24 hours in helsinki on a budget

24 hours in Helsinki…..Ok I lie, we had closer to 48 but what I can fit in in 48 hours on my own is more like 24 with Littles. I really really loved Helsinki, I mean we only scratched the surface but it’s so easy to get to from Stockholm or Tallinn I thought a day guide is good. A lot of this is based around kids but I’ve thrown a few bits in for regular people 😉 Again a fairly budget guide but Helsinki was surprisingly not overpriced in my opinion.

Where to eat

Lets start with the good stuff. Green hippo cafe. We loved it so much we ate here twice. The Avocado pasta seems to be super popular there and is delicious, it’s only about €10 and we also had breakfast there, both pancakes and scrambled eggs come in around €6 (delicious) and they do smoothie bowls, Oats and a few other options. Coffee is great and reasonable, it’s clearly a bit hipster but attracts a varied crowd-I had a lovely conversation with the sweetest Finnish lady about her grandkids.

Kauppahalli market-This place is a really cool foodie market, you need to catch the tram there or you can walk from the main shopping street. Plenty of options weighing in under €10 I had ramen and it was SO good. I paid €10 (I won’t mention the extra bao buns).

We also had on our list but didn’t manage to get round to: Nepalilainen Ravintola Mountain for cheap Nepalese food that I’ve heard is delicious, BLINt Russian restaurant for the usual russian classics, Lie Mi for Vietnamese and Levant for Lebanese.

For Coffe and Cake I would 100% reccomend the Moomin Cafe. It’s only a short walk from the ferry port and travelling with the Moomin-mad Christensens the first stop on our arrival. Disclaimer* I love Moomins, I have been a bit obsessed since I was a teen but find the TV show creepy…..haha. It isn’t the cheapest but I think a must do in Helsinki. It is so well themed and so good for kids (equally good for adults). Prices aren’t rediculous, about £3.50 for coffee/hot chocolate and £3-£4 for cakes/pastries.

Shopping

I loved Helsinki for so many reasons but one of the big things was just wandering around, visiting the lovely scandi-style shops and the kids shops where unreal. We spent a whole morning doing our favourite thing……lusting over the most beautiful kids things. We stayed in the creative design district and its rare I say a city break is just easy and fun with four kids under six but this just was. Beautiful lifestyle, jewelery, interiors, beauty and clothing shops were just dreamy and you can just grab a coffee and have a wander, such a lovely way to spend a day. Standout kids stores were LumoKids, Zicco and our absolute favourite was Tingeling. The kids spent ages just playing in these treasure troves and we bought a couple of treats but the owners were just lovely and so great with the kids.

Things to do

Ok so you could easily spend a week exploring Helsinki and the surrounds but here’s a round up of a couple of the cool things to do…..Sea Fortress Suomenlinna. Take the 15 minute ferry to this little island and explore the grounds of the fort. Temppeliaukio Church is stunning-known as Church in the Rock, I love exploring churches and religious buildings and this is one of the most unique I have seen. Its only a couple of euros entry and carved into rock with an amazing copper roof. Allas sea pool was so high up on my list, we didn’t make it and I was pretty gutted but it was best for the kids that we didn’t push them to do too much…..they have an amazing looking sauna and a heated kids pool and again it’s really reasonable so its top of my list for when we next visit.

Where to stay

We stayed in the most incredible Airbnb. Our host was a wonderful lady called Johanna and I mean I am amazed she allowed us in her frankly stunning apartment with our crazy, dirty, wildlings. She has even wrote a cookbook on Finnish and in particular Helsinki food. You could leave £10 in the box and just take one which is just lovely. It was in the best area too to explore Helsinki’s design district. You can find the link here https://abnb.me/Tlrw5Uqkr0 and it was really reasonable at £150 per night for 6 of us.

Flynn practising his climbing in a beautiful park

Getting here

We arrived via boat from Stockholm with viking ferries (which was awesome, an overnight ferry) and left to Tallinn with Tallink silja line which took 2 hours 30 mins and cost us about £18. Helsinki is totally doable in a day trip from Tallinn but it definately deserves more than that if you can allow the time.

So there you have it. I absolutely loved Helsinki and definately can’t wait to head back to Finland and explore more. As always if you have any questions please comment below and I will do my best to help. If you aren’t sure wether to visit Helsinki you should, I would definately reccomend spring, I imagine winter is beautiful but I think for first-timers it has so much to offer in summer.