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Helsinki, Finland
Photo: Tmh, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Kamppi and Southwestern Helsinki is here defined as the part of the city raying out to the south-west of the city core, stretching along highway 51 to the border of next-door Espoo. Kamppi is for the purposes of this article delimited by Baana and Hietaniemi cemetery in the north-west, Mannerheimintie in the east and Bulevardi in the south-east. In addition to Kamppi, Ruoholahti and Jätkäsaari the article also covers Lauttasaari.
From the travel guide. Select a place for details, a map and what is nearby.
Helsingin Vanha Kirkko
A neoclassical wooden church built in the early 19th century, which is the oldest church in central Helsinki. It's in the middle of the Park of the Old Church, which is also known as the Plague Park (Ruttopuisto) because it was used as a cemetery for many of the victims of the plague of 1710.
Contemporary wooden architecture. Not silent when there are video installations, concerts or the like.
A tiny little park next to the Old church. In the middle there's a statue of 19th century author and scientist Elias Lönnrot (author of Kalevala, the Finnish national epic).
In the Forum block. The largest private gallery of contemporary art in Finland.
The centre of the Jewish community in Helsinki; there are also a Jewish school, kindergarten and a kosher store on the premises. You probably have to call ahead for visiting.
This impressive 19th-century building next to the Hietalahti square hosted the Helsinki Technical University until the 1950s, nowadays it's the main building for the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. As you're there, check out the Hietalahti market hall and market square.
The Alexander theater, named after the Russian czar Alexander II and finished in 1879 is likely Helsinki's most beautiful venue for performance art. Occasional shows and concerts in English.
Another of Helsinki's most iconic functionalist buildings right next to Mannerheimintie, the "glass palace" by Viljo Revell, Heimo Riihimäki and Niilo Kokko was finished in 1936 and is functionalist both on the inside and outside. It was planned as a temporary office building and shopping mall, to be replaced by a bigger one in the future but that never happened. In the 1980s and 90s the building was in a fairly sorry state but due to opposition by citizens and the Board of Antiquities it wasn't demolished but underwent a major restoration at the turn of the millennium. Today the gorgeous white building with colourful neon signs houses shops, restaurants, the movie theatre Bio Rex, and beneath it, the art museum Amos Rex.
A modern arts museum that tends towards immersive, often audiovisual installations and has rapidly gained in acknowledgement since its opening in 2018. While entrance and shop are in Lasipalatsi, the actual museum is a piece architecture playing with organic forms located below the square located behind the visible building; sculptural forms extend into the square, portholes on their top allow a glimpse into the museum.
Crusellinsilta
A cable-stayed bridge, which connects the districts of Ruoholahti and Jätkäsaari. It is named after the Swedish-Finnish composer and clarinetist Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775–1838).
The only underwater metro station in the world, although in practice you won't notice it as the sea around the station isn't visible from inside the station. Also includes the longest escalators in Finland. Metro trains run in both directions every 10 minutes or so.
Feel creative? Annantalo, a multimodal "house of art" arranges art workshops and courses for both kids and grownups, as well as performances and exhibitions.
Kaapelitehdas or just Kaapeli
The former cable factory in Ruoholahti is nowadays a multi-purpose culture centre. It hosts concerts, fairs, art workshops and odd/original museums like the restaurant museum and photography museum. There is a Restaurant/Café/Bar Hima & Sali in the building. At lunch time you can choose your meal from a daily menu or watch the cook prepare your wok from ingredients you selected. Good place for vegetarians.
Huone ("Room") claims to be the world's first event hotel, providing premises and services for their customers to hold their own events. There are twelve rooms of different sizes, and each can be rented for a day, a morning or an evening. Huone can host various kinds of events such as business meetings, birthday parties or sauna evenings. The customer holds the event; Huone provides the premises and services, including catering, with alcoholic drinks or without.
A popular place in summer with a large playground for children and a pleasant café Kasinonranta (in summer season open M-F 15:00-19:00, Sa Su 10:00-19:00). At the beach and the park around you can picnic, kick a ball, play a beach volleyball, swim, canoe or skatefurf. In winter it is possible to snowkite here or hike, skate or cross country ski on frozen sea around Lauttasaari island and even reach some nearby islands.
Two outdoor skating rings, open approximately 2 Jan - 24 Feb, depending on weather.
Lilla Teatern
New sports mall in Helsinki, includes indoor beach, bowling, ice hockey, wall climbing, gym, Megazone, restaurant and lots more...
The Tennispalatsi ("Tennis palace") was built to house tennis events for the 1940 and 1952 Olympics. Nowadays, it retains no trace of its Olympic past. Instead, it functions primarily as Helsinki's biggest movie theatre, with more than ten halls on two floors, showing movies both from Finland and abroad. As well as functioning as a movie theatre, Tennispalatsi also houses HAM Helsinki Art Museum, cultural exhibitions, small stores, restaurants (including Pizza Hut and Hesburger) and cafés.
Focuses on Finnish artists and has a collection that includes the city’s public sculpture.
A stylish and spacious public sauna and bar in Jätkäsaari. Separate saunas for men and women. You can bring your own towel or rent one from the bar. The bar has a diverse selection of drinks and you can bring your drink to the dressing room (not to the actual sauna though). The bar has live music playing on special event nights.
Yrjönkadun uimahalli
An art-deco bath house with historic architecture. Three types of saunas and a swimming pool. Take a sauna and swim in the nude. There are separate days for women and men. Bathing suits are not banned, but almost everyone goes without one. Men's swimming days are: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday; Women's days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. 1st Floor €5 (or €5.40 with a lockable stall or 'cabin'), 2nd Floor €14. The second floor (accessible only the afternoons from Tuesday to Sunday) includes access to a steam sauna and a wood-heated sauna, as well as a café.
Good price-quality ratio pizzaplace, always fast service. Very small location though, so you might have to eat your pizza elsewhere.
One of the more popular kebab places in town. On the same street as many bars, so good for a midnight meal as well.
VPK
Run by the Volunteer Fire Brigade, this restaurant serves a daily changing buffet of hearty Finnish fare in a cafeteria straight from the 1950s, complete with grim portraits of moustached Hosemasters staring down at you. Pea soup and pancakes on Thursday are particularly popular.
A lunch restaurant with bar.
A Japanese restaurant featuring classic and contemporary dishes.
A pizza spot very close to the city center. It's a relatively small place, but the service is very fast and the place is open late at night. Opens around 11:00, and closes at 23:00 (22:00 on Sundays). Try the Päivän jättipizza ("Daily giant pizza"), which is a large, thin pizza with a varying selection of fillings plus a 0.4 liter soft drink for €6, which is almost unbeatably cheap. They also offer a liter of beer + the daily giant pizza for €13.
One of many Nepalese places. It might not be the cheapest one, but the food is great. The restaurant is well visited and often full at lunch time.
A student restaurant that offers affordable and delicious lunches also for outsiders.
Lunch restaurant.
A pizzeria.
Tasty burgers made to order, with a regular, vegan, vegetarian and special option that can be further customised. They have a good selection of sodas and craft beer. In their Kamppi location there's also an inner yard open during the summer with live music most nights. They also have a restaurant in Vallila and in the Kaivopiha food court.
A hamburger restaurant.
Tasty Chinese food.
A rather nice restaurant and bar located right at the seashore, offering nice views. Serves lunch and à la carte menu. Lunch is affordable, if not quite cheap, but the à la carte menu is a bit on the pricier side. Also functions as a bar. Serves a variety of cuisine, lunch varies daily.
The name means "The fish on the table" in Swedish, and the restaurant indeed focuses almost exclusively on fish and seafood. Located on the fifth floor of the Kamppi shopping centre amongst other restaurants, easy to find as it's right next to the escalators. Rather crowded so reservations are recommended, although not mandatory. Try the fish and chips, available at €16.
One of the most famous Turkish restaurants in Helsinki. Famous for its Mediterranean-style buffet, served not only on working days but on weekends also (it's a bit more expensive on weekends though), but also serves quality Turkish à la carte dishes. The coffee, although served from a nondescript thermos can, is one of the best coffees available in Helsinki. Spacious with stylish Turkish decor, with artwork depicting ancient Mediterranean cities on the walls.
The only Indian restaurant in Helsinki accepted as decent by Indians here.
Probably the best Chinese restaurant on the residential and office district of Lauttasaari. Rather small, and can be quite packed at lunch time. Lunch is very cheap, usually €7-8, but on evenings and weekends à la carte courses cost €12 - 20. The restaurant provides Donald Duck comic books in Finnish for the customers to read.
Traditional Finnish food. Very nice if you want to try all kinds of Finnish meals!
A Helsinki institution dating to 1924, proudly serving "Helsinkian" food – a melange of Russian, French and Swedish influences. Try one of the three classics: Vorschmack with duchess potatoes, the Sylvester Sandwich au gratin and Baltic herrings with mashed potatoes.
A Thai restaurant.
A real Italian restaurant in the mostly residential district of Lauttasaari, serving authentic Italian cuisine, mostly pizzas and pastas. Easy to arrive at as it's located almost right next to the terminus of bus line 21V. Open for lunch (weekdays only) and à la carte dining.
One of the best Thai restaurants in Helsinki. Make sure to reserve a table in advance, and heed the chilli ratings when ordering.
The name means "starfish", but despite that, there is actually very little seafood on the menu. The menu is very meat-oriented, with the restaurant specialising in Hungarian cuisine. The restaurant is rather small, and about half of it consists of a pub area. Very easily accessible as it is next door to the Ruoholahti metro station. Main courses €12-30.
A restaurant specialising in tasty burgers. Various burgers available with either beef, mutton, chicken or vegetarian options. The entire restaurant has been built from old cargo containers, giving it a unique appearance.
Good Nepalese food.
A very good Nepalese restaurant. Good vegetarian options.
An Indian-European restaurant.
Ravintola Lasipalatsi
A unique restaurant complex with pleasant café in the heart of the capital.
Harbour restaurant. Salve's operations began in 1897 as a small food kiosk for sailors. Even now, you can catch the feeling of Salve's past – a time when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel! Herrings of Salve you should taste.
Mexican-style restaurant near the Forum shopping centre. Famous for its lunch buffet, where you can fill up tortillas and tacos with toppings of your own choosing.
A living room style cafe-restaurant.
A Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant.
Helsinki's best-known Japanese restaurant and a favorite of Finnish celebrities, which explains the signed ice hockey jerseys and Star Wars memorabilia scattered throughout. Alas, while the food is decent, it's not quite the real thing. Reservations recommended. Closed Sat.
Very nice restaurant opposite the Hotel Torni with Swedish and Finnish traditional cooking and keeping high standards. On Thursdays, try the traditional lunch of pea soup and pancake.
Although Lapland (Lappi) is on the other edge of Finland, you can enjoy cuisine of Lapland in Helsinki too.
Despite the name it's more like a cafe, located on top of Hotel Torni, Finland's first high-rise. Excellent views over Helsinki's downtown. You even have a view from the (famous) toilets. Highly recommended. Find the elevator close to the lobby to get there, but be prepared for expensive drinks. If you're on a tight budget, you can just enjoy the view on the elevator level.
A Persian fusion coffee shop with cozy bakery.
One of the classic Helsinki cafés and a Bulevardi institution, which was founded in 1852. Was renovated in 2017 and at that lost some of its old flair. Ekberg has two premises right next to each other, with separate entraces. One of them is the main café which also functions as a lunch restaurant, the other is a bakery shop.
Café with a Mediterranean food.
A quaint Austrian-style café in Kamppi. Serves Austrian coffee, Austrian beer and Austrian delicacies.
A very cosy cafe serving Mediterranean salads and paninis, and a variety of coffees. The Greek owner is a showman, usually around to amuse customers.
A Japanese café.
Lovely small café in an octagonal old wooden building just at the Lauttasaari bridge. Its name translates to café "nut" as something you use with a bolt. Coffee, pies, pastries and ice cream are on offer. You can enjoy a slightly nostalgic atmosphere of the place, or just get pleasantly cosy on a freezing day.
Oldest British pub in Helsinki since 1976. Only fifth outside the UK to gain the Cask Marque -award for excellence in serving real ale.
Dutch beer house in Ruoholahti.
A high-priced but incredibly high quality cocktail bar situated in the city center, a few hundred meters from Stockmann's. Generally serves classic cocktail drinks with a twist, but also features several cocktails with a distinctly Finnish vibe (featuring garnishes such as birch leaves and fresh cloudberry) and innovative house specialities. According to worldsbestbars.com, this unlikely find is one of the world's best bars worldsbestbars.com/top-100.htm, winning the title of the best bar in the world in 2009 and 2010.
A journey into traditional Finnish bar culture, where fireside debates and poetry recitals are a common place occurrence in this historical tavern. Frequented by a more intellectual if not boisterous crowd, the common traveler will find a home away from home at Wanhakettu. A famous haunt for many members of the classical artist communes of Käpyla and Suvela. According to historian Antti Mäjänen of the Ostrobotnious Historical Society, it was in this very spot that the second treaty of Vyborg was signed in the summer of 1902, adding character and flavor to this lovely tavern of old.
The name says it. Place to go get some drinks with some international fun. Live music every Wednesday and the weekends are always crazy in Kangaroo Land.
A bar and billiard hall owned by the film director brothers Aki and Mika Kaurismäki, echoing the melancholic mood of their films. Also check out the affiliated Kafe Moskva bar next door for authentic Soviet style experience, complete with Russian music played on dusty vinyls and Russian vodka and champagne. Downstairs is Dubrovnik, a small club-cum-movie theater that can be rented for private events and host occasionally live gigs or clubs.
A strip club.
A very street-credible rock bar, it is highly popular among Finnish rock musicians.
Design music club with 3 floors. During the summer very nice roof terrace.
A gay karaoke bar.
Music venue club.
A gay bar.
One of the most prominent rock clubs in Scandinavia, a must see for fans of live rock of any kind. Semifinal has smaller indie/alternative bands for a young crowd. On special nights the two clubs are joined, but usually they host separate gigs. Tickets for all gigs can be bought in advance from the Tiketti ticket sellers next door. The annual Tavastia new year party is an institution in itself, with fans flying from all over the world for the show.
The space at Tavastia consists of two distinct halls with a door between them. One of them is the main music venue consisting of the main stage and a large space for the audience on two floors, the other has the cloakroom and the bar. The bar has a pretty basic selection of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks but no food. Note that while the bar has comfortable seats and tables, the main music venue is pretty much standing room only.
Formerly Lux, this is a contestant for the title of Helsinki's classiest mainstream nightclub, with its dress code, stylish decor, relatively high prices and an age limit of 24. Five bars, two spacious terraces, a VIP lounge and six luxurious booths that can be reserved. Live music on Thur.
former Jenny Woo, Vatican
Tries to profile itself as a nightclub for trendy young adults. You can lie on couches next to the crowded dance floor while sipping some bubbly.
Fully furnished apartment with a seaview in a new building next to the sport park and Tallink ferry terminal.
A self-service budget hotel concept with no front desk. Book and pay on the Internet and let yourself in with a passcode. Toilet, shower, 26" LCD-television, small fridge, microwave, water kettle + disposable cups, coffee, tea, hair dryer and dining table. The "business" package includes an internet connection, two volitional movie per day and breakfast.
A young, regenerating hotel in the city centre. Even though the rooms are small and fairly no-frills, the hotel is comfortable and cheap. There are 27 rooms, for one to four persons.
An art hotel.
Central location, clean, and good amenities. Wi-Fi €5/day.
At 78 m, this upscale hotel is one of the highest buildings in all of the Capital Region. 425 rooms, rooftop pool.
A big hotel. Services include a spa, gym and massage treatment.
Kampin Keskus
Big shopping mall. Plenty of international brands and restaurants. Long-distance bus terminal in the basement.
Kamppi centre's next-door older brother with plenty of shops, restaurants and other services.
Quite small compared to the suburban malls along the ring roads, but this urban mall still has a Citymarket and a couple of speciality stores and cafes.
Northern Europe's and possibly Europe's largest home-electronics store with 20,000 m² of retail space. The best spot for electronics, computers, digital cameras, mobile phones and gadgets in general in Helsinki. They not only sell electronics but also imported snacks (mainly from the USA) to enjoy while watching TV or barbecuing - think soda, chips, barbecue sauce, candies and such. In addition to being a store it features a couple of fast food outlets one of them with Australian meat pies, and a computer game museum on the 5th floor. Literally on the top of it all, the 7th floor features Finland's largest sightseeing terrace with views of Helsinki, the sea and prime view of cruise ships in the summer and in the middle of it a real MiG-21BIS fighter plane, the entrance is free. Free parking underground and on an outdoor parking area behind the complex.
Ruslania Books Oy
Ruslania offers Finnish and Russian products (which includes for example souvenirs, literature, music, candy, posters and cards). A nice, not that big shop full of mostly Russian products which makes it a heaven for lovers of Russian culture or Soviet-y stuff.
This bright-white "lifestyle department store" sells both international and Finnish (designer) labels such as Raf Simons, Wood Wood, Acne and April77 as well as second-hand clothes, accessories, records, magazines etc.
A pawn shop.
Paloni is a creative design concept store. It sells items that are designed and made by over 70 independent designers. Paloni's product range covers women's clothing, accessories, jewellery, home decor, gift items and children's clothing.
Helsinki's largest indie store, covers virtually everything except classical and electronic. Lots of indie vinyl at reasonable prices.
A sex store.
A flea market.
One of Helsinki's three traditional market halls until the turn of the millennium, after that concentrating on antiques and as of 2019 a kind of a food court, with some gift shops.
Next to Hietalahti Old Market Hall, this is the most popular flea market in Helsinki. Open year round, but busiest from May to August.
The eastern parts of this district are practically part of the centre and the rest of Kamppi within walking distance from it.
Read in the guideGetting around in the western parts is no struggle, you can use the buses, the trams or the metro to get wherever you want, not forgetting going afoot.
Read in the guideChoose an airport to see hotels, stations, taxi ranks and car rental desks around it.
Helsinki (Vantaa) · International · HEL
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