Inside Helsinki: Is Finland the Happiest Country in the World?

Подписаться 2,6 тыс.

Просмотров 9 тыс.

50% 1

Big & Small travel from sunny Los Angeles, California, to the decidedly chillier Nordic destination of Helsinki, Finland-Europe’s second northernmost capital city. We packed in a lot during our stay-here are the highlights:
*We stayed in central Helsinki at the Scandic Helsinki Hub, where we load up on the savory Karelian pie with egg butter and other Finnish specialties, before exploring the city’s various Baltic-nestling corners, including a few of its 300+ islands.
*Yes, island-hopping is a must when visiting this Nordic capital, with the UNESCO Heritage Site of Suomenlinna at the top of most tourists’ list. We added a trip to the tiny island of Lonna for dinner and a sauna-of course.
*We also sat down with Helsinki local Elisabeth, who shares some fascinating insight on Finnish history and culture (and tells us exactly how to say “sauna”). We then join Karri from Happy Guide Helsinki on a bike tour along the water and through Central Park, where we do as the Finnish do-forage for berries.
*Also: We eat reindeer, see Arctic icebreakers, learn about Finnish-designed favorites like Fiskars scissors and Angry Birds, and chat with a few locals to get their thoughts on whether life in “the happiest country in the world” is really so … happy.
*Want to do as we do? Start with a Go Helsinki Card and let us know if you have any questions about what we saw and did in Helsinki.
*What did we miss? Let us know in the comments!
HOTEL: Scandic Helsinki Hub: www.scandichot...
BIKE TOUR: www.happyguide...
GO HELSINKI CARD: gocity.com/hel...
LONNA RESTAURANT & SAUNA: www.lonna.fi/en/
Music by J. Arbor in this video: / jsuite unless otherwise noted or copyright. Please contact for any questions about the music in this video.

Опубликовано:

13 сен 2024

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 93

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Latest Video in North Finland: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3nTADhoIWIo.html

@julian65886 Год назад

Hey, this is Maria.....Love this video...library amazing, with all the commodities... Also Elizabeth's insight is great!! (love her makeup)

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thank you! Yes, Helsinki had some cool stuff like the library.

@julian65886 Год назад

This one was very informative and entertaining!

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks! Always aiming to inform. Entertaining? That is great to hear.

@19320000000000 Год назад

Great great video guys I mean if I wasn’t so afraid to fly I’d be out on the next flight. Awesome video very educational and I am now in love with the Finnish lifestyle.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thank you very much. Your comment is wonderful. We really hope you could see how much we enjoyed Helsinki and its people as well. And yes, the Finnish lifestyle is unique. We are so glad you could feel what we experienced through video as this is our aim. Lastly, I hope you can fly to see this place, but of course be well and good luck to you. Where are you from?

@19320000000000 Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel I am from Detroit here in the United States. I enjoy traveling around America when I have a chance but I just haven’t built up enough nerve to go abroad by plane.

@RachaelMartin Год назад

Great video! Very informative for planning a trip! :)

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks again! Glad this helped. This makes us VERY happy to hear. Happy travels.

@rainertuominen4242 Год назад

Respect! This is the most updated and insightful travel vlog about Helsinki. Impressed that you were able to get any sauna video capture, a technical challenge.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thank you very much for the kind words. This means a lot. Where are you from? The sauna footage took some time but we made it work because the "Sauna" is a wonderful part of Finland.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

If you can, please take the time to watch our recent video in North Finland in the Arctic Circle: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3nTADhoIWIo.html

@ryandietzjr.5756 Год назад

Nice, thanks. But, Reikäleipä or varrasleipä is a flat, hard, round, rye bread that has a hole in the middle of it. This is what you ate as it is a nutrious and long-lasting bread.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks, we really enjoyed the bread in Finland. The bread was certainly very dense but always delicious and hard to resist. Are you based in Finland?

@defenseball9604 Год назад

Finland! Entertaining, but why no more reindeer footage at 13:35. Enjoyed this .... Thanks!

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Soon enough. We will release our North Finland video so you will see much more reindeer footage. Thanks for watching!

@GreatCityAttractions 9 месяцев назад

Nice work Big Small Travel.

@BigSmallTravel 9 месяцев назад

Thank you! Finland was nice to visit.

@holoholopainen1627 4 месяца назад

Nice Video ! Really nice that you made it to SVEABORG ( Swedish Town ) to VIAPORI ( Russian name ) to SUOMENLINNA ! As Linna is a town - like TALLINN - DUBLIN - BERLIN - thanks to that this was all new to Finland !

@BigSmallTravel 4 месяца назад

Yes, thank you for noting that in the video around 7:07 The Swedish influence around Europe is often overlooked and not discussed enough. Also, the influence later on from Russia and so forth. Where are you from> Thanks for watching.

@julian65886 Год назад

Great one guy!!!!!

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Gracias!!

@oh2mp Год назад

Nice video. As a Finn I like to watch this kind of videos to see my home country from a different point of view. Tourists often pay attention to other things than us and notice details that we don't. We have an inside joke with my friends that a sauna with an electric heater is a sauna simulator and real saunas are heated with firewood :) There are several theories about the etymology of cheers word "kippis". One is that sailors have said "keep peace" when drinking but the most probable explanation is that it has come from German Hanseatic League merchants who have been drinking in bars in Finland several hundred years ago and shouted in German "kipp es" meaning literally "tilt it".

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks for watching. We are very happy to see you liked to watch these kind of videos. We wanted to show as much as what we really were fascinated about Helsinki and Finland.Helsinki and Finland are especially of interest for Americans now.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Where are you from?

@oh2mp Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel I live in Espoo which is the western neigboring municipality of Helsinki and a part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. Half hour drive from Helsinki center.

@oh2mp Год назад

Actually this is the second biggest municipality by population. Helsinki proper has about 660k inhabitants and Espoo 300k. The northern neighbor of Helsinki is Vantaa and there live about 240k people, so the metropolitan area is about 1.2 million total. It's over 20% of the whole country.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

@@oh2mp We did not visit Espoo. However, we took a ride share from the airport to the hotel and our driver was from Espoo. He was very helpful and very informative about Helsinki and Finland in general. Interestingly enough, when we took taxis in Helsinki most all of them were from places like Nigeria. We were surprised to see how diverse Helsinki is overall.

@stego2012 Год назад

I have an old pair of Fiskar scissors. Its been in my possession for ages. I have it my toolbox and I use the heck out if it for cutting through chunkier stuff and sheet metal. That pair could be decades old. I figure they perform a series of heating and cooling treatments to toughen the metal.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Very surprised that Finland has one of the oldest companies in the western world. Fiskars is high quality for sure. I did not know that Fiskars has stuff to cut through sheet metal! Are you using Fiskars for construction projects?

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

We are wine people, but the sour beer of Finland made us believers in drinking some beer from time to time as you can see at 8:29 in the video.

@stego2012 Год назад

I was using the scissors which are small hand held that we use for cutting paper and hair. I was using that pair last week to cut through that corrugated roofing metal for projects at the Corn Maze festival that I work for.

@stego2012 Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel I have aquired a taste for mojitos thanks to somebody we both know. And Michelob Ultra which won't leave you feeling sluggish.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

@@stego2012 Fiskars make high quality stuff for sure. What is the Corn Maze festival?

@finnishculturalchannel Год назад

English words would be long too, if they would be compound words. Compoundword is longer that yhdyssana. The happiness report states only that the overall theoretical conditions in Finland for citizens in all to live content lives are better than in other countries. I thank you you and leave you with a song: Leningrad Cowboys - Happy Being Miserable.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thank you for watching! Are you based in Helsinki?

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Great comment. And, the happiness report makes sense as the conditions for a high quality of life are optimal in Finland.

@finnishculturalchannel Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel Those are familiar places you visited. Maybe not the spot you picked them super-duper blueberries from, but otherwise yes. There are social issues in Finland also and a fluctuating political interest to effect then. E.g. last night was the Homeless Night, which is an annually held event to raise awareness toward homelessness. If you are interested, there's a video about the Finnish social development during the past hundred years viewed thought the children's welfare: "Lasten Suomi sata vuotta". To that NATO question you raised I'd say, that Finland started to integrate more actively into NATO after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. The first official interaction between Finland and NATO started in 1994 as Partnership for Peace. Then came the EAPC in 1997 and EOP in 2014. The fighter planes used by the Finnish air force are good indicators of where Finland has been leaning and been able to lean towards in different eras. Finland made the deal for 64 F/A-18 Hornets in 1992. Hornets replaced the Soviet MIGs and Swedish Dragens. Hornets weren't on the list of possible planes considered before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

@@finnishculturalchannel We are in the Baltic part of Europe and the attitude is much different compared to Finland. We were very surprised at how direct and candid many Finnish people were on sensitive topics going on today.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Leningrad Cowboys - Happy Being Miserable. Is this a song?

@Smithsgold Год назад

well done !!!!!!!!!

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks! Helsinki was made fun because of all the people we met.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Is it still hot where you are?

@Smithsgold Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel 85-90 tips this week and next but it cools off nice in the evening

@shahidanusrat6086 Год назад

As a Pakistani I fully support love and respect Finland and it's beautiful people from Pakistan 🙂. Please visit Pakistan 🙂.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thank you very much for watching. Finland is a peaceful place to visit and Helsinki is a calm capital. Have you been to Finland or anywhere in the Nordics?

@stefandee1970 17 дней назад

Going there next week...

@BigSmallTravel 14 дней назад

Wonderful! We enjoyed the Finnish people and coffee in Finland. However, as an Italian, you may not be impressed with the coffee 😮

@stefandee1970 14 дней назад

@@BigSmallTravel in riga now, waiting 4 conection to 🇫🇮

@BigSmallTravel 13 дней назад

@@stefandee1970 Riga is ok, but we preferred Tallinn. What do you prefer? Here is our video in Riga: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7dDaVJ4Hj4s.html

@stefandee1970 13 дней назад

@@BigSmallTravel riga is way better for me. Im found city spirit + arhitecture. Tallinn, outside old town didnt impress me. In Baltics, my ❤️ is in vilnius.

@BigSmallTravel 13 дней назад

@@stefandee1970 Yes, architecture in Riga is very nice indeed. We will make a Vilnius video soon.

@Peter-oh3pm Год назад

How to pronounce Helsinki. In Finnish, the accent is always on the first syllable. Pronunciation Guide: Finnish Cities - RU-vid

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks! Nobody informed us of that. We will do a video in Lapland by the middle of December. Any pronunciation recommendations?

@HoseTheBeast Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel Lappi with heavy emphasis on the double P. And the A in finnish is pronounced the same way as it is pronounced in Latin languages. Americans understand it quickly with how you say the ”Las” in Las Vegas

@HoseTheBeast Год назад

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

@@HoseTheBeast Thank you for the language advice. Are you speaking Finnish? What is Lappi? We are a little confused. English has Latin influences, thanks to the Romans of course who are in present day Italy, but there is also Germanic influence.

@HoseTheBeast Год назад

Lappi is Lapland in finnish! The english word Lapland comes from the swedish ”Lappland” which like the finnish Lappi is also a province.

@Gibbetoo Год назад

Finland gained independence December 6 1917. or that is the date.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thanks! The history of Finland was very interesting for us. Are you in Helsinki?

@Gibbetoo Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel few hundred kilometers north.

@stickasockinit Год назад

What is not to like, Helsinki!

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Yes, it was enjoyable being in Helsinki. We stayed in Helsinki for about 5-6 days. What surprised us was how good the sour beer and food were as you can see in the video at 8:29

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Are you visiting Helsinki?

@stickasockinit Год назад

We are home now from Helsinki and Estonia. Finland is what America should be striving to be like. No homeless, downtown is all "we are open", lastly the Malls are 100% occupied with stores. A great city and country to behold.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Yes, we agree very much. Finland was a great example of a peaceful and content society. We really enjoyed as well North Finland. Did you visit the northern part of Finland?@@stickasockinit

@stickasockinit Год назад

Yes we rode the rails to see Santa. Santa Clause seemed a bit greedy asking for $ to visit. The park is free so I do understand the charge. Rented the cabin top notch, a great rental. Rain and wind ruined the experience a bit. The arctic circle was fun to cross the line, in and out. The train was a sleeper arriving and day trip coach seating on departure. Also Estonia by ferry is a fantastic side trip.

@Peter-oh3pm Год назад

I don’t understand why many foreigners pronounce “Helsinki” with strong emphasis on the end of the name? It is wrong. The first syllable of all Finnish names is always emphasized. As you pronounce “London”. In the same way!

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Of course, I see your point, but in English they usually stress the first syllable of most nouns ike city names.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Have you been to Tallinn, Estonia here is our new video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SL38cLHoPcg.html

@holoholopainen1627 4 месяца назад

Languages as alphabet are different in every language ! Cant blame the VISITORS !

@afsanehrahmani9703 Год назад

Thanks

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

You're welcome! Are you in Helsinki? Or will you visit Finland?

@afsanehrahmani9703 Год назад

I'm in lran.persian

@afsanehrahmani9703 Год назад

🌹🌹🌹

@afsanehrahmani9703 Год назад

🌹🌹🌹

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

@@afsanehrahmani9703 Wow! Are you in Iran? I hope everything is well. Or are you in Estonia?

@Cikeb Год назад

The church was not a tribute to the czar, but it was named The Nicholas church after Nicholas I and Saint Nicholas, until 1917, when Finland became independent. The grandness of the church and the area in front of it was because it was a regional capital within the Russian empire back then and needed to look the part. Maybe you should have mentioned why there's a statue of emperor Alexander II in front of the church, when you talked about the "independence spirit". Alexander II was the only Russian ruler that actually respected the autonomy of Finland, and that's why there is a statue of him right there. The same can't be said about the other emperors, and you won't find a statue of any other Russian emperor in Helsinki. Concerning Suomenlinna and the renaming bit. That's half true. The name in Swedish remains Sveaborg, which basically means Fortress of Svea or Sweden. The former name in Finnish was Viapori, which was derived from Sveaborg. The Finnish and Swedish name are both used. Today they're just names.

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

Thank you for watching. Also, thank you for all of the information regarding the history and details. We really enjoyed meeting and getting to know some Finns on this very short trip. Are you from Finland?

@BigSmallTravel Год назад

We are very happy that Finland has remained strong and independent despite the border tension potential from Russia.

@Cikeb Год назад

@@BigSmallTravel I am. I live in Helsinki and I'm also a bit of a history buff. Great that you made time to visit this part of the world. Helsinki has received a lot of attention lately. A lot more than before. Great for a place that is on the same latitude as Anchorage in Alaska.

@deveshyadav363 Год назад

If i baught a iphone 14 from finland helsinki and i don't have a credit or debit card i baught the phone from my friends card. who lives in finland, so i can get tax refund???