A friend & I want to travel from Chicago to Helsinki, Finland or Tallinn, Estonia & then Iceland leaving in mid-June & returning early July. I would like some advice on an efficient & frugal way to travel. What I have found for around $1300 takes about 19 hrs. to get there and back with 2-3 stops and very long layovers. Would it be better to have a 'home base' that may be cheaper to fly in and out of like Amsterdam or Dublin or Stockholm and then find less expensive flights to the two areas? We can take a ferry back & forth between Helsinki & Tallinn. For example, I found a cheap flight from Tallinn to Dublin on Ryan Air, but have read mixed reviews on the airlines.
I became fascinated with both Helsinki & Tallinn after seeing a Rick Steves' show on these two cities. Thanks
Posted by
San Diego
1540 posts
You might just check with a travel agent or AAA and see what they can do.
That will just give you an idea if your findings are good or not.
???
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
From Seattle, travelers have found Iceland Air prices to be competitive with the other large European carriers. I would fly as close to your destination as you can get reasonably on your trans-Atlantic carrier (and partners), so you can have luggage checked through and some protection in case of missed flight connections. If you missed a flight from Dublin on Ryan Air, you'd have to buy a new ticket, and not necessarily at the same low rate you originally found.
Posted by
OP
Bettendorf, USA
7 posts
Thanks, we decided on 2 one-way tickets: one on Icelandic Air and the return on SAS. We found a 23 hr layover in Copenhagen from Warsaw to Chicago which was 3$ more than a 6 hr. layover! Guess which one we took? Now we just have to find lodgings a long the way...