Finland, the country that keeps topping the World Happiness Report, has decided the dating apps aren't cutting it. Visit Finland is flying 16 singles from around the world to Finland in February 2027 for a four-day, all-expenses-paid food trip that ends with a candlelit group dinner alongside local Finnish singles.
Eight winners will be sent to Helsinki, eight to Tampere in the Lakeland region — and you don't get to pick. Your city is revealed only when you're confirmed, which the tourism board is calling the first blind match of the trip. Each dinner features a tasting menu by a big-name Finnish chef: Adele Kinnunen of Café Savoy (a MasterChef Suomi: Professionals runner-up) in Helsinki, and Henry Tikkanen, Finland's 2001 Chef of the Year, at Gösta in Tampere. Trips run between 9 and 19 February 2027, with flights, accommodation and hosted activities all covered.
The matchmaking has a distinctly Finnish origin story: Sinkkukori, the pink 'single basket' shoppers carry in supermarkets to signal they're open to meeting someone. Visit Finland swapped the grocery aisle for a tasting menu and an international guest list. "Food brings Finns together, and now we are inviting travelers to join us in a truly one-of-a-kind way," says Heli Jimenez, Senior Director of International Marketing at Business Finland.
There's strategy under the romance. Finland has led the World Happiness Report for nine straight years, but its cuisine lacks the fame of its Nordic neighbours. So earlier this year the tourism board asked locals to nominate the dishes that define the country, and built four official regional tasting menus from thousands of answers — wild fish, berries, mushrooms, game and classics. Lapland and the Coast and Archipelago menus launched in September; the February dinners debut the Helsinki and Lakeland versions, with a side of romance.
Want in? Applications close at 11.59am Finnish time on 10 November 2026. You answer one question — "What would you serve on a dinner date, and why?" — on video in English, post it to Instagram, TikTok or YouTube with #FinnishDinnerDate while tagging Visit Finland, then submit the form on the Finnish Dinner Date website with your video link. Instagram and TikTok accounts must be public; YouTube can stay unlisted if you'd rather keep the search discreet. Winners are announced on Visit Finland's Instagram and TikTok on 1 December 2026.
No promises you'll meet The One, but a free February food trip and a better story than any dating-app disaster is a decent consolation prize. For single travellers who like food-led trips and a bit of chaos in their itinerary, this is an easy one to enter — and even if you don't win, Finland's wider Official Tasting trips make a strong case for a winter visit anyway.
