Best of Helsinki Shore Excursion

Group tour
Duration: 4 h
Up to 26 guests
Moderate walking

Overview

Helsinki is a young capital by European standards, laid out as a neoclassical city in the 1810s and rebuilt through the 20th century by architects the world came to copy. This four-hour tour takes in both sides of it: the white cathedral and colonnaded squares of the 19th-century neoclassical era, and the modern buildings, from a church cut into bedrock to a monument made of steel pipes, that the city is known for now.

The tour covers:

The Rock Church, admission included
The Sibelius Monument and the Olympic Stadium of the 1952 Games
Esplanadi, Mannerheim Street, Finlandia Hall and the Parliament
Senate Square, the Lutheran cathedral and Uspenski Cathedral
Free time at the harbourside Market Square

Please note that the tour order and the time spent at each venue may vary.

What you will see

Four hours ashore by coach with an English-speaking guide
The Rock Church, blasted into granite and roofed with copper
The Sibelius Monument, six hundred steel pipes in a seaside park
Senate Square, the white cathedral and the Orthodox Uspenski
Free time at the Market Square for salmon soup and berries

Itinerary

Meeting by the ship

Meeting by the ship, outside the port area. The start time of the tour is given approximately and will be adjusted depending on your ship arrival time. The exact meeting time will be specified on your confirmation letter.
Panoramic drive

A panoramic drive along Esplanadi, the tree-lined promenade laid out in 1812, and up Mannerheim Street, the city's main boulevard. On the way you pass the Presidential Palace, the National Museum, the Opera House, Alvar Aalto's white marble Finlandia Hall of 1971, the Parliament House behind its fourteen granite columns and the Olympic Stadium of 1938, which held the Games of 1952.
Sibelius Monument

A photo stop at the Sibelius Monument in its seaside park, Eila Hiltunen's welded sculpture of 1967. More than six hundred hollow steel pipes, weighing twenty-four tonnes together, stand for the music of Jean Sibelius, the composer whose Finlandia became the sound of Finland's late-19th-century national movement.
Rock Church

A visit to Temppeliaukio, the church quarried straight down into the granite of the square in 1969 to a design by the brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. The walls are the bare blasted rock, the dome is a coil of copper strip twenty-two kilometres long, and daylight falls in through one hundred and eighty skylights around its rim. The acoustics are so good that it is used as a concert hall as often as a church.
Senate Square and the city centre

Senate Square, the neoclassical centre Carl Ludvig Engel built for the newly established Grand Duchy of Finland in the 1830s and 1840s, with the white Lutheran cathedral on its steps and the statue of Alexander II in the middle. Nearby stands Uspenski Cathedral, the red-brick Orthodox church of 1868 that is the largest in western Europe, and the Central Station of 1919, Eliel Saarinen's granite landmark with its clock tower and its four stone lantern carriers.
Free time at the Market Square

Free time at the Market Square on the harbour front, where the stalls sell smoked salmon, salmon soup, wild blueberries and cloudberries by season, and craftspeople sell birch and reindeer leather. The bronze mermaid on the corner is Havis Amanda, made by Ville Vallgren in 1908 and known to everyone in the city as Manta.
Return to the ship

A panoramic drive back to the harbour. You may also stay in town and take a taxi back to the ship later.

Price includes

Professional English speaking guide for 4 hours
Transportation in an A/C vehicle for 4 hours
Pick up and drop off in the harbor
Admission to the Rock Church

Not included

Lunch
Tips (recommended tips for guide: 10% of the tour cost, for driver: 5% of the tour cost)

Meeting point

The meeting point is located outside the port area. Please, make sure to read disembarkation instructions sent through email with other documentation.

Prices

People	Price per person
1–16	€125

Good to know

Visas and tour tickets

US and EU citizens need no visa or tour ticket to come ashore in Helsinki.

Payment

Pay on the day of the tour or at any time before it.
Cash in euros and credit cards are both accepted.
Full payment is due when you book a single excursion.
You receive a confirmation as soon as your online payment goes through.

Cancellation

Tell us in writing if you or anyone in your party cancels a confirmed booking.
Deposits are refunded in full up to 72 hours before the tour.
Deposits are not refunded within 72 hours of the tour.
No refund is given for a no-show.

Availability and notes

The tour runs from selected cruise ships only.
Ask us about availability at least 48 hours before your ship reaches the port.
The schedule is adjusted to the arrival time of your ship.
Entry to the Rock Church cannot be guaranteed, as services and private events sometimes close it.

Tips and discounts