amelia_101

Having read through the posts I see that there is not much info on Helsinki and the surrounding areas in the winter. Does anybody have any tips for February in Helsinki? Do the boats to Tallinn run? Or should I just scout out the best sauna and relax in the "heat"? Tips for Porvoo would be welcomed as well. Thanks!

hsv

Speed boats to Tallinn are not operative during the winter months.

Ferries do run, but (naturally) take a bit longer for the crossing (approx. 3 hours).

I would imagine that (depending on the time at your disposal) a daytrip to Tallinn might be enjoyable.

elina

Go to
http://www.helsinki.fi/eng/index.html

There you will find lots of info on Helsinki, all the sights and so on.

You don't have scout for a good sauna, you will find the adresses here: http://www.mail-archive.com/foreign-.../msg00260.html

I would like to recommend Kotiharjun sauna or Kuusijärvi's smoke sauna. You can get a nice experience also right in the center, namely Yrjönkadun uimahalli (Yrjönkatu's swimming hall). More like an old Roman bath than a sterile swimming hall. Take a sauna, have a nice swim and enjoy the nice enviroment, then lounge on a resting bed and sip some champagne or wine. You could also get a massage.

The boats to Tallinn run, more than ten a day. In summer when also the catamarans run, there are over 30 crossings per day to both directions. But the boat takes a little longer than hsv said, they take 4,5 hours.

elina

In Porvoo try restaurant Timbaali. It specializes in snails.

Bird

There's a chocolate shop in Porvoo that lets you sample everything before you buy it. They had the most wonderful chocolate covered licorice you could imagine. The tour of the nationally loved poet's home (Can't remember the name) was interesting. Don't know if it will be open during the winter though. Winter in Finland is absolutely bone chilling and dreary. Drink lots of vodka.

elina

Well, it is sometimes chilling, but for example tomorrow we will have plus degrees (Celsius) in the south. And February can be really beautiful, bright sunshine, blue skies and glistening snow. And days will already be a lot longer than in December.

I forgot to give the adress of Porvoo. In www.porvoo.fi you will find all kinds of info. That poet's home is Finland's oldest "home museum". It has been a museum already something like 130 years, and it is Finland's national poet Runeberg's old home. And yes, it is open also in winter.

BTW, Runeberg caused a horrible scandal in his days in 1800's little town. He was a respected and famous man, and married to an equally respected wife, who was also a writer. He was deeply middle-aged when he started an open affair with town's most beautiful young girl, something like 30 years his junior. The affair went on and on for years, and he even openly ordered that he is to be buried with Emilie's loveletters under his head. Poor Fredrika.