helsinki in winter?

September 20, 2007 8:06 PM

Helsinki in winter: are we insane?

The wife and I are heading to Europe this coming winter, and are going to be spending two nights in Helsinki. What is there to do or see in Helsinki in the middle of winter? This will be towards the end of a 6 week trip, so chances are we will just want to chill out and relax, but is there anything we shouldn't miss?

posted by robotot to Travel & Transportation around Helsinki, Finland (5 answers total)

I've been in Helsinki in both summer and winter. Summer was 200% more fun. Everyone is pretty bummed out in winter, in general.

Things to see? You'll probably do best by art galleries, although there's also a church dug out of solid rock that's quite nice when the sun's out.

Other than that? Have a sauna and a drink. At Sauna Bar
posted by anthill at 8:25 PM on September 20, 2007

Best answer: No, you're not insane. When I was studying in Russia a friend and I took off for Helsinki the week before US Christmas, and it was great. Our perceptions of people may have been off because we were, you know, living in Russia, but Helsinki is beautiful; there was plenty of window-shopping and carols piped onto the streets in the commercial areas. The market in the center of the city, I don't know what it's called, was still open, even after dark. In terms of things to do, we mostly meandered through the snow and stopped for coffee every ten minutes. The Academic Bookstore has a really good English-language selection, including weird obscure books about Finland in English, and Stockmann is interesting if you like giant foreign department stores. Other than that, I second art galleries, but mostly I just encourage wearing a warm coat and walking around. It's a good place to decompress-- clean, attractive, polite, and pretty much everyone speaks English.

You can also take a ferry to Tallinn for a day, which is very Ye Olde Tourist Spot, but when we went in winter we were mostly miserable. There were people in costumes selling roast nuts and a giant market in the town square (along with an enormous Christmas tree), but we couldn't find anything to do. (I really liked Tallinn when I went back in the summer for several days.) Most of the other people on the boat were Finnish college students who were completely drunk by the time we headed back.
posted by posadnitsa at 5:39 AM on September 21, 2007

Best answer: No, you are not insane. I've done it several times from Canada. The things not to miss are saunas followed by a dip in a frozen lake. The cool thing is that the -15C air and 4C water don't feel cold after a hot sauna. There are even old school smoke saunas! Don't back down from a cleansing birch branch beating.

Eat some Korvapuusti (ear flicks aka cinnammon rolls), reindeer, cloud berry jam with hot lapland cheese, meatballs made with moose. Otherwise, Helsinki is a modern town with lots of restaurants, bars, lounges and cafes. Go to some and ogle all the blonds.

If you have the money, take a flight to the far north. You can see northern lights and visit a ice hotel.
posted by FastGorilla at 9:08 AM on September 21, 2007

FastGorilla's right, the saunas are perhaps the only thing about Helsinki proper that's much better in winter. You will get the hell beaten out of you if you go for the birch, but you'll earn macho cred with the locals.
posted by chrismohney at 1:37 PM on September 21, 2007

Since you'll be in the neighborhood, check out Vilnius and Riga, too. Both UNESCO World Heritage Site-level old towns, cheaper than Helsinki, most people speak some (read: enough for lost tourists) English. I just moved to Riga a few weeks ago and did a visa run to Vilnius a few days ago; both are great.
posted by mdonley at 2:53 PM on September 22, 2007