Helsinki

Helsinki looks expensive, but its design-forward core hands you a lot for free. The Helsinki City Museum on Senate Square is always free, and the Kamppi Chapel of Silence offers a quiet break from the street (free in the winter months, with a small entry fee in summer). Several major art museums run a free-admission day each month, so checking the calendar before you arrive can wipe out your culture budget entirely. The harbour stretch is all walkable for nothing: the Market Square (Kauppatori), the leafy Esplanadi park, and the waterfront promenades that show off the city’s clean Nordic architecture. The standout cheap day out is Suomenlinna, the UNESCO sea fortress spread across several islands, where roaming the ramparts and grass is free and only the short public-transport ferry from the Market Square costs a few euros. Stock up at supermarkets to dodge restaurant prices, and aim for late spring or early autumn rather than peak summer, when Nordic prices climb. The two-hour ferry to Tallinn makes a famously cheap onward hop, and Stockholm sits across the Baltic by overnight boat.