Summer activities on offer at public playgrounds
This coming summer, Helsinki’s public playgrounds will arrange summer camp activities for schoolchildren in grades 1-3 on weekdays from 9 am to 4 pm. The camps are free of charge, but children must pre-register to participate. As in previous years, the city will also provide free hot lunches to children at some Helsinki playgrounds, with no registration required.
Free mid-day meal served to all children under the age of 16
The City of Helsinki will also continue its long tradition of serving a free-of-charge noon lunch to children at select playgrounds, this year on weekdays from 1 June to 7 August. Check the Summer Playgrounds website for a list of the playgrounds that will be participating. No pre-registration is necessary for the summer playground meal, as all Helsinki children under the age of 16 are welcome to participate, as long as they bring their own spoon or fork and water bottle. Keep in mind that playground interiors are reserved for summer camp participants only, meaning that indoor restrooms and water taps will be off-limits.
- Welcome to the summer meals at playgrounds!
- Summer activities on offer at public playgrounds
- Culture and sports services begin summer tour of public playgrounds
Culture, sports and youth activities reopen in June
Libraries, cultural centres, and outdoor and indoor sports facilities will open in stages, along with museums and different venues hosting youth services. Summer camps and courses will also begin. Some libraries will offer extended hours and activities for young people have been expanded.
Many camps and courses focusing on sports and exercise will be arranged this summer to keep children active. EasySport (www.easysport.fi) arranges these kinds of activities for children between the ages of 6 and 12, for example. For teens aged 13 to 17, FunAction exercise activities are available free of charge in June, and the NYT-liikunta programme offers the same service for 18 to 29 year olds. Check out the daily summer schedules for the respective programmes at www.funactionnuorille.fi and www.nytliikunta.fi.
Exercise groups that meet in Helsinki’s larger parks will be arranged once again this summer, with safe intervals maintained between participants. Limitations on the number of people in the groups might be necessary in smaller park areas. In addition to exercise in parks, there are also groups that meet to exercise on balconies and in pools. Water exercise groups are now limited to a maximum of 30 participants.
Helsinki’s network of cultural centres also offer art, environment, and nature-themed summer courses for children in June and August. Please consult the websites of the individual centres for more information and to register:
www.annantalo.fi , www.caisa.fi , www.kanneltalo.fi , www.malmitalo.fi , www.stoa.fi , www.vuotalo.fi
Helsinki’s public beaches will open on 1 June 2020 according to their normal summer schedules, with due consideration for coronavirus restrictions, including regulations from the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation.
Rastila Camping will likewise reopen on 1 June 2020.
Outdoor swimming pools at Olympic Stadium and Kumpula will open according to their normal summer schedules on 1 June 2020, under new customer limits and other special arrangements. The children’s pool will not reopen on the first, however, as renovations have been stalled by delayed tile shipments.
The Töölö sports hall and the Liikuntamylly sports and fitness centre will open again on 1 June 2020 according to normal summer schedules.
Youth services and guided outdoor summer activities will resume on 1 June 2020, but in a controlled manner with consideration for the prevailing safety constraints.
- Culture, sports and youth activities reopen in June
- Helsinki libraries return to normal services, with some locations open weekends through the summer
- Helsinki’s summer is full of supervised sports – enrolment for children’s camps and courses started 27 May
Museums bring delightful summer attractions
The City of Helsinki’s museums will also resume their operations: the Helsinki City Museum and the Tram Museum will open to the public on Monday, 1 June, and the Helsinki Art Museum HAM and Villa Hakasalmi will follow the suit the next day, on Tuesday, 2 June.
- The Urban Food exhibition will make Helsinki City Museum lush and green
- HAMHelsinki
- Helsinki City Museum
The sea belongs to everyone also during exceptional times
Helsinki’s proximity to the sea is especially important for its residents in the current exceptional circumstances. Helsinkians have the luxury of an easy access to the archipelago during the summer. Water transport has begun in stages during May and will resume more broadly in the beginning of June with familiar and even slightly unknown destinations. For example, Vallisaari, Isosaari and Lonna all offer their own personal packages of maritime atmosphere. Helsinki’s beaches will open according to normal summer schedules on 1 June considering the current exceptional circumstances with guidelines from the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation.
Outdoor
recreation and new virtual services
The Green Hearts park website invites people to discover Helsinki’s many delightful parks and guides visitors through the parks. Visitors to parks are advised to familiarize themselves with the do’s and dont’s of responsible outdoor recreation compiled by Suomen Latu – the Outdoor Association of Finland.
- Walking tours in Helsinki parks
- Helsinki nature trails
- City cycling routes
- Cycling and walking journey planner
- Helsinki Zoo’s live animal webcams
- Helsinki-kanava video channel: culture, workouts and leisure (in Finnish)
Helsinki Art Museum – HAM for short – takes citizens on independent art tours: HAM has compiled information on 480 public artworks in Helsinki in a sculpture bank open to all. The museum serves and delights citizens with routes for independent sculpture viewing around various themes.
Parks and nature
Helsinki City´s park website is a guide to park walks in the loveliest parks in town. There are many different trips to the nature in the capital region. You can also take a walk around the parks watching the public art Helsinki has to offer.
- Green Hearts
- 12 x into the nature in just 15 minutes: by walking, train, metro and bicycle
- Helsinki`s green treasures - 200 natural attractions (pdf)
Get on the saddle!
As a city biker, you always have a bike handy. Following the service extension in May, there will be up to 3,450 bikes and 345 bike stations at your disposal in Helsinki and Espoo. Vantaa has its own city bike service. The service is not integrated with the service in Helsinki and Espoo.
Boating, fishing or camping in the archipelago
The city of Helsinki administers beautiful areas in the archipelago and maritime parks near the city and in areas nearby. Everyone can visit these areas, either for free or by renting. Regular water traffic service to the islands. An important step in improving the accessibility is Helsinki Region Transport's Journey Planner, which will include the island destinations with regular water traffic service. The service map provides a look into the offerings of the destinations, and for Helsinki, it is currently being updated with information on island destinations for the season. Hints to martime Helsinki from MyHelsinki.
Skipperi’s city rowboat service now offers a possibility to hit the waters without your own boat in Helsinki. The reservation period has started and initially, there are boats at two locations: In connection to Café Torpanranta in Munkkiniemi at the Laajalahti bay and in connection to the Finlandia Hall’s Café Veranda at the Töölönlahti bay. A boat location will also open in the beginning of June at the Aurinkolahti beach in Vuosaari.
There is an e-service where you may book a boat in advance; the time limit for one rowing tour is three hours. The season price for the service is €35.
- In islands
- Boating
- Fishing
- Seven unique island gems in Helsinki’s archipelago
- Island hopping: Suomenlinna, Vallisaari and Lonna
What to do during a day in Helsinki?
On the website MyHelsinki you can check out what's going on in the city. We will always pick these:
- Helsinki Zoo, opens 1 June
- World Heritage Site Suomenlinna
- Linnanmäki amusement park, opens 12 June
- Sea Life Helsinki
- Neighbourhoods
- Discover the Helsinki of Carl Ludvig Engel
Read more:
- Natural History Museum
- Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden
- Kumpula Botanic Garden
- Ateneum
- Kiasma
- The National Museum of Finland
- Amos Rex
- Sinebrychoff Art Museum
- Helsinki Kunsthalle
- Design Museum
- Didrichsen Art Museum
- The Finnish Museum of Photography
- Theatre Museum
- Hotel and Restaurant Museum
More current news about summer