

Planning a Trip

LANGUAGE Finnish CURRENCY Euro BEST TIME TO VISIT May to August NEAREST RAILWAY STATION Helsingin rautatieasema/ Helsinki railway station (HEC) NEAREST AIRPORT Helsinki Airport (HEL) EMERGENCY HELPLINE NUMBER 112 INTERNET ACCESS Internet access at public libraries is free. Large parts of the city centre have free wi-fi, as do many restaurants, cafes and bars, and nearly all hotels. Data is …

Helsinki

Getting Around

Bicycle With a flat inner city and well-marked cycling paths, Helsinki is ideal for cycling. Pick up the free Ulkoilukartta Helsinki cycling map at the tourist office, or view it online at www.ulkoilukartta.fi. Launched in 2016, Helsinki’s shared-bike scheme, City Bikes (www.hsl.fi/citybikes), has some 1500 bikes at 150 stations citywide. Bikes are €5/10 for a day/week pass; the first 30 …

Helsinki

History & Culture

The culture in Finland is largely shaped by it’s history. For years, the Swedes and Russians battled over control of the land, and, in the process, influenced the language and customs, especially in the regions of Ostrobothnia and Aland. Despite its colonizers, the Finnish language most closely resembles Hungarian. The northern outskirts of the country (Lapland) are dominated by the …

Helsinki

Top Attractions

Suomenlinna The fortified islands of Suomenlinna are a part of Helsinki, which seems remote, but is in fact easy to reach by a 20-minute ferry ride, using the same ticket as for buses and trams. The fortress of Sveaborg (Swedish Castle) dominates the island. It was built in the mid-18th century to bar Russian access to the Baltic. During the …

Helsinki

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