Entry requirements | Organizing your trip | Visiting | Eating | Paying | Speaking |

Entry requirements

Passport and visa service

Visit the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Diplomatic representations

Visit the website of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

For more information

Embassy of Finland in Tunisia
61, avenue Habib Bourguiba
Carthage Hannibal
Phone: 71 721 610
Fax: 71 732 339
fin.amb@finland.intl.tn

Organizing your trip

Means of transport recommended in town

Recommendation

Efficient and integrated bus, metro and tramway services, suburban rail lines and ferry services to Suomenlinna Islands are operated in Helsinki.
Taxis are available on the taxi stations in all big cities and one of those stations can always be found next to the railway station. Taxi drivers are reliable and usually speak English but the cost may be quite expensive.

Maps of urban networks

Helsinki City Transport, links to bus, tram, and metro route maps
Map of the Helsinki Metro
Tampere Public Transport, links to bus route maps

Means of transport recommended in the rest of the country

Recommendation

Finnish trains are spacious, comfortable and clean. The Finnish railway company VR operates an extensive rail service around Finland. There are 6000km of rail networks with modern rolling stock. The Pendolino fast train runs at a maximum speed of 220kph and operates on all main routes. There are also night trains and car-carrier trains, regional trains, InterCity trains and express trains. Rail travel is fairly cheap and efficient.
There are over 40,000 daily bus departures and timetables are adapted to fit rail, air and ship services. In Lapland, buses are the major means of public surface travel.
The airline company Finnair has a wide service of domestic flights. The longest distance Helsinki-Ivalo (1125 km) takes only 1.5 hours.

Rail companies

Finnish railways (VR)

Flight from Tunisia

Distance between capital cities in km: 2 798
Flight duration between capital cities: 5h50 (via Roma)

Airlines offering direct flights from/to Tunisia

Airline	Low-cost solution	From	To
http://www.nouvelair.com/Publish/index.asp		Djerba, Monastir, Tunis, Tozeur	Helsinki

Traveling by yourself

Recommendation

The main roads are in excellent condition and are passable at all times. However, during the winter months icy road conditions are common and therefore winter tyres (either studded or non-studded) are a legal requirement from the beginning of December until the end of February. When driving at night (particularly around dusk) incidents of moose or reindeer being struck by vehicles are common, causing severe damage to the vehicle and injury, sometimes fatal, to the occupants.
It is relatively easy for a foreigners to drive a car in Finland. There are usually no big traffic jams (excluding Helsinki area) and some street signs, especially sights, are written in English too.

Road maps

Finnra road map
Maps for searching places, routes and services provided by Visitfinland.com

Find an itinerary

Mappy
ViaMichelin

Visiting

Different forms of tourism

Historical

Museums and examples of ancient architecture remaining from the reign of the Swedish Empire. Castles are found for example in Turku, Hämeenlinna and Savonlinna.

Cultural

Museums, concerts, cinema, etc. During the summer there are a lot of different international music festivals such as Savonlinna Opera Festival, Pori Jazz and Provinssirock.

Nature

Landscape of lakes, rivers, forests, meadows and fells. Midnight sun, polar night and northern light. See also the UNESCO world heritage sights in Finland.

Religious

Many hurches and cathedrals scattered all across Finland reflecting the strong Finnish Lutheran following, as for example the Orthodox monastery of Valamo.

Thermal

Original Finnish sauna can be found everywhere. There are also many spas.

Beach

187 888 lakes, tens of thousands of summer cottages, long coastline with plenty of beach and holiday resorts by the Baltic Sea. The most well-know is perhaps Yyteri beach with six kilometres of sand and dunes.

Winter sports

Lots of alternatives. See a detailed list here.

Outdoor activities

Click here for specific information.

Shopping

Finland is a country of modern design such as Marimekko, Iittala and Arabia. Helsinki offers a wide range of possibilities for shopping for everyone. Click here for more information on Finnish fashion, design and shopping in Helsinki.

Tourism organizations

Finnish Tourist Board

Eating

Food specialties

Even if eating out has over the years become much more common in Finland, proper home-cooked food is still appreciated. Typical daily meals are meat balls, minced meat in sauce, meat loaf, macaroni casserole, steaks, and broiler in various forms. The potato still plays an important role in the Finnish diet, even if it has partly been replaced by pasta and rice. Rye bread has maintained its daily position at the Finnish table. Click here for more information on the gastronomy.

Some seasons and festivities such as the Christmas Eve, the First of May and Easter all have a traditional menu. These menus are served in Finnish homes, schools and many restaurants.

Drinks

Finns drink coffee anywhere and at anytime. More coffee per person is drunk in Finland than anywhere else in the world. In general drinking habits mainly follow Scandinavian and European practices. Consumption of alcohol at lunchtime is less common in the business world than it used to be.

Paying

Domestic currency

Euro

ISO Code

EUR

To obtain domestic currency

Foreign currency and traveler’s cheques can be exchanged in banks and at "bureaux de change" at ports, stations and airports. There are also lots of ATMs everywhere and they are very easy and safe to use.

Possible means of payment

Credit card is the most common means of payment. American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard and Visa are widely accepted, as are Eurocheque cards.

Exchange rate on

Automatic Teller Machines (ATM)

To find out the locations of ATMs in in Finland, click on the link to your credit card: Visa, Mastercard or American Express

Speaking

Official language

The official languages are Finnish and Swedish. Finnish is spoken by 92% and Swedish by 5.5% of the population. .

Other languages spoken

Sami (Lappish) is the mother tongue of approximately 1,700 people in Lapland.

Business language

English is the business language. The knowledge of English is very good throughout the country.

Getting some knowledge

Click here to learn some basic Finnish vocabulary and phrases.
The Tampere University of Technology proposes a short introduction to the Finnish language.

Free translation tools

Translation Guide - Translation of text and web pages
InterTran - Translation of text
Sunda - Translation of text
Finnish English Dictionnary - Translation of words
Kaannos.com - Translation of words (in Finnish)
Translated - Free translation arabic-swedish-arabic
TV5 - Free translation arabic-swedish-arabic
ferdosi - Not free translation arabic-swedish-arabic and arabic-finnish-arabic

We can translate your foreign-language documents.

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Last updates: May 2012