Here we summarized a few trips that you can take in and around Finland during your stay in Turku.
Helsinki
Visit Helsinki, the capital of Finland, for a one-day or weekend trip. Just like Turku, the city is located in the south of Finland and offers a stunning city center and many
beautiful islands, like the fortress island Suomenlinna.
From Turku you can take the bus or train to Helsinki. Tickets range between 8 and 30€, depending on the time and date of your journey. The rides take about 2h, both by train and bus and provide you with Internet during the journey.
Stockholm
From Turku it’s very easy to travel to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. You can either take the plane or go by ferry, here the prices are around 80€. If you take the night ferry,
you will be provided with a small cabin, including a very comfortable bed, a private bathroom, free internet and towels. Of course it is up to you for how long you’ll stay in Stockholm, but usually one weekend gives you enough time to explore the most important places of the city. On the ferry ride to Stockholm, the ferry sometimes stops over in Åland, an Island group, between Finland and Sweden.
Tallinn
Visit Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. From Helsinki it takes a 2h ferry ride to get to Tallinn, the tickets are usually around 40€.
The city is historical, beautiful and affordable.
If you want to stay longer than one day you can rent an Airbnb, which is also very affordable. If you have the chance to visit Tallinn during Christmas time, do it! During this season you can enjoy the beautiful Christmas market in the old town.
Saint Petersburg
Many associations (e.g. “Student Trips”, “Time Travels”, “ESN”) offer trips to Russia, that are visa free and include traveling by ferry.
For example, we went to Russia with “Student Trips”. It was a 5 days trip, and cost 245€ (transport and accommodation included). In total we traveled by ferry for two nights and spend three days in the city. With “Student Trips” you can also choose to go to Moscow, which will be a bit more expensive but can be a great experience too.
Lapland
Many associations offer trips to Lapland, more specifically around the Santa Claus Village. The prices range from 150€ to 300€ with only transport and accommodation included, but you have the possibility to book the activities you prefer.
However, we chose to go by ourselves without any organization, to have more freedom. In the end, it was less expensive because we were a group of four and we could split the expenses by four. We preferred doing it this way to choose the experiences that we wanted to do the most. In Lapland, there are so many things to see and it can get very expensive very quickly. It can be helpful to save money in transport and accommodation, to have as much money left for the actual experiences.
If you want to explore the landscapes and get away from the cities you will need a car.
On our trip, we paid 150€ each for renting the car, the accommodation and train ride (from Turku to Oulu).
Archipelago
The Archipelago of Turku, a beautiful group of little islands is a great place to spend time out in nature. It is located south of the city and reachable by bus from Turku. During the summer season you can visit the national park and do the archipelago trail (a route that combines all the islands). The Archipelago as itself, is open the whole year around.
Comments