I will be in Helsinki for two days on my return from a Russian River Cruise. What should I see and should I stay in the City Center?

You can view my experiences in Helsinki at http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&y=-95hdl3

You should see what interests you. Here is the site on different things and sights: http://www.helsinki.fi/en/index/matkailu.html

Staying in the immediate center is not very important, some of the nicest things are not in the center. And trams, busses and metro take you where ever you want to go to.

I was in Helsinki several times and always stayed near the harbour, which is city center as well.

The destinations section of this website lists lots of things to see.
We liked:
Rock Church
Lutheran Cathedral
Russian Orthodox Cathedral
Helsinki Museum
Market by the harbor

We ran out of time before we got to the fortress, but that looked interesting, too. www.suomenlinna.fi

New Photos of Helsinki City Centre :
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~vavauh/
Date: 05/19/2008

If you are interested in contemporary arts, architecture and design, Helsinki's tourism bureau offers a good guided walk (link below). Here's a link to what the LA Times had to say about Helsinki's arty side.

You can also get a Helsinki card which allows entrance into most of the city's attractions. www.helsinkicard.fi

http://www.helsinkiexpert.fi/tours/tuote.html?id=82

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/l...ddesign24feb24

Since I am not sure of the date you will be in Helsinki, I will still suggest a day trip to Tallin, Estonia. You can go by fast ferry in the morning and return in the afternoon. The ferry landing is within a 5 minute or so walk to the old town.

i will try to make it over to talinn too but was told not to do so on the weekend because of the many bucks' nights they have over there
we are going to try to use the local transport to see things i think
have noted that tram # 3T is a good route to take as is bus 55 to kumpula
thanks for that tip Viajero!

bratsandbeer
Thanks for the post. I will be in Helsinki the first week of October.

Helsinki will be beautiful at that time of year because of the color of the trees.

I want to go back and go way north to Rovanemi. But in September & October we will be in Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Italy.

Don't want to cause a stir among the vegetarians, but, if you are a meat lover, be sure to try some reindeer meat. The best meat dish I've ever had was at Hotel Arthur in Helsinki. Amazingly tender meat, with a mushroom sauce and potatoes.

Also, the Ice Bar was a neat thing to do. 10 Euro gets you a parka, entry into the refrigerated area, and a vodka drink. A fun stop, if you are downtown and want a little adventure.

I also suggest taking a ferry to Tallinn. That was the highlight of my time in Helsinki ;-) Not to bash Helsinki. It is a beautiful town, but Tallinn is way more interesting to me.