You live here now, so you travel like a resident: cheap trains booked early, national parks with free huts, a cottage in July, and one proper Lapland trip. Here is the short list.
Weekend trips by train
| From Helsinki | Time | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Porvoo (bus) | 1 h | wooden old town, river, the most photographed street in Finland |
| Turku | 2 h | the old capital, castle, cathedral, the archipelago ferries |
| Tampere | 1.5 h | saunas, the Moomin museum, lakes on both sides of the city |
| Lahti | 1 h | ski jumps, the lake, a day out |
| Hämeenlinna | 1 h | castle, Sibelius's birthplace |
| Savonlinna (summer) | 4 h | the opera festival in a medieval castle |
From Tampere, Turku or Oulu, the same idea: pick a lake town two hours away. VR fares are cheapest weeks ahead and on weekday mornings.
National parks
Forty-one, free, with marked trails and fire pits. Nuuksio by bus from Helsinki, Repovesi from Kouvola, Koli in the east for the national landscape, Seitseminen from Tampere, Kurjenrahka from Turku, Oulanka in the north for the Karhunkierros trail. Everything, including free wilderness huts, is on luontoon.fi. See nature and seasons for everyman's right.
The cottage
Rent one for a week in July or for Midsummer; lomarengas.fi and the big booking sites list thousands, from basic to luxury. Insist on a sauna and a lake. See Juhannus.
Lapland, once, done right
- When: February or March for snow, northern lights and daylight; late September for the autumn colours; June for the midnight sun.
- Where: Rovaniemi for Santa and easy logistics, Levi or Ylläs for skiing, Saariselkä or Inari for real wilderness and Sámi culture.
- How: the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi or Kolari with a sleeper cabin is the experience itself; book two months ahead. Rent a car there.
- What: husky or reindeer safari, a snowmobile evening, an aurora night, a sauna, and a day of doing nothing in the snow.
The ferries
Tallinn is two hours from Helsinki; Finns go for the old town and the cheaper shops. Stockholm is an overnight cruise with a cabin, a buffet and a famous amount of duty-free; go once. Åland by ferry from Turku for a Swedish-speaking island summer. Suomenlinna is a twenty-minute ferry on your HSL ticket.
Travelling cheaply
Book VR and Onnibus early, use the HSL ticket for Suomenlinna, sleep in wilderness huts and hostels, and remember that in Finland the best things, the forest, the lakes, the light, cost nothing.
Travel Finnish
| Finnish | Meaning |
|---|---|
| matka, matkustaa | trip, to travel |
| juna, laiva, lautta | train, ship, ferry |
| mökki | cottage |
| kansallispuisto | national park |
| revontulet | northern lights |
| Hyvää matkaa! | Have a good trip! |