Last winter a friend of mine spent an Erasmus semester in Helsinki. I promised to visit and in the end we decided that I would pick him up in Helsinki at the end of the term and that we would then travel back to Austria through the Baltics (you can read about that trip here). So, I had to think about a way to get to Helsinki. Of course I did not want to fly because that would have been too easy and not very interesting. One option would have been to travel by train via Hamburg, Copenhagen and Malmö to Stockholm and then take the ferry to Finland. However, I preferred to explore a new route and started to look into possible ferry connections on the Baltic Sea. In the end it turned out that Finnlines was offering a very good deal on its Travemünde to Helsinki route for departures in December and January which suited my well.
Basic Information for your journey with Finnlines
Finnlines operates this route six times per week using the four ferries of the STAR-Class: "Finnmaid", "Finnstar", "Finnlady" and "Northlink". As mentioned above, the crossing takes about 28 hours which means that you can spend two nights on board. Until then my longest trip on any ship was the roughly 12 hours long trip from Helsinki to Turku so I was pretty curious what it would be like to spend more than a whole day on board of a ferry.
The full fare for one person, one way is between 132€ and 148€, depending on the season. Between May and September, this includes the use of a pullman seat, outside this period you have to book a bed in a cabin! Prices for cabin accomodation range from 80€ to 97€ for a bed in a three-bed inside cabin to 1056€ to 1250€ for the four-bed Owner's Suite.
Throughout the year, there are various discounts available which can save you up to 50%. If you are travelling with Interrail or Eurail, you get a 30% discount on the regular fare throughout the year by using the code "RAIL" on the Finnlines booking site. This discount does not apply for cabin accomodation or food packages! To book your ticket, please use our partner link to Finnlines - get best prices and offers and support our work at the same time. Thank you!
I decided to go in early January and as mentioned above got a pretty good deal for the crossing: I paid just 100€ for the trip and a bed in a three-bed inside cabin (which would be the cheapest category during winter season - pullman seats are available only during summer) plus 55€ for the food package which included brunch, dinner and breakfast. To get to Travemünde I took the night train from Wien to Berlin, spent a few hours in Berlin and then continued to Travemünde via Hamburg. For this part I too got a pretty good deal from Deutsche Bahn - book online here.
The terminals in Travemünde and Helsinki are easily accesible by public transport. To get to Travemünde Terminal, you can take bus 30, 31 or 40 from Lübeck Hauptbahnhof (central station) directly to the terminal. Alternatively, travel by train to Lübeck Travemünde. From Lübeck Travemünde Skandinavienkai station it is just one stop with the above mentioned buses to the terminal. It is not possible to reach the terminal on foot! If you have enough time, go to Lübeck Travemünde Strand station and have a walk along the seafront promenade before taking a bus to the terminal. In Helsinki, you have to take bus 90 from the terminal to Vuosaari metro station, the just take the metro to the city centre.
My trip to Helsinki
Normally, the southbound ferries are scheduled to arrive around 2100 in Travemünde. After unloading, cleaning the cabins and everything else that needs to be done and that I have no clue of, the ferries can be boarded from around midnight. The scheduled departure is around 0300 in the morning. However, on the day I was travelling, things were a bit different. As mentioned above I took the night train to Berlin and got there on time at 0900. I had included a stopover of a few hours there so that I would not arrive in Travemünde too early. During the previous days I had been checking on the weather forecasts and I were not disappointed: heavy winds were promising a rough sea which should make for an interesting crossing and maybe even a thin cover of ice off the Finnish coast. As I was walking through cold and windy Berlin I wasnt expecting the call from Finnlines though: I was told that due to the stormy conditions on the Baltic Sea the southbound ferry would arrive in Travemünde about three hours late. This meant that I would have to wait for boarding until around three o'clock in the morning - not the best news but you just have to deal with it, right?
In the afternoon I left Berlin and got on my train to Hamburg. I deliberately booked a EuroCity train that was slower than the shiny ICE trains but carried a Czech restaurant car where I had my standard meal of gulash soup, svickova and czech beer. When I arrived in Hamburg I decided to go for a quick walk to the nearby city centre to kill some time before I got on the regional train that would bring me to Lübeck. There, I had to change to another regional train and finally arrived in Lübeck Travemünde. It was already dark, it was cold and windy - not the best cicumstances for a walk on the beach but since I still had plenty of time left before the check-in would open I walked the few hundred metres from the station to the beach and had a stroll along the promenade. After some time it got really cold and I decided to head back to the station to get a bus to the ferry terminal. The bus driver was really friendly and accepted my rail ticket as a bus ticket. Note: Although there is a train station "Lübeck Travemünde Skandinavienkai" close to the ferry terminal there is no foot access to get there - you have to take bus line 40 to get to the terminal. Bus line 40 runs from Lübeck central station via the ferry terminal to Travemünde.
The ferry terminal is a modern, functional building you could find at any harbour. A few people were scattered around the huge building waiting for their ferries and I once again wondered why these terminals always seem to be designed to accomodate huge numbers of passengers when in reality most of them arrive by car and never get to see the terminal from inside. Anyway, the check-in at the Finnlines office was quick and easy and I was told by the very friendly staff that the ferry would be expected around midnight. There is no WiFi available at the terminal so entertainment is limited to some gaming machines, a supermarket and a bistro. Under normal circumstances this would be totally fine but the prospect of having to wait here for the next five to six hours or so was not too encouraging. I got something to eat from the supermarket, then had a look around the supermarket, trying to spend as much time there as possible, going through every aisle, checking out all the products - mostly cigarettes and alcohol of course. At eleven o'clock both the supermarket and bistro closed. During the following hours I somehow tried to pass the time - reading all brochures, leaflets, security instructions I could find, exploring the terminal building (I didn't discover anything interesting though), listening to music and browsing through old photos on my laptop...finally the ferry was ready for bording and we were brought on board with a small van.
Foot passengers are brought directly on board the ferry to the check-in. I had booked a bed in a three-bed inside cabin and was hoping to get a cabin on my own, however soon after I found my room I was joined by two other passengers: a music student from Germany who was on his way to Helsinki for an Erasmus semester and a Finnish guy who was working in France and Finland and who would travel between the two countries every few months by car and ferry. Then finally I could go to bed and quickly fell asleep.
The following day I woke up earlier than I would have expected. I slept really good, apparently the sea was calm - the weather map showed that the storm was passing over the Baltic Sea more northwards. Outside it was a bright and sunny day but of course it was quite cold, especially if you were standing in the wind. I took a few pictures and returned to my cabin before I headed to the restaurant for brunch. I had pre-booked the full meal package including brunch and dinner served on the sea day and breakfast on arrival day in Helsinki. You could also buy tickets for each meal separately on board but the pre-booked package will be cheaper. Due to our delayed departure from Travemünde the timetable for all meals had been postponed accordingly so I now had time well into the afternoon for brunch. All meals are served at a large buffet, drinks are included in the price. Normally I don't spend much money on restaurants and cafes on ferries as they are usually quite expensive but for a 24+ hours long trip 55€ for three buffet meals including drinks was a pretty good deal I think. The quality of the food was really good, however I think that they could offer a few more vegetarian options.
The restaurant is located towards the bow of deck 11, the uppermost passenger deck. On this deck you will also find two bars, a lounge, a number of small shops and the sauna. After the brunch I went upstairs to deck 12, where the panorama deck is located. It is also the location of the pullman seats.
Now some more photos. The text will follow soon.
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