Survival Guide: How to get to Tampere
Tampere has an airport, where at least AirBaltic, Finnair, Blue1 and ryanair operate. Finlands largest airport is in Helsinki. If you only get a flight there you need to take a bus or train ride to Tampere. For that there are three ways:
A Bus ride straight from the airport lasting about 2 hours and costing 27 euros one way with matkahuolto busses (buying return tickets will save you 10%). You buy the ticket with cash (matkahuolto hasn’t noticed that we live in the 21st century) from the driver and you don’t need to book anything in advance.
A train ride, which also lasts about 2 hours and which prices depend a lot on how much in advance you book them. [please disregard the student prices on train or bus websites, they only accept Finnish student cards :(]
An adventurous chance of taking Onnibus (tickets start from a few euros), which leaves from Helsinki city center, but gets you directly to Hervanta, where you’ll be staying. Onnibus is of course a good idea, if you want to see some of Helsinki. Please reserve enough time to get to the city center. Easiest way to get to Helsinki city center is to take Finnair’s city bus from the airport. This bus costs 6.30 (from the driver with cash or debit/credit card) and the bus leaves every half an hour. The city bus and onnibus doesn’t stop at the same place. The city bus stops near the railway station and Onnibus leaves from the main bus station of Kamppi (walking distance 500 meters). When booking the Onnibus choose stations named “Helsinki” and “Tampere(Hervanta)”. There is also station called Tampere, but that’s not what you want.
You can also look for cheap flights to Tallinn or Stockholm.
If you get to Tallinn take a ferry to Helsinki and then a bus or train to Tampere.
From Stockholm you need to take a ferry to Turku or Helsinki and then a bus or train to Tampere. Those ferry rides take around 12 hours, so please consider this, when booking flights to Stockholm.
You can start planning your trip here: http://www.journey.fi/
for schedules and prices please check:
Buses:
http://www.matkahuolto.fi/en/
http://www.onnibus.fi
http://www.onniexpress.fi
http://media.finnair.com/files/pdf/FINNAIR_CITY_BUS_TIMETABLE.pdf
Trains:
http://www.vr.fi/en/index.html
Ferries:
http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/web/int/stockholm-turku (ferries Stockholm - Turku)
http://www.sales.vikingline.com/en/find-cruise-trip/route-traffic/stockholm-turku-vv/ (ferries Stockholm - Turku)
http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/web/int/helsinki-tallinn (ferries Helsinki - Tallinn)
http://www.sales.vikingline.com/en/find-cruise-trip/route-traffic/helsinki-tallinn-vv/ (ferries Helsinki - Tallinn)
https://www.eckeroline.fi/ (ferries Helsinki - Tallinn)
https://laevapiletid.ee/en (ferries Stockholm - Helsinki, Tallinn - Helsinki)