Top Attractions in Helsinki

In the centre

Senate Square is the set piece: Helsinki Cathedral on its steps above a pale square, with the university and the government buildings around it. Uspenski Cathedral is ten minutes east across the bridge onto Katajanokka, and it is the one you see from every boat leaving the South Harbour. Temppeliaukio, cut down into the bedrock with a copper roof over it, is the building that most surprises people. The Chapel of Silence at Kamppi is a small wooden room in the middle of a shopping district and takes five minutes.

For collections: Ateneum for the older Finnish paintings, Kiasma for contemporary work, Amos Rex for the exhibitions people queue around the block for. Oodi is the central library and functions as a public living room. The Design District is an area rather than a building, and the Old Market Hall sits on the South Harbour quay where the boats tie up.

Out in the water

Suomenlinna is the attraction with the most to see and the most misunderstood access. Eight islands, six of them fortified, begun in 1748 as Sveaborg, renamed in 1918, on the UNESCO list since 1991, with several museums and the submarine Vesikko. In 2009 a record 713,000 people visited, most of them between May and September. The crossing takes 15 minutes from the eastern side of Market Square, in front of the Presidential Palace, on an ordinary AB ticket — see the ferry page before you queue at the wrong gate.

Korkeasaari, the zoo, has its own island and is reachable by bridge and bus, and by JT-Line boat in summer. Seurasaari is an open-air museum of historic wooden buildings, reached on foot over a wooden bridge from Meilahti — no boat needed, which catches people out. Both are covered on their own page. Vallisaari and Lonna are the two summer islands worth the effort if you have already done the fortress.

The attraction that is not a building

The archipelago itself. About 330 islands sit in front of the city, and the channels between the inner ones are the reason the sightseeing loops exist. A loop goes out, shows you the city front, the fortress walls from the water and the villas and boathouses on the inner shore, and comes back to the same quay in about 90 minutes without landing. That is not a complaint, it is what the product is. People who expect island hopping are disappointed; people who wanted to sit down and look at the city are not.

From the kiosk I watched the same two queues every day: one for a place, one for a view. Work out which one you are in. The island hopping page is for the first, and the archipelago loop is the second.

Seasonal reality

The sightseeing fleet runs roughly May to September. Out of season the water attractions shrink to the Suomenlinna ferry, which never stops, and the international ships. Everything on land stays open.

Frequently asked questions