Uusimaa, Republic of Finland — Towns & Travel Guide

Uusimaa is known for Helsinki and the coast. The region runs along the southern shore of Finland, a low coast broken by hundreds of islands and backed by big lakes and inland countryside, with the capital Helsinki set at its centre. It is the most populous region of the land.

People know Uusimaa for its capital, its archipelago, and the spread of towns that ring the metropolitan area along the southern coast.

Uusimaa lies along the southern coast of Finland, a region of shore, island, and inland water. Hundreds of islands string out along its edge, and behind them the land rises into big lakes and rolling countryside, a mix of rock, forest, and farm that runs from the open sea up into the interior where the towns thin out toward the borders. Helsinki sits at the centre.

The capital and its metropolitan area fill the middle of the coast. The region borders several others. Southwest Finland lies to the west, Kanta-Häme and Päijät-Häme to the north, and Kymenlaakso to the east, so Uusimaa forms the southern coastal face of the land between them.

The sea defines its edge. Islands and lakes fill the country behind.

Uusimaa carries the cultural weight of the capital. Helsinki draws the institutions, the stages, and the people of southern Finland, and the metropolitan area around it sets the pace for much of the region's life in music, design, and the arts. The coast shapes the rest.

Boats, summer cottages, and island days mark the warm months along the southern shore. Beyond the capital the region keeps an older coastal and rural identity, with villages along the archipelago, farmland inland, and a long history of trade and traffic across the southern sea. The towns ring the metropolitan core.

Festivals, harbour markets, and lakeside gatherings fill the summers, and the islands draw people out to the water as they long have through the bright season of the year.

Uusimaa grew along the southern shore. Trade and settlement spread early across the coast and islands of the land, and Helsinki rose on the shore to become the capital and largest city of Finland. The metropolitan area followed.

The present maakunta of Uusimaa was drawn in 1994, binding the coastal country of southern Finland and the towns around Helsinki into one administrative whole that reaches from Southwest Finland in the west to Kymenlaakso in the east.

Uusimaa keeps the mildest winters in Finland by the standards of the country. The sea tempers the cold along the southern coast, though snow still settles for months and the inner bays freeze over through the dark season. Summers turn warm and long-lit.

The bright days draw boats out across the archipelago, and the coast around Helsinki fills with people through the green height of the year.

Uusimaa is reached through Helsinki. The capital is the main gateway of southern Finland, with the country's busiest airport, ferry links across the southern sea, and the rail and road lines that fan out from the metropolitan area. The coast is easy to reach.

Roads and trains run west toward Southwest Finland and east toward Kymenlaakso along the shore of the region.