Porvoo

Porvoo is the second-oldest town in Finland, and its Old Town (Vanha Porvoo) is the country's most photographed: a tight grid of cobbled lanes and timber houses climbing the hill to a 15th-century cathedral, with a row of rust-red wooden storehouses lining the river below. The shore houses were built in the 1760s to store goods shipped in along the Porvoonjoki, and their ochre-red gables are now the postcard image of the town.

It sits about 50 kilometres east of Helsinki, close enough for an easy day trip by bus or summer riverboat, but it has quietly become a destination in its own right. The Old Town streets of Jokikatu and Välikatu are packed with independent craft shops, antique dealers and design boutiques, and the cafe culture runs deep, from the nostalgic wooden tea rooms to Brunberg, the chocolatier that has made sweets here since 1871.

The food has caught up with the looks. Porvoo is home to VÅR, a Michelin-starred kitchen widely rated the best restaurant in Finland outside Helsinki, and SicaPelle, a tasting-menu room tucked into a cellar by the cathedral, alongside a clutch of relaxed bistros doing modern New Finnish cooking at fair prices. Come for the lanes and the river, stay for the table.