Helsinki

The 2012 World Design Capital, Helsinki is an effortlessly cool city, characterized as both classically retro and cutting-edge modern, which spills out over the Baltic Sea. This is a place that experiments with innovative style in all aspects of life, and you’ll quickly learn to appreciate all that the term “design” encapsulates. Spend a few days lounging in top-notch restaurants, admiring layers of architectural history, hopping around the archipelago on ferries and popping into one homegrown boutique after another, and we guarantee your creative juices will be flowing as well.