Things to Do in Finland: City Guides & Audio Tours

Things to do in Finland range from exploring historic cities and coastal islands to discovering a country shaped by forests, lakes and long northern distances. Finland is worth visiting for the contrast between its maritime south, vast taiga landscapes and Arctic north, as well as for its distinctive language, sauna tradition and modern Nordic society. Neywo offers free audio guides for 5 cities in Finland, with 356 narrated places in total and 15 walking tours.

What to see and do in Finland

Discover Finland’s forests and lakes

Finland is a country of water and woodland. More than 180,000 lakes are recorded across the country, and thousands of islands extend along its coasts and inland waters. Lake Saimaa, the largest lake in Finland, is also the fourth largest in Europe.

Much of the country lies within the taiga, the great northern forest belt. Mixed forests give the southwest a more Baltic character, while birch forests become more common near the northern tree line. The landscape changes considerably from south to north: Finland stretches for about 1,160 kilometres between Hanko and Nuorgam, bringing different climates and horizons along the way.

Explore Helsinki

Finland’s capital is the country’s main urban gateway and one of its most rewarding places to begin exploring. Its narrated places include Suomenlinna, the sea fortress spread across islands off the coast, as well as two of the city’s best-known churches: Uspenski Cathedral and Helsinki Cathedral.

The Ateneum adds an important cultural stop to the city’s historic centre. Together, these places show several sides of Helsinki: its island setting, religious architecture and national art collections.

Read more in the Helsinki city guide.

Visit Porvoo

Porvoo offers a different view of Finland, with historic sites that reflect the country’s long cultural and political development. The city’s narrated places include Porvoo Cathedral, Postimäki, Iso Linnamäki and Holmin talo.

Its place in Finland’s history can also be understood through the country’s changing rulers and languages. Finland was part of Sweden in the Middle Ages before becoming an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire in 1809. Finnish and Swedish remain the country’s two official languages, and Swedish is especially present in parts of the southern and western coast.

Continue with the Porvoo guide.

Experience the north in Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi introduces the northern character of Finland. Its narrated places include Santa Claus Village, the Forestry Museum of Lapland, Pilke House and Rovaniemi Art Museum.

The city is a useful starting point for understanding the country’s changing landscapes. Conditions vary greatly toward the extreme north, where birch forests become more common near the tree line and the broad northern horizon becomes a defining part of the scenery.

Explore the Rovaniemi city guide.

See culture and industrial heritage in Tampere

Tampere combines cultural sites with reminders of Finland’s industrial development. The city’s narrated places include Tampere Cathedral, Galleria Rajatila, the memorial to the steamship Kuru disaster and Tampere Ice Stadium.

Finland remained largely rural and agrarian until rapid industrialisation transformed the country. Export industries based on metal and forests played an important role in that change, and Tampere’s varied places offer several ways to approach the country’s modern urban history.

Find more places in the Tampere guide.

Walk through Turku’s history

Turku has the largest selection of narrated places among Finland’s cities on Neywo. Its highlights include Turku Cathedral, Turku Castle, the Luostarinmäki museum quarter and Suomen Joutsen.

The city is especially relevant for understanding Finland’s historical links with Sweden and the country’s later development. The region became part of Sweden in the Middle Ages, while the country’s written Finnish tradition developed in the 16th century, when Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament into Finnish during the Protestant Reformation.

Discover the city with the Turku guide.

Learn about Finnish culture

Finnish culture brings together language, shared customs and ideas of civic equality. Finnish is the mother tongue of most people, while Swedish has a particularly strong presence in some coastal areas and in Åland, Finland’s only monolingual Swedish-speaking region.

The sauna is widely associated with Finnish tradition. Christmas, Midsummer, May Day and Independence Day are characteristic moments of the year, while the Kalevala preserves older poem-singing traditions in the form of a national epic.

Modern Finland is a parliamentary republic with a Nordic welfare model. Its parliament has 200 members, and the country became the first in Europe to grant universal suffrage in 1906. It also became the first country in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office. These milestones help explain the importance of egalitarianism, human rights and environmentalism in modern Finnish values.

Download Neywo and explore Finland at your own pace

Neywo has free audio guides for 5 Finnish cities: Helsinki, Porvoo, Rovaniemi, Tampere and Turku. Together, they cover 356 narrated places across 15 walking tours. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Download Neywo and explore Finland by following the city walks that interest you, stopping whenever you want to take in the history, architecture and culture around you.