When is Finland quietest? Tourist nights by month

TL;DR

July is Finland's busiest month, with 14.0% of 2025's tourist nights, and April the quietest, with 6.3%. July and August together carried 24.1% of the year, making Finland the third least seasonal of 35 European countries we measured. September was quieter than June, at 7.8% against 10.0%.

Northern lights over a lake in Oulu, Finland
Northern lights over a lake in Oulu, Finland. Photo by Joni Tuohimaa on Pexels.

Finland, month by month

Share of Finland's 2025 tourist nights, by month Hotels, holiday and short-stay accommodation and campsites. All guests. Source: Eurostat.1
0%5%10%15%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
  • Two busiest months
  • Other months

When is Finland busiest, and when is it quietest?

July was the busiest month in 2025, with 14.0% of the year's tourist nights. April was the quietest, with 6.3%. That makes July 2.2 times as busy as April.1

Nine months each carried less than an average month's share of 8.3%: January, February, March, April, May, September, October, November and December.

Who stays in Finland: residents or guests from abroad?

In 2025, guests living abroad spent 30.9% of Finland's tourist nights. Residents of Finland spent the rest.1

Share of each month's nights spent by guests living abroad, Finland, 2025 Hotels, holiday and short-stay accommodation and campsites. Source: Eurostat.1
0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
  • Highest share from abroad
  • Other months

The share from abroad was highest in December, at 51.0% of that month's nights, and lowest in April, at 21.6%.1

Residents spent more than half of the month's nights in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November. Guests from abroad spent more than half in December.

Eurostat counts guests by the country they live in, not by nationality.2

How seasonal is Finland compared with the rest of Europe?

July and August together carried 24.1% of Finland's nights. Ranked by that share, Finland is the third least seasonal of the 35 European countries we measured, where 1 is the country most concentrated into its two busiest months.1

For comparison, the most seasonal country on this measure was Croatia at 54.5%, and the least seasonal was Malta at 21.8%. See all 35 countries ranked.

Which regions of Finland are least seasonal?

Across 5 regions, the share of 2025 tourist nights falling in each region's two busiest months ran from 22.6% in Helsinki-Uusimaa to 47.9% in Åland.3

In 1 of the 5 regions the busiest month was not July: Helsinki-Uusimaa (August).3

Regions of Finland by share of 2025 tourist nights in their two busiest months, most seasonal first
RegionNights in busiest two monthsBusiestQuietest
Åland47.9%JulyDecember
Etelä-Suomi28.5%JulyJanuary
Länsi-Suomi28.5%JulyDecember
Pohjois- ja Itä-Suomi24.7%JulyMay
Helsinki-Uusimaa22.6%AugustJanuary

Regional figures come from Eurostat's regional dataset, last updated on 2 July 2026, and can differ slightly from the national monthly figures above, which Eurostat updated in September. For Finland they match those figures. See all 123 regions ranked.

How full are Finland's hotels each month?

Hotel rooms were fullest in July, when 63.5% were in use, and emptiest in April, at 45.8%.4

Share of hotel rooms in use each month, Finland, 2025 Hotels and similar accommodation. Source: Eurostat.4
0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
  • Fullest month
  • Other months

This is Eurostat's net occupancy rate of bedrooms: bedrooms in use divided by bedrooms available. It covers hotels and similar places only, not campsites or holiday lets, so it can peak in a different month from the nights figures above.2

Where do Finland's visitors from abroad come from?

Among guests living abroad, the largest group came from Germany, with 10.8% of their 2025 nights, followed by the United Kingdom (9.5%) and Sweden (7.6%).5

Top five countries of residence of foreign guests in Finland, share of 2025 nights by guests living abroad
Country of residenceShare of nights by guests from abroad
Germany10.8%
United Kingdom9.5%
Sweden7.6%
United States6.9%
France5.9%

Guests are counted by the country they live in. Eurostat publishes only some countries separately and groups the rest into regions, so smaller countries cannot appear in this list. Switzerland and Liechtenstein are published as one.

How long do guests stay in Finland?

Guests stayed an average of 1.8 nights each time they checked in at tourist accommodation in Finland in 2025: 23,293,003 nights across 13,008,024 arrivals.6 Across the 33 countries on this site with complete figures, the average ran from 1.5 nights in Iceland to 4.7 in Cyprus.6

This is our division of Eurostat's two counts. Eurostat counts an arrival each time a guest checks in at a place to stay, so a traveller who moves between places is counted more than once, and a whole trip is longer than the figure suggests.2

Did accommodation in Finland get more expensive in 2025?

On Eurostat's harmonised index of consumer prices, prices of accommodation services in Finland were 3.4% lower on average in 2025 than in 2024. Across the EU the rise was 4.1%.7

This measures how prices changed, not what a stay costs, so check the current price when you book. Accommodation services cover hotels, motels and inns; holiday centres, campsites and youth hostels; and other places to stay.

What are Finland's public holidays in 2026 and 2027?

In Finland, public holidays fall on 13 days in both 2026 and 2027.8 In 2026, 6 of those days are a Saturday or Sunday.8 Midsummer Eve and Christmas Eve are not public holidays in Finnish law.

Public holidays in Finland, 2026 and 2027
Holiday20262027
New Year's Day
uudenvuodenpäivä
Thu 1 JanuaryFri 1 January
Epiphany
loppiainen
Tue 6 JanuaryWed 6 January
Good Friday
pitkäperjantai
Fri 3 AprilFri 26 March
Easter Sunday
pääsiäispäivä
Sun 5 AprilSun 28 March
Easter Monday
toinen pääsiäispäivä
Mon 6 AprilMon 29 March
May Day
vapunpäivä
Fri 1 MaySat 1 May
Ascension Day
helatorstai
Thu 14 MayThu 6 May
Whit Sunday
helluntai
Sun 24 MaySun 16 May
Midsummer Day
juhannuspäivä
Sat 20 JuneSat 26 June
All Saints' Day
pyhäinpäivä
Sat 31 OctoberSat 6 November
Independence Day
itsenäisyyspäivä
Sun 6 DecemberMon 6 December
Christmas Day
joulupäivä
Fri 25 DecemberSat 25 December
Second day of Christmas
toinen joulupäivä
Sat 26 DecemberSun 26 December

We took these from the law or the government's own list, not from a holiday website, and worked out the dates that move each year, such as Easter, from the rules in the law. The European Commission's list for 2026 differs: it lists days off work, so it leaves out the four holidays that fall on a weekend in 2026 and adds Midsummer Eve and Christmas Eve. We follow the national source.9 Regional and local holidays are not included.

What is the weather like in Helsinki each month?

Averaged over 1991–2020, the HelsinkiKaisaniemi weather station, which we use for Helsinki, is warmest in July, with an average high of 21.9 °C, and coldest in February, with an average low of −6.3 °C. Its wettest month is August (81 mm of rain on average) and its driest March and April (34 mm).10

In April, Finland's quietest month, the station's average high is 8.1 °C and its average low 1.1 °C, with 34 mm of rain. In July, the busiest, the average high is 21.9 °C.10

In April the station averages 7.3 days with at least 1 mm of rain.10 On 15 April the sun is up for about 14 h 35 min there, against 18 h 5 min on 15 July.11

Helsinki, average monthly weather, 1991 to 2020
MonthAverage highAverage lowRainRainy daysDaylight on the 15th
January−0.7 °C−5.6 °C53 mm11.5 days6 h 40 min
February−1.3 °C−6.3 °C38 mm8.8 days9 h 10 min
March2.3 °C−3.6 °C34 mm7.6 days11 h 45 min
April8.1 °C1.1 °C34 mm7.3 days14 h 35 min
May14.6 °C6.4 °C38 mm6.8 days17 h 10 min
June18.8 °C11.2 °C60 mm8.4 days18 h 55 min
July21.9 °C14.5 °C57 mm7.4 days18 h 5 min
August20.5 °C13.5 °C81 mm9.7 days15 h 40 min
September15.4 °C9.3 °C56 mm8.6 days12 h 55 min
October9.2 °C4.2 °C73 mm10.2 days10 h 10 min
November4.4 °C0.4 °C69 mm11.5 days7 h 30 min
December1.4 °C−2.9 °C58 mm11.3 days5 h 50 min

Thirty-year averages from one weather station, HelsinkiKaisaniemi, which we use for Helsinki. They describe a typical year at that station, not a forecast, and weather varies across Finland. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain. The source has no complete sunshine figures for this station, so we show none. Daylight is not measured: it is our calculation of the time from sunrise to sunset.

June or September? May or October?

September was quieter than June, at 7.8% against 10.0%.

May was quieter than October, at 6.9% against 7.3%.

These compare months at similar distances from the summer peak. For typical weather in Helsinki, see the weather section.

What these figures cannot tell you

These figures are good at one thing: showing when a country's registered tourist accommodation fills up. Four things they cannot do.

They miss some small places. The counts cover hotels, holiday and short-stay accommodation and campsites, but countries may exclude establishments with fewer than ten bed places, so small guesthouses can be missing.2

Nights are not queues. A national monthly total cannot see how busy one old town, beach or museum is on a given day.

Tourist nights say nothing about weather or prices. The weather section uses 30-year averages from one station, not a forecast. The price section shows how accommodation prices changed, not what a stay costs.

They are one year. These are 2025 figures. Patterns shift from year to year, and Eurostat revises its data as countries update their returns.

The full year

Finland, tourist nights by month, 2025
MonthShare of yearNightsFrom abroad
January6.9%1,602,80042.5%
February7.9%1,834,56838.7%
March7.8%1,825,56233.4%
April6.3%1,468,79421.6%
May6.9%1,595,97926.4%
June10.0%2,332,98525.3%
July (one of the two busiest months)14.0%3,254,44222.3%
August (one of the two busiest months)10.1%2,355,38132.4%
September7.8%1,807,15126.6%
October7.3%1,708,73823.2%
November6.7%1,566,68932.1%
December8.3%1,939,91451.0%

Total for 2025: 23,293,003 nights, 30.9% of them by guests living abroad. The two busiest months are marked. "From abroad" is the share of that month's nights spent by guests living outside Finland.

Key takeaways

  • April was Finland's quietest month in 2025, with 6.3% of the year's tourist nights.
  • July and August were the busiest, carrying 24.1% of the year between them.
  • Finland ranks 33 of 35 European countries for seasonal concentration, where 1 is the most concentrated.
  • Guests living abroad spent 30.9% of Finland's 2025 tourist nights; residents spent the rest.
  • Hotel rooms were fullest in July (63.5% in use) and emptiest in April (45.8%).
  • Public holidays in Finland fall on 13 days in both 2026 and 2027.
  • September was quieter than June, at 7.8% against 10.0%.
  • What we would skip: assuming every shoulder month is equally quiet. In Finland, June carried 10.0% of the year's nights against September's 7.8%.

Sources

The tourism and hotel figures on this page come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, which receives them from each country's national statistical authority. The weather averages come from the World Meteorological Organization's 1991–2020 climate normals, published by the US National Centers for Environmental Information. We downloaded the data directly and calculated the shares, rankings and comparisons ourselves. See how we research.

  1. Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
  2. Eurostat, Tourist accommodation reference metadata, on collection by national authorities under Regulation (EU) 692/2011, the definition of a night spent, country of residence, and the ten-bed-place threshold. Read it. Checked 17 September 2026.
  3. Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments by month and NUTS 2 region, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIN2M, accessed 22 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 2 July 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests, 2025, by month. Region names are Eurostat's.
  4. Source: Eurostat, Net occupancy rate of bed-places and bedrooms in hotels and similar accommodation – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_MNOR, accessed 22 September 2026. Extract: bedrooms, percentage, January–December 2025.
  5. Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments by country of origin of the tourist, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NINRAW, accessed 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, 2025.
  6. Source: Eurostat, Arrivals at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_ARM, with the nights data (tour_occ_nim), accessed 25 September 2026. Extract: number of arrivals and nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests, January–December 2025. Average stay is our calculation: nights divided by arrivals.
  7. Source: Eurostat, HICP – annual data (average index and rate of change), doi:10.2908/PRC_HICP_AIND, accessed 22 September 2026. Extract: accommodation services (COICOP CP112), annual average rate of change, 2025.
  8. Public holidays: Finlex: Church Act 652/2023, ch. 1 s. 6; Church Order 657/2023; Act 388/1937 (Independence Day); Act 272/1944 (1 May). Read it. Accessed 23 September 2026.
  9. European Commission, Public holidays 2026, Official Journal of the European Union C/2025/6771, ELI. Used only as a cross-check. Accessed 23 September 2026.
  10. Weather: WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), station HelsinkiKaisaniemi (station ID 00002978), mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of days with at least 1 mm of precipitation, normals computed from at least 24 years. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.25921/800j-vn07. Accessed 22 September 2026. Released by NOAA under CC0.
  11. Daylight: our calculation of the time from sunrise to sunset on the 15th of each month of 2026 at the weather station's location, by the method of the NOAA Solar Calculator (NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, “Solar Calculation Details”, based on Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, allowing 0.833° for refraction and the size of the sun). Read it. Checked 22 September 2026. NOAA notes that calculated times can differ from what is observed.

Modified data. The monthly shares, residence shares, rankings and comparisons are our own calculations from Eurostat's counts. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so they may not add exactly. Eurostat bears no responsibility for these calculations or for how the figures are presented here. Rainfall is rounded to the nearest millimetre; temperatures are shown as published.