It was a hot afternoon in late-June as Luke and I stood outside of our Airbnb in Tallinn waiting for our Bolt driver to arrive. We had just spent the last few days exploring Tallinn, enjoying the hip food scene and the even hipper craft beer scene.
We were saying goodbye to the Baltics after two years of living in Lithuania. We were ready to explore a completely new-to-us part of Europe.
The Bolt driver dropped us off at the ferry terminal, but when we got out it looked more like a mall than a port. It hadn’t dawned on me until we were already well into our two-hour journey across the Gulf of Finland that most of the stores in that mall were selling alcohol.
The ferry terminal in Tallinn leads you right into a shopping mall so you can pick up a few last-minute bottles of beer!
Buying Tickets for the Ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn
The process of getting tickets for the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn or vice versa is pretty straightforward.
There are three companies that operate this route: Tallink, Viking Line, and Eckerö Line.
Tallink offers the fastest journey, but costs close to double the price. We booked our tickets with Viking Link. The tickets were €20 per person and it took almost exactly 2 hours to get there.
I recommend booking your ferry as far in advance as you can. The prices go up as you get closer to the date. They can also sell out a few days beforehand, so you don’t want to wait to buy them on the day only to discover you can’t sail that day.
I used the website Direct Ferries to compare the prices and times of the different ferries and then I booked the ticket directly on the Viking Line website.
The karaoke singing was one of my favorite things about this ferry. Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand how to sign up, but being a spectator was enough for our first journey.
Aboard the Ferry to Finland
The fun begins once you’re on board. Every time we met someone during our 10-day trip to Finland and told them that we took the ferry from Tallinn, they would say “Yes, it’s famous,” and laugh.
We boarded the ferry from the front. Most people had rushed on first to get a seat outside. Summer is short in this region of the world and people take their sun seriously. Cans of beer already in hand, people put their feet up on the lounge chairs or spread themselves across the picnic tables like it was a yacht deck rather than a public ferry.
The boat had several floors, one had a casino and another had a full restaurant. We found the bar and grabbed a table with a view out the window.
The bar was having a special, a pint of beer and a shot for €8. Considering it was only 12:30 pm and we hadn’t yet opened the tuna sandwiches we’d packed for lunch, we opted simply for a pint of beer each which was also €8.
It was at this moment that we took in the scene around us. The bar was full of families and groups of friends, tables already littered with empty pint glasses even though we’d only been on the boat for 20 minutes, a few bowls of peanuts, or a few bags of salted licorice. Next to each one of these groups were hand carts, the ones you use to move boxes from your apartment to your rented U-Haul, stacked to the top with crates of beer, cider, and Long Drink, a Finnish beverage that tastes kind of like an alcoholic Sprite.
A few of the stacks of beer and cider that people were bringing back to Helsinki with them.
Then a man took to the stage at the corner of the bar and started speaking Finnish into the microphone. People were cheering and clinking their glasses together in toasts. I thought the man was about to sing, give us a little onboard live music.
Well, we did get live music.
After he finished talking, someone got up from their seat at the bar and walked to the stage. The MC handed over the microphone and a TV screen that had previously been hidden by a curtain was revealed so that the song lyrics could be displayed.
For the next hour and 40 minutes, people in the crowd took turns singing karaoke, the singing getting worse as the €8 rounds of beer and spirits worked their way through the Finnish crowd.
Most of the songs must have been Finnish classics because everyone in the bar knew them, singing along to the chorus like we were at a Queen tribute band concert.
The front of the boat where everyone was enjoying the sunshine.
Arriving in Helsinki
After just over two hours we arrived at the port in Helsinki in the Katajanokka neighborhood. We followed everyone off the ferry as they dragged cases and cases of alcohol from the boat onto dry land.
There is a tram stop right outside of the terminal and we all filled the cars to the brim, the doors struggling to close. I didn’t understand how to buy a ticket, so we rode the packed tram for free to the main train station.
We learned later that night why everyone had brought home so much alcohol. We were standing in the front of the beer section at the grocery store trying to choose a few new-to-us Finnish craft beers. Individual cans lined an entire aisle of the supermarket. Each cost roughly €7-9.
Back in Estonia, you could buy a case of 24 beers for about €25-35 depending on the type, making it far more economical to buy in bulk on the other side of the Baltic Sea.
Not only is the tax on alcohol much higher in Finland, the strength of the alcohol is also closely regulated. They sell beer at the supermarket, but only if its 5.5% alcohol or less. If you want a bottle of wine, a strong beer, or a bottle of spirits, you have to go to the state-owned store called Alko. They are usually in the same building or very close to bigger supermarkets.
We had an amazing time in Helsinki. There’s a lot to see in the Finnish capital and we had beautiful weather and about 20 hours of daylight. The ferry ride felt like more of a look into the culture than anything else we did on this trip. Sometimes that’s how travel works. It’s the activities you least expect to be the most memorable that leave a lasting impression. As long as you’re paying attention.