Hilton Helsinki Strand

This 8-story hotel has a great location right on the waterfront, within easy reach of many major tourist attractions, just a short one block walk to both the Metro station and the Line 600 bus to the airport. In addition to its great location and staff, the other pros offered by this hotel includes its very friendly and knowledgeable staff, fast wi-fi, and a good breakfast buffet with an variety of tasty choices. As a Hilton Diamond member, my "compact" single room was upgraded to a "single room with view" which did as promised provide a spectacular of the city overlooking the water. The room actually had a comfortable double bed (as opposed to a twin bed) located on the Executive Floor which is the hotel's 7th floor. The corner room was far from spacious, but had an efficient layout which included a large working desk with an ergonomic, albeit worn, work chair. A separate small table with a chair was adequate for solo in-room dining. The mini-bar fridge had room for approximately 2-4 personal items, depending of their size. Coffee and tea service included instant coffee, a selection of tea and a hot water kettle. Neither noise nor exterior light was an issue and the air-conditioning worked well. The bathroom was also not spacious, but it was well designed with plenty of very soft large bath towels. The full bathtub had the dreaded fixed half-door which predictably left lots of water on floor during my showers. The heated bathroom floor was a pleasant surprise. Maid service was certainly not early, as my room was often not cleaned until 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., although this should not present an issue if you are out in the city all day. The Executive Lounge for qualifying guests was very small and filled up quickly during Happy Hour 6pm - 8pm. The alcohol selection was as expected, which included beer, wine and a standard (but not premium) mix of liquor and cocktail mixers. The buffet food was marginal to the extent it fell below the quality and variety offered at other Western Europe Hilton hotels, so keep your expectations somewhat low. Nonetheless, Happy Hour filled up nightly with those looking for free food and alcohol. The views from the Executive Lounge were also very nice. My only real complaint with this hotel is the dismal gym which consists of previous generation fitness equipment: 2 treadmills (1 of which was taken out of service during my entire 1-week stay), 2 stationary bikes, 2 elliptical ski machines, a single weight bench, dumbbells 5kg - 40kg, a small standing cable weight machine and a seated leg press. This gym fell far below the gym typically offered a Hilton Garden Inn hotel, much less full service Hilton hotels in Western Europe. There are multiple saunas (also available for reservations) and a roof-top indoor pool. If you do not need a decent gym, this hotel is otherwise a very good (albeit not luxurious) choice.

Good breakfast. Nice location by one of the canals. Rooms are medium sized. Hotel is clean. Have a mixed review of staff hospitality ranging from moderate to nice. Overall, a 3.5 style experience. Definitely not in the same class as the Tallinn Hilton Park, but not bad either.

Our stay was only for one night as we were catching the ferry to Tallinn the next day; therefore, we only had limited time in Helsinki. We picked the Hilton due to our Gold Status and the Executive Lounge. We opted for the King Executive Room with a Sea View, and I'm not quite sure which sea we were looking at, but the view was okay, accompanied by the standard Hilton comfortable bed. Executive lounges at Hilton's can be hit and miss, and sadly, this one was a miss. When we arrived at the Hotel, we took a look at the lounge, and unfortunately, it was in a mess. There were empty glasses, cups and McDonald's takeaway packaging left on tables. The evening offering was limited, and the lounge became busy. We didn't eat in the lounge, but we had a couple of drinks before going out to eat at a restaurant outside the hotel. The member of staff in the lounge during our stay was excellent, and on leaving, we gave them a tip as a thank you. However, the staff in the bar were great, and the cost of a bottle of wine and beer was not as expensive as we had been led to believe. The other positive was the location, which was pretty central and only a 30-minute taxi ride from the airport. The hotel offers a gym and an indoor pool, but unfortunately, we didn't have time to use them. All in all, we were not blown away by the hotel, but it did what it promised, with a central location with a comfortable bed for the night.

This was a great hotel - we turned up very early (after 24 hours of travelling from Australia) and were lucky enough to have access to our room early, at a cheap per-additional-hour rate. The staff were friendly, helpful and the room was great too. Location was an easy walk to the main sights and I would recommend this as a wonderful place to stay. There was a supermarket close too, for stocking up on snacks, which is always helpful!

I travelled to Helsinki for work and stayed at Hilton Strand. The room was clean and comfortable, good Wi-Fi connection in the hotel. The staff were friendly and provided necessary assistance. The breakfast offering was great too including the drinks in the Executive lounge. Wonderful stay, thank you.