Send parcel to Finland

Helsinki or Helsingfors? Which language goes on a Finnish address

Either one works. Finland has two official languages, and the coastal cities carry a Finnish and a Swedish name: Helsinki is Helsingfors, Turku is Åbo, Vaasa is Vasa. Use whichever form the recipient gives you, the couriers know both. The postcode has five digits and comes before the town, street names almost always end in "katu" (street) or "tie" (road), and in apartment buildings the house number is followed by a letter for the stairwell and a number for the flat. An example: "Matti Meikäläinen, Mannerheimintie 12 A 5, 00100 Helsinki, Finland, tel. +358 ...". The letters ä and ö can safely be replaced with a and o, the postcode and house number do the rest. One detail that catches people out: in many apartment blocks the name on the doorbell is the tenant's, and the courier checks it, so the name on the label has to be the person who actually lives at that address.

Why does Helsinki drink more coffee than Naples, and what does that have to do with parcels

Because the Finns drink more coffee per head than anyone else on the planet, and in recent years filter coffee has made room for espresso: roasters in Helsinki and cafés in Tampere and Turku bring in machines, grinders, cups and blends from Italy. That is just one of the flows. The shipyards of Turku build some of the largest cruise ships in the world, and part of the interiors, from furniture to fabrics to marble, comes from Italian suppliers. The forestry and paper industry, the backbone of the Finnish economy, buys spare parts and mechanical components. Design is the other big gateway: Finland has a tradition of its own, from Alvar Aalto to Marimekko, and an audience that appreciates Italian furniture and lighting, with the Habitare fair in Helsinki every September as the fixed date. Then there are the Italian restaurants of the capital ordering pasta, oil, cheese and wine, and the small but growing Italian community receiving from family what Finnish supermarkets do not stock.

How long does a parcel take to reach Finland?

4 to 7 working days from collection in Italy. Finland is in the European Union, so the parcel travels without customs and without extra paperwork, but it is a long way off and cut off from the rest of the continent by the Baltic Sea: the parcel arrives by air at Helsinki-Vantaa or by sea, and from there enters the national distribution network. Around a third of Finns live in the Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa area, where delivery sits at the lower end of the range. Tampere, Turku and Oulu follow close behind. Towards Lapland, Rovaniemi and the villages beyond the Arctic Circle need the extra days, because the distances are enormous and the country stretches for over a thousand kilometres from south to north. The Europacco service covers the whole mainland, Lapland included. The Åland Islands, between Finland and Sweden, have a separate tax status and therefore a page of their own.

Sending a parcel to Rovaniemi for Christmas: when to ship?

Early, because in December Lapland is the most sought-after place in the country. Rovaniemi bills itself as the official home of Santa Claus and between late November and January hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors, with hotels, glass-igloo resorts under the northern lights and agencies receiving supplies from all over Europe. For a gift or a delivery straight to Lapland, count back from 23 December and add a margin, because even the Finnish couriers are working flat out in those weeks. The other factor is the real cold: north of the Arctic Circle temperatures drop below minus twenty, and a parcel left outside or in a van for a few hours freezes through. Wine, oil, cosmetics and anything containing water need insulating packaging, and olive oil that arrives solid returns to normal at room temperature, so it is worth warning the recipient. In the north the sun does not rise at all for weeks between December and January, and deliveries still run to normal hours.

Juhannus and July: when does Finland shut down?

At the end of June, on the Juhannus weekend, the midsummer festival: the cities empty out, the Finns head for the lakeside cottage, and for two or three days offices, shops and warehouses are closed. Straight afterwards comes July, the holiday month by law and by tradition, when many companies wind down and whoever receives parcels at the office is simply not there. Anyone shipping to a Finnish company between late June and early August does well to ask whether someone will be around. The other dates to know are 1 May, Vappu, the festival of students and workers rolled into one, 6 December, Independence Day, and the Christmas holidays, which in Finland centre on the 24th. The rest of the year the country works with the punctuality you would expect, and the parcels keep pace.