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When I found out I was pregnant and due in late May, I realized I had to make the most of winter travel–and I decided to take it as a reason to try and check “seeing the Northern Lights” off my travel bucket list. Luckily, my friend Megan was up for a winter adventure! We spent a couple of days exploring Helsinki before heading farther up north for our best chance of spotting Aurora Borealis.

One caveat is that we were there in January 2022, right after the wave of the Omicron variant. Although Finland allowed vaccinated travelers into the country, there was a variety of pandemic protocol in place that did affect our trip. The two biggest ones were that all restaurants and bars were required to close at 6pm, and all saunas and pools were closed. So unfortunately, I don’t have quite as much intel on cool places to get dinner or the best spots to go for a sweat. That said: even with some pandemic-related challenges and some very cold weather, we absolutely loved our time in Helsinki and Ivalo. If you are looking for a winter wonderland adventure, I can’t recommend it enough!

What to Pack for Scandinavian Winter

The short answer is lots of layers, a good coat, thick socks and comfortable snow- and slush-resistant boots. I was especially happy to have packed Uniqlo Heattech long-sleeved shirts and leggings as base layers, as well as my trusty LLBean snow boots. The roads in Helsinki used gravel instead of salt during snowstorms, and most locals we saw were wearing boots with ice spikes built in–you definitely want to have reliable, comfortable footwear to walk around the city as well as explore in the snow up north.

My Canada Goose jacket also continues to be a lifesaver in any cold climates, and has absolutely paid for itself in cost and comfort per wear. And in the far north, our resort had jackets, hats and boots to wear for any outdoor excursions that you could easily layer over what you already own for extra warmth.

Helsinki

Overall, we were quite delighted with the city of Helsinki–even with only 10 hours of daylight to explore! The city was walkable–even in sub-freezing temperatures and with gravelly slush puddles–and also had a wonderfully efficient and easy-to-navigate tram system. We loved it all: the museums, the architecture, the design-forward shops, the surprising public art and quiet spaces, the tree-lined parks and waterfront. The fact that we loved it so much in the dead of winter speaks highly: I’d love to be back on one of those sun-drenched midnight summer days.

Eating & Drinking

Although we certainly didn’t get to eat and drink out as much as we would have liked due to the pandemic restrictions (and frankly, me being pregnant didn’t help!), we did discover a few gems.

Since we did end up having to eat a bit in our hotel room, we stocked up in the excellent basement grocery store of iconic Finnish department store Stockmann. It was perfect for some grab-and-go dinners, as well as a great spot to stock up on souvenirs like Finnish candy. Our hotel room had a mini refrigerator, so I always like to pick up some juice and yogurt to keep on hand for first thing in the morning as well.

We also enjoyed browsing the Old Market Hall right by the water: it’s an old-style food hall that still had a number of vendors. Story is also a more modern cafe located right in the middle that does an excellent coffee and breakfast–and cardamom bun!

One of our favorites was Ravintola Troikka: it’s a Russian restaurant with an ornate interior, and one of the rare spots that’s open on Sunday. We ordered a variety of dumplings and blini and borscht, and it was all absolutely delicious with stellar service.

For more traditional Finnish fare, Sea Horse is an institution. Although I’m not generally a big fan of fish like herring, this was a fun place to try out some Finnish specialties like crispy fried Baltic herring and meatballs.

Although I wasn’t able to imbibe too much, we loved the cozy atmosphere and excellent wine list at Grape Wine Bar. Although we weren’t hungry when we popped in, we also were tempted by all of the delicious-looking food our neighboring table was ordering.

There were also plenty of excellent and design-forward coffee spots. We had a chuckle at Way Bakery when we ordered a “filled bread roll”–this is the Finnish translation for a sandwich, ha! This spot also looks like it turns into a lovely and laid-back little wine bar in the evenings.

What to Do

Normally, I’d never be like “go see all of the churches” but there are four different churches with very distinct architecture that I think are worth checking out!

The first is the Kamppi Chapel, also known as the Chapel of Silence. It’s an oasis of peace and quiet in a beautiful wood structure in the middle of a busy downtown shopping district. If I lived in Helsinki, this would be a place I’d love to visit regularly to meditate in–but even as a visitor, a really nice place to stop in on a busy touristy day.

The second is the Church of the Rock. We actually walked by this one day and had no idea it was anything but a giant rock! This functioning Lutheran church is built directly into a rock, and the inside has some real late 60s design vibes.

Finland’s proximity to Russia makes it unsurprising that Helsinki has such a beautiful Russian Orthodox church. There was a private baptism happening inside when we popped by, so we only got to glimpse the interior but it looked just as sumptuous as the outside!

And lastly, the Helsinki Cathedral is a dominant structure that overlooks Senate Square. It’s a major landmark of the city, and also has some Russian influence: it was built as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

Nearby, you can’t miss the National Library of Finland. An absolutely gorgeous spot for book-lovers!

For art, we visited both the Amos Rex and the Helsinki Art Museum, affectionately known as HAM. I think both depend greatly on what exhibits are running when you’re there: we weren’t a huge fan of what was showing at the Amos Rex, but we absolutely loved the two shows on at HAM. So I feel a little biased toward HAM! Both are super manageable (aka not enormous) and aren’t located too far from each other, so I recommend checking both out if you’re in the neighborhood. (Across the street from Amos Rex is also a post office: it’s located in the basement of a camera store, but it was truly a model of Finnish design and efficiency! If you need to mail any postcards, recommend popping in here for stamps!)

Also nearby is the train station. Odds are you’ll come through here if you take the train from the airport (which is very easy, efficient and affordable), but it’s worth popping by to see the Art Nouveau architecture from all angles. My personal favorite part is the Burger King inside: I truly have never seen a more beautiful fast food restaurant.

The Sibelius Monument in Sibelius Park is also a gorgeous piece of public art to check out. We visited in a blizzard, which was chilly but beautiful. On a sunny summer day, I can only imagine how lovely a walk in this park would be. There is also a cafe called Regatta on the water that wasn’t open yet when we were there, but it looked like it would be a very cozy place to warm up in winter or a lovely spot to enjoy a drink on the water in summer.

To be honest, Helsinki was a city that I just really enjoyed wandering around in: the pastel-colored details on all of the buildings were a delight to notice and appreciate. In particular, Huvilakatu Street is filled with colorful Art Noveau buildings–it’s highly photogenic!

And there are also plenty of shops to pop in and enjoy: Hakola for bright sofas and home decor, Helsinki Vintage for antiques, Lokal for curated local crafts, Aarikka for fun earrings, littala for beautiful glassware, marimekko for bold prints, and Craft Corner for a variety of postcards.

Where to Stay

We stayed at the St. George Hotel: since we knew that the weather would likely be very cold and that the days would be short, we wanted to make sure we stayed somewhere comfortable with plenty of amenities. Sadly, as I mentioned, the indoor pool and sauna were both closed and the restaurant and bar weren’t open in the evenings. In non-Covid times, though, the logic holds: it would have been great to come back in the late afternoon and wind down with a sauna or a swim before bed!

Ivalo

For the best chances of seeing the Northern Lights, we flew up to Ivalo for three nights and stayed at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort: it was worth the splurge for a chance to stay in a glass igloo! (Note: this whole experience would be super fun for kids, and they have a whole “meet Santa” experience that’s also available.)

Of course, there are no guarantees when it comes to seeing the Northern Lights. We booked some excursions to make the most of the winter wonderland so that we wouldn’t be completely devastated if the skies didn’t cooperate. The good news is that the skies FULLY cooperated and we got incredible views of the Northern Lights every night we were there: there hadn’t been any for the weeks leading up! It really is luck of the draw, so it’s best to temper your expectations even though your odds here are some of the best in the world. One fun thing is that the resort will actually ring an alarm in your igloo when they’re spotted so that you can wake up and see them too! And quite frankly, seeing the Northern Lights was fully worth the expedition: it’s hard to describe, but they’re absolutely otherworldly and magical.

The reindeer safari was a lovely and relaxing way to enjoy the scenery. They have all of the cold weather clothing for you to wear on the excursion (boots, jacket, head covering, etc.) as well as a blanket in the sled, so you don’t have to worry about bringing everything to face the outdoors. You really don’t have to do any work–just sit back and relax, and take in the views! The reindeer herders were also so pleasant and informative: we learned a lot about the local reindeer population and the challenges it is facing, and even got to go feed their herd afterwards.

For a more active adventure, we did a husky safari the next day. It’s similar in that they give you all of the cold weather gear you need and you get to see some beautiful scenery, but it is WAY more involved since you are driving the teams of dogs. It was such a crazy hard workout that took a surprising amount of upper body and core strength. As a dog lover, though, it was SO fun. I’m always so impressed by these types of working dogs, and they were so sweet to get to pet and love on afterwards.

We also did a bit of sledding, which was very fun–although I did try to take a video while doing it and ended up dropping my phone in the snow, which was VERY stressful to try and find (ended up only being able to find it with the Fitbit “Find My Phone” feature after eight minutes of frantic digging). Something to be careful of!

Beyond that, we did a lot of cozy reading in our igloo, playing Bananagrams (my favorite travel game!) in the lodge, taking brisk walks around the grounds and doing an evening sauna (open here, unlike in Helsinki!). Definitely recommend packing a good book or loading up your computer with some shows since you will likely be spending a good amount of time in your igloo: we only had about six hours of daylight when we were there!

Overall, we found Finland to be extremely easy to navigate and a beautiful country to explore. It’s also very tech-forward: we never needed to use Euros since credit cards were accepted everywhere, from the tram stations to all of the restaurants. I would love to go back and enjoy those long midsummer days, but if you’re looking for a true winter wonderland adventure with a mix of city and open spaces, it’s hard to go wrong here.

Have you been to Finland before? Are you interested in going after reading this?