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Fixed price from €65 · about 32 minutes · door-to-door with meet & greet
BOOK YOUR TRANSFER →A pre-booked private transfer from Helsinki Airport (HEL) to Korkeasaari Zoo is a fixed €65 for the whole car (Standard, up to 3 passengers) — about 21 km, ~32 min. Your English-speaking driver meets you in the Terminal 2 arrivals hall; flight tracking and 60 minutes of free waiting are included. No meter, no surcharges.
Travel directly from Helsinki Airport (HEL) to Korkeasaari Zoo in a private, pre-booked car with an English-speaking driver. Your driver tracks your flight, meets you in the arrivals hall with a name sign, helps with your luggage, and drives you straight to the zoo's Mustikkamaa gate — the drop-off point a short, level walk across the Korkeasaarensilta bridge from the ticket office. No taxi queue with excited children in tow, no bus connections, and one fixed price agreed the moment you book, per vehicle rather than per person. We can just as easily drop you at your hotel first and take you to the zoo the next morning.
Korkeasaari is Helsinki's zoo — Finland's largest, founded in 1889 on its own rocky island in the city's eastern harbour, and open every day of the year. The island sits about 20.8 km south of Helsinki Airport, reached by road across the neighbouring recreation island of Mustikkamaa, and the drive takes around 32 minutes in normal traffic. We have been driving international travellers around Helsinki and across Finland since 2008, with more than 20,000 passengers carried, and the zoo run is one of the family routes we know inside out.
Prices below are starting fixed fares for the Helsinki Airport ↔ Korkeasaari Zoo route (about 20.8 km). The exact price for your specific address, date and time is calculated instantly in the booking form above — and stays fixed once you book.
| Vehicle | From | |
|---|---|---|
| Business — executive sedan (up to 3 passengers, 3 bags) |  | €85 |
| Business Van — premium Mercedes minivan (up to 8 passengers, 8 bags) |  | €95 |
| First Class Van — premium Mercedes minivan (up to 7 passengers, 7 bags) |  | €120 |
| First Class — luxury flagship sedan (up to 3 passengers, 3 bags) |  | €145 |
| Standard — comfortable sedan or crossover (up to 3 passengers, 3 bags) |  | €65 |
All fares are per vehicle (not per person), and include all taxes, flight tracking, meet & greet and up to 60 minutes of free waiting time from the moment your flight lands. Child seats are available on request at no extra charge.
All-inclusive fixed fares, VAT included. Last verified July 2026 against our live booking system.
A fixed price, agreed before you land. A metered taxi from the airport rank is unpredictable — the fare climbs in traffic and varies by operator, and you have no certainty before you get in. With us the full price is shown in the booking form before you confirm, and that is exactly what you pay, whatever the traffic on Ring I on the day. Because the fare is per vehicle, a family of five pays the same as a solo traveller, which is usually the point at which a private car starts beating five sets of bus and train tickets.
No taxi queue with excited children. Most people heading to Korkeasaari straight from a flight are families, and families are exactly who a taxi queue punishes — tired children, a folded pushchair, a trolley of suitcases and a wait of unknown length. Your driver is already inside the arrivals hall with a name sign when you walk out, the child seats you requested are fitted before you land, and the whole group goes from the gate to one car in a few minutes.
A driver who knows the drop-off point. Korkeasaari has no parking of its own and no road to its front door — vehicles stop on Mustikkamaa, the neighbouring island, and visitors walk the last few hundred metres across the Korkeasaarensilta bridge. Drivers who do not know this circle Kalasatama looking for a gate that cars cannot reach. Ours drive here every season, stop as close to the bridge as vehicles are allowed, point you to the ticket office, and agree the exact same spot for your pickup afterwards.
Flight tracking and free waiting time. We monitor your flight in real time, so the pickup follows your actual landing rather than the timetable. If you are delayed, the driver adjusts; if you land early, so does the car. Up to 60 minutes of free waiting time is included after landing — enough for passport control, luggage and a toilet stop with children — and there is no rebooking and no second fare.
One car for the family and the gear. A premium Mercedes minivan takes up to eight passengers and eight bags, which means grandparents, children, pushchairs and suitcases all travel together instead of splitting across two taxis at the rank. Child seats are free on request and installed in advance. If you are combining the zoo with a hotel check-in, we simply add the stop and the fixed price updates to include it.
A warm car in every season. Korkeasaari is a genuinely year-round zoo — its snow leopards and wolverines are at their liveliest in the cold — and many families visit in winter, when Helsinki is dark, icy and well below freezing. That is exactly when a heated car with a professional local driver waiting in the arrivals hall is worth the most, and when the walk-plus-bus alternative with children is at its least appealing.
Helsinki Airport (Helsinki-Vantaa, HEL) lies about 20.8 km north of Korkeasaari, and the drive takes around 32 minutes in normal traffic. The usual route runs south from the terminals on Tuusulanväylä or Lahdenväylä, picks up Ring I eastbound, and then drops down Itäväylä toward Kulosaari, where a local road crosses onto Mustikkamaa, the wooded recreation island next to the zoo. Your driver stops as close to the Korkeasaarensilta bridge as vehicles are allowed, and from there it is a short, flat walk of a few hundred metres to the zoo's ticket office and entrance.
In the morning and evening peaks the run can take a little longer, and in winter the roads are routinely snowy or icy — none of which changes your price, and all of which is routine for a local driver in a car on proper winter tyres. On the way you cross almost the full north–south profile of Helsinki, from the airport forests through the eastern suburbs to the sea, with the towers of Kalasatama rising ahead just before you turn for Mustikkamaa.
Your driver helps with luggage at both ends, walks you toward the bridge if you want your bearings, and agrees a pickup time and spot for the return before leaving you. If your plan is hotel first and zoo later, or zoo first with luggage staying in the car while we wait, both are easy to arrange — tell us in the booking notes and we will plan the timing around you.
Korkeasaari is one of the oldest zoos in the world, founded in 1889 on a 22-hectare rocky island just east of central Helsinki. Its first residents actually arrived a year before the official founding — two brown bears named Misha and Masha, donated in 1888 — and the zoo grew through the 20th century into Finland's largest, known internationally for its success with cold-climate species. Since 2018 it has been run by a non-profit foundation rather than directly by the city, with conservation and education at the centre of its work.
Today the island is home to roughly 150 animal species, from Amur tigers and snow leopards to Przewalski's horses, Barbary macaques, snowy owls, bearded vultures and European otters. The setting is half the experience: enclosures are built into pine woods and bare granite above the sea, and between them you get open views across the water to the city skyline. It is a proper half-day to full-day visit, and compact enough that small children can cover it without a meltdown.
What makes Korkeasaari unusual among European zoos is the island itself. There is no through-traffic, no car park at the gate and no city noise — visitors arrive on foot over a bridge or, in summer, by ferry, and the whole place feels closer to a national park with animals than to an urban zoo. For visitors arriving from abroad, it is consistently one of the most memorable family stops in the capital.
The big cats are Korkeasaari's signature. Cat Valley, a terraced series of enclosures built into the island's granite in the 1960s for the zoo's 75th anniversary, houses the endangered cats the zoo is famous for — above all its snow leopards and Amur tigers, both bred here as part of European conservation programmes. The rocky, uneven terrain suits them: these are mountain and taiga animals, and the valley gives visitors sightlines onto cats that are climbing, patrolling and lounging on stone rather than pacing a flat pen.
Korkeasaari earned its international reputation in the 1960s as one of the first zoos in the world to breed snow leopards successfully and consistently, at a time when cubs surviving in captivity was a rarity. That work continues, and the snow leopards remain the animals most visitors come for — with the practical bonus that they are at their most active in exactly the cold, snowy months when other attractions in Helsinki move indoors.
The Amur tigers, the largest cats on earth and among the most endangered, are the other headline residents, and the smaller cats — including the permanently grumpy-faced Pallas's cats, minor celebrities on the zoo's social media — reward visitors who take Cat Valley slowly. If big cats are the reason for your trip, plan to pass through the valley twice: once early and once before leaving, since activity varies through the day.
Korkeasaari has always specialised in species from cold climates, which is why it works so well as a year-round destination. Wolverines, forest reindeer, snowy owls, otters and other northern animals do not merely tolerate a Finnish winter — they visibly enjoy it, and watching a wolverine bounce through fresh snow is an experience the summer crowds never get. The zoo has been open through the winter ever since the first bridge connected it to Mustikkamaa in 1974.
Alongside the northern natives are hardy species from the world's mountain and steppe regions: Przewalski's horses, the wild horse of the Mongolian steppe that Korkeasaari has helped breed for reintroduction programmes, bearded vultures, Barbary macaques and more. The thread running through the collection is resilience to cold, which means that unlike many European zoos, Korkeasaari does not go into hibernation in November — it simply changes character.
For the moments when Finnish weather does win, Korkeasaari has two tropical houses. Amazonia recreates a South American rainforest, and Africasia covers tropical Africa and Asia; between them they hold the zoo's small primates, reptiles, amphibians, free-flying birds, fish and invertebrates in walk-through warmth. On a cold or wet day they are the natural anchors of the visit — families tend to loop the island outdoors and thaw out in the houses between stretches.
The tropical houses are also where the zoo's smallest visitors often have the most fun, at pushchair height with glass-fronted terrariums, bright frogs and turtles. In practice the combination is what makes Korkeasaari an all-weather plan: snow leopards and wolverines outside at their winter best, and a pocket of rainforest indoors when fingers get cold. It is a rare zoo that genuinely works in January.
Korkeasaari is Helsinki's classic family day out, and it is built for children in practical ways: paths are pushchair-friendly, distances are short, there are playgrounds on the island, and cafés and picnic areas are spread along the route. A typical family visit runs three to five hours at a child's pace. The island layout helps — there is one main loop, so nobody gets lost, and the sea views give the adults something too.
Arriving by private transfer solves the two hardest parts of a zoo day with small children: the start and the end. On the way in, the car takes you from the arrivals hall or your hotel door to the bridge with the child seats already fitted; on the way out, when everyone is tired, the same driver is waiting at the agreed spot at the agreed time — no navigating public transport with a sleeping toddler. For families landing at Helsinki-Vantaa in the morning, zoo-first-then-hotel is a popular way to burn off a flight's worth of energy, with the luggage safely in the car.
If your trip is built around the children more broadly, the same fixed-price service covers the rest of the family circuit — our transfers to Porvoo for the old town and sweet shops, or a day run out to Nuuksio's forests — with the same car, driver and pricing model throughout.
Summer is the classic season: long daylight, all outdoor enclosures in full swing, ferries running from the Market Square, and the island's cafés and terraces open. It is also the busiest time, especially on warm weekends in July, so an early start — easy when your car is booked to your schedule — is the best way to see the animals before the crowds and the midday heat slow them down.
Autumn brings quieter paths, russet colours across the island's woods and more active animals as the air cools. Winter is the connoisseur's season: snow leopards, wolverines, forest reindeer and owls in their element, snow on the granite, and the tropical houses as warm refuges. The zoo stays open every day, and a winter visit paired with a warm waiting car is one of the most underrated things to do in Helsinki with children. Spring means longer days, newborn animals and the island waking up — often the best value season of all.
The transfer works identically all year: a fixed price, a driver tracking your flight, and a warm or cool car as the month demands. The only thing that changes is what the island shows you when you get there.
Korkeasaari sits on its own island, connected to the rest of Helsinki by bridges from Mustikkamaa, Nihti and Laajasalo — which is why it can open every day of the year. Cars cannot drive onto the zoo island itself: road access ends on Mustikkamaa, where our drivers drop you a short walk from the Korkeasaarensilta bridge and the entrance beyond it. From late spring to early autumn there is also a scenic alternative — waterbuses run from the Market Square in central Helsinki to the island in about 20 minutes.
Some visitors like to combine the two: a private transfer from the airport to the zoo in the morning, then the summer ferry into the Market Square afterwards, landing in the middle of the city for the evening. Or the reverse — ferry out, car back. If you are continuing to a Tallinn or Stockholm sailing, we can also time a pickup from Mustikkamaa straight to the West Terminal or the South Harbour, with luggage that never left the car.
The zoo is open every day of the year, with hours that stretch long in summer and shorten in the darker months — check the current times for your date on the zoo's own site before you go. Tickets are sold at the entrance and online, and buying online in advance saves queuing at summer weekends. The main visitor flow arrives via the Mustikkamaa side, across the Korkeasaarensilta bridge, where the modern entrance building and ticket office sit; the walk from the vehicle drop-off area is a few hundred metres on a flat, well-kept path.
Practicalities are easy by Finnish standards: cafés and kiosks operate on the island (fewer in deep winter, so pack snacks then), there are picnic areas where you can eat your own food, paths suit pushchairs and there are playgrounds for restless legs. Dress for the weather — the island is exposed to the sea, so a windproof layer earns its place even in summer, and proper boots make a winter visit far more pleasant.
Because Korkeasaari has no visitor parking of its own and the nearby Mustikkamaa lot fills on busy days, being dropped off is genuinely the most convenient way to arrive by road — one more small argument for a car with a driver rather than a rental. Your driver simply returns to the same spot at the time you agreed, or earlier if the day runs short; a message is enough.
Korkeasaari's most famous event is the Night of the Cats (Kissojen yö), held at the end of the summer season, when the zoo stays open late into the evening and the island fills with lanterns, music and programme built around the big cats and their conservation. It is an institution for Helsinki families, and the atmosphere — dusk falling over Cat Valley with the tigers and snow leopards at their evening liveliest — is unlike a normal zoo day.
Through the year the zoo runs a steady calendar of themed weekends, feeding talks and school-holiday programmes, with events around Halloween and Christmas in the darker months. If your travel dates are flexible, it is worth a glance at the zoo's event calendar — and if you are attending an evening event, a pre-booked car home matters more than usual, since you will be leaving the island in the dark with tired children and public connections thinning out.
Korkeasaari is a conservation zoo in substance, not just in signage. It participates in European endangered-species breeding programmes for its snow leopards, Amur tigers, Przewalski's horses and others, supports protection projects in the animals' wild ranges, and has a long record of firsts — its snow leopard breeding success in the 1960s helped change what zoos believed possible for the species. Since 2018 the zoo has been run by a foundation whose profits go back into this work.
The island also houses Korkeasaari's Wild Animal Hospital, which treats thousands of injured and orphaned wild animals from the Helsinki region every year — seals, swans, hedgehogs, birds of prey — with the aim of returning them to the wild. Visitors do not tour the hospital itself, but its work shapes the zoo's character: this is a place whose relationship with Finnish nature is working, daily and practical. For many parents, that is exactly the version of a zoo they want their children to see.
The zoo's neighbourhood is an interesting slice of Helsinki in its own right. Mustikkamaa, the island where your car arrives, is a classic Helsinki recreation island — pine woods, a beach, sports fields and summer swimmers — connected by a striking pedestrian bridge, Isoisänsilta, to Kalasatama, the city's fastest-growing new district. Kalasatama's high-rise towers and the REDI shopping centre sit just across the water, useful for a meal, a supermarket run or a pharmacy stop on the way to or from the zoo.
A little further west lie Hakaniemi's market hall and the city centre; to the south-east, the island of Kulosaari with its leafy villa streets. The point for a visitor is simple: Korkeasaari is not an out-of-town excursion but part of the city's fabric, fifteen minutes from the centre, and a zoo morning combines naturally with a downtown afternoon. Your driver can drop your luggage and party at a central hotel and take you on to the zoo in one smooth chain.
Most Korkeasaari visitors are in Helsinki for a few days, and the zoo slots easily into a family itinerary alongside Suomenlinna's sea fortress, the Market Square, Allas Sea Pool and the museums. Staying central makes all of it walkable; the zoo is then the one stop where a car genuinely helps, and the same fixed-price service that met your flight covers it. We drive to every hotel in the city — from the airport, our transfers to the Hotel Kämp corner of the centre and every other address run on the same flat city fare.
For families ranging further, Korkeasaari pairs well with a day trip: the wooden old town of Porvoo an hour east, Nuuksio National Park's forests to the west, or a longer run — our transfers to Tampere, home of the Moomin Museum and Särkänniemi amusement park, are a popular next leg for families doing Finland properly. One operator, one pricing model, the same standard of car and driver for every leg, all booked in advance.
And if the zoo is your last stop before flying home, the logistics could not be simpler: we collect you and your luggage from the hotel, wait on Mustikkamaa while you spend the day on the island, and drive you straight from the bridge to the departures door at Helsinki-Vantaa — one car, one fixed price, zero improvisation on the day you least want it.
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