Finally, Finland – Finland – May 2025

[Hixee]

Picture the scene - it’s December 2019, you’ve not made time to go to Finland this year, but there’s plenty of time next summer and a perfect opening in the diary that fits, fantastic. Can’t wait to ride that shiny new Intamin, what could possibly go wrong?

Flash forward to 2025, and after five years of Covid, wedding and travelling the world, it’s finally time for a ‘normal’ summer again. Let’s dust off those Finland plans and finally scratch that itch! Coincidentally, was looking promising for a solid milestone too.

Day 1 – Getting There

A short one here to start – but opted to fly BRS>AMS>HEL, rather than LHR>HEL direct, as the logistical faff was easier to deal with from home. Airline let themselves down a bit (KLM) throughout this whole trip, starting off with a delayed departure from Bristol. Another delay in Amsterdam, including having to check hand luggage as the flight was full (except, it clearly, clearly wasn’t once we’d all boarded), and the bags taking over an hour to arrive in Helsinki (which is a nice airport, but small). All margins and buffers eaten up at each step of the process. Same story would be true on the return too.

Anyway, picked up a nice new VW Polo from the airport, and cracked on with the drive up to Tampere. Quiet, smooth roads and very late daylight hours (still light well past 11pm) made this bit a breeze.

 

[Hixee]

Day 2 – PowerPark

Restless night, but woke early and keen to get going, grabbed a coffee and a bit to eat and got on the road. It’s a very pleasant drive up to PowerPark from Tampere – just around 3hrs total, but quiet roads, smooth tarmac, good signage, and beautiful scenery. Overall a very pleasant way to spend the morning.

Got to the park a little before opening, so loitered with a handful of other guests (including spotting separate groups of German and UK enthusiasts), before they opened the gates. Made a bee-line for the two green Gerstlauers first, which do look quite impressive together in the park. Their matching colour scheme gives the impression they’re bigger and more intertwined than they actually are, and once you’re down on the paths below them you can see they don’t actually interweave at all. Perhaps this optical trick is what they were going for – or they still had plenty of green and white paint left over.

Pitt’s Special was a walk-on for the first train of the day, so I figured I’d get on with that. Trains were comfortable enough, and the ride looks very good, and has some very promising moments, but they’re dashed completely by Gerstlauer’s textbook janky shaping. The ride seems to jolt through every corner and transition, and it’s only in a handful of places it shines. It’s a big coaster, and could be very good as a large family-to-thrill-to-extreme transition coaster, but it’s sadly just a bit pants.

Junker is next door, and is thankfully much, much better.

Great launch, good forces throughout and only a few of those janky shaping moments. Also a quite impressive stall, which must be one of, if not the, first of these. All the rage now, good work Gerstlauer. Only complaint, which isn’t one of Gerstaluer’s doing, is that they only run one train, which did bother the goon in me – probably not justified given the number of people in the park, mind.

And turns out that’s probably park policy, as they only ran one train on everything, even the spinning mouse thing. Shame really.

Anyway, after ticking those two off, I headed up the hill towards Thunderbird.

Didn’t realise until I was doing the credsheet later that American Thunder (SFSL) is a clone of this, but I have little memory of the specifics of that coaster so this all felt quite new to me. It was great – good layout, great pops of airtime, lots of diving back through the structure, etc. Quality stuff. One train ops and a slightly overzealous magnetic brakerun made the queue time far longer than it needed to be, but it wasn’t ever more than a four-five train wait.

No pictures from the next bit, really, but in short I took a lap of the other one-and-done coasters.
Cobra – Boomerang, ****e, next.
Joyride – Pleasant enough, next.
Mine Train – +1, next.
Neo’s Twister – +1, next. This also running one train only was infuriating. They had all the trains stacked in the station, but would only load and dispatch one once the previous one had returned. Madness.

Somewhere in the round I did Devils Mine Hotel, a dark shooter. Interesting take in that there was limited ‘ammo’ on your blaster, but it was a bit **** overall. Also was going to do the ferris wheel for the pictures, but they had a no-bag policy so I didn’t bother.

I headed back towards Thunderbird and took another few laps – the ride had basically become a walk-on at this point. I then headed across the bridge towards Junker and Pitt’s Special for a few more laps before heading out. The setting and bridge do provide a good view of the coasters, I’ll give them that.

I’d had my fill at this point, and knowing I had a long drive back and the chance to explore Tampere a bit, I headed out.

Overall thoughts then – it’s a nice park and a decent +7 to the count with three notable coasters (albeit only two of those are any good). Junker and Thunderbird and very good, and the park overall is quite relaxing and had a nice vibe too it. Hard to imagine I’d ever go back, but I’m glad I’ve been now.

I got back to Tampere, freshened up a bit, and then headed out for dinner and a few drinks. The city itself is very nice, and I particularly like the industrial elements mixed in with the historic city. I’ve also always been a fan of cities with lots of water in them (suspect my upbringing in Bristol has something to do with that), and I really liked walking around and the atmosphere.

I found a few bars/taprooms, and a ended up having far too much to drink late into the night chatting to some Finnish guys. Fantastic night, but definitely suffered the next morning! Notable shoutout to the Hartwall Long Drink though – a pint of G&T (well technically gin and grapefruit soda) on tap, yeah that’ll set you off about right. After finding a taproom with an extensive gluten free beer selection, the rest is history…

…until I had to ride a 24 year old Intmain invert the next morning…

 

[Hutch]

Going to be paying close attention to this one, as I'll be there in the country in a few weeks.

It seems that one train ops at Powerpark is the standard, but we'll be there on a weekday so hoping painful queueing is minimal.

 

[Boodangy]

Yeah both times I've been to Powerpark they had painful queues, not because of the length or time necessarily as much as how the queues just would not move due to them running one train on everything. The Neo's Twister one train ops is new to me though, when I've been they've ran multiple on the track at once.

But yeah, Thunderbird is the worst because of the brake run to station time being as long as the ride itself.

The classic Hartwall Long Drink tho (Lonkero in colloquial speak, comes from Long Drink but is also the word for tentacle) has become a popular export from here. It was invented for the '52 Helsinki summer olympics as a premixed for international visitors who don't like beer. They have a ton of flavours now and plenty of brands make the classic gin + grapefruit soda combo but yeah. The other classic lonkero flavour is brandy + pommac (a barrel aged fruit soda), which I like but isn't nearly as popular as the grapefruit one.

 

[Hixee]

Day 3 – Särkänniemi

Woke up feeling less than ideal, but with creds to get I had little choice but to pack up and head out of the hotel. A short drive later and I was parked up at Särkänniemi waiting for the park to open. My plan had always been to cred-run this park, and the hangover cemented that for me.

I arrived a little before the park actually opened, but the ticket I had included a trip to the top of the observation tower at the park. The views were quite lovely, I have to admit, and a decent way to pass the time with a coffee for half-an-hour before the park opened.

The park opened and I headed in and straight for Tornado (whose ride entrance is just off the main park entrance path). Waited on train, and was on and dispatched fairly quickly. I’ll admit to slightly dreading this at the time, but it turned out to actually be quite decent. It was much smoother than I expected, and the shaping of the elements was decent. The two (iconic – to me at least) heartline rolls where the highlight of the ride for me – both on-ride and off-ride they’re quite the spectacle! The only thing that seemed off about this coaster was how quickly it seemed to lose speed – the first drop feels big, but by the time you head into the first heartline roll you’re travelling much slower. Must have sticky wheels or something…!

As this ride had gone well, but the fuzzy-head was still in full swing, I headed for Hype next – I know these things are surprisingly intense and I thought I’d try to get it out the way. It was as expected – not bad, but I don’t love these. Better than a Boomerang, I suppose.

Quick bite to eat, then quick lap on the kiddie cred, before heading up to the launched motobike coaster thing. One-and-done, that.

At this point I was flagging a bit, and still had a slightly faffy trip to Helsinki on my mind, so opted for one more lap of Tornado before calling it a day. Had both my rides on the yellow train, and didn’t get to try the highlighter-orange one – if anyone cares about that sort of thing.

Overall, I feel a bit neutral about Särkänniemi. It’s pleasant enough, and city-centre parks (especially on the water) are always nice, but it doesn’t quite have anything stand-out enough to make it feel particularly special. I’m most pleased about riding Tornado though – one of those coasters I’ve known about since my very early days as an enthusiast, so nice to be able to tick it off.

I drove back down to Helsinki Airport and ditched the car, then grabbed a bus into town where my next night was. This was very convenient actually, and very easy. As I’d managed to leave the park and drop everything off quickly, I had much more of the evening in Helsinki than I expected. I decided I’d take a walk to the outskirts of Linnanmäki to get some of those classic photos of Taiga. A short walk later and I was there, and it was very exciting seeing it for the first time!

Here's a bit of a dump of pictures:

And finally one of these silly block-violation ones:

Hunger and exhaustion was setting in now, so I wandered slowly in the sunshine back to my accommodation, grabbed a few beers from the shop and a pizza and retired to the room for an early night.

You know what’s coming next…

 

[Boodangy]

Your state ofc wasn't helping things but I don't think Särkänniemi is that pleasant to stay in for long anyway, so I get cred running it. It's a shame, cause the setting is great and some of the landscaping (the log flume) and Tornado's setting is awesome, but most of the rides are in the concrete hell area where there's no cover so it gets boiling in the summer and they don't have any chill rides to do if you're feeling a bit dizzy, no monorail, no ferris wheel, no dark ride, no funhouse, etc etc. It's just not pleasant to sit around in, as a park.

Here's to hoping that Trombi's (The Volare) replacement will make me wanna go back, cause as it stands Tornado is really the only thing worth going there for as I can't stand Skyrocket IIs. Take Off is a unique flat for a park to have but they run it rather slow, so.

 

[Hixee]

Your state ofc wasn't helping things but I don't think Särkänniemi is that pleasant to stay in for long anyway, so I get cred running it. It's a shame, cause the setting is great and some of the landscaping (the log flume) and Tornado's setting is awesome, but most of the rides are in the concrete hell area where there's no cover so it gets boiling in the summer and they don't have any chill rides to do if you're feeling a bit dizzy, no monorail, no ferris wheel, no dark ride, no funhouse, etc etc. It's just not pleasant to sit around in, as a park.

Yeah, and contrasted also by how nice Tampere is to sit around it, it jumps out quite a lot.

The flats looked quite interesting, but I barely do them any day, let alone feeling a bit out of sorts. Impressive enough to watch, though.

 

[James F]

Love the pictures of Tornado and Taiga! Other than the hangover I don't know how you resisted the urge to ride Taiga there and then.

 

[Hixee]

Day 4 –Linnanmäki

Finally time for the initial motivation behind this trip, then. Start of this isn’t very picture heavy, apologies.

A leisurely walk from the accommodation to the park, had me at the gates a little before opening. I’d pre-purchased a ticket, so headed straight for a ticket booth to redeem my wristband – all simple enough.

Now, the first coaster I rode here would be #900. Clearly, I wanted that to be Taiga, so despite the other coasters running and Taiga facing a delayed opening, I had little choice but to sit it out. After about half an hour, the ride up and running and I was straight in for a front row ride.

In the words of Matt N – how was the ride? Well I knew it was going to be reasonably good – people often rave about this coaster and it’s not hard to see why people might say it’s good based on a POV. The first launch is fun, but nothing earth shattering, followed by a great sequence of elements that really make the ride feel like it’s warming up. The second launch hits, and before you know it you’re looking over Helsinki for a brief moment before diving back down.

What follows is a spectacular sequence of elements – a high and humungous stall, which exits in a great freefall drop to the left (or right? depends on perspective, I suppose), a powerfully bunny hill, and then an enormous Immelmann. It’s a masterpiece of track shaping.

Next is some typical Intamin mincing about, with bursts of airtime, changes in direction, elevation gains and losses, and even another inversion. Overall, this coaster is thoroughly brilliant, and so much fun. I was beaming as I got back to the station.

I took a lap round the park next, mostly mopping up the creds, but stopping for some lunch along the way. I’ll summarise as follows:
Kirnu – Bleugh, I don’t like these very much.
Ukko – First of these I’ve done (got spited by the one in Madrid back-when), and well… they’re not very good are they?
Vuoristorata – This was very charming and good fun, as is usually the case with these ‘brakeman’ coasters. It felt noticeably the biggest one, but it wasn’t as good as the one in Tivoli (in my humble opinion) as it lacked the theming and extra little details. Still, a decent coaster and the only one (other than Taiga, obviously) that I did more than once.
Linnunrata eXtra – VR faff, crap cred. Meh.
Salama – I quite liked this, actually. It’s got a great setting above the rapids with lots of foliage, and had some decent spin and changes in direction and whatnot. Not good enough to re-ride during a solo trip, but I probably would have if I hadn’t been forever alone.
Pikajuna – Pleasant enough, but best part is the view of Taiga above.
Tulireki – Huh, I see why they only built one of these properly. So janky. Not a fan.

Here’s some pictures from walking around the park:

I also rode the drop tower (Kingi) somewhere in amongst all of that, which was very good (especially for someone who doesn’t like drop towers). Like the Mach Tower at BGW, it’s got a much more relaxed feeling during the drop, which suits me. I did try to ride Swingi too, but shortly after I joined the queue it broke down for a fair while and I couldn’t really find the motivation to go back for it.

I took the obligatory lap on the ferris wheel, so got some nice shots (I think) over the park:

Following this, I cycled a few more laps on Taiga, grabbing back and middle rides, before finishing off with one in the front row. Front was my favourite, but to be honest it was great in all seats. A real gem of a coaster to finish off the trip.

My thoughts on Linnanmäki overall then? I really quite liked it. It could do with another decent coaster to bolster it’s lineup, but frankly Taiga alone makes the trip worthwhile. It handled the queues okay, was very green and full of foliage, and had a lot of that casual city centre park feel that places like Grona Lund and Tivoli Gardens manage to do so well. A lovely park, and worth a visit.

Feeling quite content at this point, I decided to walk into town for a bit to see a bit of the city centre (“culture”, and all that). Was a very nice evening, actually. A pleasant walk around the lake into the city, past a few of the big buildings in the city, a great burger for dinner, and all wrapped up with a civilised bedtime. I felt very grown up.

And that was that, great success!

Day 5 – Getting Back

Nice and easy bus back to the airport, plenty of time for the flight and a bite to eat and all that good stuff. The airport was quite nice, actually. Felt calm.

KLM were on time leaving Helsinki, but had a sizable delay leaving Amsterdam for Bristol. Despite teasing us with boarding twice (once even getting some people onto the bus, before getting them off again), we ended up being nearly 90mins late back into Bristol. In and of itself not an issue, but I had a quick bag-swap with a family member lined up, before checked in again and flew to Newcastle for work.

Safe to say by the time I got to that hotel in Newcastle, I was feeling it a bit. However, I was also feeling very satisfied with my trip to Finland, so all in all probably a success.

Will do one of those summary things at lunchtime to finish this off.

 

[Hixee]

Summary

New creds: 19
Total creds: 30
New parks: 3
Total parks: 3

Milestones:
900th coaster – Taiga, Linnanmäki
100th European park – Särkänniemi
Most northern coaster ever ridden – Junker, PowerPark

Best Park: Easily Linnanmäki. It’s a lovely park to walk around, and Taiga is world class. Notable mention to PowerPark too though – I quite liked the strange charm/vibe of this place too. Nothing inherently wrong with Särkänniemi, by the way, I was just very hungover and it’s not a hugely inspiring place.

Best Cred: Taiga, obviously.

And the route(s) – though looks a bit crap this time with the nature of city-centre parks and long drives in between:

Green = Transportation, Blue = Nights, Red = Parks

Overall I really enjoyed this trip to Finland. It’s a quiet and calm place, and the food and beer selection (particularly gluten free) was great. The people were lovely and the scenery was nice as I was driving around. I liked the long days and sunshine too. Oh yeah, and there was a solid set of coasters there too! I’d highly recommend.

Cheers for reading – hope you enjoyed the pictures too.

 

[Howie]

New creds: 19
Total creds: 30
New parks: 3
Total parks: 3

I'm confused by this. If you went to 3 parks and they were all new to you, how come only 19 of 30 total creds are new to you?

Nice reports btw

 

[Hixee]

I'm confused by this. If you went to 3 parks and they were all new to you, how come only 19 of 30 total creds are new to you?

Maybe I should reword it "Total coasters ridden".

5 laps on Taiga = 1 new to me, 5 total coasters.