General information
Helsinki is the capital of Finland, situated in the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, north of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. Helsinki currently houses more than 560 000 people and if combined with other cities of Greater Helsinki area (Capital Region towns Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, and eight outer suburban municipalities), the numbers rise to 1,26 million people. In whole Finland lives little over 5 million people.
Helsinki is served by a bustling port of Helsinki, which can be reached from Tallinn, Stockholm, and several other cities in Germany and Poland. Daily ferries run between Helsinki and Tallinn and Stockholm. During summertime it's great fun to take the first ferry to Tallinn and the last one back, spending the day in another country (and take quite a lot of booze back home...).
Helsinki is also served by Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, situated about 15kms from Helsinki City Centre. Major airlines, including Finnair, SAS, and British Airways use this airport. Low-cost airline Air Berlin also flies to Helsinki-Vantaa, but Ryanair operates only from Tampere airport (about 3hrs by bus from Helsinki).
Currently EasyJet does not operate from Finland (nearest destination is Tallinn).
Brief History of Helsinki
Helsinki was founded in 1550 by the order of King of Sweden. The king actually ordered people to move from different parts of Finland to this new town so that it could better compete with Tallinn for shipping routes to and from Russia.
In 18th century Helsinki suffered from the same diseases (mainly plague) as the other European cities, wars, and of hunger. The Russians invaded Helsinki during 1713-21 and then again in 1742. This caused Sweden to take extra care when organizing the defense of Helsinki area. This gave birth to Suomenlinna sea fortress, which was then called as “The Gibraltar of the North”. This nowadays over 250 year old fortress was included in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1991.
Helsinki prospered in 19th century and it was enhanced even more with building of railroads to Hämeenlinna in 1862 and to St. Petersburg in 1870. In the beginning of next century Helsinki housed over 100 000 people.
 Helsinki Central Railwaystation (designed by architect Eliel Saarinen). From here you can get to Turku, Tampere, Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio and many other cities in Finland - and even to St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. (all photos: Sami Mollgren & Harri) |
After Finland gained independence in December of 1917 Helsinki became the capital of Finland as well.
Quick Tour of Helsinki
For a tourist Helsinki offers quite a lot to see. And to see, you'd better take on your good walking shoes or buy a tourist ticket that is valid on the trams, buses, trains, and metro. Most of the major attractions are located in the central part of Helsinki, which is a treasure trove even to people who admire architecture.
The area around the grand white Tuomiokirkko -cathedral also houses the oldest university in Finland and the church itself is a major attraction as well. It is, as majority of Finnish churches are, a Lutheran church. Nearby is also located the Uspenski Cathedral, the grandest orthodox church in Finland.
And as you walk southwards from either church you cannot miss the market square and president's castle.
 Between west and east - and by the sea: Helsinki Market Square. Evangelical Lutheran cathedral Tuomiokirkko (right) and Eastern Orthodox Uspenski cathedral (left). Uspenski cathedral is the biggest Eastern Orthodox church in Northern and Western Europe. |
From market square you can buy lots and lots of Finnish hand-made things or just sit in one of the cafées and enjoy the bustle and smell of fresh fish and vegetables. If you feel a bit hungry, try the crepes.
From market square you can also take a ferry to Suomenlinna island fortress. There are two different companies that offer this service, but only one of those accepts the HKL tickets. The ferry is located near the place where the ferries to Korkeasaari Zoo depart.
Suomenlinna Island Fortress was built in 18th century and it has been compared to Gibraltar. Even though it's on UNESCO's World Heritage List it's one of the major tourist attractions in Helsinki and - at the same time - one of the suburbs of Helsinki. So why not grab a bottle of wine and some sandwiches and head there for a sunny break? You can also dine in one of the Suomenlinna's restaurants. The one next to the place where the ferries arrive is also a brewery and they offer a traditional beer brewed in the island.
 Suomenlinna Island Fortress, and a catamaran to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It takes less than 2 hours to get to Tallinn. |
Korkeasaari Zoo is also one place to visit. They have approximately 200 different species of animals living in the island and over 1000 different plant species. If you are lucky you can even watch the keepers feeding some of the animals. So remember to have your camera ready.
Remember to visit the Linnanmäki Amusement Park which is located in central place in Helsinki. The amusement park has no entrance fee so you can just take a walk there and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells. Linnanmäki also has the oldest rollercoaster in the whole Europe which is made of wood! You really have to try that out.
 Linnanmäki amusement park |
These are just few of the attractions of Helsinki. Visit Helsinki tourist office for more information. They have a handy office located in Pohjoisesplanadi 19, just a short walk from Stockmann towards the Market Square. For smaller problems you can also peek into their smaller office in the central railway station (together with the hotel booking office).
 Esplanadi park (or Espa) is a nice and green belt between northern and southern Esplanadi streets. The other end of the park is Market Square and the other is Svenska Teatern (Swedish Theatre) at Mannerheimintie (the main street of Helsinki City Centre). |
 Pitkäsilta (Long bridge) between city centre and historical labour district Kallio. The damages of the first and second World War can still be seen on the granite surface of the bridge. |
Shopping and Eating Made Easy
Hope I can do that! Helsinki is quite a good place to shop. You can find many small shops offering you million different things that you want to take home to your friends and family and shops from where you find clothes that you cannot find from anywhere else and of course the normal places like H&M and Jack & Jones.
First go into the Stockmann, which is a 6 storey department store in mid-Helsinki. It's white, lit tower is also portrayed in a Donald Duck -adventure “The Quest for Kalevala” made by Don Rosa. The Stockmann is a good place to find anything from clothes to souveniers, from DVDs to running shoes.
 The Stockmann department store is located in the centre of Helsinki. It is the largest department store in the Nordic countries. Stockmann's clock (Stockan kello) at Aleksanterinkatu is one of the most popular meeting points in Helsinki. Almost all of the tramm lines stops near Stockmann. An easy and cheap way to see Helsinki is to take a sightseeing tour by tramm lines 3T or 3B. |
Other good department store in Helsinki is the Sokos, which is located near the central railway station, opposite of the Lasipalatsi and next to main Post office. It isn't quite as extensive as Stockmann is, but they have some different labels to check for.
Helsinki also houses few good shopping centres in the middle of the city. Just next to Stockmann and Sokos lies Forum. There are several good places to eat budget food whilst checking out the stores like H&M, Jack & Jones, Iittala (buy your Moomin plates and cups here!) and many more.
The newest shopping centre is Kamppi, which houses - in addition of shops and restaurants - the main bus terminal of Helsinki. Kamppi shopping centre is also home to small boutiques like Quicksilver, KONE Helsinki and several others.
If you are staying in Vantaa, near the airport, check out the Jumbo Shopping Centre, which can be accessed by the buses that run to and from airport (mainly 61 and 615T). It houses many of the same stores that can be found in central Helsinki, only smaller.
In addition to these huge and big stores, we also have lots and lots of small shops. Even if you don't have suitable attire for the night out, you can find strange clothing shops as well. Try Morticia, which sells mostly gothic clothing and jewellery. Or you can peek into Mosso Clothing to buy really pompous and neat rave clothes. I, though, tend to go mostly to Jack & Jones.
You can find many restaurants in Helsinki as well. As I mentioned above, the shopping centers have many inside them. You can also find many different ethnic restaurants in Helsinki (including Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese...) as well as those which serve traditional Finnish food. Helsinki does not, however, have a culture of gay-themed restaurants, but loverbirds can take a table for two in any of the restaurants here.
For those curious people reading this, I'd suggest to take a look at Kynsilaukka. They are well known for foods that have garlic in them.
Night time activities
Of course we cannot stop now! It's evening and there are still some hours to spend before the bed calls. Helsinki has a bustling nightlife with Irish pubs, sports bars and even gay nightclubs. Just take a pick.
 When the night comes, the neonlights lights up... |
One of the most popular (not mentioning, that it's the biggest gay club in Scandinavia) places to visit is Dtm on Iso Roobertinkatu. They have different venues and parties, depending when you are there. On most Saturdays they play a host to popular Hehku club (meant for women) on the 2nd floor. If you happen to be there on Friday night, go to second floor to listen to old dance music and quite a lot of Eurovision Song Contest tunes.
Other major place to be is Nightclub Hercules on Lönnrotinkatu. It's smaller in size, but as popular as Dtm. The music's good, the atmosphere is nice and let's not speak of the cruisy back rooms.
There are lots of other places in Helsinki as well. If I took time to mention Lost & Found, Nalle Pub, and Con Hombres it'd take a lot of time. I trust that you can use google as well as I can to find lots of information about the places.
Beds in Helsinki
In Helsinki there are lots of hotels to offer accommodation to weary travelers. You can find almost most of the major hotels in here as you can find anywhere else. Unfortunately for us, Helsinki doesn't have a gay hotel, so you might encounter some awkward situations in reception when checking in to your double-bed room. If this happens, we'd love to hear about it to put a special mention here...
Special food or food in special atmosphere in Helsinki
» Saari (Finnish food) Sirpalesaari, by boat from Merisatama
» Suomi Lautasella (Finnish food) Lönnrotinkatu 13
» Savotta (traditional Finnish food) Senaatintori, Aleksanterinkatu 22
» Saaga (Lappsih food) Bulevardi 34 B
» Lappi (Lappsih food) Annankatu 22
» Savu (food made by Smoke-curing) Tervasaari
» Kynsilaukka / Garlic (Garlic food) Fredrikinkatu 22
» Šašlik (Russian food) Neitsytpolku 12
» Samovar (Russian food) Sofiankatu 3-5
» Bellevue (Russian food) Rahapajankatu 3
» Troikka (Russian food) Caloniuksenkatu 3
» Jailbird (a restaurant (and hotel) in old Katajanokka prison) Vyökatu 1
» Zetor ("Traktor restaurant") Kaivopiha, Mannerheimintie 3-5
» Spårakoff (A tram converted into a bar. See Helsinki and enjoy your drink...)
» Ateljee Bar (A bar with unique view over the Helsinki skyline) Hotel Torni, Kalevankatu 5
Some more useful links
» City of Helsinki
» The official tourism website of the city of Helsinki
» Gay restaurants (The official tourism website of the city of Helsinki)
» Suomenlinna Island Fortress
» Korkeasaari Zoo
» Linnanmäki Amusement Park
» Gay clubs & bars & cafeterias in Finland
» Helsinki Gay Map
» Nightclub Dtm
» Hercules Gay NightClub Helsinki - pages in Finnish