Virtual tourist guide for people visiting Finland

[Nerzhul]

But just think about the hundreds of new dots you could gain!

[lmviterbo]

I checked how much a flight to Finland would cost, and I find nothing under €310 !

You could probably drive 210 km to Karlsruhe-Baden (Baden Airpark) and then take 2 Ryanairplanes: to London Stanstead and from there to Tampere. Assuming that you find the convenient dates, the cost of your trip could be as low as 2x(£0.99+£3.99) plus airport taxes, that is maybe around 40 EUR in total.

[Yannn]

Assuming the EBTM taking place on the 19-20-21/8, the Ryanair prices are :
Baden-->Stansted €69,99, + return €109,99
Stansted-->Tampere €59,99 same price for return

That's €299,96, and I should add the taxes, the parking fee in Baden, the gas for the car, and the train between Tampere and Helsinki, as EBTM is very likely to be there !

And I'm even not sure the different flights match, maybe I'd be forced to spend a night in Stansted.

[Dakkus]

As previously stated, it's very unlikely I come, because I'm going to be busy.
But moreover, I checked how much a flight to Finland would cost, and I find nothing under €310 ! 8O
And by car, it would be an exhausting journey : www.viamichelin.com tells me I'd have to drive 2003 km through France, Luxembourg, Germany, ferry to Denmark, then to Sweden, then ferry again to Finland, in 28h !!!

Try checking out the prizes of these companies for how to get to Bruxelles (Blue1), Cologne (Germanwings) or London-Stansted (Ryanair) from where airline companies fly to Finland for a good price:
UK & Ireland based
- AerArann [Ireland]
- Air 2000 [UK]
- Air Schotland [Schotland]
- Air Southwest [UK]
- Air Wales [UK]
- BMIbaby BMI British Midland [UK]
- British European [UK]
- Easyjet [UK]
- EU Jet [UK]
- Excel Airways [UK]
- Globespan [Schotland]
- Jet2 [UK]
- LoCo [UK]
- MyTravel Lite [UK]
- Monarch Airlines [UK]

Ryanair (Ireland)

- Ryanair [Ireland]
- Thomson Fly [UK]

Northern & Central based
- Air Berlin [DE]
- Basiqair Now Transavia [NL]
- Blue1 [Scandinavia]
- Budgetair [NL]
- Centralwings [Poland] (new)
- Condor [DE,Intercontinental] (new)
- Corendon [Turkey]
- Deutsche BA Project Easyjet [DE]
- Eastjet [SWE,Intercontinental] (new)
- Eurowings Project Lufthansa [DE]
- Flybaboo [Switzerland]
- Germania [DE]
- Germanwings [DE]
- Hapag Lloyd Express [DE]
- Hello [CH]
- Helvetic [CH]
- Iceland Express [ISL]
- Intersky [DE]
- Jets Sky [NL]
- LTU [DE,Intercontinental] (new)
- Niki [AT]
- Norwegian [Scandinavia]
- Scandjet [Scandinavia]
- Sky Europe [Slovakia]
- Smartwings [CZ]
- Snalskjutsen [SWE]
- Snowflake SAS [Scandinavia]
- Sterling [Denmark]
- Transavia Formerly Basiqair [NL]
- Virgin Express [Belgium]
- Wizz [HU]

Southern based
- Air Madrid [Spain,Intercontinental] (new)
- Air Malta [Malta]
- Alpi Eagles [Italy]
- Azurra Air [Italy]
- eVOLAvia [Italy]
- Hellas Jet [Greece]
- Meridiana [Italy]
- MyAir [Italy] (new)
- Vueling [Spain]

Eastern based
- Air Baltic [Latvia]
- Budgetair [NL]
- Centralwings [Poland] (new)
- Corendon [Turkey]
- Fly Bosnia [Bosnia]
- Sibir [Russia]
- Spirit of balkan [Bosnia]
- Wizz [Poland]

[Yannn]

Thanks for your involvement, Dakkus !
But unfortunately, it's often already very expensive to reach the cities where the low cost companies take off from, and their prices aren't cheap enough to make the deal worth it, except maybe for Brussels and the Blue1 company. The problem is, it seems impossible to check availability to more than 1 month, and there's not flights every day, with varying prices. I checked for january, I find €192 or €224 without taxes I'm afraid (+€100 to reach Brussels by train from here)

For Cologne or Stansted, from here it's even more expensive to reach them (by plane or train) than to book a plane "directly" to Helsinki.

I find €338,64 from Strasbourg (+- 120 km from here) to Helsinki via Frankfurt with Lufthansa ( www.anyway.fr )

[Fjon]

I have looked at various flights to Helsinki, and unfortuantely I too am not able to find anything under €300, which seems prohibitively high.
So far my options are:

Dublin - Stansted - Tampere - Helsinki (Ryanair, Bus)
Dublin - Charleroi - Brussels - Helsinki (Ryanair, Train, SN Brussels)
Dublin - Köln - Helsinki (Germanwings)

I know there are a few people who have flown from Finland to Dublin recently - how did you do it, and how much did it cost?

[Dakkus]

I have looked at various flights to Helsinki, and unfortuantely I too am not able to find anything under €300, which seems prohibitively high.
So far my options are:

Dublin - Stansted - Tampere - Helsinki (Ryanair, Bus)
Dublin - Charleroi - Brussels - Helsinki (Ryanair, Train, SN Brussels)
Dublin - Köln - Helsinki (Germanwings)

I know there are a few people who have flown from Finland to Dublin recently - how did you do it, and how much did it cost?

Shannon-Stockholm by Ryanair in August is 79,99€.
From Stockholm you can get to Finland (either Turku or Helsinki) by plane or ship. Viking Line ship to Turku is 25€. From Turku to Helsinki it's another 25€ by train, but you can probably get a ride by someone's car. The ship all the way to Helsinki takes a lot more time than ship+train and costs 47€.
If you took this route, you would also have to figure out a way from the Skavsta airport "in Stockholm" to Stockholm. That's some 10€ extra.
So, assuming the airport fees and taxes of Ryanair are some 15€, and that someone drives you from Turku to Helsinki (~150km) this would end up costing you some 130€/direction + getting to Shannon, which can be done by hitchhiking because you know the roads well enough :)

[Fjon]

The taxes in Shannon are €6.38. The taxes in Stockholm are €20.68. The return flight would cost me €176.94 then. Add another €100 (or €50 if I can find someone to drive me) for the trip from Stockholm to Helsinki, 20€ from Skavsta to Stockholm, and €24 bus ticket from Dublin to Shannon (I wouldn't bother hitch-hiking in Ireland).
So it would cost €320, or €270 if I can get a lift. The latter is just about acceptable, but it would still be nice to get someone a bit cheaper. I'm going to Helsinki in February and am paying €110 return

[Mako]

I know there are a few people who have flown from Finland to Dublin recently - how did you do it, and how much did it cost?

Last summer my direct Finnair flight from Helsinki to Dublin and back cost about 270 € including all taxes and fees. Finnair usually has summer discounts from late June to mid August.

[Craft]

And by car, it would be an exhausting journey : www.viamichelin.com tells me I'd have to drive 2003 km through France, Luxembourg, Germany, ferry to Denmark, then to Sweden, then ferry again to Finland, in 28h !!!

And it would be expensive, too: crossing the straits in Denmark and between Denmark and Sweden (by ferries or by bridges) costs a lot, and driving such long distances takes quite a lot of gazoline...

Is the ferry between Germany and Finland (Rostock - Hanko) a viable option for anyone? The cost for a roundtrip seems reasonable, but only if you can do without a cabin and don't have a car...

[Yannn]

And by car, it would be an exhausting journey : www.viamichelin.com tells me I'd have to drive 2003 km through France, Luxembourg, Germany, ferry to Denmark, then to Sweden, then ferry again to Finland, in 28h !!!

And it would be expensive, too: crossing the straits in Denmark and between Denmark and Sweden (by ferries or by bridges) costs a lot, and driving such long distances takes quite a lot of gazoline...

Sure... It would be profitable only if not coming alone... Like if someone with a big car picked up several EBTM 'comers' on his or her way to Helsinki, and sharing the costs...
Why are you staring at me ? No, I can't, my car is too small, it's a tiny Seat Arosa, almost the same as a VW Lupo !

[Dakkus]

And by car, it would be an exhausting journey : www.viamichelin.com tells me I'd have to drive 2003 km through France, Luxembourg, Germany, ferry to Denmark, then to Sweden, then ferry again to Finland, in 28h !!!

And it would be expensive, too: crossing the straits in Denmark and between Denmark and Sweden (by ferries or by bridges) costs a lot, and driving such long distances takes quite a lot of gazoline...

Sure... It would be profitable only if not coming alone... Like if someone with a big car picked up several EBTM 'comers' on his or her way to Helsinki, and sharing the costs...
Why are you staring at me ? No, I can't, my car is too small, it's a tiny Seat Arosa, almost the same as a VW Lupo ! :)

Then you drive to one tracker, leave your car there, take his bigger car and keep driving ;)
And driving through the Baltic countries is both faster and cheaper than any other way, so that's the way to choose instead of Sweden.

[Aaron]

And driving through the Baltic countries is both faster and cheaper than any other way, so that's the way to choose instead of Sweden.

Yes, driving through Baltic countries is cheaper - if you don't count in broken dampers and lost hub caps. The roads are very bad there and the local drivers are crazy.

[Yannn]

And driving through the Baltic countries is both faster and cheaper than any other way, so that's the way to choose instead of Sweden.

Yes, driving through Baltic countries is cheaper - if you don't count in broken dampers and lost hub caps. The roads are very bad there and the local drivers are crazy.

Yep, I wouldn't like to drive through Baltic states and Russia, as Aaron says for the state of the roads, the driving style of local people, and moreover because I'd fear aggression, theft, corrupted authorities, etc.
And I'm afraid I'd need a visa, at least to cross the Russian border... Better stay within the European Union !

[Dakkus]

And driving through the Baltic countries is both faster and cheaper than any other way, so that's the way to choose instead of Sweden.

Yes, driving through Baltic countries is cheaper - if you don't count in broken dampers and lost hub caps. :? The roads are very bad there and the local drivers are crazy.

Yep, I wouldn't like to drive through Baltic states and Russia, as Aaron says for the state of the roads, the driving style of local people, and moreover because I'd fear aggression, theft, corrupted authorities, etc.
And I'm afraid I'd need a visa, at least to cross the Russian border... Better stay within the European Union !

What Russian border? The countries are: France,( Belgium,) Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. All of them are EU countries. No need to have a visa, although a passport is still required for a few years. Driving from Tallinn to SPb and then back to Helsinki takes so much fuel and time it's anyway cheaper just taking the very cheap ferry over the pond.
And some of my friend's have taken the Via Baltica and stayed alive. Of course the traffic might sometimes be quite crazy, but I don't think that can be a real problem for a French person. I don't own a car and the only time I've been in a car in the Baltic countries was a bus trip from Tallinn (northern Estonia) to Pärnu (southern Estonia) and back by a bus. But even although I tried to see bad driving, I saw none. I've also been in a car in Benalmadenas near Malaga and can say they drive thousand times crazier than the Estonians do. There I saw people overtaking each others like maniacs and going faar over the speed limits. And still many of the people who say they wouldn't dare to take Via Baltica would find it OK enough going to Costa del Sol.
However, I've got no real idea about how Latvia, Lithuania or Poland work. I just think they most probably can't be much different from Estonia. And Estonia isn't really that bad.
For example all _new_ Ikarus buses bought to Finland are driven through Via Baltica. None of them have got stolen or wrecked.
I've also been hitchhiking by a motorway in Praha and in Bratislava and can say that they drove completely okay, too.

So, I think all this fuzz about the people in the EU+10 countries driving so reclessly is just great exaggeration caused by prejudices. Yes, they drive more dangerously than we do. Just not /that much/ more.

But.. Since yannn's apparently not going to come by car anyway, there's actually no point talking about this.