Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa (Hotel Review)

There are three Hilton hotels in greater Helsinki: while the airport hotel is mainly focussing on flying guests, the two remaining one are both closely located to the water. For my October 2018 visit at SB-Pro Nurmijärvi, I decided to go for Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa, which is a bit outside the city, but felt to be a lovely location. Here is my review, whether it met my expectation.

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – Location

The hotel is located right at Laajalahti lake, which is finally already part of the Baltic Sea. Though it is some kilometres West of the city center, the connection is not that bad: the tram station Saunalahdentie is closeby. This allows you to be in some 30 minutes by taking Line 4 in the heart of Helsinki.

If you come by car, there are parking lots close to the entrance and at streetside. However, when I visited the hotel (I checked in comparably late), the only option to park safely was the (not too cozy) parking garage, which adds 20 Euro per night to your hotel bill.

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – Resort

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa is in fact a complex of three buildings. The reception is in the main building, which also hosts rooms, the hotel bar, the breakfast area and the fitness room. The Seaside Wing is across the small parking area hosts besides rooms (all sea view) a restaurant and the saunas and pool. Finally, slightly down the hill, there is the Conference & Event Center. In case of bad weather of Finnish winters, all buildings are connected by underground tunnels, which are not too charming, but functional.

There is a small gallery close to the reception, which shows you some of the most famous guests of the hotel. The most remarkable even hosted in the resort is quite likely the Bush-Gorbachev summit in 1990.

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – Rooms

I booked a standard room in a Hilton sale, which reduced the rate to amazing 72 EUR. As a Hilton Gold member, I received free breakfast and a room upgrade to a sea view deluxe room. The room was located in the third floor of the Seaside Wing. However, you enter the building through the fourth level (coming from the reception), so that I in fact went down one floor.

The room – as the whole hotel – looked a bit “traditional”. You could also call it 70s or 80s style or outdated. Nevertheless, I felt it was quite cozy and extremely well planned. There were plenty of power plugs, the bed was spacious and there were several helpful areas like a make-up one. Apart from complimentary water (another Hilton Gold amenity), there was also a delicious Fazer chocolate bar. The room even had an ironing board. Bathrobes and slippers are located in one of the closets.

The bathroom had both, shower and bathtub and was clean and spacious. It offered usual Hilton amenities, which I personally like quite much. Of course, the area also has a Finnish bidetta anal shower.

Nice room… But…

There were some things I did not like about the room. The worst thing to me was really the light and master plug. When you entered the room, you had to insert the room keycard and press the master switch to have light. The door closes quite quickly, so you are in the dark quite quickly. Even worse, the bedside room light switch were master switches as well. Does not sound too critical – but can be very strenous if you share the room with another person: you have to use the master switch in case you need to get up in the night, as the master switch also blocks the small lights close to the bedding. Depending what you did the evening before, the room might be fully illuminated then – my wife would definitely hate me for that! Having said that, at least the master switch neither influences the TV nor the power plugs at the working desk. In addition, there has been a small gap at the glass cover of the bathtub leading to the unfortunate situation that the floor may become wet quickly if you use the hand shower there.

Though third level rooms have direct access to the garage (which is very handy), you have to take some stairs to get there. Thus, I felt that the only barrier-free way from these rooms to the garage may be through the tunnel and from the reception side. Surprisingly, access to the garage has not been stated in the elevator.

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – Breakfast

Due to my Hilton status, the hotel offered me the full buffet breakfast. I absolutely enjoyed it, as the staff was nice and it offered a wide variety of warm and cold dishes, bread and health food like cereals and fruit.

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – Fitness / Wellness

As mentioned above, the fitness and wellness facilities are split between the two hotel buildings. The main building hosts the fitness area. I am not too much in that topic, but I felt it has a reasonable size and equipment. The gym is open 24 hours.

Sauna and pool are located on the first floor of the Seaside Wing. This also means that from both facilities you are able to go out to the lake shore. The area opens at 7am and closes at 10pm. Thereby, the sauna is only open from 7 to 10 and 17 to 22 hrs. Male and female saunas are separated. You may also book a private sauna. The “public” sauna area was very nice and had a cozy atmosphere. It also serves as changing room for the pool. The pool itself is quite slim, but has a quite nice length – I would guess some 13 metres. The area is also quite nice – there is however just limited space to sit down and relax or to leave your stuff. Next to that area, you may also book a masssage.

Finally, of course, you may just take a walk around the lake – what is better to stay fit and relaxed than to be outside (at least if Finnish weather is not too ugly…)?

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – Other Services

The room looked nicely serviced – especially the bathroom was spotless. The free WiFi was very fine in my point of view as well – there is also the option to upgrade to a premium connection.

The hotel staff at the reception and during breakfast was very friendly, so that I felt very welcome.

Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa – My View

There were some minor things like the strange accessibility of the garage and the high parking fees which finally prevented a Top Pick! rating. Nevertheless, Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa is a great stay – I can imagine that you especially love it in summer, when you can take even more profit of the nextby lake. Despite it is not absolutely central, the connections to the city are good. Breakfast was a real pleasure as well. I also liked the wellness / fitness facilities. Regarding the rate I paid, it is of course an amazing stay!