Finnish Forest Hike and Helsinki Sightseeing

Private tour
Duration: 4 h
Moderate walking
Multiple languages

Overview

Ask a Finn what to see in Finland and the answer is usually the forest, not a museum. This tour takes you forty minutes out of the city to a lake in the woods, with an easy walk around it and coffee over a fire, then brings you back for the buildings Helsinki is known for. It suits anyone who would rather spend a port day outdoors.

The tour covers:

A guided 1.6 km walk around Kuusijärvi lake on an even trail
Coffee or tea made over an open fire, and a bun baked on a stick
The Rock Church, admission included
The Sibelius Monument and a drive through the city centre
Senate Square, the Lutheran cathedral and Uspenski Cathedral

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

What you will see

An easy 1.6 km walk around a forest lake on a smooth trail
Coffee or tea over an open fire, with a bun you bake yourself
A public sauna and swimming lake where Finns spend their free time
The Rock Church, blasted into granite and roofed with copper
The Sibelius Monument and a drive past the city highlights

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.
Drive to Kuusijärvi

A drive of about forty minutes to the Kuusijärvi recreation area at Vantaa, on the edge of the Sipoonkorpi forest
Forest and lake walk

A guided walk of 1.6 kilometres around the lake on a level trail, easy enough for a walking frame. Almost a third of Helsinki is green space and the city is ringed by forest, which is where Finns go to unwind. Kuusijärvi has public smoke saunas on the shore and people swim in the lake all year, including through a hole cut in the winter ice, so you see how the country actually spends its days off.
Campfire break

A stop for coffee or tea brewed over an open fire, with a bun you bake yourself on a stick
Drive back to Helsinki

The return drive into the city
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.
Helsinki sightseeing

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. The route also passes the white Lutheran cathedral on Senate Square and the red-brick Uspenski Cathedral of 1868, the largest Orthodox church in western Europe.
Return to the ship

A short drive back to the cruise port

Price includes

Professional guide for 4-4.5 hours
Transportation in an A/C vehicle for 4-4.5 hours
Pick up and drop off at the port
Tea/coffee and a bun made on an open fire
2 guides for the groups of 16 and up

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	€761
2	€383
3	€345
4	€196
5	€184
6	€133
7	€124
8	€109

People	Price per person
9	€142
10	€127
11	€118
12	€108
13	€101
14	€95
15	€90
16	€84

Good to know

Visas and tour tickets

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

Payment

A deposit of 50% is due when you book.
The balance is due on the day of the tour, in cash (euros) or by credit card.
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, or once the tour has been paid in full.

Availability and notes

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