But we’ll be upfront — Helsinki isn’t known to be a budget destination, and it can be tough to score a good deal on hotels here.

Read on to discover where Cheapos stay on a trip to Helsinki.

The top budget hotels in Helsinki

We’ve chosen our favorite Helsinki hotels with some flair, fun perks and friendly service that are more affordable than most accommodations in the city. Remember, Helsinki is expensive. These prices may seem high, but they are actually a good deal for the city.

We love the modern look of the rooms at Omena Hotel.

Omena Hotel Helsinki City Centre

Neighborhood: The Center
Doubles from $81

Near art museums, a swimming hall, restaurants, and the city’s Central Station, the Omena Hotel offers comfortable accommodations for Cheapos looking to be in the middle of the action. Rooms include flat-screen TVs, mini-fridges, microwaves and private baths. Learn more

Hotelli Finn has been recently renovated for a smart and contemporary look.

Hotelli Finn

Neighborhood: The Center
Doubles from $114

Sweet, chic, and simple, the Hotelli Finn offers rooms with a dose of modern charm in an excellent location. Many of the rooms are en-suite, but if you’d like to save a bit more money, opt for a room with a shared shower (you’ll still have a private toilet). Learn more

You can’t leave Helsinki without relaxing in a Finnish sauna like the one at Hotel Arthur.

Hotel Arthur

Neighborhood: The Center
Doubles from $123

The Hotel Arthur feels indulgent, with Finnish saunas, a filling (and free!) breakfast and stylish rooms, without costing an arm and a leg. Some rooms even include “rainbow showers” with color-changing water. Fancy! Learn more

Rooms are grand but the price can be right if you book ahead at Scandic Grand Marina.

Scandic Grand Marina

Neighborhood: East of the Center
Doubles from $128

Right near the harbor is the Scandic Grand Marina, a large four-star hotel with a friendly staff and clean rooms. Cheapos will love the free Wi-Fi and bicycle rentals as well as the lovely library cart in the welcoming lobby. There is also a bar and restaurant on site. Learn more

More Helsinki Hotels

Still looking for that perfect room for your visit? Search and book 650+ hotels in Helsinki.

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Szeged in Hungary, Bergamo in Italy, and Lund in Sweden all ooze that distinct welcoming feeling. They are spots where you roll up expecting to stay just one night and three days later you are still in town.

A Finnish revelation

Tampere in Finland is another such town. We arrived in Tampere on a summer evening, the dipping sun reflecting from the windows of the city’s striking red brick mills. It is an instantly appealing place, with the city center gathered around the fast-flowing Tammerkoski waterway. River walks, some strikingly well-preserved industrial landscapes and spacious parks and boulevards all contribute to Tampere’s magic.

Industrial heritage

Where other cities have ripped out abandoned industrial buildings, Tampere’s city fathers had better ideas. They left them in place, redeploying them to new uses, creating stylish space for cafés and bars, museums and a galaxy of workshops and studios that now underpin Tampere’s buoyant arts scene.

The town exudes some of that same slightly Bohemian urban buzz that makes Manchester so appealing. No surprise perhaps that in its industrial heyday, Tampere was often dubbed “the Manchester of the North.”

The Tampere Theater in the city center.

The city’s status as Finland’s industrial powerhouse was due to one man, a Scottish Quaker industrialist named James Finlayson, who had established mills in St. Petersburg. In 1820 Finlayson was encouraged by Tsar Alexander I to expand his business to the Grand Duchy of Finland — which was then part of Imperial Russia, as indeed it remained until the Bolsheviks granted Finland its independence shortly after the October Revolution in 1917.

Socialist credentials

Tampere happens to have played a star role in Europe’s socialist history. Lenin decamped to the town after the 1905 Revolution and Tampere hosted a number of early meetings of the Bolsheviks, including the late 1905 meeting when Lenin met Stalin for the first time.

The town’s Lenin museum recalls those heady days and provides a very fine account of the importance of Lenin’s thought in advancing the political development of Europe.

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With the journey time slashed to 3 hours 36 minutes, it is no surprise that cross-border excursions are suddenly in vogue as folk on both sides of the border want to try the new Allegro service. To meet the new demand, train frequency on the Allegro link from Russia to Finland will double with effect from next Sunday.

Accommodation in Hamina, Finland

Throw in the new St Peter Line overnight shipping service to Helsinki, which started operation last year and this week moves to a new terminal in St. Petersburg, and one might well wonder why anyone still takes the bus from St. Petersburg to Finland.

Bus links

The bus takes longer than the train, but it’s cheaper, and we really think it can make sense. The Allegro train is great if speed is of the essence, and the ship is fine for those wishing to sleep on an overnight voyage to Finland.

But between St. Petersburg and Helsinki lies one of Europe’s most profoundly interesting areas, a region where Russian, Finnish and even Swedish interests have delicately intertwined to create very distinctive histories, politics and cultures.

A visit to Hamina, Finland

The scheduled bus takes about eight hours and stops along the way in the cities of Vyborg and Hamina. The latter is a superb introduction to Finland.

Hamina is an old fortress town, a place that in the past has been variously Swedish and Russian. Being little more than half-an-hour by bus west of the Finnish-Russian border, it is a popular spot with Russians making short forays into Finland for shopping. Yet Hamina’s picture-perfect octagonal square is a fine piece of early 18th-century design and a great spot to linger.

Where to stay

We stopped in Hamina last week and stayed at Pormestarintalon Pihakammari, a super little garden house in a peaceful setting behind the graceful wooden villa that for many years served as home to Hamina’s mayors. Our stay came towards the end of a long journey exploring remote Karelia, and after some wilderness days sedate Hamina was a happy re-engagement with civilization.

How to get there

For travelers coming from St. Petersburg, there is a convenient direct bus to Hamina at 3:40 p.m., which arrives in Hamina at 7:40 p.m. The one-way fare is €30. For those continuing the next day, after the overnight stop that Hamina deserves, to the Finnish capital there are frequent onward buses–generally hourly.

Fares and schedules for bus services in Finland (including many cross-border services to and from Russia) can be checked online.

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1. St. Peter Line to Russia

The news last week that over 60 ships were trapped in thick ice in the Baltic for some days is probably no great incentive to go and book some ferry trips. But Baltic spring ice does melt–eventually–and this year sees some interesting new options for Baltic travel by ship.

Cypriot-owned St. Peter Line last year launched a thrice-weekly service from Helsinki to St. Petersburg and back. And next month the company expands its offering with twice-weekly sailings from Stockholm to St. Petersburg (on Wednesdays and Saturdays) and a weekly departure from Tallinn to St. Petersburg (on Sundays).

2. Brittany Ferries to Bilbao

French operator Brittany Ferries has long been one of the most adventurous operators in the Western Channel with a raft of routes linking England and Ireland with northwest France. Later this month, the company opens a new service from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain, so reviving a long established ferry connection that abruptly disappeared when P&O pulled off the route last September.

Last Saturday, Brittany Ferries also reinstated its Poole to Cherbourg service. This is a very useful short link from England’s south coast to Normandy’s Cotentin peninsula. At the moment, Brittany advertise sailings just to October, so the long-term future of the route is still in doubt.

3. Maltese Connections

Virtu Ferries are one of several operators serving the Maltese market. The company had a welcome dose of free publicity in late February as Virtu’s smart white catamarans were featured on many news reports as the vessels evacuating foreign workers from Libyan ports. Virtu operates a year-round fast-ferry link between Pozzallo in Sicily and Malta. This year the company will also offer a Saturday catamaran service from Catania to Malta, starting on May 7, 2011.

Virtu’s latest Australian-built catamaran hit the headlines in September 2010 when it encountered Somali pirates on its delivery voyage to Malta. Virtu prides itself on speed, and reports say that the pirates were easily outpaced.

4. Scotland-Northern Ireland: Kintyre Express

Not for many years has there been any direct ferry link across the North Channel between the Mull of Kintyre (in western Scotland) and Northern Ireland. The last operator to offer a service was the splendidly named Argyll & Antrim Steam Packet Company which turned out to have rather flaky finances, and the service stopped in 2000.

Now Kintyre Express will fill the gap with a new fast passenger ferry from Campbeltown to Ballycastle. Services start on May 27, 2011. The route will be operated by fast RIBs with a heated cabin, so the 90-minute crossing is surely going to be a whole lot more fun than the average ferry journey. We reserve judgment on whether this is an inspired idea by Colin Craig, the man behind Kintyre Express, or whether perhaps it might be the balmiest idea in the history of European ferry transport.

We hope it is a great success, but Kintyre Express really needs to get its act together in terms of publicity and having a functioning online booking system on its website. This new ferry link creates a raft of new travel opportunities allowing visitors to Kintyre and Islay to make an easy hop over to the most beautiful part of the coast of Northern Ireland. The Antrim Glens and the Giant’s Causeway are both within easy reach of the Ballycastle ferry terminal.

The post European Ferries: 4 interesting new options for 2011 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Here are our top five rail journeys for this month.

1. Zürich to Salzburg

A wonderful transect from west to east through the Alps, taking in three countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria) and including the mountainous Arlberg route through the Tyrol. Depart Zürich at 10:40 a.m., enjoy lunch on board, and you’ll arrive in Salzburg at 4 p.m.

2. Riviera Cruise

Sit on the right side of the train for sea views aplenty as you ride local trains from Marseille all the way to Genoa. The train hugs the coast for much of the eight-hour journey. Leave Marseille St. Charles at 9:25 a.m., and with two easy changes of train along the way (at Nice Ville and Ventimiglia), you’ll arrive in Genoa just after 5 p.m.

3. Northward Bound

Central Finland has a delicate beauty as winter slips gently into spring. The rail route from Helsinki north through Kuopio is a gem – in our view outshining the more westerly route followed by the fastest trains from Helsinki to Oulu. So leave Helsinki at 8:12 a.m., change at Kajaani onto a delightfully rural local train, and you’ll arrive in Oulu at 5:24 p.m. There is no better way to mark the coming of spring in Finland.

4. Belgrade to Bar

The rail journey from the Serbian capital to the coast of Montenegro is one of the finest in Europe and at its best in early spring. Take the Tara Express from Belgrade at 10:10 a.m. and you’ll reach the port of Bar in Montenegro ten hours later. The journey passes through Bosnia & Herzegovina along the way. Rugged, wild terrain aplenty with fabulous mountain and gorge scenery.

5. Hebridean Adventure

The West Highland Line from Glasgow is a classic. Travel it this month and you’ll still see winter snow lingering on the Scottish hills. Depart Glasgow Queen Street at 8:21 a.m., cross lonely Rannoch Moor and skirt Ben Nevis to reach the fishing port of Mallaig at 1:34 p.m. You’ll have a couple of hours to wander before hopping aboard the afternoon sailing over the sea to Skye.

The train times given in this article generally apply to weekday services. Weekend timings may vary. You can check current schedules in the March 2011 issue of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable.

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Discontinued services

First the bad news. A number of services have been axed, notably:

1. The overnight trains or through carriages from Munich to Copenhagen, Warsaw and Moscow.

2. The overnight services from Prague to Zagreb and Zürich via Linz (although the long established City Night line service from Prague via Dresden to Zürich continues just as now).

3. The once daily direct train from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to Szczecin in Poland.

New links and improvements

But in a Europe where rail travel is becoming ever more popular, there were many notable improvements to services that came with the introduction of the 2011 schedules last Sunday. Some of the highlights include:

1. Dramatic improvements to services between St. Petersburg and Helsinki using sleek new Allegro trains that trim about 90 minutes off the journey times between the two cities.

2. More trains and faster journey times between Paris and Geneva, as the Haut-Bugey high-speed link through the Jura came into operation.

3. Increased frequency and faster travel times on daytime services linking Warsaw with Berlin.

4. More frequent direct services between Brussels and Calais on the French coast.

5. An additional daily service on the busy Paris to Amsterdam route.

6. Entirely new services linking Prague and Dresden with Szczecin in Poland.

7. New direct trans-Alpine trains from Venice to Basel (via the Gotthard route) and to Munich (via the Brenner Pass).

8. Better links from Hamburg with a new overnight train to Paris, and a new daytime service from Hamburg to Vienna via Hannover and Passau (complementing the existing daytime service via Berlin and Prague which continues just as in 2010).

9. An extra daily fast train on the Budapest to Bratislava route.

10. A new direct daytime train between Warsaw and Budapest (complementing the existing overnight service which continues as in the past).

In the weeks ahead

While most of the 2011 schedules came into effect this week, there are a small number of outstanding changes that will be introduced  in the weeks ahead. They include:

Effective December 19: An entire new Spanish high-speed route opens linking Madrid with both Valencia and Albacete. This will dramatically transform travel in eastern Spain, slashing the travel time from Madrid to Valencia by more than half.

On the same date a new high-speed link across the French-Spanish border will open, initially with just twice daily TGV trains from Paris to Figueres, where passengers must change for onward travel to Barcelona. With much reduced journey times, the new link will give much improved daytime connections between Catalunya and cities such as Geneva and London.

Effective January 7: New direct ski season services from Belgium and Luxembourg to the Tarentaise region in the French Alps and to resorts in both the Tyrol and the Salzburg regions of Austria.

You can review all the main 2011 rail schedules in each monthly edition of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable.  The December edition, which is already available, contains over 500 pages of the 2011 schedules.  The January edition (published next week) includes the full schedules (including late changes which were not available when the December issue went to press) and a useful fares supplement.  That comes as standard fare in each January edition of the timetable, and we find it especially useful as it gives indicative costs for journeys within most European countries as well as for international routes.

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In our 29 city guides, you’ll find more than 1,200 reviews of budget-friendly hotels, each one inspected and photographed by one of our editors. Some are listed simply because they’re cheap and clean. Others, however, boast something else. They might be blessed with an incredible locatieron. Or perhaps they have a surprising theme or impressive style.

These hotels offer travelers something unique and yet they still manage to be affordable. We believe they deserve a little special attention.

Choosing the “Cheapo 100”

Thus, this year we created the “Cheapo 100,” a ranking of our five favorite properties in 20 cities. In each city, we chose one winning hotel for the following five categories: “Super Cheapo,” Best Location, Most Unique, Best Budget Style, and Best B&B or Guesthouse.

Selecting the winning hotels was not easy and resulted in lively debate here at EuroCheapo headquarters. In certain circumstances, we had three or four great contenders for one award.

And then there was the question of preference. After all, how do you define the “best location” in a city like Paris? Is it facing Notre Dame (Hotel Esmeralda) or steps from the Place des Vosges (Hotel Jeanne d’Arc)? Oh, wait – what about next to the Eiffel Tower (Eber Mars)?

You might say we suffered an embarrassment of Cheapos. But fear not, all hotels will have another shot for next year’s awards.

Without further ado, EuroCheapo proudly presents the 2010 “Cheapo 100”:

Amsterdam

Hotel Museumzicht

The following hotels were selected from our Amsterdam guide:

Best Location
Hotel Museumzicht
Doubles: $70 – $149
When the museums are this close, you need not limit yourself to admiring them from your hotel windows.

Barcelona

Hostal Goya

The following hotels were selected from our Barcelona guide:

Super Cheapo
Hostal Centric
Doubles: $56 – $133
This hostal is simple and appeals to the young backpacker as much as it does the more conservative traveler.

Best Location
Hosteria Grau
Doubles: $84 – $125
Located at the intersection of two bustling pedestrian streets in the center of the city, the Grau is an island of tranquility surrounded by constant action.

Most Unique
Hotel Peninsular
Doubles: $78
This former monastery features an interesting web of twisting balconies, zigzagging stairwells, and full-on sensory stimulation.

Best Budget Style
Hostal Goya
Doubles: $107 – $125
All rooms at the Hostal Goya follow the same contemporary-meets-opulence style imperative.

Best B&B, Pension or Guesthouse
Hostal Fernando
Doubles: $72 – $90
An easy central location? Check! Roomy, clean space, and helpful staff? Check and check!

Berlin

Hotel-Pension Dittberner

The following hotels were selected from our Berlin guide:

Super Cheapo
Circus Hostels Weinbergsweg and Rosa-Luxemburgstrasse
Doubles: $51 – $63
If Mitte’s long-running Circus Hostel had a tagline, it would be: “budget-friendly and stylish aren’t strange bedfellows.”

Best Location
Hotel Taunus
Doubles: $90 – $118
Sitting pretty in the bulls-eye of Mitte, the Hotel Taunus offers surprise-free rooms that won’t break the bank.

Most Unique
Michelberger
Doubles: $90
“Kitschy-cool,” “flea market-chic,” and “gritty-glam” are the top contenders for describing this 2009 addition to the city’s design hotel scene.

Best Budget Style
ackselhaus & bluehome
$179 – $203
The ackselhaus and bluehome are exotic escapes in the heart of Berlin.

Best B&B, Pension or Guesthouse
Hotel-Pension Dittberner
Doubles: $116 – $159
The 21-room Pension Dittberner stands out from the pension crowd with its museum-like breakfast room, old-fashioned library and and art-filled rooms.

Next Page: Bruges, Brussels and Copenhagen

The post The Cheapo 100: Our favorite budget hotels in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Where to go, you ask? Well, read on, because we’ve got you covered with some Cheapo-friendly ways to soak up the sun in Helsinki.

Suomenlinna Fortress
Web site
Open year-round (last ferry leaves from Suomenlinna at 2 a.m.)

The Suomenlinna sea fortress, a popular tourist attraction year-round, is ideal for a summer outing. Once a military base used by first the Swedish and then the Russians, today the sea fortress is best known for its museums and its open-air theater. However, you don’t need to spend a euro to enjoy Suomenlinna’s expansive views of the Baltic.

Take a ferry or waterbus to reach the fortress and then wander around among the stony walkways and look out at the sea. Bring a picnic to enjoy outside or stop by one of the restaurants or cafés on the island.

Getting there: Take the Suomenlinna ferry (€3.80 for a 12-hour ticket) from Market Square or the J-Line waterbus near Esplanadi Park (€6.50 for a round-trip ticket).

Seurasaari Open-Air Museum
Nervanderinkatu 13
Hours: Varies throughout the year; see site for details
Admission: €6 (€ 5 reduced)
Web site

Seurasaari Island is a green, peaceful area located a few kilometers from the city center. The island’s main attraction is the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, which boasts 87 well-preserved Finnish cottages from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Among the museum’s highlights are a wooden church and a manor house from south-western Finland. A leisurely stroll past these rustic buildings, combined with the mild summer weather, is a perfect way to escape the urban environment for a few hours.

Midsummer celebration
Seurasaari Island and throughout Helsinki

Seurasaari is also known for the annual Midsummer bonfire held off its coast. Midsummer in Finland falls on the first Saturday after June 19 (for 2010, June 26). If you’re lucky enough to be in town on this date, make sure to head out to the island to take part in the celebration.

The Swimming Stadium
Hammarskjöldintie 1
Admission:€3.80
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. (pool open May 10-September 19)
Tram: 3B, 3T, 4, 7A, 7B, 8, 10
Web site

We love the indoor Yrjönkatu Swimming Hall for its 1920’s architecture and its authentically local vibe, but we think Helsinki’s outdoor pool, located on the north side of town near the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, is the perfect summertime option. The Swimming Stadium is part of a larger athletic complex, and it offers plenty of lanes for some leisurely laps.

Tell us

Have you been to any of these attractions? Tell us about your experience — or recommend another budget-friendly activity in Helsinki.

The post Helsinki: Cheapo-friendly summertime attractions appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

1. Public transportation between airport and city.

An in-airport rail—train or metro—is usually better than a bus link. Happily, there are many airports across Europe with rail stations underneath or adjacent to airports. London City, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Rome Fiumicino, among many others, deserve positive evaluation. Bus links are fine in theory, though nobody likes jockeying for tickets and playing finicky ticket vending machine roulette games. (Are you listening, Ciampino?)

2. Good, affordable restaurants.

Big international chain restaurants don’t add much value. An outpost of a good local restaurant is always preferable to a placeless chain restaurant. And while we’re it, prices wildly out of tune with the local cost index are alienating, and surely end up convincing many passengers not to purchase any meals at all. An airport pricing structure keyed to local pricing norms might very well translate into people actually spending more money on meals in airports.

3. Free wireless Internet.

Kastrup. Photo: Terry Wha

Not so hard to set up, increasingly anticipated by many travelers, and thankfully more and more common. If Chisinau International Airport can provide free wifi to its passengers, then every European airport should.

4. Time management tools.

An information feed at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport lets passengers arriving at the airport know how long security lines are going to take. This is invaluable, even if it runs the risk of overkill in a country as efficient as Denmark.

5. A distinctive sense of the local.

Lisbon and Helsinki both have little shops stocked with smart Portuguese and Finnish products, respectively. A shop selling local products fulfills an essential ambassadorial function. It offers departing passengers the opportunity to purchase last-minute gifts of local relevance. Any airport can install shops hawking traditional duty-free items. A smartly-managed airport will attempt to tie its identity to that of the surrounding city, country, or region.

6. Scale.

Small airports are often the most user-friendly, but scale is more important than size. Kilometers of corridors are institutional and annoying. Space should be filled up with restaurants, shops, and lounge spaces. Amsterdam’s Schiphol may be enormous, but it is well scaled, with an appropriate density of retail establishments and frequent postings notifying passengers of walking time between terminals.

What features did we miss?

Anything this list misses outright? Let me know what you value in an airport in the comments section.

The post Flights: Six essential features of good airports appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Ice skating at Railway Square

The Ice Park right outside Helsinki’s central train station is one of the city’s most popular skating venues. The rink is open from November to March, and it offers a variety of programs and performances in addition to open skating. (On Thursday evening, for instance, you can participate in an ice skating aerobics class!)

Admission costs €5, and skate rentals are another €5. The Ice Park also has a café serving warm drinks and pastries.

A swim and sauna at Yrjönkatu Swimming Hall

The Finnish love of saunas is by no means limited to the coldest months of the year, but winter is a perfect time to warm your bones in one. For an extra-special experience, take a trip to the city’s iconic Yrjönkatu Swimming Hall. The institution dates back to 1928, and it boasts both an impressive pool along with private and group saunas.

Men and women have separate hours, so make sure to check the schedule online. Once you’re in, go for a swim (bathing suit optional) and admire the striking Classical architecture. When you’re done with the water, head to the sauna and relax. You’ll find plenty of locals doing the same.

Admission costs €2.20, and a locker costs €4.40. The swimming hall is open year-round; check the website for hours.

Taking in the music scene

Helsinki is sprinkled with dozens of über-hip clubs where both indie and well-known musical acts play. After a day of swimming and skating, settle down with a drink and get ready to dance.

Located in the happening Kallio hood north of the city center, Kuudes Linja offers live (usually underground) music and DJ sets nightly. Most shows costs less than €10.

If you’re looking for a less trendy, more traditional scene, head to Rymy-Eetu, a Finnish-German restaurant with hearty fare, plentiful beer, and folksy live music. The restaurant sits on the bar-lined Errotajankatu in central Helsinki, and it offers a “two for the price of one” discount on main courses from 2-5 PM daily.

To find more music clubs and bars, visit the city’s nightlife listings page.

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