Top Things to Do, Eat & See in Helsinki with Kids, Helsinki, Finland

I had a 36-hour layover in Helsinki on the way to Rovaniemi in Lapland. It wasn’t nearly enough time to properly explore this charming walkable port city on the Baltic Sea.

Helsinki is compact, very family friendly and easy to get around. My group managed to squeeze two-or three-days’ worth of activities into the 36 hours and still didn’t get to see as much as we wanted.

Slowing down and spending three to five days in this city will give you time to linger in its many cozy cafés, wander through neighborhoods filled with fairy-tale-inspired art nouveau buildings, and revive your tired tourist feet in one of its ubiquitous saunas.

Here is what we did, what to prioritize on a short visit and what to add to a longer stay in Helsinki, Finland.

The Market Square waterfront area is a good place to start exploring the city. Sightseeing boats leave from here, as do ferries to Suomenlinna and the zoo (more on those down below).

Most days you’ll find a tourist-oriented crafts market and outdoor green market in the center of the square. Buy a container of whatever berries are in season; especially if they you see local specialties like lingonberries and cloudberries, or tiny wild blueberries, which are quite different from the farm-grown ones sold in American supermarkets. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).