Helsinki
Finland


The Experience

Helsinki’s grande dame hotel stands on the North Esplanade in the heart of town, a perfect location for when you want to pop out to nearby fashionable Finnish stores. Arriving in the circular lobby, you know that this is a hotel that takes a traditional approach: efficient desk staff, monumental flower displays, lots of dark wood and antique prints on the walls. In the rest of the city, Soviet-influenced buildings jostle against modern architecture, while the Kämp retains a more graceful, old-fashioned European vibe. Guests come for the luxurious rooms, great service and the cachet of name-dropping that you're at the Kämp, the city’s most elegant property.

The Rooms

Rooms at the Kämp are emphatically un-Nordic in their rejection of the less-is-more philosophy. The hotel was born in 1887, before minimalism took hold, and has stuck with a more-is-more approach. Doubles start at 355 square feet and feel regal if a little fussy, with lots of opulent details like bold fabrics, tassels, trimmings, classical furniture and gold taps in the bathroom. Deluxe rooms are quietest, but viewless: They peer into the courtyard in the middle of the building. Most suites overlook the tree-lined Esplanade, while executive rooms have a view of the quieter pedestrian street above the main entrance. The Presidential and Executive suites have their own saunas, which can seat half a dozen people. (The sauna is, after all, a Finnish invention.)

The Service

Service is as well-polished as the furniture. Staff learn your name and use it, though there is a seriousness about their approach that can be a little off-putting. Finns are not known for their sense of levity, but no one can fault their professionalism on the front desk.

The Highlights

The hotel has been smart to renovate its dining options so that those who love the traditional approach can enjoy tea and pastries in the Kämp Café & Bar, surrounded by marbled pillars, frescoed ceilings and potted palms. Guests whose tastes run to a more 21st-century experience can head to Kämp Club, with its sleek, glowing bar, or to Vume, a trendy Japanese restaurant serving everything from sushi and sashimi to duck with wasabi potato. The gym and sauna in the eighth floor Balance Club offer plenty of equipment in a light-filled space, plus a Turkish bath and, of course, Finnish sauna.

-- Stephen Whitlock

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