Excursion to Finland by bus. One-day tours to Finland and Estonia. Excursion tours to Finland

Finland is a country in great demand among Russians. Travel here choose:

• fans ski resorts And active recreation,
• single and family lovers of European attractions,
• connoisseurs of wild northern nature.

The country borders the north of Russia, and flying there by plane is a matter of a couple of hours.

Where to go

There is a lot to do in Finland: ski resorts and Scandinavian nature will appeal to lovers of active recreation, sightseeing tours sightseeing tours of the country will captivate fans of history and architecture. Most popular among Russian tourists tours to Finland from Moscow with visits to the following places.

Helsinki. The capital of Finland is a relatively small but very picturesque city that attracts many tourists who want to see the sights. Excursion programs designed in such a way as to show travelers the main tourist places.

Attractions:

• Senate Square,
• Botanical Garden of the University of Helsinki,
• Lutheran Cathedral
• Assumption Cathedral

Tampere. It's picturesque ancient city, the most famous place of which is Pyynikki Park, which is distinguished by a truly unique topography. There is a summer theater with a revolving hall, allowing you to admire the beauty of nature. An excellent choice for connoisseurs of northern landscapes.

Attractions:

• observation tower Nyasinneula,
• town hall,
• Cathedral,
• Näsilinna Palace.

Naantali. Trip to Finland with visits to these places - great option For family tours. In Moomin Valley, little travelers meet the heroes of fairy tales, and on Pirate Island they test their courage during difficult trials. Parents and children will remember a few days in a fairyland for a long time and leave a pleasant impression.

Attractions:

• Kultaranta park,
• The gray stone church of Rymättylä,
• Moomin Valley,
• Pirate Island.

Tourists who love wildlife and fishing should visit the many lakes in this country. It’s not for nothing that Finland is called the land of a thousand lakes. Especially notable among them is Oulujärvi, the famous pure water and an abundance of fish. You can catch salmon, pike perch and pike here. To make your trip interesting and eventful, you should buy a tour to Finland in travel agency. Prices for tours to Finland are among the most affordable among Scandinavian countries. This is another reason for the growing popularity of holidays in these places.

You need to know this

• Holidays in Finland require a visa. Usually, the registration is handled by a travel agency that creates a tourist package, but you can do it yourself.
• Finns speak excellent English, so a tourist will feel great if he speaks this language. But the Russian language is also known to many Finns, since Russian tourists regularly visit this country. Many sellers in shopping centers and guides in museums will understand and serve Russian tourists, communicating in their native language.
• Most residents move around city streets on bicycles all year round. There are bike racks and bike paths everywhere. You can rent a bicycle for five euros per day or ten per week. Don't forget to wear a helmet: you may be fined for driving without protection.
• You can drink tap water: it is very clean in Finland.
• Finland is considered the birthplace of Santa Claus: the Santa Claus Village park is located here, which is open even on polar nights.
• Be sure to pay attention to the famous Finnish saunas: they say there are only three times fewer of them in the country than there are people.
• You can save on excursions if you plan a cultural holiday on museum days that are free for visitors.

It provides tourists with a lot of opportunities to relax, improve their health and get a boost of energy during the day. long time. This is a country of clean rivers, clear lakes and unique nature reserves. The tourism business is well developed in Finland. Here you can have a pleasant and inexpensive holiday at any time of the year. Travelers will see the magnificent landscapes of the Finnish coast, visit cities, get acquainted with the historical sights of the country, the culture and way of life of the Finns, and taste dishes national cuisine and will take with them a lot of photographs, videos and funny local souvenirs as souvenirs.

Most routes fall in the winter months. Popular arrivals for New Year and winter holidays schoolchildren, so tourists are recommended to purchase excursion tours to Finland from St. Petersburg in advance on our company’s website. We offer bus tours and sea cruises on board comfortable ferries. In three or four days you can visit not only Finland, but also the neighboring Baltic countries. The selection of tours on the company’s website will pleasantly surprise the most discerning visitor.

Inexpensive excursion tours to Finland from St. Petersburg - the cost of the trip is on average 5-10% lower!

You can always find a tour according to your wishes. Lovers health-improving holiday will be attracted by routes with stops at boarding houses offering SPA treatments. Connoisseurs of active recreation are welcome ski slopes, snowmobile safaris and dog sledding. Fishermen will enjoy spending time on the banks of rivers and lakes, where they can often catch trophy specimens of pike and salmon.

The tour programs include a variety of cultural and entertainment events: costumed performances, funny competitions, competitions, thematic quests. Tourists most often choose to travel to Finland bus routes or bus and ferry tours for several days. The price of the tour includes a standard package set of services:

• travel by transport;
• hotel reservation;
• meals according to the tour program;
• ordering tickets for excursions;
• guide accompaniment.

Additionally, you can apply for a visa, medical insurance, and book a hotel room of the required category. The managers of our company will be happy to arrange an individual trip and help organize an exciting trip to Finland at the request of a tourist for any period of time.

Many people choose Finland. What is good about this northern country? Ski resorts with affordable prices; New Year's magic; a treasure trove of attractions that date back centuries; the beauty of the Arctic; river rafting; fishing; cruises; festivals; health centers. It’s impossible to list all the “interesting things” of Finland, as well as all the options for organizing a vacation - it can be individual tour, a romantic trip for two or a trip for a whole group!

​​​​​​​​You can get here in different ways, however, ferry tours to Finland from St. Petersburg have recently become the most popular. All you have to do is buy a ticket from us, and such a trip will allow you to see what is left unnoticed when walking on land. From the water there are amazing views of the coastal areas.

When choosing a tour, you can focus on any time of the year. Holidays in Finland are good both in winter and during warm periods. It would be wrong to classify it as one of the countries that are only suitable for winter travel. A trip to Lapland is definitely worth planning for the winter, but other interesting places, whether visiting theme park Moomins, Linnanmäki, the zoo, the sights of Helsinki and other cities (for example, you can book a tour to Imatra for just 1 day), it is best to get acquainted with them in late spring or early autumn. IN summer time The tourist flow is also stable, but this is a period of heavy rainfall, which not all tourists like, but the cost of tours is more attractive. Most of the summer local residents(and many guests) spend time on the lakes. Here you can relax, go fishing, sunbathe and swim. By July, the water has already warmed up to 20 degrees. At the same time, the Baltic Sea is practically not considered from the perspective of beach tourism. Due to the cold currents, not many people risk opening the swimming season here.

Finland is a magical place where you can see northern lights. It can be observed from August to April in clear weather. There is even a belief that children who were conceived during this period will receive a happy fate.

The ski season starts in October. It is most comfortable here for beginners and tourists with an average level of skill. In addition to skiing, you can ride a motor sleigh or book a reindeer sleigh ride. There are also seasons for fishing. Grayling and pike are excellent prey for ice fishing in January and February, fish are excellent on artificial bait in the spring, and the ideal period for salmon is from May to June.
By choosing Scandinavian countries for your holiday, tours to which delight in diversity, you are guaranteed to get an unforgettable trip!

Tours to Europe via Finland are no less popular - in this case, you can get double the pleasure from the trip.

Today I will talk about bus tours to Finland and their specifics. The fact is that this country has long and firmly established itself in the hearts of bus tour lovers, especially those living in the North-West region. And I know at least a few good reasons for this. Firstly, the close location: you can drive to the nearest checkpoint from St. Petersburg in 3-4 hours, and from Vyborg in 40 minutes. Secondly, attractive prices for tours. Thirdly, of course, there is the need to “roll back” (this is a well-established word among travelers that means receiving the required number of stamps from the country that issued the visa) multi-Schengen, which citizens of the territories closest to the Finnish border are still willingly issued for a year, two, or even more. I’ll be honest: I personally mostly travel to Finland for last reason, because I often and with pleasure take the opportunity to ride on other European countries on last-minute tickets, for which it is very useful to always have an open visa in your passport.

The most popular among our compatriots are one-day tours to Finland: in a few hours you can easily explore some cute little town plus buy Fairy and fish in border shops. Those traveling for several days usually combine Finland with some other country.

Bus versus bus: tours or transfers

Before choosing a route, you should be concerned about the following difference: there are, in fact, bus tours when you are taken to different interesting places, and the tour guide on the bus tells all sorts of interesting things about them. And there are just regular (regular) buses that will take you to Finland only “there” or “there and back” without any sound and without stopping while waiting for tourists to drink coffee/get high/buy buns. This point needs to be understood: once in my memory, a company was catching up with a LuxExpress regular bus by taxi and then loudly indignant that they were abandoned on the road.

On the other hand, if your main goal is to “skate”, perhaps a regular bus will be for you the best option, rather than a tour. The same LuxExpress delivers very modern and comfortable ones to Finland vehicles with sockets and personal TVs. It will be more expensive than a one-day tour, but you don’t stop anywhere, aren’t distracted by the guide’s voice, and calmly write your dissertation on soil science during the entire 8-10 hour journey from St. Petersburg.

There is one more detail. If you still choose a tour, try not to get involved with small and dubious companies. The same applies to private taxis and minibuses. The Scandinavia highway (St. Petersburg - Finland), alas, is notorious for its regular traffic accidents. European companies like LuxExpress and Ecolines work according to European standards, which means that drivers there are required to change shifts after a certain number of hours. For many domestic travel agencies, this regime is too expensive. Once, in my memory, a bus (with me inside) rammed a bump stop and went into a ditch due to the driver being tired/sleeping. After which we spent 5 hours in the December night dancing around the stuck transport, waiting for a replacement to be sent.

Prices for tours to Finland, if we consider large ones tourist buses, start from 700 rubles. True, a short-term minibus tour can be found for 500 rubles, although you won’t see much in the country for that money (in fact, only a checkpoint and a couple of shops). Shuttle Buses will be more expensive: 550-900 rubles. one way, but such companies often have seasonal discounts.

Customs subtleties

First: if you are traveling to Finland for just a day, then you do not have the right to bring alcohol there in any quantity.

And second: no matter how many days you travel, if you enter Finland by vehicle (a bus, of course, is one) - you should not have more than two packs of cigarettes with you. The last rule is relatively new, and many people are not aware of it.

Shopping on bus tours

In general, bus tours are not the most convenient way to shop in Finland, but it is no secret that many “travelers” look at them that way. Wherever you go, you will probably be dropped off at at least some shops, most often in Finland these are:

• Prisma,
• Lidl,
• Stockmann.

But the most suitable tours for purchasing are trips to Imatra/Lappeenranta. I refer those who are interested in this topic in detail to the article, and here I will only briefly mention the coveted goods and the places where they can be obtained.

Trout and "Fairy"

The absolute hit is, of course, the fish. It literally starts throwing itself into your bags almost immediately after crossing the border - raw, salted, smoked. In fact, raw fish (that has not undergone heat treatment, that is, salted fish too), as well as meat in the same form, must be imported into the Russian Federation by customs regulations forbidden. Yes, and you can officially take no more than 5 kg of smoked/canned food back home. But in fact, customs officers turn a blind eye to this, because almost every second person on the bus strives to smuggle this unfortunate lightly salted salmon or trout from Finland, and, in all honesty, it is a sin to deprive people of such pleasure.

The next most popular items are general consumer goods, for which bus tourists raid cheap Laplandia and Rajamarket supermarkets. These are household detergents, coffee, olive oil, thermal underwear. For some reason, it is believed that all these goods in Finland are of much better quality than in Russia. Personally, I didn’t notice anything like that; However, it’s really hard to resist buying Fazer chocolates.

In principle, a visit to just two of the most famous border shops: Laplandia and Disa's Fish allows you to satisfy the passion of domestic tourists for trout and "Fairies". A stop with them is included in the program of the vast majority of bus tours in the directions of Imatra/Lappeenranta/. But to visit Duty Free It’s more complicated, there buses stop only if the border has been crossed quickly, and there is a little extra time left. But just in case, it’s worth knowing that in 2016 Laplandia at the Svetogorsk checkpoint was closed, only the one at the Brusnichnoye checkpoint remained.

Note:

• For those traveling to Kotka/Hamina/Helsinki/Porvoo: at the Torfyanovka checkpoint there is no “Laplandia” and never has been.
• For those who are generally only interested in Laplandia and Disa's Fish: many travel agencies offer the most stripped-down “Finland for 2 hours” tour. In fact, its program only includes crossing the border, stopping at these two shops and returning back.

Day Tours

One-day tours are the highlight of Finland: in fact, you can count on the fingers of one hand the countries where you can go by bus from Russia and return in less than a day. Their prices start from 700 rubles (Imatra, Lappeenranta) and go up to 1500 rubles (Helsinki,), which, of course, directly depends on the mileage.

Imatra and Lappeenranta

The most popular destinations for one-day “trailers” visas may disappoint those who plan to immediately feel the European flair after crossing the border. The truth is that both of these towns are very provincial, quiet and, in general, not very touristy. I combine them under one heading, since going from one to the other is nothing at all, although officially Imatra has its own checkpoint (Svetogorsk/Imatra), and Lappeenranta has its own (Brusnichnoe/Nuijamaa). Often, bus drivers, regardless of the destination city, choose the point where the queue is shorter.

Of this pair it is smaller in size and much more modest. There are no special architectural, cultural or historical attractions there, with the exception, perhaps, of the water slide on the Saimaa Canal, but its inspection is usually not included in the tour program. Most involve a stop of choice at a water park - this is what they go to Imatra for. You should know that the water park is not located in the town itself, but nearby, so if you stay there, you won’t see anything else.

Lappeenranta is larger and busier than its neighbor: there is even a center where you can stroll, and a small cove where you can watch the boats. If you are interested in purchasing, then your choice is definitely Lappeenranta, because it is here:

• Stockmann,
• Lidl,
• Prisma,
• Rajamarket,
• Shopping center "Gallery" with clothes and other non-grocery goods.

Another specific attraction of Lappeenranta is the huge Kirppis second-hand store, located near the Prisma store: hipsters come here for vintage clothes, housewives for household and garden utensils, young parents for children's things, and everyone else for other various sundries.

Savonlinna and Mikkeli

The town is located approximately in the same direction as Lappeenranta, but further away. If one day tour for the above-mentioned couple it begins in the morning and ends in the evening, then a one-day trip to Sanvonlinna takes a full day (usually leaving St. Petersburg from the evening of the previous day). And even this is not very helpful: Sanvonlinna or the “land of lakes” is, first of all, nature. It makes sense to go there for several days, equipped with fishing rods/nets/tents/friends.

The tour schedule is similar to the Sanwonlinn tour and differs from it only in character tourist sites. – a former and current military town with corresponding museums and attractions. It makes sense to visit it if you love the region military history.

Kotka and Hamina

Since these towns are located nearby, they are often combined into a single tour, also one day. It takes longer to get to them than to Imatra and Lappeenranta, but here you can already admire something: various churches, parks, the estate of the Russian emperor and marine aquarium(in Kotka).

Moreover, Kotka and Hamina are located on the Helsinki highway, so you will have to go there through another checkpoint - Torfyanovka / Vaalimaa. This border point is considered busier than Brusnichnoe or Svetogorsk.

Helsinki and Porvoo

The minimum duration of a bus tour is one day (departure from St. Petersburg in the evening). In this situation, you have about 6-7 hours left to explore the city, which, in principle, is enough to get a basic idea about it. Tourists are usually given a choice: dropped off in the center or sent to a large shopping complex(formerly "Ithakeskus") on the outskirts. The second option is hardly worth the effort: for amateurs shopping centers, as I already said, it’s worth going not to Helsinki, but to Lappeenranta.

The trip to Helsinki usually takes the same amount of time as the Helsinki tour and follows the same schedule. The city is quite large and interesting, with an abundance of museums and small designer shops. This, of course, is also not a destination for mass shopping; it is rather one of the “wander/look/find something exclusive” series.

Tampere

Despite the fact that Tampere is located further than all other “one-day” cities for tours in Finland, most companies manage to somehow manage trips there in the same day (well, a little more). The question is how much do you need it. Tampere is a pretty lake town with museums and even beaches, and a wide variety of water cruise options. Again, it’s good to go here for a few days and explore the surrounding area.

One of the most striking Tamperean attractions is amusement park Särkänniemi (this is where the Eden water park is located). The problem is that all this beauty is not in the city itself, but underneath it, and a standard one-day bus tour takes about 2 hours to visit the water park alone. Which, of course, is offensively little.

Multi-day tours

For those who are willing to spend a few days researching this unusual country, the choice is, of course, much richer. Prices for weekend tours range from 5,000–9,000 rubles; tours lasting 3 days or more cost an average of 11,000 rubles.

Trips around Northern Finland (lakes, recreation centers, fishing, sauna), Jyväskluja ( autumn festival light), Loviisa (the charm of wooden fishermen's houses). Even on (untouched wildlife) can be reached by bus (more precisely, you can get to Turku, and from there by ferry – after all, the islands).

The main catch is that you need to really love Finland in particular in order to select more and more new route options for these small cozy places. To be absolutely honest, after you see the first 2-3, they become very, very similar to each other.

Finland + ...

A separate story - combined tours, in which Finland is a place for crossing the border and spending one or two nights. The prices for such trips can pleasantly please tourists who are greedy for the maximum number of countries visited: for example, a three-day Finland + Sweden tour may well fit within the budget of 8,000 rubles. I also used last-minute offers for 5,000 rubles a couple of times.

However, I have to note that almost always semi-bus tours are disguised as ferry tours: it is understood that tourists travel to dry land, then board a ferry in the Finnish capital and sail further - to Sweden, Estonia or Germany. One of the most common combinations of Helsinki + + Talinn usually looks like this. If you look at Finland on a map, you will understand why: getting to neighboring country dry land from there would be too long. I note that ferries are different, and spending the night on a ferry does not always mean sleeping in a horizontal position on a human bed: I also had to sleep in chairs that are not much different from bus ones.

Reminder for bus tourists

In order to avoid surprises, and in general always, in a good way, you need not only to carefully read the tour program, but also not to be ashamed to bombard the manager of your travel agency with questions, and then, already on the way, continue to bombard the guide with them. Due to traffic conditions and other unfathomable circumstances, the actual program may differ significantly from that stated on the website. Although, in fairness, I note that this usually does not happen with large and respected companies.

Tour operator VAND organizes exciting trips to Scandinavian countries. Tours to Finland include visiting historical and cultural monuments, visiting museums, famous Finnish saunas, fishing and other outdoor activities. We offer accommodation in hotels and holidays in cottages.

The state occupies the most eastern part Scandinavian Peninsula, bordered by Sweden, Norway and Russia. Thanks to this geographical location Tours to Finland from Moscow are available at low prices and are in demand throughout the year. Moderately cold winter attracts skiers, snowboarders and other enthusiasts winter sports, and cool summers make for comfortable excursions.

Excursion tours to Finland

In Helsinki, you can walk through the picturesque Winter Garden and see the famous Temppeliaukio Church, built into a rock. Interesting old indoor market, National Museum Finland, scientific and entertainment complex "Eureka", Sea Life Aquarium.

Sveaborg Fortress is located on seven rocky islands off the coast of Helsinki. It was founded in the 18th century, and today there is a hostel and many museums on its territory. The object is included in the list World Heritage UNESCO.

The country has many natural attractions: national parks, botanical gardens, lakes, waterfalls, etc. And by ferry you can go on excursions to other European countries.

Information about cities and resorts in Finland, tours and prices can be found on our website.

Family vacation

In Lapland there is a village of Santa Claus - most interesting park Christmas themed entertainment. And in Naantali there is the Mumiy Troll Valley, which offers visitors a trip to fairy world.

Ski holiday

Winter tours to Finland from Moscow is a ride on alpine skiing, sleighs, reindeer and dog sleds, winter fishing and other entertainment. There are many ski resorts in the country: Levi, Saariselka, Rovaniemi, etc. The ski season begins in November and in some areas lasts until April.

Discover amazing world Finland together with the tour operator VAND!