Vantaa Audio Tours

Most travelers pass through Vantaa without knowing it -- Helsinki-Vantaa Airport sits entirely within city limits, making it the arrival point for virtually every international visitor to Finland. But Vantaa is more than a transit hub. The city holds a medieval stone church, Vantaa Church (Pyhän Laurin kirkko), built in the late 15th century and still standing with its original vaulted ceiling frescoes, an extraordinarily well-preserved relic in a country that otherwise has little medieval architecture above ground.

The Heureka science center in the Tikkurila district is one of the best children's science museums in Scandinavia, and the Finnish Aviation Museum at the airport traces the history of Finnish flight from the early 20th century to contemporary military jets.

The Vantaa River, which gives the city half its name (the other half comes from the old Swedish 'Vanda'), runs through the northern reaches and offers easy cycling routes through forests that feel genuinely wild despite being a 20-minute metro ride from central Helsinki.