4 Best Sights in Helsinki, Finland

The Helsinki City Museum is housed appropriately in five of Helsinki's oldest buildings opposite the Lutheran Cathedral on the southeast corner of the Senate Square. The main building, with free entrance, holds exhibitions on the history and culture of the capital. The museum is also a "parent" for various smaller museums across the city, namely the Villa Hakasalmi, the Tram Museum, the Burgher's House Museum, and the Workers' Housing Museum. The main museum includes an especially imaginative "Time Machine" exhibition based on a vast collection of historic photographs, inviting visitors to walk back through the city's history.

Vallisaari (and its two immediate neighbors), originally outliers of the 18th-century Suomenlinna sea fortress, were closed to public access until recently due to their military functions. Now they are popular and rewarding destinations from May to September (and at other times, if you can befriend a private-boat owner). Water bus services run to the islands in the Helsinki archipelago, making the 20–25-minute voyage from a quay near the old Market Hall in the South Harbour to the two connected islands of Vallisaari and Kuninkaansaari and to Lonna, the tiniest of the three with a fine restaurant and host of a summer jazz festival. On Vallisaari, the largest of the three, visitors must stick to the trails running through designated areas to protect the unique and beautifully wooded natural environment—as well as to avoid the site of historic munitions explosions. The trail leads to a viewing platform above the fortifications. The views are glorious, stretching back to the city across Suomenlinna and out to the open sea, and there is the occasional spectacle of cruise ships and ferries slipping through the narrow straits between islands. Vallisaari has a quayside café and bar, picnic benches, and a marina for visiting boats. Guided nature, history, and photography tours are available through Finland National Parks, which maintains and manages the island. One can reach the smaller Kuninkaansaari from Vallisaari across a short causeway and explore the old gun emplacements.

The train station—the terminus for routes all across the country—and its adjoining Railway Station Square are the city's bustling commuter hub. The station's huge, iconic granite figures clutching illuminated globes are by Emil Wikström; the solid granite building they adorn was designed by Eliel Saarinen, one of the founders of the early-20th-century National Romantic style. The complex of tunnels underneath the station lead to a variety of shops and the city's most central Metro station.

The Sibelius Monument is the main feature of the Sibelius Park on the shoreline of a Baltic inlet in the Töölö district northwest of the center. This imaginative tribute to Finland's great composer Jean Sibelius, designed by Eila Hiltunen and unveiled in 1967, resembles a cluster of soaring silver organ pipes—600 of them—accompanied by a slightly sinister silver bust of the composer and is a popular stop on coach tours of the city. It's in a beautiful park close to the sea, surrounded by rhododendron blooms in spring.