"They opened a year or two ago, a really nice big sauna on the sea," he said. "It has some restaurants and you can jump in the sea."
Or they can take a boat across the gulf from one of the many Helsinki ports. There's a ferry to a private island enclave off the coast, which features only saunas and hot tubs, called Sauna Island. There also are bigger ships that make longer trips to Stockholm, Sweden, and Tallinn, Estonia.
Fans of dry-land exploration will have no shortage of fun things to do in Helsinki.
"They have lots of good museums and churches, a lot of nice buildings too," Barkov said. "When you jump out of a taxi you can walk around the whole city and see everything. … Lot of good restaurants and places to see. Downtown is nice. Have a lot of shopping centers over there. Just a lot of places to see and eat, sit down or walk around. It's a cool place. If it's not raining it's really beautiful outside."
Barkov said what he'd really like to do with anyone traveling to Finland would be take them about 125 miles north to Tampere.
His favorite spot is Sarkanniemi, an amusement park. Among the highlights are an aquarium, a planetarium, a children's zoo, an art museum and Nasinneula, a 551-foot tall observation tower that has a revolving restaurant at the top. It's modeled after the Space Needle in Seattle.
There also would be a stop at the local SiipiWeikot for some wings.
"I haven't found one place that's better," Barkov said.