Helsinki City Museum

The basics

With its singular focus on everything Helsinki, the Helsinki City Museum is regularly pointed out on sightseeing tours of the city, particularly hop-on hop-off bus tours. Exhibitions at the museum include the Helsinki Bites exhibition, which looks at the city’s history through familiar everyday items; the Time Machine, which brings to life centuries-old photographs; and Children’s Town, where everything is interactive and ready to be played with. The Helsinki City Museum manages four other museums around the city: the Hakasalmi Villa, the Burgher’s House Museum, the Worker Housing Museum, and the Tram Museum.

Things to know before you go

• Admission to the museum and its exhibitions is free of charge.

• Guided museum tours—in Finnish, Swedish, and English—can be booked for a fee, either within or outside regular opening hours.

• Each level of the museum is accessible via an elevator, and the building has a barrier-free entrance at Aleksanterinkatu 16.

• Amenities the museum offers include lockers, a cafe, and meeting spaces.

How to get there

Thanks to its location just off Senate Square, the Helsinki City Museum is easy to reach on foot when sightseeing in the city center. Travelers can get to the museum by tram at the Ritarihuone stop for the 4 and 5 trams, the Senaatintori stop for the 2 trams, or the Hallituskatu stop for the 7 trams.

When to get there

To visit the museum at its quietest, aim to go on a weekday, either right as the museum opens or in the evening before it closes. This lets you skip the local crowds on weekends and the build-up of visitors during the afternoon. It’s always best to check the museum’s events calendar to see if there are any special events taking place that you’d want to time your visit for.

The Helsinki Tram Museum

One of the four museums under the management of the Helsinki City Museum is the Helsinki Tram Museum. Housed within a tram depot in the neighborhood of Töölö, this museum showcases the city’s long-standing tram network. Visitors can see historic tram cars, including horse-drawn cars from the 19th century, and even see what driving a tram around the city would feel like in the museum’s new tram simulator.