What’s it like to cycle in Helsinki, Finland?

In this video I talk about what it’s like to cycle in Helsinki, Finland.

#Helsinki #Finland #livinginfinland #lifeinfinland #suomi #finnishlife

Hey it’s Inigo here and welcome to my channel um today I wanted to make a video because it was my first day at my Finnish language school um like full-time Finnish language course um and I cycled to my course today and I want to make a video a short video um about

Like cycling in Finland or maybe cycling in house sinki specifically where I have experience and I maybe compare it a little bit to uh my experience in England what cycling is like there um but basically in Finland the infrastructure is so good um or should I

Say in Helsinki that I can cycle around the whole of Helsinki without ever having to go on the road unless I want to cross the road um the the Pavements are so wide that um you usually have like a big stripe that goes down the middle of the road I’ll put a picture

Somewhere here um of a pavement like a typical Pavement in Finland um and you’ll have like a big stripe that goes down the road or the pavement sorry and people can walk on one side and cycle on the other um and there’s so much room that you can get like two or three

People could easily fit on the side for the people walking and you could get two bikes going comfortably on the other side and that’s all just happening on one side of the pavement on the other uh sorry on one pavement on one side of the road on the other side of the road

You will typically have the same again um so there’s just there’s so much room the infrastructure is brilliant um and when I’m cycling like when I cycled to school today I’m going along like roads but then I’ll go like off the roads like into the countryside I’m surrounded by

Trees and water and like it’s beautiful and I’m not by cars at all even my cycling path is separate like not even next to the path for people walking like the people walking is like here and I’ll be cycling here and it kind of goes like

Up and above where the the people will be walking kind of like around the side um really really cool really nice like I’ve never I didn’t really cycle a lot in England uh maybe when I was a kid but not really as an adult um because I just

Don’t think the infrastructure is there to a level where you know I’m not super confident to cycle on the road with cars um and I guess like here it could be it can get really dark um so I would also be worried to cycle on the road and have

To sort of navigate cars um so it could be pretty dangerous here so it’s really nice that that’s separate um I lived in London for about 5 years um and people do cycle there I guess in some ways like it could be quicker because there’s so many cars it’s so congested that

Sometimes like to go from A to B can be quite slow so maybe cyclists um can kind of take quicker routes um and yeah like maybe that’s my advantage but also at the same time like I would be kind of scared of the traffic in London because

It can be a little bit um crazy there’s just so many people trying to drive all on the same road and and um people are a lot more chill here basically um and that also reflects in the driving as well um but yeah like it’s really really

Cool and one thing that makes all of that infrastructure really um nice is that there is a a city bike um program or city bike like infrastructure here as well um I know City bikes exist in multiple cities around the world um but in Finland it’s super affordable so it’s

Only I think I paid 30 for a whole season and the season lasts um essentially for the whole time there’s no snow in Finland so I think it starts around March um and and it’s going to end at the end of October um so it’s a

Pretty long season and I got all of that for €0 there’s bikes um everywhere so there’s bike stations all over the place um I’ve got like probably there’s two within like a 5 minute walk from me three or maybe four actually within like a 10-minute walk um so there’s a lot of

Bike stations each bike station you probably have around 10 bikes um sometimes 20 bikes and all of these stations will be in places that are really convenient as well so you’ll find them near stores supermarkets um train stations they’re in all the places that you would want

Them to be um you can only ride a bike for 30 minutes at a time which again I think is pretty standard for these kind of um schemes or programs um but because there are so many stations all over the place you really don’t have to worry so

I walked 5 minutes to get my bike this morning cycled for 40 minutes um then dropped off my bike then I was five more minutes walking to get to my school um both times like there was plenty of bikes um maybe getting my bike here

There was a bit less I think there was only like three available but by my school there was like a whole rack full which might also reflect the fact that it’s getting super cold like I had to cycle in uh I think it was like

2° um so like super super cold but I still enjoyed it really really fun um but I think it’s something that I’m really impressed with um like in Finland and and I think fin like Finnish people should be really proud and happy that you have such nice infrastructure um and

If you haven’t used it before whether you’re Finnish or not like definitely check it out because I know someone that lives in Finland that has never used it before um and they were kind of shocked by just how affordable um it is so definitely check it out like maybe it’s

Too too late this year um but do check it out like for the future because it’s it’s just so affordable it costs about 80 to buy like a monthly public transport um kind of pass but if you spend €0 you can get like eight months of cycling which is really really nice

Um I should also say like it seems like Finnish people really like to be active and really look after themselves and live quite Healthy Lifestyles and I think this probably just helps that um I I think also like the infrastructure makes it so that people that aren’t

Super fit and active like to cycle on the road you probably have to be quite a good cyclist but to cycle on like cycling paths is a lot more accessible and easier um so it’s like a really nice thing and um finished people really do cycle a lot um within my apartment

Building like underground or yeah yeah kind of underground yeah like in the bottom of our apartment block there’s storage people keep their bikes set we’ve also got like bike storage outside by the side of our building um so it’s really good infrastructure to like store bikes because we live in a block of

Apartment so obviously it might be hard to have a bike inside your flat so they’ve even thought about like where can people like people cycle out here where are they going to keep their bikes um they’ve thought about that obviously um but yeah like people are really like

Fit and active like pretty healthy here like it’s not crazy like people don’t go crazy like even the type of like exercise people do like it feels healthier like it’s kind of more moderate but um but like a lot of people are active like um you see people kind

Of walking and running and um all kinds of things I’ve seen people actually like doing I don’t even know what to call it it’s like skiing but the skis have wheels on it um someone can probably tell me what that’s called but basically like they’re skiing without the snow um

Which is like I’ve never seen that before in my life um but but that’s like really cool like people are really like they I feel like they live much healthier lives here um although like some of the food here is really really good like some of the unhealthy Foods so

Um I don’t know like it’s kind of a contradiction but like generally like people live really healthy lives here um and the cycling like obviously is a reflection of that and supports that and and makes that easier um even even so much so that um something that I find

Funny for someone that comes from a country where there’s no snow is that um you will sometimes see people cycling when there’s like snow on the street like it’s snowing at the time and people will be cycling um like in England if there’s snow like there’s chaos like

Nothing is running properly like even a super super icy day can cause trouble like the idea that someone would be riding a bike even in that weather like in England like people would think you’re absolutely mad um but in Finland peopley when it’s snowing um which is obviously cool um and like sometimes

People have really thick tires on their bikes which I guess obviously helps with that um but yeah like it’s it’s really really nice here like I I love that kind of infrastructure um definitely check it out if you haven’t before or um if you do come to Helsinki like as a tourist

You should definitely use them I think um I think it’s about5 to just use it for a day like unlimited um and maybe €1 for a week I could just be making these prices up if I’m honest but um I think it’s something like that and and if

You’re here for like more than a week you could even or if you make multiple trips to Finland or something like that like I used to I actually used to do that um so if you make multiple trips to Finland within kind of like summer months it might be worth buying a month

Uh sorry a season pass and then you can use bikes whenever you’re in in Finland um but yeah that’s it I don’t want to make it like too long or super boring but um well done Finland for having such nice uh cycling infrastructure um if you have any

Comments about the infrastructure uh if you have any thoughts about it obviously leave a comment um thank you for watching and I hope to see you again soon