Finland attractions

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.

Finland’s most prestigious classical music institutions—the Sibelius Academy, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra—make their home at this cultural center. Constructed in 2011, the center features several performance spaces, including a 1,704-capacity auditorium known for its superb acoustics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Set in the arctic wilderness of Finnish Lapland near Rovaniemi, SantaPark Arctic World may be as close as you can get to actually visiting Santa at the North Pole. This quintessential Christmas theme park offers Yuletide experiences like Elf School, visits with Santa Claus, and Santa’s Post Office where you can mail your holiday greetings.

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.

Housed in a 19th-century building, the Museum of Finnish Architecture (Arkkitehtuurimuseo has less of a cutting-edge feel than you’d expect in Helsinki’s Design District. But the exhibits are fascinating, whether covering Finnish architecture’s journey to its heyday in the 1970s or exploring the work of modernist icons such as Alvar Aalto.

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.

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.

The oldest photography museum in Europe, the Finnish Museum of Photography has focused on supporting the culture and specialized art of photography in Finland since its opening in 1969. Its work is supported by the City of Helsinki and the Finnish Ministry of Education, and the museum’s collection holds roughly 2.5 million pictures.

Part of the Suomenlinna Fortress UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Military Museum’s Manege is a former horse training school that's now a military museum. Displays and mockups cover the four wars Finland has fought since gaining independence from Russia. Head to the Artillery Manege next door to learn about the Finnish Defence Forces after WWII.

Found within the island fortress of Suomenlinna in Helsinki, the Military Museum of Helsinki is an entry point for travelers into Finland’s military history. The museum, also known in Finnish as Sotamuseo, is the central museum of the Finnish Defence Forces, and its collection details the country’s eventful history of war and weaponry.

Helsinki’s Urho Kekkonen Museum Tamminiemi was the home of three Finnish presidents, including President Urho Kekkonen for 25 years. Today, the former residence is a museum dedicated to Finnish political history, and explores the lives of the presidents who lived here. You can take guided tours and see temporary exhibits.

One of six museums in Helsinki’s Suomenlinna Fortress, the Ehrensvärd Museum occupies the Commander’s House in the fort’s main bastion. It's named after Augustin Ehrensvärd, a Swedish admiral who founded the fortress, and it recreates an 18th-century upper-class home, with period dress, furniture, portraits, weapons, and model ships.

One of Finland’s quirkier museums, the Hotel and Restaurant Museum features exactly what you’d think: Museum displays cover the arrival of restaurants in Finland, the evolution of Finnish food, and the country’s complicated relationship with alcohol, which includes a long period of Prohibition in the 1920s. More modern elements include an interactive model kitchen, piped scents, film screenings, and workshops.

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.