[fhuang]

hi guys, i'm thinking of going to Finland next year.  any place worth going(Helsinki Cathedral)?  easy to travel within the country(flight, train or bus)?  anything to be aware of?  some idea please? 

 

[keppa]

Any preferences what would you'd like to see? Architecture? Design/art? Nature? Music? As we're on Head-Fi I could almost suggest you to visit and hear some music at recently built concert house Musiikkitalo, since the main hall has quite nice acoustics to it.

Anyhow you can get around with trains or buses, but they do cost quite a lot even compared to most European countries.
 

 

[fhuang]

hey there, i would like to see everything, impossible, i know .  i actually prefer to see architecture, art and design more/first.  i'm sure i want to the famous Cathedral, for example.  anything with a history i want to visit.  i'm still searching.  i know the nation flight are expensive.

 

[keppa]

Well everything might be impossible yes, but quite a lot you can see in short time since this is still quite small country. And for that the flights inside Finland are quite unnecessary, unless you want to visit both down south as lapland up north. By the way, you might actually get cheaper flights than train tickets here.. that costly the train can be.

But anyhow, there's some historical stuff to see here in Helsinki yes, but more in a bit more east at Porvoo, or then west from Helsinki in Turku and the western coast up from there. But in Helsinki do visit also Suomenlinna fortress, it's a nice place to spend summer day and you get there with a cheapish ferry. The cathedral is nice yes, but if interested in architecture do visit the Temppeliaukio cathedral as it is built inside bedrock and nice architectural piece as such. And the concert house isn't far away from there so you could still actually visit that and have some food for your ears aswell!

 

[fhuang]

what about the astuvansalmi rock paintings?  easy to get there?  any other thing interesting in ristiina? 

 

[tissot]

Helsinki Cathedral, Suomenlinna fortress, Temppeliaukio cathedral, Sibelius monument are the usual touristy places in Helsinki. Helsinki is compact 600 000 people city so i would personally just walk around.. i guess that's easier said than done coming from local. 
 
Personally the best time i have had in Finland when outside of capital area has been up in Lapland with couple of mates hiking for a week in the summer under constant 23-27C weather and pure, cold water gushing out everywhere. Though that might be a bit too extreme for quick visit.
 


 

 

[Minazki]

I'm living at Lapland, Rovaniemi, and I'm actually studying traveling. If you do have enough time and interest, you should definitely visit Lapland since it does vary so much from southern Finland. Train from Helsinki does take about 10 hours to Rovaniemi so it's not really something that you can do briefly. Nature is the main thing in Finland. In Lapland at summer you should go hiking and enjoy the summer that doesn't go down and at winter there's a lot to do with snow as skiing. At least that's what I'll be doing 

 Whatever you decide to do in Finland, I'm sure you will enjoy your stay.

 

[fhuang]

thanks guys.  i probably going to stay in Finland for about 10 days.  summer time i think.  i'm still searching.  seems like the hotels aren't cheap(no more headphones for me next year:q).  i like hiking, seems like i need to go even a bit further north.  i can communicate with english? 

 

[keppa]

If you're into hiking then lapland is excellent place to visit, but I would suggest you to fly as you can get tickets cheaper than to a train, and not sit two days in a train back and forth. Astuvansalmi rock paintings are like 300km from Helsinki so there you can get by train or bus. And yes you can pretty much get around with english.

 

[tissot]

Quote:

thanks guys.  i probably going to stay in Finland for about 10 days.  summer time i think.  i'm still searching.  seems like the hotels aren't cheap(no more headphones for me next year:q).  i like hiking, seems like i need to go even a bit further north.  i can communicate with english? 

Nothing is cheap here.
Especially in capital area you wont have any problems using english. Should be no big problem elsewhere either. 

 

[fhuang]

i'm back from finland.  good country, good people, good food.  love it there. 

 

[fhuang]

Quote:

Helsinki Cathedral, Suomenlinna fortress, Temppeliaukio cathedral, Sibelius monument are the usual touristy places in Helsinki. Helsinki is compact 600 000 people city so i would personally just walk around.. i guess that's easier said than done coming from local. 
 
Personally the best time i have had in Finland when outside of capital area has been up in Lapland with couple of mates hiking for a week in the summer under constant 23-27C weather and pure, cold water gushing out everywhere. Though that might be a bit too extreme for quick visit.
 


 

 
 
actually it's colder than i thought. 

 

[fhuang]

same place as your pictures?

 

[fhuang]

Quote:

Well everything might be impossible yes, but quite a lot you can see in short time since this is still quite small country. And for that the flights inside Finland are quite unnecessary, unless you want to visit both down south as lapland up north. By the way, you might actually get cheaper flights than train tickets here.. that costly the train can be.

But anyhow, there's some historical stuff to see here in Helsinki yes, but more in a bit more east at Porvoo, or then west from Helsinki in Turku and the western coast up from there. But in Helsinki do visit also Suomenlinna fortress, it's a nice place to spend summer day and you get there with a cheapish ferry. The cathedral is nice yes, but if interested in architecture do visit the Temppeliaukio cathedral as it is built inside bedrock and nice architectural piece as such. And the concert house isn't far away from there so you could still actually visit that and have some food for your ears aswell!

 
 
i only stayed for two weeks so i didn't have time to travel around the country.  the most north i went was mikkeli. 

 

[fhuang]

Quote:

Well everything might be impossible yes, but quite a lot you can see in short time since this is still quite small country. And for that the flights inside Finland are quite unnecessary, unless you want to visit both down south as lapland up north. By the way, you might actually get cheaper flights than train tickets here.. that costly the train can be.

But anyhow, there's some historical stuff to see here in Helsinki yes, but more in a bit more east at Porvoo, or then west from Helsinki in Turku and the western coast up from there. But in Helsinki do visit also Suomenlinna fortress, it's a nice place to spend summer day and you get there with a cheapish ferry. The cathedral is nice yes, but if interested in architecture do visit the Temppeliaukio cathedral as it is built inside bedrock and nice architectural piece as such. And the concert house isn't far away from there so you could still actually visit that and have some food for your ears aswell!

 
 
i went to lots of museums in turku and helsinki.  i did some search before but i didn't expect i saw in tampere.  very very interesting.  and i tried to see the helsinki cathedral.  good or bad, i couldn't really get in because of the festival(helsinki day).  it's very beautiful.  i took a few ferry.  one was to tallinn.  the things on the supermarket was cheap. 
 
i had a great time in finland.  thank you guys.