Finland attractions

A wild landscape of ancient pine forests, lakes, and hills stretching between the resorts of Pyhä and Luosto, Pyhä-Luosto National Park is the highlight of central Lapland and a popular day trip destination from Rovaniemi. This paradise for outdoor sports enthusiasts offers hiking and biking trails, ski slopes, and snowmobile runs.

The Helsinki Swedish Theatre is a national theater where all performances are provided exclusively in Swedish. While the current building was inaugurated in 1866, its origins trace back to Helsinki’s first theater building, built in 1827. It was known as the New Theatre until the arrival of the Finnish National Theatre in 1872.

One of Finland’s northernmost resorts, Inari-Saariselkä is a pristine jumping-off point for exploring Urho Kekkonen National Park. The area is popular for winter sports, hiking and biking during the summer, and northern lights sightings.

Located on Korkeasaari island, Helsinki Zoo is home to 150 animal species and more than 1,000 species of plant. Opened in 1889, the zoo is geographically divided into three sections that house bears, tigers, and lions. Today, the zoo is best known for its conservation work, particularly with endangered snow leopards.

The Sinebrychoff Art Museum was once the family home of a wealthy brewing dynasty. Today, it houses treasures of historic European art, from paintings by German Old Masters such as Lucas von Cranach the Elder to the baroque Antoine Watteau to prints by Goya and Piranesi.

Just as its name suggests, the Helsinki City Museum is solely focused on the city of Helsinki. The museum, located in the oldest part of the city, explores the city’s past and present through the daily lives of Helsinki residents and features eclectic displays that include everything from plastic bags to candy wrappers.

With marine life from regions as diverse as the tropics and the Baltic Sea, an ocean tunnel where sharks swim above you, and hands-on experiences including a lab and a discovery pool, SEA LIFE® Helsinki delivers all the educational fun you’d expect from a SEA LIFE aquarium. Feedings let you watch critters from archerfish to piranhas, sharks, and rays enjoying a meal.

Explore the history and culture of Lapland and the Arctic at Arktikum, one of Finland’s most impressive museums. Peruse exhibits dedicated to the Sámi culture and history of Rovaniemi, as well as a section on the plants and animals of the Arctic. Lucky visitors can glimpse the Northern Lights from the museum’s modern glass tunnel.

Travel back a few hundred years at Seurasaari Island, an open-air museum outside the center of Helsinki. Here you'll see houses, manors, and outbuildings from rural Finland in the 18th and 19th centuries, and learn about crafts such as spinning, embroidery, and troll-making from guides dressed in traditional costumes.

Admire Helsinki from above without leaving the ground at the Flying Cinema Tour Of Helsinki—a state-of-the-art virtual cinema experience that offers birds-eye views of all the city’s landmarks. You’ll soar over the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress and hover over Helsinki Rock Church, all from the comfort of your moving seat.

Famous for its 1950s wooden roller coaster—the Vuoristorata— Finland’s oldest amusement park still packs a punch today. Popular with adults and children alike, Linnanmäki Amusement Park has over 40 rides, from gravity-defying roller coasters to nostalgic carnival rides, along with games arcades and a concert stage.

Formed more than 2 billion years ago, the Amethyst Fell of Lampivaara is one of Finnish Lapland’s most unique tourist attractions and home to the only active amethyst mine in Europe. Learn about the history of this semi-precious stone and traditional mining techniques, and even try digging for amethysts inside the mine.

Helsinki City Hall (Kaupungintalo) was designed as a hotel by German architect Carl Ludvig Engel in 1833. Today, modern glass structures have replaced many of the classical interiors, but the imperial blue-and-white facade remains, making the building a highlight of city tours. The city hall is a working administrative center, but occasionally hosts various events and exhibitions.

Helsinki’s Ateneum Art Museum (Konstmuseet Ateneum), built in 1887, showcases Finnish paintings and sculptures from the 18th century to the 1950s. There’s also a small collection of 19th- and early 20th-century international art, including a copy of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker and paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne.

The state-owned Design Museum—Designmuseo in Finnish—is devoted to Finnish design from the mid-19th century onwards. Located in the heart of the Helsinki Design District near Esplanadi Park, the museum hosts visiting exhibits and permanent collections presenting the history of Finnish applied art and design.

As Finland’s most popular ski resort and host of the annual Alpine World Cup Race, Levi is a top choice for winter sports. Take on the downhill runs, cross-country trails, and the country’s largest snowboard park in winter, while getting your thrills mountain biking, dry-slope sledding, and zip-lining in the summer months.

A circle of latitude and the southern boundary of the Arctic, the Arctic Circle is the gateway to one of Finland’s most scenic regions: Lapland. While winter temperatures do dip well below freezing, northern Lapland is far from the icy, uninhabitable wilderness you might imagine. Instead, it features Sámi towns, ski resorts, and pristine national parks, as well as being the official home of Santa Claus.

Nowhere is the magic of Christmas more real than the Santa Claus Office, where the Jolly Old Elf himself welcomes visitors from across the globe. Kids (and the young-at-heart) can have a chat with Santa and hand-deliver their wish list, while cheery elves snap memento photos and videos. Afterwards, visit Santa Claus’ Main Post Office and other attractions in Santa Claus Village.

A winter wonderland sculpted from over 2,000 tons (1,800 metric tons of snow and ice, Lainio SnowVillage in Lapland is even more impressive when you consider that the 215,000-square-foot (20,000-square-meter complex is completely rebuilt each winter. Visit the hotel, bar, and restaurant, which are all made entirely of snow and ice.

Once just a small fishing port, Helsinki is now the capital of Finland. Today, the Port of Helsinki welcomes more than 300 cruise ships carrying nearly half a million passengers annually and serves as a departure point for ferries to Tallinn, Estonia; Stockholm, Sweden; and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Adventure awaits at Urho Kekkonen National Park, above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. Spanning 985 square miles (2,550 square kilometers), it features a variety of landscapes, from rolling round-topped fells to dense forests, ravines, gorges, and crystal-clear streams. The park is one of Western Europe’s last wilderness areas and a pristine setting for multiple activities, including hiking, canoeing, biking, and cross-country skiing.

With its drawbridge, looming watchtowers, and ramparts topped with Finnish flags, SnowCastle of Kemi is the world’s largest fortress constructed entirely of snow and ice. This winter stronghold is rebuilt each winter based on an original design by famous Finnish architects, but always includes a hotel, restaurant, and chapel.

The Helsinki Art Museum, HAM for short, is home to the art collection of Helsinki and its residents. Its collection comprises approximately 10,000 pieces of mostly Finnish art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Permanent and temporary exhibitions are housed at the museum’s Tennis Palace complex in Kamppi.

Helsinki Central Library Oodi—also known as Oodi—is a modern architectural gem in the heart of the city. Visitors flock here not only to explore its extensive collection of books, but also to take photos of its incredible architecture, which includes a wooden facade and double helix staircase. The building also has a café, event spaces, and even a library robot to transport books.

Built in the early 1930s, Submarine Vesikko was a prototype for Germany’s Type II U-boats, which were later used by the German Navy in World War II. In 1935, Vesikko was bought by Finland and was later used to defend Finland from the Soviets in the 1939 Winter War. It now functions as a museum, with visitors able to board and explore.

Helsinki’s Uspenski Cathedral is considered the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe and is the city’s most important vestige of Russian influence on Finland’s culture and architecture. Built in the 19th century, the church impresses with its intricate brick exteriors, soaring spires, and a clutch of precious icons, including the Kozelshchyna icon of the Mother of God—stolen in 2010 but recovered a year later.

With 63 slopes covering more than 200 miles (330 kilometers, 28 lifts, as well as hundreds of miles of snowmobile, snowshoeing, and hiking and biking routes, Ylläs is a winter sports paradise. Finland’s largest ski and snowboard area, Ylläs is also renowned for scenic hiking and mountain biking during the summer months.

Set in the once home of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim—the commander-in-chief of Finland’s defense forces during World War II, and the country’s president from 1944 to 1946—this museum looks back at the life of the well-known leader. Exhibits include preserved rooms and artifacts such as military medals, photographs, and antiques.

The National Library of Finland is a cultural institution, as well as an architectural highlight of Helsinki. Established in 1640, it’s known for being one of Finland’s largest and oldest scholarly libraries, where visitors can explore rare manuscripts, maps, and a vast collection of over three million books. It also boasts impressive interiors, with its ceiling murals, marble pillars, and grand reading halls.

Everything old was once new, and the Helsinki Museum of Technology (Tekniikan Museo) tells the story of how Finns and technology shape each other over time—past, present, and future. Items from its 18,000-strong collection are displayed as long-running themed exhibitions in a riverside industrial building, with a fun interactive zone for kids.