Finland and its hidden beauty

A winter tale that many miss

Finland has never been a place I was actively looking forward to visiting. I’ve heard things about Finnish people being the happiest for multiple years in a row, but on the tourist side, I’ve never heard much. It’s a country where people can live a slow, peaceful life, and tourists can do nothing.

I was fundamentally wrong, and in this post, I want to share my experience with you to make sure no one misses the gem that Finland is.

I’ve been there for 3 days in February, which is my preferred time to travel, as the tickets are cheap, people stay home hiding from winter, and I have more leisure time to explore. This time was no different, but paired with what turned out to be a winter wonderland destination.

Many know Finland for Lapland, which is indeed a winter wonderland destination where many travel to experience a snowy Christmas and sometimes even see the Aurora Borealis in person. Yet, Helsinki is located on the other side of the country, and let me tell you all about the winter tale around there.

Transportation

Two plane tickets from Riga to Helsinki, round-trip for 2 people, cost 150 euros, 34 out of which were for seat selection. I’ve been there Saturday - Monday, which are usually the days of more expensive plane tickets, so this price was a steal, if you ask me. Especially, since for once, it was not a Ryanair flight, and airBaltic instead.

Now, when we got to Helsinki airport, let me tell you about the transportation inside the city and around it. Helsinki has the best transportation system I’ve ever seen, and I might die on this hill.

Everything you need can be found inside one app. Do you need a ticket? Welcome in. You don’t know how to get somewhere? The app will build the best route for you. Need to know where your bus is? Right there, all in the app. Now, you might say that Oh, hey, we’ve got that too!

Good for you! Do you need to validate your ticket when you get on the transport? Does yours include a water taxi to an island? That’s what I thought.

I’ve bought a 72-hour A-B-C zones pass, so that includes the airport transfer too. It was 25 euros for three days, and I believe that with the amount we travelled it was absolutely worth it. Once you activate it, you have a QR code in the app, which you show to the driver and enjoy your ride to your destination.

Do you think your phone might die on you? Don’t worry, in buses, trams and even out of the city, trains you get USB ports and even a power socket to charge your phone. Everything has been thought of for the people’s convenience. At this point, I was starting to see how, from small bits and pieces, the happiness of the locals can build up.

To say more, this whole system applies to cities close to Helsinki, too. We’ve also visited Espoo, which is close, but still a different place from Helsinki. Did we have to pay anything on top of it? Absolutely not!

So the 25 euros for a 1 A-B-C zone pass and the flight tickets were the only money I’ve spent on transportation during this entire trip. If you are planning on visiting Helsinki, the HSL app will be your best friend.

Public transport has plenty of routes, is stable, and we didn’t need to wait for more than 10 minutes for any type of transport we used to get around. What else does a curious traveller need?

Hotel

This time, I’ve decided to stray away from booking the cheapest hotels and go for a step a tad bit higher. Scandic Park was my top choice, and after discovering the location and the price, I said let’s do that.

We only stayed for 2 nights, with breakfast added, and it came out to 239 euros. I’ve booked the usual double room, I always book at the hotel, but the room adventures didn’t stop there.

As an early morning flight lover, with additional spare time comes the problem of check-in being at 14:00 or, in this case, around 16:00 if I recall correctly. That’s why I decided to send a message to the hotel a couple of days before the arrival time and ask if there was an option to pay more for an early check-in, if it was available.

The reply came almost immediately, with the staff offering an early check-in that would cost 20 euros, which was totally fine with me. But, good things didn’t end there, and as an additional offer, they said: But we can also offer you a room upgrade with an early check-in for 30 euros! And I said, count me in.

In the end, I paid 30 more euros on top of the reservation fee and received a room that was twice as big as my previous one, and it came with a bathroom the size of a shopping mall with a separate bathtub, shower and marble everywhere. Not bad for 269 euros, including breakfast for 2.

The things I can say about the hotel are only positive; the breakfast was delicious, and everyone could find what they liked, with plenty of options available. The hotel has almost a thousand rooms and has speedy lifts that take you to the seventh floor in a blink of an eye. The rooms are clean, and you can barely hear what’s happening in the hallway, so for the price, it was indeed an excellent deal. If you are visiting any of the cities Scandic has its hotels in, they are worth checking out!

Helsinki

The city of peace, calm and love, or however that saying goes. I really enjoyed my time there, as even the usual morning strolls around the city were quite fascinating. We have walked around it, racking up our steps for the day. I didn’t have a big plan for Helsinki itself, but we visited the main attractions and popular points.

We walked through the Senate Square and visited the Old Market Hall. Didn’t go inside but saw the Rock Church, which is quite literally carved into solid rock. Visited the old train station and simply explored the various streets of Helsinki. One of the beautiful places was also the first Fazer café we grabbed a bite at.

As a cute bonus, I really enjoyed the train station entrance at Helsinki airport, which was playing ballet on the big screen as we rode down the escalator. Made the ride much more interesting.

As one of the touristic spots for me was the Lindt chocolate store, where I just couldn’t contain my happiness as I picked every flavour of chocolate candy up and made a good investment in their business as a result.

It was a good snack alongside tea in the hotel, as the temperature outside was quite low. Funnily enough, it was just as cold as back home in Latvia, where it was around -21 degrees Celsius at night and around -15 to -8 during the day. But the most interesting fact about the temperature in Helsinki is that it feels entirely different compared to winter back at home.

When it’s -15 in Riga, you walk outside and immediately feel your bones being picked apart by the humid cold air. It is quite an unpleasant feeling, especially when you have to be outside for quite a while. Yet, in Helsinki, it was entirely different. When you step outside, you gradually get colder as a whole. There is no invisible cold force trying to make your experience miserable, not at all.

Which is why we walked for hours around the city and even hiked a little the next day.

Espoo

The next day, it was an executive decision that we were making our way to Espoo and Nuuksio Reindeer Park, located within. It was a ride on the train and then a bus to get there, and when we realised we were in the middle of quite literally nowhere, we started worrying a bit.

The snowy forest around, with a park that is kilometres wide on all sides, one road and one bus that often goes, but not ideally. Our worries were soon replaced by fascination when we looked around and saw the snowy sights. When you think about winter in tales, movies or simply beautiful pictures, you think of Espoo and its trees. It was the definition of a winter wonderland and was an experience I wish for everyone to go through at least once.

After walking alongside the road, we found the park itself, and it was worth every single euro we spent on tickets. 26 euros per person gets you a block of reindeer food and a tea/coffee with a cinnamon bun in the hut. I agree it was quite pricey when you think about it, but once I’ve visited it, I had no doubts I’d go again and again.

You get access to a platform or, honestly, an entire walkway surrounded by a wooden fence, behind which a dozen deer walk around and really want to get what’s in your hands. We were told they don’t truly enjoy getting petted, but it is difficult to resist when they are nudging their heads into your hands, asking for them.

In total, we spent around 45 minutes to an hour there, enjoying a hot tea with cinnamon buns in an authentic hut where there was a fire in the middle and loads of other tourists sitting shoulder to shoulder to get some warmth. While leaving, I couldn’t walk away without a plush deer from the souvenir store, which is now proudly watching me write this post from my shelf.

After leaving, we decided to walk around for a little while as there was still time until the bus back to the city. The silence that falls over the road as you walk along was honestly deafening; it was almost pressing from all sides onto your brain with just how silent it was. Not a single sound came from anywhere but our shoes crunching the snow.

It was an experience I couldn’t compare to anything else, even if I wanted to, simply because I’ve never experienced anything like that before. We walked around in -15 degrees, without getting cold, while enjoying the sights all around us. If that wasn’t a fairytale, I don’t know what is. In our fascination, we have walked to the last available stop on the map of the HSL application. We weren’t yet ready to say goodbye to these views.

In conclusion, I would strongly recommend everyone to visit the Reindeer Park and walk around the premises for gorgeous sights. I’m sure even in summer it is beautiful, when it is all a shade of bright green instead.

Suomenlinna

Our third day was spent on the fortress close to Helsinki, which one can access by a 15-minute ride on a water taxi. We grabbed a warm drink in the island’s one supermarket and started our walk, during which we discovered the history of the fortress and saw the views of the surrounding water.

I didn’t expect much, but as a person who enjoys history, this was a must-visit. The story of the fortress was told from day one to the current days, not hiding any ugly details and allowing you to explore all the mentioned buildings if they survived multiple wars this fortress was used in.

In the information centre, you can get a free map with all the places marked on it and even the location of the info boards is marked, so you can come up to any of them and read more about the place you are currently standing in. The fortress has a dark history in parts of its usage, but it is also important to know the history that got us here.

After the walk, which is formed as a loop around the fortress, we came back to the museum in the middle of it. The tickets to get in were an additional cost, but it was interesting to see bits and pieces of the story we read as we walked around. And after getting some hot chocolate with a pastry in the café at the museum, we headed back to the city with another water taxi.

It was a great adventure, and the sights from the top of the fortress walls were breathtaking. Pictures will never show the atmosphere and never convey the feeling you feel when you are up there. So if you are planning to visit Helsinki, Suomenlinna fortress is a must-visit! Especially, since the water taxi is already included in the public transportation ticket, and the fortress, apart from the museum, costs nothing to visit.

Additional costs

You should always plan for additional costs when travelling anywhere, that’s a nonspoken rule for every traveller. In Helsinki, make sure you plan enough for food and souvenirs, as they get quite pricey there. Which is funny, considering the prices in Lidl in Helsinki are about 30% lower than prices in Lidl back at home.

If you want to keep your additional costs minimal, the best way to go about it is to book a hostel or a hotel with a shared kitchen you can use and simply buy your food in grocery stores, as it was another thing that blew my mind. A great selection of ready-to-eat meals and even a chicken wing bar. You can absolutely go by without eating out in Helsinki, and I think that's beautiful.

Conclusion

If you wanted a peaceful weekend getaway from chaos and day-to-day tasks, Helsinki is the right place to go. Everything was made for people’s convenience, and it makes for a low-stress getaway, where you can enjoy the city without any additional worrying.

In my personal opinion, I strongly recommend putting Helsinki on your to-go lists, as it is truly an underrated gem of European travelling.

Until the next time,

Liese

Finland Adventure in Pictures

A brief look into the Finnish getaway