One thing to note is that Turku is also known as Åbo. Don't be fooled - they are the same place. In fact, since both Finnish and Swedish are official languages in Finland, many things have two names. Streets, for example, can be particularly confusing - what first appears on a map to be a street that changes its name is, more often than not, one street with two names. It might help to know that Finnish street names usually end in `katu' or `tie', while Swedish street names usually end in `gatan' or `vägen'. Any alternative Swedish names for places in this document will be given in parentheses.
Turku airport has direct services to Helsinki and Stockholm - as well as to various other towns in Finland. So, if you are planning to fly in you will no doubt be coming via one of those places. The first route that springs to your travel agent's mind will probably be via Helsinki, but if you are coming from Western Europe or North America that means doubling back on yourself. One of the other gateways might be better; Stockholm is often faster and cheaper. However, it really won't makethat much difference to your travelling time, so flight times, prices, and availability are probably more important factors.
The following airlines fly into Finland and have web sites:
One thing your travel agent might not know (or be bothered to find out) is that some carriers will sometimes give you a free connecting flight to Turku from Helsinki or Stockholm. Make sure you don't pay for this flight unless you have to.
If you do have to pay for your connecting flight to Turku, then perhaps you don't want to do that last leg by air anyway. Getting to Turku by bus or train from Helsinki is easy and inexpensive. The journey takes approximately 2 hours. Alternatively, you can catch an overnight ferry from Stockholm; this is also easy and inexpensive, but more relaxing than fast. See below for details.
The Helsinki Vantaa international airport is rather small airport and the personnel there are quite friendly. Hence it is rather difficult not to find your way to the buss stop outside the airport or the connecting flight straight to Turku airport, which is even smaller.
If you are coming to Turku from within Finland or from Russia, then rail could be the mode of transport for you. The timetables for trains in Finland are available on the web as well as a map of the Finnish rail system.
The VR Journey Search is quite convenient. You can choose to get on the train in Helsinki or Moscow, for example. The destination station is Turku.
The contact details for Finnish Railways are as follows:
VR Ltd, Finnish Railways
Vilhonkatu 13
PO Box 488
00101 HELSINKI
FINLAND
Phone: +358 9 707 3519 (UTC+3:00)
Fax: +358 9 707 4290
Phone: +358 9 100 124 (For trains to Russia, UTC:+300)
Fax: +358 9 707 2111 (For trains to Russia)
There is no train connection directly from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. You can take a taxi or a bus to the railway station of Helsinki. We recommend the Finnair City Bus.
Bus is another good choice if you are coming from within Finland or Russia. ExpressBus runs buses to Turku from St Petersburg, Helsinki, and Helsinki Vantaa Airport.
Choose "Turku" as the destination. Notice that the date is to be given in European format, where the first box should have the day of the month, the second box the month (1-12) and the biggest box the year. If you intend to take a buss directly from Helsinki-Vantaa airport, the place of departure should be "Helsinki-Vantaa Airport International terminal (Vantaa)". (You should get this departure station by just entering "Helsinki-Vantaa" too.)
Note: If you take the bus from Helsinki Vantaa Airport, then at some point along the journey the driver may pull up on a fairly anonymous looking stretch of highway and dump your bags by the side of the road. If this happens, get out and wait with your bags. There may already be another bus waiting there - in which case just get on it. If not wait until another bus comes along and picks you up.
There are also various ferries that can take you to either Turku or Helsinki from around the Baltic. Silja Line and Viking Line are the two main operators into Finland, but if you are travelling in a group or with a car. They operate large and very comfortable boats. Here are a few useful-looking ferry routes.
The contact details for Silja and Viking are as follows:
Silja Line
Kungsgatan 2 (Stureplan)
111 43 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Phone: +46 8 222-140 (UTC+2:00)
FAX: +46 8 611-9162
Viking Line
SJ-Centralstation
116 30 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Phone: +46 8 452-4000 (UTC+2:00)
Fax: +46 8 452-4015