As a matter of fact, a lot of the "usual tourist stuff" are to be avoided. For example, the interiors of churches are boring (protestant temple => no big piece of art, no gold statue, no marble floor), the museums are often small and empty (Finland has not stolen pieces of art from other countries, and its artists didn't have mecenas in the old-times), the senate-square is boring, the souvenir-shops around esplanadi are very expensive, etc.
There are still some usual touristic-stuff that can be interesting (Suomenlinna, Seurasaari, Kiasma museum, National Museum, Uspenski...) but it's highly likely to disappoint your guests if it's not their taste. Also, the office of tourism offer a leaflet indicating interesting walks to do in Helsinki.
I think that you have to leave the tourist-paths to offer good time to your guests.
- If you think they want to unwind, as Pierrot said, Helsinki (and Finland) is great for that. So you say to your guest: hey, there is nothing really great to see here, but you can have a great relaxing time, without advertisements in the streets, without people shouting in the street, without aggressive car-drivers, without sellers trying to force you to buy something, without anyone bothering you when you sit in front of the sea, you can walk in any street and by the sea whenever you want without worry, you can have a walk in the parks by night without risk of being assaulted, etc.
- If you think your guests would appreciate arts or architecture, you can show the good buildings of Katajanokka, visit Seurasaari, visit Kiasma, the design-museum, etc. There are also first-class orchestras of classical-music here, for reasonable-price tickets.
- If your guests want to party, a good thing of Helsinki is that many good places are free to get-in, the choice is quite broad if you are familiar with it, and places are not far one of each other. It's perfect for going from one place to another during an evening, and that can't be boring, wether you visit StoryVille-Urki(after opera/symphonia gig)/Botta or Punavuori or Vaasankatu, etc. However, it's difficult not to make mistake there, such as going to Lost and Found before 10PM (empty !), heading to a Kallio-club at 1PM (soon closing), expecting Botta to rock'n'roll (it's a bit old-style place), expecting the finn-swedes at Kalle on a Thursday-evening to behave more civilized than Finnish, going anywhere in Kallio on the belief that there should be good bars everywhere (it isn't the case... some streets of Kallio are long and dead).
- If your guests want to enjoy eating, there are a few places worth visiting (Kuu, Saslik,..), and the indian-nepalese are good. Try http://www.eat.fi .
- If your guests want to go shopping, there are the expensive-shops around esplanadi and Aleksanterinkatu, the antic-shops a bit everywhere (Kallio, Kruununhaka, Punavuori...), the 2nd hands shop. Uff, and the others various 2nd hand-shops look like nothing from outside for strangers, but they can have jewels for very cheap, very good finnish souvenirs for unbeattable prices; and I saw once the singer of the Cardigans shopping for clothes at Uff
The Valtteri flea market in Kallio (on Saturday and Sunday mornings, especially) and the top-floor of the Hakaniemen market hall are also great.- If your guests have a bit of youth or romance in them, you can suggest Linnanmäki (from 1st of May to end of September). In many countries, fun-fairs are awful places, crowded, noisy, worrying about pickpockets... But the one of Helsinki is just nice.
- If your guests want something to think, point them out the 1-million-things that are so special in Finland : the lack of advertisings in the streets, the silence in the streets or in the transportation, the lack of really tall buildings (the sun is often low, tall buildings would make too much shadow !), the position of the sun in the sky (at noon, it's more south than high, and at midnight in summer, it's low in the north), the apparent easyness of the traffic (no horns, no sudden breaks), the way people are together in the streets or in the public places (long silences often, it looks that the 2 people of a couple don't care sometimes of the other one in the couple), the way some extravagant in the street is totally ignored, the possibility to buy something in a shop without saying any word, the apparent "wildeness" of some areas in the city-center (no building by the beaches, big parks), the way that everything is in order (no one eats while walking in the street, no dog-!"#¤% in the streets, parks for dogs, no building that is in bad condition, lines for bikes), etc.
- and if nothing works for your guests, send them to Tallinn, to Stockholm or to a mökki !
/Paul
½
