Lonely Planet Finland (Country Guide)

 (12 customer reviews)

Having moved to Helsinki last August and traveled around a bit, I've used the 5th edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Finland for several months now, mainly in the south of the country. I found the guide useful, but certain aspects of it invite comment.

LONELY PLANET FINLAND does cover all of the standard sightseeing objectives in the country, including museums and natural areas outside of the largest cities. And while maps are often problematic in Lonely Planet guides, I found no errors at all in this one. The activities recommended in cities like Helsinki are spot-on, free of kitsch routes and putting travelers in good contact with the locals. The author clearly thinks that most people will be in the south of Finland in the summer, since visiting places like Suomenlinna wouldn't be all that interesting in the cold and dark time of the year, but this I suppose is a reasonable assumption. And since the guide was written by a single person, Andy Symington, it is more...Read more

The 2009 edition is great (note Amazon has lumped together the 2009 guide with reviews and ratings of older versions as well). Guides change dramatically in quality over time so I don't understand why they do this, but rest assured the 2009 edition (one with reindeer pulling a guy pretending to be an airplane on the cover) is very, very good. It extensively covers pretty much everywhere you're going to want to travel to in Finland, with, maps of tourist areas of cities and towns, info on what to see there, how to get there and places to stay (not comprehensive if you're backpacking you'll still want to check out the websites of Hostelling International, BUG and Hostelworld to find all the hostels and read reviews, book them and so on). Pretty much everywhere from the remote north to the south is in here.

However if the only destination in Finland you have time to visit is Helsinki, you would be better off buying...Read more

When I took a 4-day trip to Finland I brought this and Insight Guide Finland (Insight Guides). Once in the country, I mainly relied on this book to make last-minute travel decisions and such, and the information I used turned out to be quite accurate. For the most part I was satisfied with it, but it is certainly not an all-in-one travel guide. There are very few pictures, and very little attempt is made to describe the country; entries are rather encyclopedic in style, like many of the other Lonely Planet guides. It works well for practical information, but I would not recommend relying entirely on this guide for planning a visit to Finland.