Destination Helsinki

Cosy in winter, with its warming saunas and restaurants for long, relaxed meals, and glorious in summer, when nearby islands in the Baltic offer easy escape. This guide will lead you to all of the above and more, with 37 carefully selected suggestions that are sure to make anyone fall for Helsinki.

Most guides try to tell you everything there is to know about a city, we just tell you how to enjoy it. It is our aim to show the reader what makes a place distinctive, to shed light on obscure locations as well as revisiting well-known ones with a fresh perspective. We research each city the old-fashioned way: asking friends, acquaintances, cab drivers and concierges for their tips and then walking, tasting, sipping, and peering into doorways and down alleys. We turn that research into a compact guide with enough suggestions to keep you entertained, with a list of shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, galleries, museums and parks, each one carefully described.