Visit Helsinki: Central Park
In commercial collaboration with Helsinki Partners
Of all the things I love about Helsinki it is the perfect juxtaposition of city life and nature which appeals to us the most. As a family we love visiting capital cities across Europe but often we find our stays to be fast-paced, jam-packed, stifling at times with the noise of the traffic, the swarms of people, the general sense of urgency as locals go about their day. Here in Helsinki even the busiest of streets still leave you feeling as though you have all the time in the world, the most popular tourist attractions still allow you the time to enjoy them at your leisure. And just a stones throw away from urban life, starting near the city centre in Laakso and ending at the city’s northern border in Haltiala, you will find Central Park spanning 10km and providing locals and visitors with the most incredible sanctuary to connect with nature.
Unsurprisingly, Central Park is a popular destination within the city attracting hikers, cyclists, tour groups and nature-lovers and yet during the morning we first spent exploring, we didn’t cross paths with a single other person. The landscape within Central Park differs from one area to the next with spruce-rich forests, herb-rich groves, grasslands, meadows and rocky crags dating back to the Ice Age. For those wanting to immerse themselves in Finnish nature, Central Park is the perfect way to do just that.
We strongly recommend visiting Central Park with a tour guide during your first visit to familiarise yourself with the many routes and trails for all abilities. We were lucky to reunite with The Happy Guide from our previous visit who is bursting with knowledge on the history of Central Park, the many different trees and plants growing there and, most interestingly for the children, the berries, herbs and mushrooms which can be foraged.
We soon learned that Finland has what they call “everyman’s right” where everyone has the right to go foraging anywhere at all, excluding family yards and protected nature reserves. Central Park is a great spot to forage for berries and even in October, with the help of our guide, we managed to find an expanse of blueberries which the children picked and ate fresh right there in the forest. I love the idea of families spending their weekends foraging here in Central Park, I think it’s a perfect example of how Finnish people not only embrace nature at every opportunity but they strive to live a more sustainable lifestyle and lead by example to their children,
Central Park is rich in history and we loved learning more about this as we walked. We learned about the construction of the Ruskeasuo Equestrian Hall, also called the Olympic Manège, in the late 1930s, when Finland was chosen as the host of the 1940 Summer Olympics. It was only in 1952 when the games were finally held in Helsinki that the horses taking part in the Olympics finally arrived at the stables. Nowadays the stables next to the equestrian hall house Finland’s oldest horse riding school, Keskustalli, as well as Helsinki’s only police horses. Of course, the children were delighted to see the horses as we emerged from the depths of the forest and the horses were equally delighted to see us too!
It’s difficult to believe that you can reach Central Park from the city centre in just 15 minutes on foot, beginning at Töölönlahti Bay and continuing to Vantaa and Espoo. When you’re in there, fully immersed within the forest, it feels as though you are literally miles from civilisation and as the fresh air fills your lungs you would never imagine you were right in the middle of a capital city. I guess that’s the thing you soon learn about Helsinki as a whole, to disassociate everything you think you know about European capital cities you may have visited in the path and see Helsinki as a single entity, unlike any other, which will capture your heart just as fast as it captured ours.
