Helsinki and the Medieval Town of Porvoo

Private tour
Duration: 6 h
Moderate walking
Multiple languages

Overview

Porvoo is what Finnish towns looked like before the fires and the planners: a medieval street plan, low wooden houses in ochre and red, and a river lined with the storehouses that made the place rich. It lies fifty minutes east of Helsinki, and this six-hour tour gives you the town and the capital in one day.

The tour covers:

The old town of Porvoo, its cathedral, its lanes and the Old Bridge
Free time in Porvoo for coffee, chocolate and craft shops
The Rock Church in Helsinki, admission included
The Sibelius Monument, Finlandia Hall and the Olympic Stadium
Senate Square, the cathedral and free time at the Market Square

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

What you will see

Porvoo, the second oldest town in Finland, with its wooden old quarter
The red shore houses on the river, the emblem of the town
Free time for coffee, chocolate and the craft shops of Porvoo
The Rock Church, blasted into granite and roofed with copper
The Sibelius Monument and free time at the Helsinki Market Square

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 Porvoo

A drive of about fifty minutes east along the coast
Porvoo old town

A walk through the old town, which has kept its medieval street plan and its low wooden houses. Porvoo received town rights in 1380 and is the second oldest town in Finland. The walk takes in the Town Hall Square, the cathedral, a stone and brick church of the 15th century where Alexander I convened the Diet in 1809 and confirmed Finland's autonomy, the craft workshops in the lanes, and the Old Bridge, from which you get the picture everyone takes: the row of red-ochre warehouses along the riverbank, once packed with goods for the seagoing trade.
Free time in Porvoo

An hour of your own for coffee and shopping. The Brunberg confectionery has been making sweets here since 1871, and your guide can point you to a good place for lunch.
Drive back to Helsinki

The return drive to the capital
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 Market Square

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. There is free time on the market before the drive back.
Return to the ship

A short drive back to the cruise port

Price includes

Professional guide for 6 hours
Transportation in an A/C vehicle for 6 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	€1,156
2	€580
3	€427
4	€322
5	€258
6	€226
7	€209
8	€183

People	Price per person
9	€163
10	€148
11	€135
12	€124
13	€115
14–15	€107
16	€101

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

Children aged 7 to 17 and students pay 10% less.
Gratuities to the guide and driver are not included in the tour price. The sum you wish to give to your guide and driver after a well-done tour should be up to the western standards (approximately 15%). It is a good idea to divide gratuity between your guide and driver and give it separately to them: 10% to the guide and 5% to the driver. Please have some cash with you (USD, EUR) for this reason, but it is always up to you!