Helsinki

Helsinki was established as a trading town by the Swedish Empire in 1550, but it wasn't until 1812, when the Russian Empire made it the capital of Finland, that it started growing. Today, this hustling and bustling city has 690,000 inhabitants and the capital area 1.36 million (2025). It is the northernmost capital of an EU member state. Helsinki metro is the northernmost subway in the world.

History:

Helsinki was founded in AD 1550 by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden, of which Finland was the eastern part, as a trading post to compete with Tallinn to the south in Estonia, which was Danish at that time. Helsinki was established about 5 km north-east of the current centre in the area today known as Vanhakaupunki ("the Old Town"), at the rapids where Vantaa river (at that time known as Helsinge river) flows into the Baltic Sea, which in turn gave the city its Swedish name Helsingfors ("Helsinge rapids"). Never becoming the trading post Gustav Vasa envisioned and largely bypassed by the King's Road — the major road along the coast — the village faced some hard times during its first centuries with fires and diseases; today there is but a few stones left of the original Helsinki. Eventually the city was moved further south to its current location, and in the middle of the 18th century, the maritime fortress Sveaborg (nowadays Suomenlinna in Finnish) was established on a handful of islands just in front of Helsinki, the fortress and the city together being nearly as populous as the regional capital Turku. The now world heritage-listed fortress archipelago features some of the oldest standing buildings in the city.

By plane:

All international and domestic flights land at the compact, modern and airy 1 Helsinki Airport (HEL IATA). , which is in Vantaa, 20 km to the north of central Helsinki.

The airport is well served from across Europe, from East Asia and was also well served from neighbouring Russia before Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022. There are also flights from some airports elsewhere in Asia and a few airports in the USA. Finnair used to use Helsinki's position to the north-east of Europe to offer competitive travel times to East Asia. However, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian airspace cannot be used, which has nullified the advantage.

Coming from across the Baltic Sea, you may also consider flying to some regional airport with budget flights, such as Turku or Tallinn, if their connections happen to suit. You can take a ferry from Tallinn or an intercity bus or train from the other cities, which generally have excellent connections to Helsinki (connecting flights are sparse, and you'd miss the city visit).

Helsinki Airport is on a commuter train loop, with trains every 10–30 minutes from 04:30 until 01:15, taking about 30 min to the centre. There are buses to the centre, to Vantaa, to Itäkeskus (with metro connection) in the eastern suburbs, and to other cities. Taxis are available. See Helsinki Airport#Ground transportation for details.

There are 24-hour grocery stores both at the airport (Alepa) and at Elielinaukio (S-Market), close to the Central Railway Station.

By train: