Helsinki’s SkyWheel – because every capital needs a big wheel

Here we are with another catching-up post from last summer’s trip to Helsinki and today I’m taking you with me on the blue-tinted SkyWheel. Every capital worth its title has a big wheel and Helsinki is no exception. I seem to remember making that note right back in 2014, when I had an evening in the capital before taking the train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi (well, from Pasila to Rovaniemi after a quick trip to the train depot). I’d looked at the SkyWheel a couple of times during my first couple of days there in May and now, on the way home from the zoo, I found I had the time to actually go on it.

A large ferris wheel with blue-windowed cabin seen from below. Behind it are cranes and in front is the corner of Allas Sea Pool's raised wooden gallery/bar.

What I’d really have liked to do was go on the rotating sauna. Yes, this is Finland. Even their big wheel has a sauna! The Sky Sauna is quite expensive, at €240 for an hour on the cheapest days, hitting €320 on a Saturday. You can add extra hours for 50% of the hourly price and you add extra people for €30. The package is for 1-4 people but you can actually have up to 15 people on the booking. No, they don’t all fit in the sauna cabin at the same time but you get a hot tub on the ground and a private lounge so 4-5 people can sauna in the sky and you can swap places however often you want. It takes 5-7 minutes to do a complete circle. I think I was there on a Monday, so €240 would be very expensive for me but split between four people, €60 each for your own private novelty spa and hot tub isn’t such a bad price.

The hot tub seen through the blue windows and through the metalwork of the wheel, from a good ten metres above.

No, I just did the ordinary wheel, I’m afraid. It was very quiet. I think there are about 30 cabins, including the sauna cabin and the VIP Veuve Cliquot cabin (€195 for 30 minutes including a bottle of champagne) and there were maybe three cabins in use when I was there on a very sunny afternoon. An ordinary ride is €14 and I could just walk up. Bit of fun: before you board, they stop you and take your photo on a greenscreen and then send you photos in front of various Helsinki landmarks. I have my QR code ticket for downloading those photos but I can’t see a receipt or anything for it, so I assume it’s included in the price. Often that’s an extra – we had the same thing at FlyOver Iceland, a fairly non-optional quick greenscreen photoshoot but then you have the option of buying the photos afterwards. I’m 99% sure this wasn’t an extra purchase.

One of my greenscreen photos showing me in a navy t-shirt and yellow shorts & hat, standing outside the SkyWheel. Judging by our relative sizes, I must be King Kong. At least this view of the wheel isn't dominated by cranes.

Another, similar, greenscreen photo except this time I'm inside one of the cabins with the doors open, apparently at the top of the wheel, with Uspenski Cathedral behind me and, if you look carefully to the right, the SkyWheel itself.

Anyway, hop into the cabin and the first thing you realise is that the windows are tinted really bright blue. Afterwards, when you look up at the wheel, you wonder how you missed that. Unfortunately, it means all the photos are tinted bright blue and my photo editing skills aren’t really up to removing that. I don’t know if it’s meant to lessen the glare of the subArctic sun as you’re lifted 40m into the air or if it’s meant to make Helsinki look like a place with a blue sky. It was blue sky the week I was there but if Norway and Iceland are anything to judge by, I’d bet it’s grey and drizzly more often than not.

Market Square, Allas Sea Pool and Helsinki Cathedral seen from the heights of the wheel, through the blue-tinted windows.

You get views over the harbour area, so great views of Allas Sea Pool and Uspenski Cathedral, across the buildings to the Lutheran Cathedral, which seems to hover over the city, thanks to being raised up above Senate Square. You can see out across the bay… and you can also see the less decorative parts of Katajanokka, the island I talked about in the last post, the one you don’t realise is an island, the one Uspenski and the SkyWheel itself are sitting on.

Looking across office-like buildings to Russian-style Uspenski Cathedral.

I have grown a little more scared of heights than I used to be and the feeling of coming up and over the top turns my stomach inside out slightly. Oh, there’s no more movement than there is anywhere else. All the cabins are suspended so they turn gradually as the wheel turns so you’re always up the right way and there’s no difference whatsoever between being slightly left of twelve o’clock and slightly right of twelve o’clock except the way the wheel’s spoke swings gently past the window. All the same, it was kind of a relief to be rotated back towards the ground.

Looking through the structure of the wheel as we approach the very top.

You never know how many rotations you’re going to get. I assumed it would just be one. When I was in Gdansk, I think it was three. I think here it was four. That might change when it’s busy, when there’s a queue of people waiting for you to vacate your cabin. The FAQ says you get about 12 minutes, which is 3-4 times depending on the number of customers, ie how many times they have to stop it to get people on or off. I think it stopped once when I was on it, which meant a moment of “What’s going on?? Why have we stopped?? Am I going to die??” before it went serenely on again.

A selfie at the bottom of the wheel as it spins past the disembarkation platform without stopping.

Am I going to recommend it? Yeah, I am. I like to see a city from the water and from above and this was a good way to get a good look at Helsinki from above. I would have liked the windows to be less blue but if you’re not taking photos, it’s not actually too annoying just to look through, you get a decent amount of time and good views, I like that the greenscreen photos are included – your feelings on greenscreen photos may vary but it’s nice that they’re not just trying to get money out of you for them. You can also get a combination ticket with the Flying Cinema just outside or with SEA LIFE – don’t know where that is, I didn’t spot it. Flying Cinema isn’t going to get its own post but if you’re looking to fill half an hour in Helsinki, I think you can do worse than a visit. It’s like FlyOver Iceland but not as good – your seat stays still and there are no special air and water effects but and the screen is merely a large cinema screen rather than an immersive spherical screen but you put on 3D glasses and get whisked through the best of Finland’s scenery. There’s also a Helsinki-only film but I did the whole Finland one. It’s €13 for an adult, so the €22 combo ticket saves you €5, which you might as well do if you want to do both.

Looking out across the islands and the harbour from the SkyWheel.

I mentioned that I like to see a city from the water, so next week I’m taking you on the boat tour. See you next time!