"we were considering staying in Helsinki. we'd get up each day, have breakfast, decide where to go and then drive there. by the time we reached our destination, the sun would be up. after seeing everything there, the sun would be coming down again, we'd drive back to Helsinki and return to the hotel, etc."
I´m the third guy from Finland :-)
If You travel to Finland and deside to stay in Helsinki and make daytrips You will mainly see an area that covers max 300 km around the city. And that means at least 6-8 hours of driving every day if You drive back to town too.
I live in Helsinki and I would not recommend that. Rush hours are rush hours here too and every morning from 7-9 and every evening from 3-6 it´s quite heavy traffic.
Southern coast has indeed very nice small towns like Porvoo, Hamina,Hanko etc but those towns are best to see in summer time. As Helsinki too.
People come to Finland at winter to see snow and silent nature. Wilderness in Lappland is totally different than the nature in south. And people in north don´t think that Rovaniemi is really North.
They say (and I agree) that Lappland begins from Rovaniemi.
Consider to go to Lappland and reserve hotels from the skiing centres perhaps? Ylläs is a very good place. Also I can recommend Saariselkä and Pyhätunturi.
If You go to those places Youll get the most out from Your experience in Lappland by combining skiing and short daytrekkings. Since You don´t seem to have experience of polar area You´ll better join/buy guided hikes (actually crosscountry-skiing treks or snowcat-treks).
They will offer these kind of services in every skiing-centre in Lappland.
Check for example these pages:
http://www.yllas.fihttp://www.saariselka.fiThese are also in english so press the button - and wellcome!
regards,
Sami