2280 Help us plan our trip

I get a brain freeze when it comes to trip planning. I'm pretty good at the "Why don't we. . . " part, and paralyzed when it comes to final decisions. This summer we're planning to go to Helsinki, Finland to see Finn friends whom we met in the late 1970s. She's a veterinarian and he's an architect. And while we're there and so close we plan to go to St. Petersburg, either by train or by bus. We are working with a woman who helped us in 2003. Today she was riding in a car with another woman and mentioned what she was doing. The other woman said not only had she taken that exact same trip, but she had visited the couple we are planning to see (and indirectly she knows me too through my former job at the vet college).

So my husband called her, and of course, got a million suggestions because I think they stayed in Helsinki 9 months, not 2 weeks.

If you've been to Finland, or to St. Petersburg, I'm open to suggestions, especially any small tour company you might have used, little restaurant you loved, vistas you enjoyed, etc.

I've already told them I won't go naked in the sauna at their summer cottage.

Virtual tour of St. Petersburg