My friend and I are starting our Baltic’s trip in Helsinki this Sept. Since this will probably be the only time that we visit Finland, we thought we would stay 3-4 days in Helsinki before heading on to St. Petersburg. We’d like to make our home base in a Helsinki apartment. I feel that 2 days in Helsinki should be plenty, so I’d like to head out of the city and see more of Finland and maybe it’s coast line or countryside. Are there any day trips to cities/villages that you recommend that we could take? Ideally, we would like to use buses or trains to get around instead of renting a car. What areas in Helsinki should we consider staying in? I really anyone’s thoughts and input. Thanks!

Do not cut short your stay in St.Petersburg in favor of Helsinki. St.Petersburg has enough to keep you busy for weeks...I am not even mentioning its magnificent suburbs - they will take 5-6 days.

Talllinn is lovely - great advice from PalenQ.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. We are doing the visa free entry in St. Petersburg so we’ll only have 72 hours. We then plan to go to Tallinn and on to Riga. Just trying to decide when to start our trip in Helsinki. Anyone have recs on areas to look at staying in Helsinki?