Hotel in the City Center - Helsinki

Years ago we stayed at the Scandic Simonkentta which is very central - walking distance to the main train station and only 5-10 mins walk to the sea front.

I ran a quick check for August and this falls within your price range. The Scandics are a chain of hotels mainly in Scandanavia. They used to be part of Hilton but have since parted ways. These are all modern, western style business hotels.

Check them out - there are 5 of them in the Helsinki area.

Look for on-line big hotel deals. I found a room for less than 100 euros (can't remember the exact price) in summer 2008 at the Holiday Inn in Helskinki, but it didn't include the breakfast. The bus from the airport dropped us at the train station, and the hotel was a block away.

Thanks for all the good info. We settled on the five star Raddisson SAS Plaza Hotel in the city center, total with breakfast, 3 nights - $355.13 thru Orbitz. Difficult to beat that. Wonder why RS doesn't suggest them? Susan

Actually in a way he does mention the Radisson. In his Scandanavia guidebook he points out that during the summer months 5 star hotels in this region are so desperate for business, their rates are very comparable to the budget hotels. On Rick's old TV show about Norway he uses the Radisson in Bergen to illustrate this.

Thanks Michael, Susan