Shopping

Glamour Mercado

Tokyo22

Helsinki is a good place to shop. In the center of Helsinki is a shopping center, Forum, which is mostly full of popular youth's clothing shops like Backstreet, Lindex, H&M, Seppälä, KappAhl, O.N.L.Y, and many, many more. Forum includes a few restaurants and then places like Mc Donalds, Arnolds, and some Finnish companys like Hesburger, Café Picnic and pizzerias. Also for older people is shops too like Marimekko, Idea, Pierre Cavallo, Tiimari, Sokos (like local Sears/Macy's) and few shops more where I haven't had time to visit.

Near Forum is also a new shopping center Kamppi just next to bus terminal (like Mango, Ecco, Bianco footwear, Indiska etc. and many youth fashion shops. Also shops for mothers & children, even a bowling hall upstairs. Best sushi in downstairs Ichiban).

Close to Forum is Stockmann's (like Macy´s/Saks Fifth Avenue). In Stockmann there is all kinds of stuff; clothes, shoes, make-up, cosmetics and many more. Stockmann also includes a restaurant.

Close from Stockmann and Forum is the Central Railway Station which is a beautiful building. I can recommend some restaurants: Café Picnic is really good when you want to eat a sandwhich, have a coffee, etc. and pizzerias downtown are really good. When you are in Helsinki longer I would say it would be cheaper to buy some food from food stores like S-Market, K-Market, Alepa, Stockmann Delicates, Siwa etc. But I don't recommend food stores that are ran by foreigners, because the food is coming from places like Burundi, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Kenya so the quality isn't so good. Food that has the Swan-mark on it is 100% finnish, so it's good quality.

Also Itäkeskus is huge (biggest shopping center in the Nordic Countries) and a good place to shop. In Itäkeskus there are many shops like Tarjoustalo (cheap) Euron Ihme (in English one euros mirical, and everything pays 1€) Anttila (another 'like Sears' shop) and the youths shops (H&M, Seppälä, Lindex, Vero Moda, O.N.L.Y, KappAhl, In Model etc). There are also gift shops: Idea, Indiska.... Bookshops: Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa etc. Computer shops: Veikon Kone, ON/OFF.... And shops for men: DressMan and some more i didn't pay attention to men's clothing stores and shops for womens were many, many shops.

Helsinki and towns close to Helsinki are full of shopping centers; Jumbo (Vantaa), Myyrmanni (Vantaa), Forum (Helsinki), Itäkeskus (Helsinki), Malmin Nova (Helsinki) Iso-Omena (Espoo), Lippulaiva (Espoo) and the newest Sello (Espoo).

In Helsinki there are also several "shopping streets" that have many interesting smaller boutiques. Aleksanterinkatu (starts in front of Stockmann), Eerikinkatu and Fredrikinkatu (behind Forum shopping center), Uudenmaankatu and the streets starting from park Esplanad.

What is important to know, is that Finland is a very expensive country to be in. In that aspect, shopping here might not be the best idea. (But you're guaranteed quality and will not be cheated almost wherever you go)