Helsinki Airport to Vantaa — Private Transfer

About Vantaa — the city around the airport

Vantaa is Finland's fourth-largest city, with around 240,000 residents, and it wraps around Helsinki Airport on the northern side of the capital region. Most international visitors first set foot in Finland here without realising it — the airport itself is in Vantaa — yet the city is far more than its runways. It is a spread-out, green city of distinct districts threaded by the Vantaa River (Vantaanjoki), with forests and lakes to the east, busy shopping and business areas around the airport, and residential neighbourhoods stretching north and west.

Because it has no single dense downtown but several separate centres — Tikkurila, Myyrmäki, Korso, Koivukylä, Hakunila and the fast-growing airport district of Aviapolis — getting around Vantaa really rewards a door-to-door car. For a traveller, Vantaa packs in a surprising amount: one of Finland's most popular family attractions, the country's only outlet shopping village, huge malls, a spa, real wilderness on the city edge, and a cluster of hotels right by the airport.

Tikkurila — the heart of Vantaa

Tikkurila is the administrative and commercial heart of Vantaa, a lively centre built around the landmark Dixi complex and the Tikkurila station building. It is where you will find Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre, as well as the Vantaa City Museum, which tells the story of the area from its earliest days, and the old Tikkurila church. The district has grown into a busy hub of shops, restaurants and cafés, with the Original Sokos Hotel Vantaa right in its centre.

Tikkurila is also a good base for visitors who want to be close to the airport but in a real neighbourhood rather than an airport hotel strip. From here, the rest of Vantaa's attractions — the malls, the spa, the recreation areas — are all a short ride away, and your driver can take you between them at fixed prices throughout your stay.

Heureka — the Finnish Science Centre

Heureka, in Tikkurila, is one of Finland's best-loved attractions and the single most popular destination in Vantaa, drawing around 300,000 visitors every year. It is a hands-on science centre built around the joy of discovery: instead of "do not touch" signs, almost everything is interactive, with exhibits visitors can operate, test and play with themselves. The main exhibition mixes long-loved favourites — the giant wire wheel, Foucault's pendulum — with changing themed exhibitions, science shows, and laboratories where you can try microscopy or simple chemistry under a guide.

Heureka is, above all, a place for families, children and schoolchildren. Younger kids love Rottala, where trained rats show off their skills, and the life-size animal robots of the "Giants of the Ice Age" exhibition; school groups come for the educational programmes; and during the summer Heureka runs week-long science and space camps for primary- and middle-school children. The centre's 135-seat digital Planetarium — freshly renovated and reopened at the end of 2025 — screens immersive films about space and nature, and in summer the outdoor Science Park Galilei opens with experiments to try in the open air. One ticket covers all of it for the day: exhibitions, shows, planetarium films and the summer park.

For international visitors it is genuinely easy: the exhibits and signs are in Finnish, Swedish and English, there is a Science Restaurant with playful, science-themed food and a gift shop full of clever souvenirs, and Heureka even offers left-luggage facilities so you can visit with your bags. It sits about 30 minutes from the airport, and a private transfer drops your family right at the door — no working out connections with tired children after a flight.

Helsinki Outlet — Finland's only outlet village

If shopping is on your list, Vantaa is home to Helsinki Outlet, Finland's only outlet village. Opened in 2019, it sits beside the Kehä III (Ring III) ring road in the Porttipuisto area, on the border of Helsinki and Vantaa and directly opposite IKEA Vantaa — and it is only about eight minutes from the airport, which makes it a perfect stop on the way to or from your flight. The village brings together more than forty premium brand stores, with international names and top Finnish labels across fashion, footwear, sportswear and outdoor gear, home and interior design and cosmetics, all at genuine outlet prices, typically 30 to 70 per cent below normal retail. Some of the stores are the only ones of their kind in Finland.

It is built as an open-air "village" rather than a single mall, with wide walkways, cafés and restaurants — including Italian dining — and plenty for families: Leo's adventure park gives children somewhere to burn off energy while the adults shop. Parking is free (with a parking disc), Wi-Fi is free, tax-free shopping is available for non-EU visitors, and the opening hours are long, generally Monday to Saturday from 10 to 20 and Sunday from 10 to 18, with free family-friendly events through the year. Because luggage and shopping bags do not mix well with public transport, this is a destination where a pre-booked car really pays off — we can even build a shopping stop into your airport transfer.

Jumbo, Flamingo and Vantaa's shopping and spa

Vantaa's biggest shopping destination is Jumbo, in the Pakkala district just a couple of kilometres south of the airport. One of the largest shopping centres in Finland, Jumbo gathers well over a hundred stores, a supermarket, restaurants and services under one roof. Right next to it stands the Flamingo Entertainment Centre, which together with Jumbo forms one of the biggest shopping and leisure complexes in the Nordic countries.

Flamingo is best known for Flamingo Spa, a large tropical-themed spa and water park with pools, slides, saunas and wellness areas that is hugely popular with families and a relaxing antidote to a long-haul flight. The complex also packs in restaurants, a cinema, bowling, a gym and nightlife, and the Break Sokos Hotel Flamingo is built right into it — so you can land, check in and be in the spa within the hour. All of this is minutes from the terminal, and a private transfer takes you straight there with your bags.

Nature, parks and Kuusijärvi

For all its airport bustle, Vantaa has real nature on its doorstep. The star is Kuusijärvi, a forest-lake recreation area in eastern Vantaa that is home to the city's largest swimming beach and a much-loved set of saunas — including authentic wood-heated smoke saunas — used year-round, with summer swimming giving way to winter ice-swimming straight from the same piers. It is about fifteen minutes from the airport and welcomes everyone from families on a beach day to visitors wanting a genuine Finnish smoke-sauna experience.

From Kuusijärvi, the striking Sudentassu bridge leads over the old road and straight into Sipoonkorpi National Park, a quiet wilderness of forest, rocky ridges and trails on Vantaa's eastern edge — one of the closest national parks to Helsinki. Add the green banks of the Vantaa River, neighbourhood parks and a network of walking and cycling paths, and Vantaa offers an easy escape into Finnish nature without leaving the city. A private car is the simplest way to reach Kuusijärvi and the park trailheads, which are not well served by public transport.

Sports, family attractions and the districts

Vantaa is a sporty city with venues worth knowing. In the west, the Energia Areena in the Myyrmäki Sports Park is one of Finland's most modern multi-purpose indoor arenas, hosting basketball, floorball, volleyball, handball and futsal as well as concerts and events. In Tikkurila, the Tikkurila Sports Park brings together the Tikkurila Areena ice arena — home of the ice-hockey club Kiekko-Vantaa — a practice rink and the Tikkurila swimming hall, while Myyrmäki adds its own stadium and pools. For visiting teams, athletes and sports fans, we can time transfers around training and game schedules.

There is more for families and the curious, too: the Finnish Aviation Museum near the airport tells the story of the country's flight history, and the Fazer Experience visitor centre in Vaarala turns one of Finland's most famous chocolate and confectionery makers into a sweet day out. All of it is spread across Vantaa's districts — Tikkurila and neighbouring Hiekkaharju, Myyrmäki and Kivistö in the west, Korso, Koivukylä and Hakunila to the north and east, and Pakkala and Aviapolis around the airport — and a fixed-price car ties them together however your trip is shaped.

Where to stay, Aviapolis and combining with Helsinki

Vantaa has one of the densest clusters of hotels in Finland, and naming a few helps place your transfer. In the heart of Tikkurila, the Original Sokos Hotel Vantaa sits right beside Heureka, with restaurants and entertainment of its own. At the Jumbo–Flamingo complex, the Break Sokos Hotel Flamingo puts the spa and shops on your doorstep. Around the airport itself, the Aviapolis business district is ringed with hotels — the Hilton Helsinki Airport connected to the terminal, the Clarion Hotel Aviapolis, Scandic Helsinki Aviapolis and others — serving the offices, congresses and logistics firms that make Aviapolis one of the region's fastest-growing business areas. Whichever you choose, just enter the hotel name or address in the booking form and we take you straight to the door.

And because Vantaa flows straight into the rest of the capital region, it makes an easy base for exploring further — we are happy to handle day trips into central Helsinki, out to Espoo, or back to the terminal for your flight home, all at fixed prices agreed in advance. The capital region's taxis are scarcest and priciest exactly when you most need one — late arrivals, early mornings, event days — and a pre-booked, fixed-price car removes that gamble: a professional, English-speaking driver, a clean modern Mercedes, a name sign in arrivals, and a price set before you travel.