Helsinki leaves other places green with envy
Helsinki offers a very high standard of living and welfare. According to most quality of life indicators, Finland and Helsinki are amongst the best places in the world to live. It is a green city both in terms of its natural public spaces as well as our attitude toward the environment. Finnish society is also very stable, allowing our people ans businesses the opportunity to flourish and bloom.
According to official UN figures, Finland is ranked as the 11th best country in the world in which to live and Helsinki epitomises everything that is good about Finland. Open, green spaces abound throughout the city and its environs. An efficient public transport system makes travelling around the city easy.
Finns care about their environment and the extensive recycling systems in place here help minimise litter and other negative environmental effects. Family is respected and for people with children there are many playgrounds and other activities available Furthermore, as the city is on the sea, it is the easiest thing to go and explore Finland's amazing archipelago and maritime history right from the harbour.
The simple fact is that Helsinki has some of the cleanest, most unspoilt nature in the world and one of the safest environments you could imagine. Certainly, compared with other world metropolises, Helsinki has much to offer people looking for a higher standard of life.
Get healthy in Helsinki
Finland is an extremely healthy country, spending 7.4 per cent of its GDP on health care. Essentially, Finns enjoy being healthy and by and large their needs are provided for.
In Helsinki, for example, there are: 14 indoor swimming pools and two outdoor pools, which are not surprisingly closed in the winter; a mind-boggling 490 km (over 300 miles) of outdoor recreation trails often populated by couples in matching tracksuits performing the strange ritual that is Nordic walking; two large open spaces a large park right at the southern tip of the city (Kaivopuisto), and a bay just to the north of the centre containing the National Opera (Tlnlahti); and an island called Seurasaari with an outstanding open-air museum containing 87 buildings which are up to 400 years old.
Seurasaari is also where crazy people gather to go ice swimming in the winter, or at least try to persuade foreign visitors to do it in order to experience true Finnishness. Having said that, there are plenty of 90-year olds in Finland who swear by ice-swimming as an elixir of life, so perhaps theres no harm in trying it.
If even that sounds a bit too urban, you can get your fitness and nature fix at the same time in the Nuuksio national park, untouched wilderness thirty minutes from downtown Helsinki. Here, thanks to the Finnish everymans law, you can camp away to your hearts desire, ski, hike, pick mushrooms and berries and enjoy some peace and quiet. But even in the centre of the city it rarely feels suffocating. A distinct lack of skyscrapers and many smaller parks and squares hidden away throughout the centre make Helsinki a healthy place to explore.