VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Helsinki or St. Pete Beach?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Helsinki for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Helsinki’s own page.

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Helsinki 28, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, St. Pete Beach 40: Helsinki leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, St. Pete Beach 18: Helsinki leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, St. Pete Beach 28: Helsinki leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, St. Pete Beach 57: Helsinki leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, St. Pete Beach 58: Helsinki leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, St. Pete Beach 72: Helsinki leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, St. Pete Beach 30: Helsinki leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, St. Pete Beach 20: Helsinki leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, St. Pete Beach 32: St. Pete Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, St. Pete Beach 20: Helsinki leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, St. Pete Beach 42: Helsinki leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Helsinki
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiSt. Pete Beach

Where the figures come from

St. Pete Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiSt. Pete Beach
Official languageFinnish, Swedish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation17 m2 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiSt. Pete Beach
City population694,3928,879
People per km²3,239173
Museums within 10 km742
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Helsinki or St. Pete Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.