Have you ever been on a trip and been stranded in an airport for hours between connections? There’s only so much over priced airport coffee you can drink and browsing duty-free becomes a real bore after a while!
Stopovers are a growing trend in travel with companies enabling you to make the most of your time in an ‘in-between’ country before heading on to your final destination. Whether it’s a few hours or a few days, if you’re flying through Helsinki, Stopover Finland have got a wealth of tours and activities for you to do to explore this beautiful city as part of your trip!
Being a big foodie I chose one of their food stopover days with a cooking class and food walking tour! We met our guide at the rail station around 9:30am and took a walk to our cooking class at the Helsinki Culinary Institute where we were greeted by the chef and sous chef ready to make our own lunch!
On the menu today was Reindeer Carpaccio followed by Pan Friend White Fish and home made crisp breads – best get cracking then! We put on our aprons and get split into groups to break down the cooking and work together to make the two courses.
With our written instructions and help on hand from the chefs we worked in our pairs and had so much fun making all the different components for the food. Once we’d finished we were ready to plate up and enjoy the fruits (or fish!) of our labour!
After a delicious lunch we set off on our walking tour with the recipes firmly placed in our bags to re-create at home. Our guide took us round a number of spots such as an old bakery to sample traditional Finnish cakes and a food market for cheese, meats and fish from the region, it was really interesting!
We finished off at Kulma for a Finnish coffee tasting which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a lovely way to round off our trip and to wake us up again after all that food!
For those of you looking to stay the night on your stopover I must recommend Lila Roberts hotel as a stylish and comfortable place to stay. It’s very close the the rail station (just 5 minutes walk) with quiet rooms for a great night’s sleep.
With luxury rooms, incredible food and even better cocktails Lila Roberts is right up my street for a city break away. The beds are so comfortable, the shower is to die for and everything has been thought of to make your time in the hotel as luxurious as possible including White Company products and GHD hairdryers. Highly recommended and I’d certainly stay here again when next visiting Helsinki.
There are so many different options for your Helsinki stopover so what are you waiting for?! Don’t skip past those split flights again, you never know what you’ll discover!
xax