Helsinki Card

That's really not a question we can answer for you. It depends on how you plan to spend your time in Helsinki--which sights you want to see, whether they are covered by the card, and whether you'll move through them rapidly enough to get a lot of use out of the card. I can only suggest that you make a list of the things you want to see and check the entry fees for the covered sights on your list, then compare that total to the price of the card. But keep in mind that if you want to do something that's not covered, the time you spend doing that will reduce the time available to make use of the card.

I, for example, spent a lot of time just walking around Helsinki, enjoying the architecture. That's time "wasted" from the standpoint of a sightseeing card. And I'm slow in museums, so I don't pay many entry fees per day. The Helsinki Card wouldn't have paid off for me, but I saved considerable money with an annual Finnish museum pass, which allowed me to take as much time as I wanted.

I agree, it very much depends on what you want to do.

I think it's worthwhile to keep in mind that a sightseeing card for a major city has probably been put together by a third party who works out deals with the participating sights (including how revenue is shared). That third party has expenses that have to be covered and reasonably expects to make some money off the enterprise. Somehow or other that third party keeps a cut of the money coming in from card sales. I'm sure major sights that have no trouble selling tons of tickets directly aren't very interested in (effectively) offering large discounts by participating in a sightseeing-card arrangement. It's therefore unlikely a sightseeing card will save the average visitor much money. (Maybe the average visitor saves nothing?)

I think these two types of visitors have the best chance of saving money on a major-city sightseeing card--assuming the card is well-priced (a few are rotten deals):

• Folks with long lists of must-see sights but insufficient time to see them all. If it's more important to them to take a quick look at many historical sights and museums rather than spending a lot of time at the places of the most interest to them, a card might be smart.

• Folks on follow-up visits to a city who are now targeting smaller sights and perhaps wanting to revisit just small sections of favorites. They won't need a great deal of time, on average, at each sight and might do better than breaking even.

Small-town sightseeing cards (for places like Orvieto and Padua in Italy) sometimes seem more intended to encourage visitors to go to secondary attractions rather than to make money for a third party. They often have validity periods allowing travelers to visit all the covered sights. Therefore, they are great deals for slow travelers.

There are also some country- or region-wide passes that can pay off big-time for slow travelers. Those include annual museum cards for Finland and Estonia and the Campania ArteCard for Naples and the surrounding area.