Three days in Helsinki

If you are going to do silly things,like eating & drinking take plenty of money with you. 

Mista H

+1 for plenty of money, Finland is one of the pricier places, even by Scandinavian standards

Midsummer is daylight for a lo-o-o-ong time,   so be time aware, you might not notice its gone a bit dark for an hour or so at an all-night wedding.

I used to go on business about 4 or 5 times a year for best part of 10 years

When I did go in summer & stayed in town for a weekend,  it tended to be yachting or my dealers private log cabin with drinking, saunas, drinking, jumping in lakes, drinking & ..... nuf said. 

Helsinki does have some interesting places, but nothing outstanding like a "must see" that I have found. 

In summer & with good weather, an afternoon or evening walking around the harbour - I think its called the Esplanade - is great fun,  its alive with people, bars, restaurants, boats & a fun atmosphere. 

Best tip  - frozen vodka can bite !!!

Have fun

Although Mike-B pretty much sums up what to expect here is a few suggestions how to spend the possible spare time.

Places of interest/museums/sight-seeing

• Temppeliaukio Church quarried out of the natural bedrock, Temppeliaukio Church is one of Helsinki's most popular tourist attractions.
• KIASMA located in the heart of Helsinki, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma offers you an easy access to the most interesting and invigorating art of our time.
• Suomenlinna is a historical maritime fortress and one of Finland’s most popular sights. It attracts more than 700,000 visitors every year. The ferry departs from the eastern side of Market Square, opposite the President’s Castle. At Suomenlinna the ferry departs from the main pier on Iso Mustasaari island. The ferry is part of the city transport network and all HSL tickets are accepted.
• The open-air museum of Seurasaari is located on a beautiful green island just a few kilometres from the heart of Helsinki. The island is a tranquil oasis in the midst of the city and at the museum the traditional Finnish way of life is displayed in the cottages, farmsteads and manors of the past four centuries that have been relocated from all around Finland. (Bus number 24, last stop at Seurasaari.)
• beside the normal hop on hop off sight-seeing busses there are also possibilities to take a boat cruises (also with lunch or dinner) and see the city from a different angle. The departures are by Market Square (at the end of the Esplanade Mike mentions) 

Eating/drinking/entertainment

• The Restaurant Savotta takes its guests directly from Senate Square to a nostalgic view of Finland from past decades.
• LAPPI RESTAURANT the first elegant Lapland style restaurant in the heart of Helsinki. (be careful with the Reindeer’s tear cocktail as Mike warns.
• Café Ursula, ever popular, has been at the public’s service in Kaivopuisto for more than 50 years. This high-class, cosy café-restaurant attracts the young and the old alike to enjoy the beautiful seaside scenery..
• The Ateljee Bar is a classic above it all, the most original choice for the first drink of the evening. Splendid view over Helsinki at the top floor of Hotel Torni.
• Just behind the Finnish Parliament building is Happy Jazz Club Storyville – one of the best jazz clubs in Europe (they claim themselves). To entertain clients Storyville hosts Finnish and foreign jazz bands four evenings a week. At Storyville you can also enjoy Cajun&Creole cuisine every night until 3 am.

Thanks all, especially Osprey. That is really, really helpful. 

We are prepared for tmuch rices and drink very rarely or not at all so that is not an issue. The wedding is in the Cathedral then afterwards on an island in the bay, we hope it will be good fun. Our idea of a good city break is lots of walking around the place, good food and a decent art gallery or two.

Cheers bruce

Very interesting post Osprey. Have to say i found all 4 scandinavian countries expensive,but perhaps you could throw some light on the price of clothes.

Last year we took the car over to Esjberg then drove to Odense for a football match. On the way we stopped off at a large Marina and in their chandlers shop i bought a very nice shirt for £2.50 and a pair of LEATHER deck shoes for £12. Then we went into their snack bar and had 2 chicken n chips + a drink and blew £50.Just does not stack up to me.

Mista h

Bruce, it seems that unfortunately many art galleries are closed at the moment due to the holidays (it's currently the main season here) but I hope you can find a few interesting ones which are open from this list.

The setting for the wedding sounds wonderful. I am sure you will be having very nice time. 

Mista h, I doubt you can find any shoes at that price anywhere around here. I would say you'll be lucky to buy some kind of deck shoes for £40 (branded ones are well over £100) and there would not be any shirt (not even basic t-shirts) available below £10 and the price e.g. of a decent polo shirt could start from £50. But I believe it is possible to get a basic lunch for 2 persons during lunch hours for £17 (20€ ) including soft drinks  (beer prices are what they are all day around though ). 

One of the reasons concerning the relatively high prices (compared to UK) is the VAT (currently 24%) but I'd still say that Finland is the cheapest (or level with Sweden) of the Nordic countries. I have not been in Denmark in awhile so my recollection of the prices there are from a few years back but I know (since I usually spend a couple of weeks a year in Lapland) that at least in the northern part some Norwegians come to Finland to fill their fuel tanks and even buy groceries since the prices are that much lower than in Norway.

Last night in Bergen .33 litres of local draught beer was 55 NOK, today a lunch of a shrimp roll and a dough cake (local speciality) was 11NOK, we shared the sandwich and roll.

There are about 9 NOK to the £ ish depending on the type of transaction.

Shrimp roll at just over a quid sounds cheap Derek,but 165K for a litre of beer....Jesus.

When we were at the match guy sitting next to us went and bought a disgusting looking small sausage in a piece of bread which i would not feed to a dog,told us it worked out about 7 quid.

I went and bought 2 large(?) beers,when i passed my old man his i told him to make it last as he was not getting a 2nd one.

Mista H

At the risk of generalising massively, the Norwegians and Finns have a particularly problematic relationship with alcohol at both extremes - either fanatically teetotal/temperance or rather overfond of the juice and, like much of the UK, prone to binge drinking. 

The authorities force the prices very high. 

Retail, there are state monopolies for the sale of the strong stuff and they are designed, like bookies used to be here, to be uncomfortable and shame-inducing places.

Which doesn't stop the Friday afternoon queue round the corner, because they are closed at the weekend...

Or the easy availability of illicit moonshine (at least in the countryside), which will blow your palate and the top of your head off.

And which explains the particularly Scandinavian phenomenon of the booze cruise, where a ship sails into international waters for a few hours/weekend for no other reason than to allow the passengers (who are normally upright and respectable citizens) to get completely and utterly legless. 

The upshot is the top tip that any Brit turning up with a bottle of Scotch is an especially prized guest  

I simply don't drink when in Norway. If the booze doesn't give me heartburn, the prices will...

And, yes, the food is just as likely to give you heartburn (at least in Norway) unless you raise a second mortgage and go to a posh restaurant. Just as well I have weakness for those sausages in savoury pancakes, then!

Peter

Well we had a fantastic long weekend; we found the city really relaxed and interesting, we enjoyed some good food, the Art Nouveau houses and the Design Museum. Suomenlinna was great, and easy to leave the busy main drag and lose yourself on the smaller paths.

it was also far warmer than we had anticipated, but great for the wedding party as a result.

The Teattrinni grill on Esplanadi fed us very well one night.

Bruce

I am glad your trip was successful. I should have warned you about the weather - temperature can fluctuate here quite rapidly, one day it is 15°C and in the next nearly 30°C.

Basking in the summer sun it was hard to imagine it in winter-and some 40 degrees colder.