Where to Stay in Vantaa, Uusimaa

Science draws the crowds. Vantaa is best known for the Tiedekeskus Heureka, the hands-on science centre that brings visitors from across southern Finland and the wider Helsinki region to its halls in Uusimaa. History runs deep beneath the new city.

The medieval Pyhän Laurin kirkko stands as the old parish church of the once-rural district, the Vantaan kaupunginmuseo gathers the local past, and the Flamingo Spa with its water park draws families to this city just north of Helsinki.

Science and old stone share the city. The Tiedekeskus Heureka draws the crowds to its hands-on halls, while the medieval Pyhän Laurin kirkko stands as the old parish church near the river. Several smaller marks fill the districts.

The newer Tikkurilan kirkko and the older Hakunilan kirkko serve their own neighbourhoods, the Tikkurilan vanha asemarakennus keeps the railway past in southern Finland, and the Rikosmuseo and the Vantaan kaupunginmuseo hold collections across this city in Uusimaa.

Vantaa began as a country parish, not a city. Chartered far back, in 1428, it was for centuries the rural district that ringed Helsinki to the north, its life turning on the river, the farms, and the medieval Pyhän Laurin kirkko that served the scattered parish of southern Finland. Villages grew slowly.

Old district names lived on in Finnish and Swedish alike as the settlements spread across the woods and fields of Uusimaa, and the railway brought the first real change when it cut through and raised the station that survives as the Tikkurilan vanha asemarakennus. Then the capital's growth reshaped everything. As Helsinki spilled outward the old country parish filled with houses and industry and became a city in its own right, gaining new churches such as the Hakunilan kirkko and later the Tikkurilan kirkko.

Culture followed the people. The Tiedekeskus Heureka rose as a science centre by the rail hub, the Vantaan kaupunginmuseo took up the local story, and the genteel villa of Paviljonki II kept a memory of the older grounds in this fast-grown city of Uusimaa.

Vantaa lies in southern Finland, in Uusimaa just north of Helsinki. A river runs through the low, settled land, and the city wraps the capital's northern edge in a broad ring of districts rather than a single core. Tikkurila holds the heart.

The neighbourhood around the Tikkurilan kirkko and the rail line gathers much of the city, while the older Pyhän Laurin kirkko marks the river parish to the west, and the suburbs spread out across this corner of Uusimaa toward Helsinki.

Southern coastal weather rules the year. Vantaa lies in southern Finland near the head of the Gulf of Finland, so its winters are cold and snowy and its summers mild and fairly long for this corner of Uusimaa. Snow settles for months.

The dark season covers the grounds around the Pyhän Laurin kirkko and the river before the thaw, when the long light of summer brings crowds back to the Tiedekeskus Heureka and the parks of this city near Helsinki.

Vantaa is easy to reach. The city sits on the rail and road lines that fan north out of Helsinki across Uusimaa, and the trains drop visitors at Tikkurila beside the old Tikkurilan vanha asemarakennus and a short walk from the Tiedekeskus Heureka. Buses fill in the rest.

They link the districts of southern Finland to the capital and carry travellers out to the Flamingo Spa and the spread-out neighbourhoods of this city north of Helsinki.