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Vaasa
City in Ostrobothnia, Finland

Vaasa

Vaasa, formerly (1855–1917) known as Nikolaistad, is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Ostrobothnia, located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia.

Plan a trip to Vaasa→From Tampere / Pirkkala

Vaasa city has approximately 71,000 inhabitants, while the Vaasa sub-region has a population of approximately 112,000. It is the 14th-most populous municipality in Finland, and the tenth-most populous urban area in the country.

Get in

Getting to Vaasa

Highway 3 (also E12) from Helsinki through Tampere to Vaasa (419 km). The coastal national road 8 (E8) goes from Turku through Rauma and Pori to Vaasa (332 km) and continues through Kokkola to Oulu (318 km). E8 and E12 both continue to Norway: via Tornio to Tromsø and by ferry to Umeå and on to Mo i Rana, respectively.

  1. 01
    Vaasa

    There are west coast bus connections from Oulu to Turku, which go through Vaasa.

  2. 02
    Vaasa Airport

    There are daily regular flights to Vaasa airport from Helsinki (Finnair) and Stockholm, Sweden (SAS).

See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Market place and Finland's Statue

    The market place is the centre of the city life.

  2. 02
    Old Vaasa
  3. 03
    Academill
  4. 04
    Waterfront

    Take a walk in the park areas along the waterfront.

  5. 05
    Trinity Church

    In the vicinity of the Neo-Gothic Trinity Church you will find City Hall, which also houses the Tourist office on the bottom floor.

Do

Things to do

The archipelago off Vaasa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Kvarken Archipelago.

  1. 01
    Tropiclandia

    A tropical spa with various slides, saunas and Jacuzzis.

  2. 02
    The Water Tower

    Inside the tower there is a challenging indoor climbing wall.

  3. 03
    Zip Adventure Park

    Climbing park, which also offers a 5-match, bungee trampoline and archery wars.

  4. 04
    Doo-Bop Club

    A jazz club under McDonald's in the northern end of the Market Square.

  5. 05
    Skafferiet
  6. 06
    VPS
Eat

Where to eat

There are numerous cheap hamburger, kebab and pizza joints. At lunch time there is a huge variety of places to eat inexpensively. For the cheapest lunches head to a student lunch restaurant. A Finnish student card is required for the subsidised price, but even without it prices are very good value at around €9.

How locals move

Getting around Vaasa the local way

  • Get inE8 and E12 both continue to Norway: via Tornio to Tromsø and by ferry to Umeå and on to Mo i Rana, respectively.
  • Get inThe ferry Aurora Botnia, operated by Stena Line/Wasaline crosses daily between Vaasa and Umeå, Sweden (with the port in Holmsund at the mouth of the river).
  • Get inVaasa also has its own transfer bus between the ferry terminal and the city centre, part of the local bus services, see below.
  • Go nextOr why not take the ferry over to Umeå in Sweden (see #By boat above).

From Wikivoyage: Vaasa, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: KpokeJlJla (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.