A cinnamon roll and coffee at Cafe Esplanad.

Are your taste buds unstimulated? Not to fear—Helsinki’s hidden culinary strength lies in its selection of cute cafes. No one can subsist on coffee and pastries alone, but here are three Cheapo-approved cafes for tiding you over between meals.

Café Esplanad
Pohjoisesplanadi 37

Sitting pretty just off Helsinki’s Esplanadi Park, Café Esplanad is known for more than its prominent location. The café’s giant “korvapuustit” (Finnish cinnamon rolls) are simply delicious. Esplanad is self-serve, so ask the cashier for a roll, pour yourself a coffee, and sit near the window to watch the pedestrian traffic pass by. A pastry plus a coffee (with free refills) will set you back about €5.

Café Engel
Aleksanterinkatu 26

If you prefer stunning views to people-watching, take a seat at the Café Engel, which counts as its neighbor the famous Helsinki Cathedral. (The café is even named after the cathedral’s architect, Carl Ludvig Engel.) The café is popular with locals, and even hosts outdoor film screenings in the warmer months. A full breakfast costs around €13, while coffee and a slice of cake is €7-10. After lingering over your table, head across the street to the Cathedral’s steep steps for a post-meal workout.

The view from Cafe Engel.

Café Ekberg
Bulevardi 9

Southwest of Esplanadi Park in Helsinki’s hip Kamppi district, Café Ekberg dates back to 1915. The beautiful, bite-size pastries and cakes on offer here make for the perfect afternoon sugar rush. Known for attracting a more mature crowd, the café also offers a good breakfast. Just make sure to have the morning meal on a weekday, when the meal costs €9—the price doubles to €18 on the weekends. If you prefer to stop in for a pastry or sandwich, expend to spend €2-10.

The post Three budget-friendly cafes in Helsinki appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

How to keep costs manageable in such a pricey Nordic capital? We’ve got a few suggestions.

1. Find a cheap bed. The well-scrubbed Eurohostel, located on Katajanokka, is a cheap spot to lay your head. Rooms are small but spic-and-span, with Ikea-like blond wood bed frames and gray and green room accents. Doubles begin at €53 in the summer, which is pretty darn cheap for the pricey Finnish capital.

Central Helsinki by day…

2. Grab a cheap lunch. Grub is expensive in central Helsinki. One good value can be found at the Hietalahti Flea Market café, where the lunch buffet is just €7 per person. Just don’t go assuming that you’ll be able to find such good deals in the flea market hall itself, which is packed to the rafters with spectacular Finnish modernist pieces (as well as some inarguably uninteresting fluff). A trip to the nearby Design Museum (Korkeavuorenkatu 23) will confirm your suspicions that many of the Flea Market’s cast-offs are in fact Grade A modernist beauties.

3. Visit a free museum. The splendid Kiasma (Museum of Contemporary Art) is worth the €7 admission fee for the exploration of its curved passageways and awesome scale alone. But on the first Wednesday of every month, admission is free. Several other museums occasionally offer free admission as well.  Helsinki City Art Museum is free on Fridays, for example.

Helsinki’s main cathedral, the Tuomiokirkko

4. Free furniture? Well, not really. All those expensive shops full of incredibly dear and well made Finnish furniture can be visited and viewed by any Cheapo with an appetite for good, high-end design. Check out Vepsäläinen and the adjacent Solid Furniture on Annankatu 25, and Amfora Shop on Bulevardi 11 for some particularly inspiring selections.

5. Take a cheap day trip. It’s all relative, of course, but a boat trip to the beautiful island of Suomenlinna—where one of the largest historic maritime monuments in the world holds court—is just €3.80 roundtrip for adults and €1.90 roundtrip for children aged 7 to 16.  Once there, guided walking tours of the island are available most every day in the summer, less frequently in the down season. They are free for Helsinki Card carriers.

The post Wandering Cheapo Helsinki: Five Cheapo Tips appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.