Helsinki for a week - HELP?

October may not be the ideal time for a trip to the North but it is not the dead of winter either. You can still see all the sights: visit churches, museums, zoo on an island, Suomenlinna fortress on an island, take a day trip to Porvoo a historic town with a charming old town with shops and a great candy factory. You can even go there by boat and come back by a historic train. You can take a daytrip to Tallin or two overnights and a day in Stockholm. Both of these are great options. There are great opportunities for shopping in Helsinki. Stockmann is the largest department store in Scandinavia for example. There is a great variety of dining options and night life is also very interesting. Helsinki is a very safe city. The only thing you need to be careful with is the pick pockets that have come from the Eastern European countries to Finland especially Romanian gypsies.

If you really want to get adventurous, there's also St. Petersburg. It's a 5-hour train ride from Helsinki. One headache: you have to get a short-stay Russian visa ahead of time. Helsinki is actually closer to St. Petersburg than it is to Stockholm. You'll see many signs of Russian influence when you're in Helsinki, particularly the don't-miss Uspenski Cathedral.. Russian visa info is here: http://www.russianembassy.org/Embassy_eng/Embassy/index.html

Kaarina has covered most of it. If you run out of things to do in/near Helsinki, you aren't looking hard enough. Tallinn is an easy and great day-trip. Stockholm is readily accessible by overnight ferry - you can return the next night or stay a night there if you have the time. There is even a ferry to St. Petersburg that has a no-visa requirement (not sure if this runs as late as October but worth checking). In the city are several wonderful churches, good museums, a great bookstore designed by Aalto (with lots of English-language books). Lots of coffee houses and cafes, though outdoor seating will probably be over. Be sure to take in a Finnish sauna, though be prepared for much-reduced modestly than most Americans have.

Thanks!! Unfortuantely I'm with a group and we are pretty much stuck to Helsinki and should stay closeby for the Anaheim Ducks hockey game on Oct 7. If it were just me, I'd venture out farther. After Helsinki, I will be taking 2 days in Stockholm, so that's covered. In fact the Ducks will be playing the NY Rangers on Oct 8 in Stockholm. :) No worries on the sauna... I'm looking forward to that. And, as for nudity, I went to a Korean spa where you are buck naked, so I guess I'm over shyness. Thanks Rick-niks! Everyone has been great!!

While your situation might seem a bit restrictive (not being able to day-trip far), it also offers you the chance to do what most tourists never get a chance to do; just relax and stroll. Get a good tram map. Ask a local where a nice residential neighborhood would be and take a stroll. I'll almost guarantee it will create unique memories. Be sure to check out suomenlinna islands just off the harbor shore and the Temppeliaukio (Rock) Church.

My friends are in for the Porvoo trip!! I'm looking at bus schedules (most economical and fastest!) but none are express. Anyone know if there's an express bus from Helsinki to Porvoo?

Here you can check the bus schedules to Porvoo from Helsinki. There are express busses but even the regular ones won't take much longer than an hour. http://www.matkahuolto.info/lippu/en/ The express busses that seem to go somewhere else stop in Porvoo.

Well definitely do not miss spending a day in Tallinn. It's only about a 90 minute ferry ride and the city has an old town, intact Medieval core that is very charming. Just outside town is the Russian palace of Catherine the Great and a small cottage where Peter the Great stayed when in town. Those are a short tram ride from the old town. The ferries leave from the main Helsinki Harbor and arrive a short walk from the old wall to Tallinn.