The A-Z Of Amazing Cities: H Is For Helsinki

Ah, Helsinki. Monocle Magazine’s third-greatest city in the world for quality of life (glaring resentfully down the Baltic Sea at perennial winner Copenhagen).

One of Time Magazine’s 2021 Greatest Places In The World, for its astonishing efforts in environmentalism - it’s a city where 77% of journeys are taken by sustainable means.

And it’s also the capital of the happiest country on Planet Earth for five years running.

Just to wipe the smile off your face, however - as one of the planet’s northernmost capital cities, Helsinki is also hella cold for much of the year. April is the first month in the year when average temperatures rise above 0 degrees, peaking at highs of 17 degrees in July before rapidly dropping once again in September and October. In other words, if you want to avoid shivering your way through the streets in a big coat, now is the time to book your flights.

So let’s talk you through your next summer visit to the White City, readers. It’s going to be a great one.

What’s the COVID situation?

Finland’s border restrictions are still in place until 8th May 2022, requiring visitors from the UK to present evidence of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 in the past six months.

Once you arrive into the country, however, mandatory restrictions have been dropped (although Finland has reported a corresponding rise in cases).

Visitors are being reminded to keep wearing masks on public transport and avoid large crowds - last year, Helsinki’s mayor actually introduced an online heatmap to help tourists figure out how to stay away from very busy areas.

What should you see?

Helsinki is a walker’s city above all, so pack a good pair of trainers. It’s seriously compact (you could cycle across it in half an hour), filled with parks and green spaces, and a route on foot will give you a grand view of the city’s innovative architecture.

It’ll also be the perfect opportunity to also stop off at the city’s nine lovely allotment gardens, which act as community spaces for flea markets, karaoke parties and movie nights.

There’s no need to book a tour - the city’s official website has a choice selection of jogging and walking trails. Helsinki is one of the safest cities in Europe, so it’s the perfect place to wander at your leisure without worrying too much about where you're going. (For some proper Finnish wilderness, there are two stunning national parks, Nuuksio and Sipoonkorpi, within an hour’s drive of the city.)

Nuuksio National Park

You’re also visiting one of Europe’s great art and culture cities, of course - which means there’s an absolute ton of calendar events you should keep an eye out for depending on your travel dates.

The really big one is Flow Festival, which takes place this year from 12th-14th August, after two cancellations in a row across 2019 and 2021. In true green Helsinki style, this epic music and arts celebration is 100% sustainable, and you can expect big international acts including Gorillaz, Florence and the Machine, and Nick Cave.

For something a bit more traditional, plan for a late June visit. The city’s summer solstice celebrations - Finland’s biggest national holiday - will be in full flow, with Midsummer bonfires lit upon the shore and parties ongoing in the allotments, and Helsinki citizens heading out for a traditional visit to the sauna.

You’re spoilt for choice there: Marie Claire has a list of the city’s best and most unusual saunas - including, bizarrely, a Burger King outlet where you can order a Whopper while literally sweating out of your pores. (Aren’t their fries soggy enough already?!)

And make sure you book a boat trip up the archipelago, too; the 300 islands and many towns along the Gulf of Finland all have a ton to offer.

The Culture Trip have some recs for the most beautiful stops, but we’d pick out the famous sea fortress of Suomenlinna, the island of Pihlajasaari - which offers free cookshacks, nature trails and the city’s only naturist beach - and the unbelievably good-looking city of Porvoo.

Porvoo, pour vous

In the evenings, there are plenty of nightclubs and bars where you can toast your stay with a gin cocktail (the local Kyro Napue gin was voted the best in the world in 2015) - but personally, we’d give the bars a break and head to Cafe Regatta instead.

With a great deckchair view of the sea and the nearby Sibelius Monument (and handy access to paddleboarding and kayaking in the summer), Regatta is a charming, traditional log cabin joint which serves cinnamon buns and blueberry pie.

In the evening, the café owners light their firepit and invite guests to cook sausages over the flames while enjoying the gorgeous sunset. Bliss.

The Sibelius Monument, otherwise known as 'Watch Out! You're Being Chased By A Spooky Set Of Pipe Organs.'

Who are the local experts?

So convenient timing on this one - those clever clogses at the Guardian have just put together a list of tips from a former Helsinki tour guide, Heidi Johansson. Heidi has some fantastic advice, but we’re particularly fond of her recommendation to visit Oodi, the city’s groovy and laidback central library.

Other than that, Reijosfood is a fantastic blog from a Helsinki local that reviews all of the city’s restaurants and eateries (although updates have sadly ceased as of 2021, its recs should still all be up-to-date).

What should you say?

Most Helsinki residents speak English fluently, and Finnish is a notoriously difficult language to learn (Try and get your mouth around the infamous “lentokonesuihkuturbiiniapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas”, if you can - it’s a job title for an assistant aviation mechanic) but all the more reason to impress your hosts by making a proper effort

Our pals at the Intrepid Guide have a handy list of 99 common phrases that you’re likely to need while you’re in the city, along with audio to help you with the pronunciation.

Got any recommendations for visiting Helsinki to share with your fellow Detour readers? Let us know about them!

Our Pick of the Clicks

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across the web this week.

• The town of Hell, Michigan, offers residents the chance to become ‘Mayor of Hell’ for a day - and this week, its latest diabolical overlord was a small black cat called Jinx. (All dogs go to heaven, of course.)
• Speaking of hellish cats, a United Airlines flight was terrorised this week by a monstrous moggie, which somehow got loose and began scratching and attacking passengers
• From January 2023, you’ll need to pre-book to get into Venice, and swipe your ticket access the city's main areas via electronic turnstiles - it’s a bit of a grim new measure announced to try and manage overtourism.
• One enterprising New York street artist is selling ‘really bad portraits’ of passers-by for $3. For once, it really isn’t false advertising.

• The South Australian Tourism Commission is offering £10 plane tickets to Adelaide for young people on a working holiday visa, to try and encourage travel back into the country.

  Check the small print, though - it’s still a good deal, but there are some required extras, including a £162 hostel package from Trailfinders.

• Heathrow Airport has warned that 2022 will be a profitless year, after already losing £4 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic.(Presumably it’s only a matter of time until Elon Musk tries to buy it.)
• The Telegraph has done a bit of adding and subtracting and has concluded that the UK is ‘the world’s biggest holiday rip-off.’

Very Bumpy Landings

Over on the Jack’s Flight Club Travel Hub, the amazing Kamil has given us a write-up on the five scariest airport landings in the world.

From sudden drops to terrifying mountainous climbs, it’s all here. You can find the full article on the JFC website, but here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect…

When it comes to taking off, Matekane Airstrip is a genuine hair-raiser.

Things start out looking pretty normal as your plane picks up speed on the ground. It’s only when you reach the end of the 1600 ft long grass strip that you’ll notice something weird.

You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you’re on a rollercoaster?

Yep. You’re free falling.

Matekane Airstrip’s short runway ends abruptly at the top of a 1900 ft-tall cliff, leading to a very thin margin-of-error for taking off and landing.

It means that most planes start free falling before they’ve even generated the lift required to actually start flying.

Hold onto your seat and pray that your pilot isn’t fresh out of flight school…

Read the rest of Kamil’s Top 5 Airports You Never Want To Land At over on the JFC website.

Do you actually unpack your suitcase when you get to the hotel room, or do you just leave your clothes inside? A war rages on in the JFC Facebook comments section.

Thanks for reading!