Helsinki Personal Walking Tour

Good Evening,

We are looking to possibly do our own walking tour of Helsinki and are looking for feedback on if we are doing too much. We are in port from 7am until 4pm on a Saturday. The plan is to get off our ship at West Harbor LHC walk through Kaivopuisto Brunnsparken up to Market Square. Here we plan on catching the 9am water bus to Suomenlinna. We are planning on spending a couple of hours exploring and then taking the water bus back. Upon our return at Market Square we are looking to walk up to Sibilius Monument. After this we would head back to the Rock Church. After completion of our viewing of the Rock Church we would head back towards the ship to get on by our 3:30pm boarding time. We would hope to have some time to stop and maybe do some shopping along the way potentially at Hietalahti Flea market.

Feedback and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. When traveling DW (a half marathoner) and I really enjoy being as active as possible. As an example in Washington DC our lightest distance walked was 20 miles in one day.

Thank you in advance!

Josh and Kelly

Hi Josh and Kelly

Although I note what you say about being active, I would be inclined to take a bus to and from the Sibelius Monument. That might enable you to get back to the Parliament Building and stretch your legs by walking across the Park to the new Opera House.

You might also want to take in the Lutheran and Orthodox Cathedrals.

I think its a nice plan, a rather long walk but not at all impossible. All depends of the weather of course and one must keep track of the time.

The way along the sea from the quay past the small boat harbour and the Kaivopuisto park to the market is quite nice with mostly new built sidewalks and nice views. You should have no problem reaching the market in time. Note that the water buses are run by a private company and costs more then the ferry, starts from the west side of the market and will take you to Artillery bay, bypassing he first fortress island.

If you ignore the museums you should be able to do the fortress easily in less than two hours. The roads are going up and downhill a lot so they are a bit tiring. So the major problem might be to get the feet back up to speed again after having rested on the water bus back.

Guess you would return to the Market around noon. Go up to nearby Senate Square and have a look at the Lutheran cathedral. Work your way past downtown, possibly past the railway station to Mannerheim road and

follow it past the Parlament, National Museum, Finlandia house and the Opera. If you walk just a little bit further into the park you'll be able to see the Olympic Stadium at a distance as well.

Regarding the route from Sibelius Monument to the rock church I personally find Mechelin street quite boring so cross over to Runeberg streetm, possibly via the Hesperia park and then take Luther street uphill to the church.

When taking Fredrick street southwards from the church you'll pass the Kamppi shopping mall that would take you on to the Forum shopping mall and Sokos and Stockmann department stores on Mannerheim road.

Or just visit the flee market as you suggested. If you feel it is getting late have the option to walk one block up from the flee market along the Boulevard to Albert street corner where bus 14 would take you back to quay LHC.

Thank you all for the feedback so far! It is definitely helping us mold our trip to Helsinki. We are looking at switching to the ferry instead of the water bus. When looking at the map it appears the water bus lets us off at Kings Gate on the southern end of the island and the ferry drops and picks up at the northern end of the island. Does it make sense to take the water bus down and then walk the island up north to take the ferry back? Otherwise if everyone feels we are not missing anything by taking the ferry we probably will just do that. We also appreciate the help with specific streets that are best to walk.

We are looking at switching to the ferry instead of the water bus. When looking at the map it appears the water bus lets us off at Kings Gate on the southern end of the island and the ferry drops and picks up at the northern end of the island. Does it make sense to take the water bus down and then walk the island up north to take the ferry back?

Looks like the water bus costs 4.50 e single trip and 7.00 return so the difference is not that much to the ferry costs 3.00e / 5.00 e. So just try to find a combination that fits your time table.