Helsinki Weekend Guide: 2-Day Itinerary & Best Things To Do

I spent five weeks in the summer of 2025 living in Scandinavia and was able to spend a lovely weekend getaway in Helsinki.

Helsinki is such a beautiful city with stunning nature, great food, and amazing people. It is such an underrated city and totally worth a visit.

Helsinki Travel Planning: Accommodation & Transport

Accommodation:

The best thing I’d recommend is staying in central Helsinki so you can walk to most of the areas you’re going.

We stayed at Hotel NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa which was a great option for my husband and I. This was the perfect place for us to relax, use the sauna/steam, and enjoy slow mornings. It is definitely on the pricier side, but it was great for a weekend.

*One note about this hotel is that there are limited hours for the guests to use the spa amenities since it is also a luxury spa for non-guests. There were a couple hours in the morning and evening open for guests.

How to Get from Helsinki Airport (HEL) to Helsinki Central:

By Train: Follow the signs and many escalators to the train station in the airport. You will need to buy a ticket at the ticket kiosks. You will need to purchase an ABC zone ticket (which covers the zones from the airport to the city center) to get into town. Ticket prices are very reasonable, €4.10 per person. You can take either the I train or P train, whichever one shows up first – both go to the city center.

By Taxi: We also used a decent amount of Uber in Helsinki – this can work to get from the airport into the city central as well.

Getting Around Helsinki:

Walking: Helsinki is not very big and we walked 90% of the places we wanted to go!

Trains and Buses: We struggled with the public transportation because of the freaking app. Helsinki uses the HSL app – but we could never get it to work for us. Along with that, most of the stops don’t have ticket kiosks, so you’d need to buy a physical card and load it with tickets ahead of time. Since we were only there for a weekend – we didn’t bother with this.

Uber: Since we didn’t bother with public transport, when we needed to go further than walking distance, we just called an Uber.

Scooters/Bikes: You’ll find short term rental scooters and bikes all over Helsinki. The most common apps are Bolt, Lime, Voi, and Bird. These are reasonably priced and can be convenient, but the one big issue was parking. When we got scooters, we brought them to a designated parking zone – but it still wouldn’t let us park saying there was “no space.” We had to go around for another 20 minutes to try to find a parking zone to not get fined. So just make sure you take this into account.

Helsinki City Sights

Vanha Kauppahalli (Old Market Hall): This is an amazing food hall filled with local food stalls. You will find everything from reindeer jerky to salmon soup. We tried salmon soup (gluten free!!) from Restaurant Story and it was delicious.

Kauppatori: Next, visit Helsinki’s most famous and vibrant outdoor market, located right on the South Harbour waterfront, where you can sample Finnish delicacies, shop for local handicrafts and souvenirs, and catch the ferry to the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.

Senate Square & Helsinki Cathedral: The iconic, neoclassical Helsinki Cathedral is the showstopper here — you can climb those grand steps for the city’s best photos! The square itself is the heart of Helsinki’s elegant architecture, framed by the Government Palace and other historic gems.

Uspenski Cathedral: This magnificent red-brick Russian Orthodox cathedral, is adorned with glittering golden onion domes, and is a must-see contrast to Helsinki’s Lutheran style. It really showcases the Russian influence in Helsinki. Set atop a hill in Katajanokka, it boasts a lavish interior of icons and offers fantastic views of the harbor and city.