A Guided Cruise: the Past and Present of Helsinki Region Archipelago

Take a cruise through the historical steamship route and find out, why people of Helsinki have throughout the times loved their charming archipelago. You will also be able to visit a unique, old fisherman’s estate.

Photo: JT-Line Oy / Omar El Mrabt

Half-day-trip starts from Helsinki Market Square. We will cruise towards the old fisherman’s estate on a lovely island of Pentala. On the way we will pass sights such as the famous Unesco World Heritage site – the fortress of Suomenlinna, as well as charming yacht clubs and summer restaurants, and beautiful summer cottages and villas scattered around the archipelago.

Upon arriving to Pentala, we get acquainted with the Archipelago Museum – an old fisherman’s estate that has been turned into an open area museum. A special guided tour to “Gurli’s House” is included. This home museum represents the life of the last local person living in the house – the fisherman’s widow Gurli Nyholm in 1986.

On the trip back we will enjoy traditional Finnish salmon soup, coffee service, and the beautiful nature of our archipelago.

Helsinki is often called the daughter of the Baltic Sea. The trip is executed respectfully with the fragile nature of the archipelago in mind. The transporting vessel on the trip is fuelled solely with renewable fuel oil. In addition to this, the organiser of the trip will donate 2 € per participant to the John Nurminen foundation, which carries on important work for the conservation of the Baltic Sea – so that the heritage of the Baltic Sea will remain for future generations too.

Available: from mid-May to mid-September 2023

Departure time: on demand

Duration: 5,5 hours

Example price: from 78 € per person
Incl. the guided cruise, entrance tickets and a special guided tour to “Gurli’s House” on the island of Pentala, and lunch serving onboard and Finnish VAT. (The example price is calculated based on a group of 50 people, and when the vessel is M/s Ilves.)

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Accessibility

The vessel is accessible via a gangway and/or a movable ramp, but we need advance notice if there are passengers in wheelchairs. The bathroom onboard is not wheelchair-accessible.

The island of Pentala and the archipelago museum are partially accessible, and partially challenging with wheelchairs. The paths in the area are made of sand, with pine cones and roots. The area has an accessible bathroom, and the main building of the museum, Villa Rosengård, as well as the break villa Lilla Villan are accessible by ramps. The Gurli house is unfortunately not entirely accessible. They do however have a movable ramp that allows access to the ground floor of the Gurli house with a light and narrow wheelchair. There are small thresholds between the rooms.

Sustainability

JT-Line has been awarded the Sustainable Travel Finland –badge in March 2021 to commend their persistent and valuable work towards sustainable travel.

Preserving the unique nature of our archipelago is important to us, and the vessel is solely fuelled with Neste’s renewable MY fuel oil. As pioneers we want to take part in developing low-emission solutions. By using Neste’s MY renewable fuel oil we reduce our carbon footprint on the route in question by up to 90% compared to fossil fuels.