How safe is Finland for travelers?

Crime

• Finland is among the safest countries in the world for a visitor, and violent crime against tourists is rare enough not to plan around.
• Pickpocketing exists in the Helsinki summer crowds - the market square, the ferry terminals, Central Station - and nowhere else in any volume.
• There is no taxi scam culture, but there is legal overcharging at the airport rank. See the airport section.
• Drunk people on Friday and Saturday nights are the most common source of unpleasantness in city centres, and they are noisy rather than dangerous.

Ice, which is the real hazard

• Pavement ice between November and April injures more visitors than anything else. Finnish pavements are gritted late and thawed pavements refreeze overnight into sheets.
• Buy studded shoe grips. They cost about EUR 15 in any supermarket or R-kioski, slip over your shoes, and are what everyone here is wearing.
• Falling ice and snow from roofs is a genuine hazard in cities during a thaw. The taped-off strips of pavement are taped off for a reason.
• Walk like a penguin. Short steps, feet flat, weight forward. It looks ridiculous and it works.

Cold

• Minus 20 is an ordinary January day in the south and minus 30 happens in Lapland.
• Frostbite takes minutes at those temperatures with wind, on ears, nose and fingertips.
• Cotton is the mistake. Layers, wool, a windproof outer, a hat that covers the ears, and gloves rather than fingerless anything.
• Check the Finnish Meteorological Institute rather than a phone weather widget; it issues real warnings for cold and wind chill.

Water and the lakes

• Lake and sea ice kills people every winter, including locals. Do not walk onto ice that has not been marked as an official route.
• Drowning is Finland's characteristic summer accident, and alcohol is involved in most cases.
• Ice swimming is wonderful and is done with a ladder, a hole cut for the purpose and someone else present, not improvised.

Wildlife and ticks

• Ticks carry tick-borne encephalitis in the archipelago, on Aland and along parts of the south coast. If you plan weeks outdoors there, ask a travel clinic about the vaccine before you leave.
• Check yourself after walking in long grass and remove ticks with a proper tick tool.
• Bears and wolves exist and you will not see one. Elk on the road are the animal that will actually affect you.