'm now thinking of going to Aland Islands from Tarku. There is a nonstop flight, 30 minutes, from Tarku to Mariehamn airport. It arrives late in the afternoon. I can get a flight from Mariehamn to Stockholm the next day about 24 hours later. (The flight to Stockholm is 35 minutes.)
Will that be enough time for basic visit.
I'm not entirely sure if you mean Tartu or Turku, but I'm going to assume the latter since I don't think there is a direct flight from Tartu to Mariehamn.
In general I think it's a good idea to visit Åland, it is a charming group of islands. And roughly 24 hours will give you time for a basic visit. If it's a valuable use of your time depends a bit on what the the rest of the itinerary looks like.
Although I'd recommend the ferry instead of flying. They offer great archipelago views, and more.
Although I slept through most of the passage, I could see that the Turku Archipelago was beautiful, and the Stockholm Archipelago is acknowledged to be lovely. I've never looked at the ferry schedule from the standpoint of traveling to or from the Aland Islands--on both occasions I was traveling from Stockholm to Turku, so I don't how the schedule works for someone spending a day on one of the islands.
I can say that waiting until only a few days before traveling may result in paying a high price indeed for cabin passage. Perhaps the fare remains basically stable if you don't need a cabin.
I've never looked at the ferry schedule from the standpoint of
traveling to or from the Aland Islands--on both occasions I was
traveling from Stockholm to Turku, so I don't how the schedule works
for someone spending a day on one of the islands.
The schedule works great. Apart from the night trip you took, there is a day trip in each direction that stops in Mariehamn.
Yes I meant Turku. Thanks for the info. I will relook at the ferry schedule.
Originally, the plan was to go to Vaasa from Turku, take the ferry across to Umea, and then the train to Trondheim. But the schedules were not great. The train I would need to Umea leaves around the same time the ferry arrives so I would have to either take an overnight train or wait until the next day.
Sounds like an interesting trip! When are you planning this?
Viking has daily departures on the route all year. Every morning, the ship Viking Glory leaves Turku heading for Stockholm and stops in Mariehamn just after lunch. And it's a pretty nice ship, here are some views of the interior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2855Q13VuAw And in the summer, Silja also has ships on the route.
It takes a bit longer than flying but is worth it, and the ship is not a bad place to have lunch and watch the archipelago pass by. After a day on Åland you can board the ship again the next day and continue to Stockholm. Or take some other route to Sweden, there are few other ferry routes.
I'll look into it.....the ferry takes well over 5 hours. Both ferries, the one from Turku and the one from Stockholm arrive in Mariehamn at the same time. It could be crowded.
I'm planning this section of my trip for the last week in May. It's part of a nearly three month total trip that starts in London , heads through Belgium, Germany, Poland, and the Baltic States before crossing into Finland. It will continue to areas in the Scandinavian/Nordic countries I have yet to visit.
Yes they both arrive at the same time. That's not by accident as it allows Viking to sell day cruises to Mariehamn and back both from Finland and from Sweden. If there are many day cruisers it might a bit crowded at the terminal, but that won't really affect you, if you're going to Mariehamn you just walk out of the terminal and you are in central Mariehamn.
