Why Helsinki should be your next event destination
Where Wellness Meets Wonder
It’s the quiet that first strikes you when you arrive in Helsinki. This is a city that doesn’t feel the need to be up-front or in-your-face. With a population of fewer than a million, it’s hardly surprising. It might even feel a little empty if you’re used to your capital cities being loud and brash. But then something shifts. A peaceful stillness starts to seep into you as you adjust and settle into a quieter, slower pace. Helsinki gets under your skin, and you begin to appreciate a more balanced approach to city life. It’s a city that’s hard to forget.
I’m here for a few days to explore sustainable incentive travel in Helsinki, discovering venues and experiences designed for corporate retreats and wellbeing-focused events. Having been consistently voted the Happiest Place to Live and ranking first in the Global Destination Sustainability Index, expectations are high. With a goal to become carbon neutral by 2025, Helsinki is setting the standard for sustainable event destinations and I’m curious to find out what sets it apart and whether it can truly deliver for event planners looking for something different.
Nature as the Foundation
With the Baltic to the south and forest in every other direction, Helsinki is firmly rooted in its natural surroundings. And that connection is key. Not just to how the Finns live their lives, but also to how they host and hold their events. Nature is never far away. You see it in the design of venues like the eco-friendly Hotel Solo Sokos Pier 4, where the circular wooden reception fills with natural light and welcomes guests with birdsong playing softly in the background. You taste it in the locally sourced food on every menu. And you feel it in the seamless blending of outdoor activities into event schedules.
The city area includes around 300 islands, many accessible by ferry or bridge, offering everything from nature reserves to beaches and restaurants. The islands form a vast archipelago made for summer exploring and for creating unforgettable event experiences.
Life on the Water
One beautiful evening, we take the boat out to Blekholmen Island for dinner at Restaurant NJK, Finland’s oldest yacht club, founded in 1861. Private boat hire is a brilliant option for groups; think champagne on deck and live music as you glide between islands. You’re never far from music in Finland, and here’s a tip from my trip: book a kantele player for something truly special. It’s a bit like a small harp on its side, and the sound is utterly mesmerising; uniquely, authentically Finnish. The boat ride is beautiful and a perfect way to get a feeling for the islands. As you get closer, the elegant white NJK villa stands out against the harbour of fluttering flags.
The official language of the club is Swedish, a reminder of the intertwined history of Sweden and Finland. The restaurant is available for private hire, serving contemporary Nordic gastronomy (the arctic char fish soup is a highlight) with the dining room overlooking the water as the low evening sun streams onto the veranda.
Later that night, as we take the water bus home, we’re joined by a bride and groom who’ve just had their wedding reception at NJK. They faintly blush as our group gives them a spontaneous round of applause, and they sit together on the boat before walking home hand in hand. It feels like such a romantic moment, and such a contrast to the big, showy send-offs typical of weddings back in the UK. It captures beautifully the Finns’ modest approach to life, and hints at how your delegates might feel after an event here: quietly content, genuinely connected.
The Sweetness of Finnish Life
If you asked most people to list things that make them happy, chocolate would appear fairly quickly. Finland consistently ranks among Europe’s top chocolate consumers, averaging around 5–6 kg per person each year. Could this be one of the keys to why Finland ranks so highly on the contentment scale?
Fazer Blue is by far the nation’s favourite bar, dating back to 1897. The bar is considered such a national symbol that the Fazer Blue wrapper’s colour (Pantone 280 C if you want to google it) became Finland’s first colour trademark in 2001. The opportunity to enjoy a one-hour experience introducing the history, operations and products of Fazer, complete with unlimited sampling stations, makes for a delightful group activity. Still family-owned, they produce over 13 million Karl Fazer Milk Chocolate bars a year, wrapped in plastic made from recycled water bottles. It’s a heritage brand that’s forward-thinking, enabling Finns to enjoy their sweet tooth while working to keep the planet happy.
Walking Through History and Innovation
Like many European cities, Helsinki’s landmarks are best explored on foot, and a walking tour is a great way for groups to get their bearings. There are plenty of Art Nouveau gems, including the former Finnish Railway offices, now home to The Grand Central Hotel (part of Scandic Hotels), with a conference centre and multiple event spaces housed in the historic Jugendstil building. Nearby, the main railway station’s façade is carved with motifs and symbolic elements from Finnish folklore and features four giant pink granite men, each holding globe-shaped lamps; a great place to start your walking tour.
For something more modern, explore the city’s central library, Oodi, on Kansalaistori Square in the heart of the city, which opened its doors in late 2018. Oodi isn’t just for bookworms; it’s much more than a library, it’s a meeting place and cultural centre. Facilities include recording studios, a rooftop terrace, meeting rooms, a cinema and a large open hall for events. Locals can borrow everything from sports equipment to sewing machines for alterations. There are, of course, books, but reinforcing that this is no dusty library, they’re looked after by autonomous mobile robots who transport book boxes while a robotic arm sorts and shelves them. Named after children’s characters, we saw Patu in action the day we visited (Tatu and Veera were busy elsewhere, or perhaps on their lunch break). Thanks to extensive use of glass, natural light flows into Oodi’s interior spaces, creating a feeling of openness throughout the three-level structure. It’s the kind of space people seek out for both work and leisure and a wonderful example of how Helsinki blends innovation with wellbeing.
The Heart of Finnish Wellbeing: Sauna
Work-life balance isn’t a fleeting illusion in Finland; relaxing is built into most people’s days. The word ‘sauna’ is Finnish, and saunas have been recognised on UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage List since 2020. There are about 3.3 million saunas in Finland. If you do just one thing while you’re in Helsinki, it has to be sauna.
Luckily, there are plenty to be found all over the city: from Hotel Kämp’s executive suites with private saunas, to Hotel Hanaholmen’s mirror sauna overlooking the water, to the world’s first sauna cabin on a Ferris wheel, to modern saunas built from sustainable materials. And of course, after the heat of the sauna, nothing beats taking a dip in the sea, even in winter, through a hole in the ice.
For groups looking to embrace the sisu way of life (the hardiness required to swim in cold water), a trip to the private island Saunasaari provides a brilliant introduction. With smoke saunas, places to swim, barbecue areas overlooking the city and plenty of outdoor space for games. We played welly throwing, or saappaanheitto, a surprisingly popular activity in Finland, which hosted the first world championships for welly wanging. It’s an experience that bonds teams through shared adventure and laughter.
Into the Wilderness
Helsinki’s connection to nature means it’s not just the waterways you can experience when you host your event here. Finland’s forests, especially in summer, are particularly appealing. Nuuksio National Park is just a 30-minute drive from the city centre and offers plenty of opportunities for hiking, mushroom foraging (with an expert, please, as over a thousand species grow, including poisonous ones) and berry picking. You might find lingonberries, wild strawberries or blueberries, which the Finns love and which you can try as juice on Finnair flights (or my recommendation, buy them covered in chocolate at the Frazer shop to take home).
Inside Nuuksio National Park, you’ll find Hawkhill, a sustainably run, family-operated wilderness centre on the lake, surrounded by forest that will rid you of any residual stress. This is the chance for your group to experience Finnish cottage life in luxury. All cottages have their own yard, beach and sauna, and high-quality meeting villas for corporate events, recreation days or meetings are available. Breaks happen around the fire pit with cake and tea infused with local herbs.
It’s the perfect spot for a retreat and the chance to experience the magic of Finnish nature. Sound baths in the woods, sky gazing in hammocks, canoeing on the lake; feel the beauty of mossy forests, smell the scents of bog and watch the stillness of a glimmering forest lake. If you’d like your stay to leave a positive trace, sign up for the Lupine Fight experience, where you remove this harmful invasive species by scythe for the regeneration of Finnish meadows. A chance to put your sisu into action.
When you get back, the sauna will be ready and the lake is waiting for you. During winter, you can try ice swimming. Every bona fide Finn swears by the positive benefits of cold swimming, said to boost the immune system and keep seasonal illness at bay, keeping you healthy and happy. In the evening, dinner is served, inspired by the pure nature of the Finnish forests and rich with fresh, locally sourced products. Perfect relaxation for the mind and body.
Why Helsinki Works for Events
What struck me most about Helsinki wasn’t just its beauty or its sustainability credentials, impressive as they are – restaurants and hotels are reducing waste, shops sell recycled items and venues encourage the use of public transport. It was how naturally wellbeing is woven into everything. Your delegates won’t just attend sessions; they’ll experience something that changes their pace, their perspective, maybe even their approach to work when they return home.
For event planners seeking authentic experiences that genuinely prioritise sustainability and wellbeing, not as add-ons, but as the foundation, Helsinki delivers. It’s a destination that leaves people quietly transformed.
How to Get There
On average there are 5 flights per day from London to Helsinki, with Finnair planning to increase this to 6. The non-stop time is about 2 hours 55-55 minutes.
By train and ferry it’s a three-day, two-night adventure from the UK. Take a day train from London to Hamburg (changing in Brussels and Cologne)
With thanks to Helsinki Partners, Visit Espoo and Vista Vantaa for such an inspiring few days.
Ready to explore what Helsinki could offer your next incentive or leadership retreat? We’d love to share more about the possibilities and help you create something truly memorable. Get in touch to start the conversation.