Getting to Finland from the UK

Getting to Finland from the UK

First some basics.  Finland uses “Eastern Europe Standard Time” which is two hours ahead of the UK.  Flight time is about three hours, but the difference in time zones makes it five hours of “clock time”.

This makes it important to get a fairly early flight out of the UK; otherwise you get to Finland too late to complete your journey easily.  Coming back is much easier because you get the two hours back, so you seem to land an hour after you took off.

Covid-19 Issues

There are no problems getting to/from Finland.

Airlines (Updated February 2024)

During Covid-19 lock-downs all airlines have had a tough time.  In particular several (including Norwegian) have had to raise a lot of cash, and cut back services and staff in order to survive.  Do pay with a credit card so that if anything goes wrong you can get a refund.

British Airways fly from Heathrow, Manchester, and Edinburgh (and possibly others), and share a lot of flights with Finnair, so you may have a BA ticket but find the plane has a Finnair logo on the tail, so check Finnair prices as well.  BA is probably at the expensive end of the market.

Finnair fly from Heathrow and Manchester several times a day (but be wary of later flight times).

Ryanair fly to Helsinki.  These flights may be at inconvenient times if you need to travel further to reach the boat.

SAS fly to Helsinki and Tampere from Heathrow, but some flights will involve changes in Stockholm or Oslo, which makes for a long day, and potentially a late arrival.

EasyJet have flown to Helsinki in the past, but don’t at present.  They do fly to Rovaniemi in Lapland if you’d like to see Father Christmas, but that’s a very long way from Helsinki.

Norwegian fly from Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh to Helsinki.  Good value, in our experience, not expensive and convenient timetables.  Make sure you’re looking at a direct flight, or they’ll fly you to Copenhagen/Oslo/Stockholm first.

As always do check to see what’s included in the quoted price, especially if you need to stick a bag in the hold.

One alternative that we’ve used in the past is to fly to Stockholm (lots of airlines, including SAS, BA, Ryanair and others), and get a ferry to either Turku or Helsinki from Stockholm harbour.  We’ve used Silja Line (http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/web/int/book-a-cruise)  and Viking Line (http://www.vikingline.com/) .  It’s a bit more expensive, adds a day, but gives you some time in Stockholm and is a good way to relax before you arrive.  You can still buy proper duty-free on the ferries.

After Landing

Once you’ve landed in Finland you’ll need to travel on to wherever Korybant is.  Finland has excellent public transport, the trains are all new and not too expensive, and there’s a big network of coach routes as well.  What you do next depends on where you’ve landed, and where the boat is:

Helsinki

Helsinki Vantaa airport is about 30 minutes from the city centre.  There is a train service direct to the main long-distance station in the city centre.

Unless you’re rich don’t take a taxi, they are very expensive, and not much quicker.

If the boat is in Helsinki then we’ll already have told you how to find us.

If we’re in Turku then you need to take a train.  These run at least every hour, usually leaving on the hour, and take two hours to get to Turku.   You can check timetables on line at https://www.vr.fi/en where you can also buy tickets, but there isn’t usually any saving and you need to commit to a particular train, which is a problem if your flight is late.  Seniors over 65 are entitled to a 50% (or so) discount, but you need to ask for a pensioners ticket.  Students only get a discount if studying in Finland, sadly.  Electronic tickets on your phone are accepted on the train.

The actual ticket price will depend on time of day and how fast the train is.  Allow €20-30 for a single (non-pensioner) ticket.

We’ll provide instructions for finding us in Turku (it’s a 15/20 minute walk, basically).

Other alternatives

There is always the option of hiring a car, but if everything goes to plan you won’t be able to use it much.

Getting to Finland from outside the UK

Finnair fly to lots of places, but you’re on your own here.  Do remember that a late arrival may cause problems due to the time difference.

Getting home afterwards

This should be simple, not least because the time difference works in your favour if you’re flying west.

Bad weather

There’s always a risk that we’ll get weather-bound somewhere.  Fortunately weather forecasts are pretty reliable for up to five days ahead, so we’ll have some warning.  Out in the islands there are daily ferry services to/from the mainland, and the ferries should run to places from which a bus/train will get you back to the airport, although you may need a night in a hotel at some point.  We’ve never needed to do this yet.