Helsinki Airport Layover Sightseeing Tour

What a great way to take advantage of an extended layover in Helsinki! Our guide, Harry, was extremely polite, professional and punctual when arriving for our tour at the HEL airport. The communication with the tour company, both via email in advance of the tour and via WhatsApp the day of, was excellent [thanks Ulla!]. We truly enjoyed the time spent in the historic downtown Helsinki area. We also appreciated that Harry took interest in our feedback regarding interests and somewhat customized our tour accordingly. Thanks for a memorable day in Helsinki versus 7 hours at the airport!!

Harry was our wonderful host back in August on a long layover in the city. He was knowledgable and kind and helped my teenage daughters feel comfortable! Highly recommend to get a taste for this lovely city!

Zoe was so helpful and Harry our guide was very knowledgeable and personable. He took us to extra places that weren't on the itinerary and was interested in the country where we came from. It was an excellent way to spend time on an 11 hour lay over. I would thoroughly recommend it

Our guide provided us with a terrific overview of what life is like in not only Helsinki, but Finland in general. He was very knowledgeable and friendly. We couldn't have seen all of this (3 hour layover tour) on our own. If you have a little time, this is an easy option, very affordable, and worth the time to get out and explore with little stress. Everyone in our group agreed that this was worthwhile. I will do this again in the future!

Really nice way to get a glimpse of Helsinki in a few hours! Evi, our guide, surprised us by speaking Spanish, si that was an unexpected plus!

The Finnish Airways time from Japan to Helsinki is around 2:30 p.m. For a ferry to Tallinn in the Baltic Sea, there is a group of overnight cruises around 6:00 p.m., there is an advantage to take a night cruise, you can spend a night on the ferry at a very low price, if you are afraid of a flight delay or traffic problems, you can plan to spend a night in a guesthouse near the airport of Wanda, guesthouses in Wanda are of course cheaper than hotels in the city of Helsinki, offering a reference for backpackers who want to save luggage.

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Our guide Sara C. was lovely. A very pleasant tour with many references to the history and lifestyle of the Finns.

We were on a 7 hour layover, and wanted to spend a few hours seeing the city. 2 days prior to the tour, the opperator contacted us that we were the only ones on it, there was a caveat at booking about canceling. They made me the offer to spend 50E for using public transportation or 150e for a private car. I chose the car. Our flight was scheduled to gate at ~10:15 so i was worried about making it through by 11. We made it through with plenty of time to spare, but with immigration just be aware of how much time you have. We got to the meeting point about 15 minutes early, and our guide arrived 10 minutes after that. The car that we were met with was a Mercedes Van (pretty sure they just had us buy up the minimum to operate the tour - and i was thankful for the opportunity). There were two drivers (I don't think either knew english). We drove for about 20 minutes to the city, saw a few parks, and several churches. The guide (ugh who's name i can't remember) was excellent. He knew a ton of history about the town. There was great flexibility to stay at spots, and or go to different ones. We saw olympic stadium, and then went and walked through a local market that was awesome. Got Coffee and funnel cake type thing that they said they only have the beginning of May. We got back to the Airport at about 3 hours 15 minutes- so the tour was really pretty spot on 3 hours. It was a great experience, very happy we went, and wish i could remember the guides name (he was Spanish - and commented that some people are confused that it's not a Viking meeting them :) ) Be aware of the weather. It was May when we visited, and the temperature started off in the 50's. By the time we were at the last stop it was snowing.

Excellent tour with a friendly and knowledgeable guide. We saw a nice combination of sights from the van and via short walks. It was a great introduction to Helsinki. The driver was also very efficient and safe.

We took this tour as we missed our connecting flight and so had to spend the evening at the airport hotel and wait for another flight the following evening. We booked quite late for a 11 am tour and the operator communicated very quickly via WhatsApp that only a 9am tour as available, which was fine by us. We met the guide at the airport terminal tourist info desk and was taken to the city center on a small comfortable van. Our guide Mimi was great and knowledgeable about Helsinki history and culture. And we made various stops along the way and saw most of the main sites. Of course, there were strict time limits as to how long we could stay in each area. Overall, a highly enjoyable 3-hour tour, which gave us a nice positive feeling after missing our connecting flight!

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