Saunas Can Warm Up Guests to Hardy Finland

Finns are a hardy lot, never more so than when they walk from the 212-degree dry heat of their beloved saunas to plunge into a lake through a hole in the ice. It gets the circulation going full tilt again, with the heart doing a Scandinavian flutter.

In days gone by the sauna was part of the pirtti , the living room and perhaps only room of a peasant home. Today there are considerably more than half a million saunas in Finland, almost one for every 10 Finns.

Helsinki is the largest city, yet even the smallest hotels have their saunas, usually electrically heated. Or grab a bus to a nearby island where the Finnish Sauna Society will give you the ancient version: log fires, hot stones on the stove, smoke room, bone-chilling water, the washerwoman giving you a thorough scrubbing.

But the best part comes after you’ve finished this Spartan ordeal and are swaddled in soft toweling, and are served brown bread and butter along with a chilled beer. It just may be the best food you’ve ever tasted.

We have a lot to learn about life’s basics from these sturdy Scandinavians.

To here: Finnair will fly you nonstop, Pan Am with a change in New York and SAS and Air France with home-country stops.

How long/how much? Give Helsinki two or three days, another for a boat trip to the island of Suomenlinna. Lodging is moderate to expensive, mostly the latter, while fine dining can be at reasonable cost.

A few fast facts: The Finnmark recently traded at 4.39 to the dollar, almost 23 cents each. June through September is the best time for a visit if you’re looking for reasonably comfortable weather, with spring and late autumn a bit too nippy for temperate-loving types.

Tram-bus-metro rides are $1.35, a Helsinki Card for $13.60 giving you any ground transportation (including a sightseeing tour by bus), free boat trips and admittance to more than 50 sights and museums.

Getting settled in: Martta Hottelli (Uudenmaankatu 24; $81 to $97 B&B; double) is a small one we’ve known for 25 years, and it gets better all the time. A short walk from town center, the Martta has perhaps the friendliest desk folks in Helsinki, all speaking perfect English. Bedrooms are attractive, with natural woods and fabrics, TVs and colorful and traditional rugs.

The breakfast-luncheon room is a cheerful spot, with some tables on the balcony. Martta does a typical Finnish hotel breakfast of juice, cereal, eggs, cold meats, marvelous breads and coffee. Lunch here at $6 brings folks from nearby offices.

Hottelli Hospiz (Vuorikatu 17; $88-$125 double B&B;) is another mid-town place, this one a fine study in Finnish modern from top to bottom. The same great breakfasts, with lunch a self-service exercise and dinner more formal. Less expensive bedrooms are a bit smaller but still comfortable.

Helka (Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 23; $100-$123 B&B; double) is a medium-size hotel, like the Hospiz, and is also at mid-city. It’s contemporary in design and offers meals, the requisite sauna, plus whirlpools.

Regional food and drink: Vital, vigorous and virile are the words for Finnish cooking, just as they are for the traditional sauna. Look for reindeer and elk steaks, roast and grilled pork, smoked herring, plenty of perch, deep-water fish, delectable crayfish in season and the most flavorful potatoes and carrots you can imagine.

While fresh leafy vegetables are not prevalent in Finland, zillions of mushroom and berry types end up on the table. And the Finns have their version of smorgasbord, voileipapoyta , which is a mouthful in itself. Koff is a good beer, while Mahla is a drink made of birch sap and vodka; it’s said to aid indigestion and a number of other ills. Have one with the Finnish word for skoal: kippis!

Good dining: Piekka (Mannerheimintie 68) prides itself on authentic Finnish cuisine, and even the decor has that admirable simplicity. As an appetizer we had thin slices of bear steak, a traditional village dish.

Pike perch (a pike’s form with perch coloring) was served in a creamy mustard sauce, while fillets of reindeer and elk were on the game menu, both flavored beautifully with juniper berries. Ptarmigan, a northern bird that changes coloring with the seasons, was superb in a buckthorn berry sauce.

Holvari (Yrjonkatu 15) is a cellar restaurant that specializes in wild mushroom dishes: chanterelles, parasols, boletus, morels and numerous others, all seasonal. The Russians introduced eastern Finland to the mushroom, so it’s in keeping that Holvari has Russian dishes on the menu, including blini with caviar and such fare.

Marskin Kellari (Mannerheimintie 10), an attractive cellar restaurant on the main street, is just opposite the Stockmann department store, a city landmark. You’ll find a broad menu of such items as whitefish braised in leek cream sauce, flounder stuffed with morels, grilled pork and stuffed cabbage rolls, a bow to the nearby Soviet Union. A typical lunch here is about $9.50.

Going first-class: Hotel Hesperia (Mannerheimintie 50; $177-$200 double B&B;) is every inch a fine hotel, with four restaurants, bars and saunas, a couple of swimming pools and a like number of nightclubs. We sampled the French and Russian restaurants and found them both without fault.

Alexander Nevski (Pohjoisesplanadi 17) is one of the best of a number of Russian restaurants. It’s elegant, dignified and with an air of czarist grandeur. The menu (in Russian, Finnish, Swedish and English) runs from borscht to blini to shasliks to lowly cabbage rolls with sour cream. We found everything there absolutely splendid.

On your own: Finland’s school of modern architecture and community planning comes close to being the world’s best, and a visit to the suburbs of Otaniemi and nearby Tapiola will show you why. Temppeliaukion Kirkko (the Rock Church) is an inspired and masterful work, both for a house of worship and concert hall.

Now take 15 minutes by boat to the fortress island of Suomenlinna, the nation’s bulwark against Russia from 1748 until it was overthrown 60 years later. On a more peaceful note: People come here from all over Finland when the island’s lilac is in springtime bloom.

And we can’t forget shoppers, nor can they ever forget Stockmann. There you’ll find Finland’s marvelous crystal, ceramics, furs and fabrics, the last by world-renowned designers Marimekko, Vuokko and Pentik, all of whom also have shops of their own on the North Esplanade.

Outdoor markets always tell you much about a city and its people, and you’ll find Helsinki’s at the very center of town on South Harbor opposite city hall. It’s as colorful as they get.

For more information: Call the Finnish Tourist Board at (212) 370-5540, or write (655 3rd Ave., 18th Floor, New York 10017) for a brochure on Helsinki’s sights, complete with city map, another on hotels and restaurants.