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Driving in Finland as a tourist is super easy and enjoyable!
This guide explains the most common driving rules in Finland, gives you local’s tips to driving in Finland and tells why Finland is a fantastic country to be roadtripping. Here’s a quick infographic to get an overview.
Table of Contents
- 1 The Basics of Driving in Finland
- 2 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Driving in Finland
- 3 General Tips on Driving in Finland
- 4 Parking in Finland
- 5 The Most Important Driving Rules in Finland
- 6 Useful Tips to Car Rentals in Finland (and anywhere!)
- 7 The Cost of Renting a Car in Finland
- 8 How to Operate at a Finnish Gas Station
The Basics of Driving in Finland
- In Finland, you drive on the right side.
- You need to be 18 years old to drive a car in Finland (A 16-year old may drive a microcar with the top speed of 45 km/h).
- Most travelers may drive in Finland with their foreign driving license. For example, driving licenses issued in another EU or EEA country work fine. Here you can check out the detailed specs for each country.
- Driving in winter is safe in Finland. We use winter tires, and the speed limits are lower than in the summertime. You can rent a normal car even if you are driving in Lapland (no need for SUV etc.).
- If you are visiting Helsinki, I don’t recommend renting a car. The public transport is excellent in Helsinki.
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5 Reasons Why You Should Be Driving in Finland
- Enjoy the freedom of having your own vehicle. Make side trips. Stay somewhere cool a little longer.
- The roads. They are in great condition and clearly marked.
- People obey the driving rules. Everything is organized.
- Gas stations with free and decent toilets. Most places have a good variety of food and even a grocery store.
- No traffic jams. I repeat, no traffic jams!
General Tips on Driving in Finland
- For intercity drive time, you can estimate that you drive 50 miles (80 km) per hour.
- Finnish traffic signs don’t have text (except the Stop-sign). Check out Finnish traffic signs before your travel.
- Traffic lights are on posts on the side of the street. They never dangle from wires.
- In the city, street names are often on the sides of the buildings, not on posts.
- There are lots of roundabouts in Finland.
- Snowplows keep the roads open in the wintertime.
- You can spot an occasional tractor on the road in the countryside. It moves very slow.
- If somebody blinks lights to you, here are a couple of suggestions what it can be for: you have wrong/no lights on, there’s an accident, there’s the police, or there’s an elk on the road.
- Elks usually move in the evening twilight or in the morning.
- In Lapland, reindeer walk on the roads. They are not jumpy like other deer but drive carefully past them.
- Make sure that you have a GPS or Map app. Spell long street names carefully.
- Helsinki Airport is actually in Vantaa, so don’t get worried when you get directions to Vantaa.
Parking in Finland
Most cities have paid parking somewhere, at least at the city center. There is one ticket machine for a little area, usually a street block. You pay with coins, a credit card or mobile app.
A parking disc is often used in Finland. You can park for free for a certain time period, but you must use a parking disc. You set your disc with hours showing to the time you got there and place the disc on the dashboard. There is a sign indicating how long you are allowed to park. Don’t exceed the time; you can get fines.
The Most Important Driving Rules in Finland
I have collected a bullet list of the most important driving rules. It is always a good idea to read this PDF guide to the Finnish traffic rules.
- Don’t drink and drive!
- Always use the lights when driving.
- No turns on red.
- Always use your blinker.
- In the cities, the default speed is 50 km/h.
- On the roads, the default speed is 80 km/h
- Buses have the right of way at speed limit under 60 km/h. Even when the bus is at a bus stop and only blinking!
- Pedestrians have the right of way crossing the street in spots where there are no traffic lights.
- If a car is in anyway stopped close to a crosswalk, you must stop too.
- Pay attention to cars coming from your right. If no sign showing otherwise, they have the right of way.
- Fines for speeding are proportional to your income.
Useful Tips to Car Rentals in Finland (and anywhere!)
I warmly recommend booking through RentalCars.com. This site is part of Booking.com. Their overview with a map & prices of each car rental company in Finland is awesome.
Also, I love their search options, which are very detailed. You’ll quickly notice that pretty much all the big international car rental companies operate in Finland. There are also smaller rentals and discount chains.
Most rental cars in Finland are stick shift, so double check your order if you want a car with automatic transmission.
Now, the following sentences are a result of my international rental experiences. Compared to other places, I do think that rental scams are rare in Finland. However, better safe than sorry.
So, no matter where I am, I always read carefully through the rental contract and take the necessary insurance depending on the situation and destination.
It’s completely normal to take pictures of the vehicle before you start using it and after you park it when giving it back (you never know if the next car will scratch it).
If there is a surprisingly great deal with a company I don’t know, I always google it “Company X experiences.”
The Cost of Renting a Car in Finland
Now, few words about the costs. For a nice automatic transmission car in Finland, you should budget something around 75-100 euros per day. Plus gas!
The petrol is on average 1,6 €/l (last check: August 2019).
How to Operate at a Finnish Gas Station
The petrol prices are shown on a sign next to the gas station. There are three types of petrol, and they are marked as 95, 98 and Diesel.
The most common petrol for Finnish cars is the 95. But please, don’t take an educated guess based on this information, make sure you know which petrol you should pump!
In the countryside, there may be long stretches of road without gas stations.
If you are at an unmanned gas station (and there are a lot of them in Finland), you need a credit card or cash.
If you pay with a card, you often need to define a maximum sum that can be taken from your card. Just type a sum (I often use 60€) and then you can start pumping. You will be billed for the exact amount, but the pump will not give you more than you predefined.
By the way, I recommend that you have a chip-and-PIN card when you are in Finland. Not just if you are renting a car but in any case. A chip-and-PIN card will work everywhere.
To my understanding, also those cards with a built-in chip and a signature (no pin) work quite well but cannot be guaranteed to work everywhere. If you have a credit card with a magnetic stripe, you need almost always a cashier.
I hope these tips about driving in Finland were helpful! Comment below if there’s anything you would like to add or ask!
Do you like road trips? Are you going to be driving in Finland? Let me know in the comments!
Looking for more information about Finland? Check out some of my other posts:
- Best Time to See Northern Lights in Finland: the Make-No-Mistakes Guide
- 100 Ideas to Do in Helsinki by a Local
- How to Plan a Finland Family Vacation Without Stress
- What to Pack for Winter Finland: Detailed Packing Guide
- Finland Bucket List: 35 Authentic Ideas by a Local
Warm wishes from Finland,
Varpu
After this quick cultural class, you’ll know…
- Why feeling connected with the Finnish lifestyle is easier than you think
- "The Hedgehog" template that makes it super comfortable to start a conversation
- The one question that will confuse both you and the Finns
- How to blend in with the Finnish culture, not that you have to fit in
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Hello there!
I’m Varpu. One blonde,
travel-loving,
Finnish engineer driving this site.
Hi Varpu, thanks for the great article I just read. I will travel between 20th and 29th December and I will rent a car, between Ivalo and Rovaniemi, (Saariselka, Peurasuvant, Sodankyla), the car will be on the street at night, in the morning the car will work? what care should I take? thank you and all the best
Hei Mario! Your Christmas plans sound awesome, I’m super excited for you about your itinerary! The car will work, yes! Many parking spaces have also heating poles (a little utility pole with plug socket) you can use to warm up your car (the rental company will tell you more about those and have the cord for you if that’s something they provide). Hope this helps!
Hei Varpu,
Great post and very helpful as usual. Here is another link similar to yours that adds a couple more items (like typical traffic informational signs): https://www.tripsavvy.com/driving-in-finland-1626456. Another thing I like to do whenever I’m driving to new areas (anywhere – not just Finland) is to use Google Earth street view to get a preview of places and addresses that I will be looking for to get some mental images of what to expect. That coupled with GPS (which I don’t have) would help greatly. Before driving in Finland a few years ago, I downloaded the street signs link and it was very helpful. My brother, a retired traffic engineer, also rented a car on that same trip and he was very impressed with Finnish highway signage – we both found driving very easy. We were rather nervous about driving too fast and getting caught with the one-legged cops (traffic photo cameras), but neither of us apparently were clocked and cited as we drove past them. I did have to ask a local for help to pump my first petrol, however. Any links for those directions? Kiitos taas!
Hei Rich! Thank you so much for an awesome link for more help. I really liked that post. I haven’t yet found a link for the pumping of the petrol but it goes something like this: you need to predefine a sum (I usually pick 60€) before you can start pumping. The actual cost will be the exact amount you pumped but this predefined sum will be the top limit. This causes the most headache for travelers.
Hi,
we will visit Finland on mid of October 2019. We plan to rent a car and travel from Roveniemi to Inari. May i know what is the weather condition that time? is the road condition good? and what is the celcius that time?
fyi, we from Malaysia
thanks
regards,
Lian
Beginning to plan a trip to Finland for 2020. Want to go all around Finland from bottom to top and east and west. How much time should I allot to do this driving in a rental car? Will cost about what amount for hotels and car and gas?
Hei Christy! Finland is around 1160 km from top to bottom and z. 540 km east to west. A nice automatic transmission car in Finland is something around 75-100 euros per day. The petrol is on average 1,6 €/l and a hotel night is z. 100 euros/night. It really depends how much you want to drive each day but you can make the calculations based on these numbers! 🙂
Hi Varpu,
Thanks a million for the huge amount of info and tips you’ve shared here on Finland. Truly awesome places with breathtaking sceneries, you have in your beautiful country. We hope to visit Finland someday in the future. Thanks and cheers from Malaysia. Dason 🙏👍🇫🇮😃
Hei Dason! Thank you so much! I really appreciate hearing that. Kiitos! <3
I just booked our travel to Finland for this summer to visit my Mummi in Lahti! So excited. Do you have any links for coupons / discounts for the car rental agencies at the airport? I remember searching all through the internet for them a few years ago, before our last trip, but if you have an affil link or something you can share, I’d love that! Thanks!!
Hei Ariana! Oh, that’s so great. Welcome to my home town! Unfortunately, I don’t have a coupon to offer you. Thank you so much for telling me that, I will definitely look into this asap to be able to help you guys!
This is an amazing terrific article. I will be visiting Finland and plan on renting a car there. Couple of questions: is overnight parking on the street allowed in Hanko? How do non-Finnish speakers read instructions and/or messages on the road? Are English translations also available? Thank you so much for the helpful tips!
Lovell
Hi Lovell! I’m so glad to hear that you liked this article! Hanko is a fab summer destination, so excited for you. Yes, you most definitely can overnight park there. Just check the signs. For example, I have kept my car overnight on the other side of the road, next to Hanko Casino building. As for the signs, most of them don’t have any text. If there’s a text, then it’s in Finnish or Swedish. ‘Centrum’ or ‘keskusta’ means the city center. You will have a fantastic vacation!
Thanks a lot for the valuable driving tips.
I have a question:
Is the right-hand priority system applicable to all intersections which have no traffic lights?
In other words, are there intersections where we have to consider which road is a main one and which is a secondary one and give priority to main ones, or does the right-hand side priority always apply?
Kindest regards.
Hi Kamal! I’m so happy that you found this post useful. You have a great question. The right-hand priority applies if there are no specific road signs indicating it’s not. So if none of those signs, then it’s always so that you give way for anyone on your right!
Probably the most important sign to understand for non-Finish speaking drivers is “keskusta”. After I figured that out, navigation was easy.
Lars T
USA
Oh my gosh, Lars, you have a great point! That’s so true! Thank you!
The road signs are helpful but is there any site to view what each of them means?
Hi! When I ”hover” on top of a sign, it shows the explanation in Finnish, Swedish and English? At least this works with my browser on mobile and desktop. 🙂