Stockholm to Helsinki on Tallink boat

I don't know, but I can tell you that the fare on the overnight ferry I ended up taking from Stockholm to Turku on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, was nearly three times the cost it would have been if I'd booked it a few weeks earlier. I ended up paying a very painful 260 euros as a result of waiting till just a very few days before the trip to make the purchase. The cheapest cabins sold out in the meantime, which was one factor in the fare increase. Of course, if I'd needed to cancel the trip for some reason, I'd have been glad not to have bought the ticket too early. (The problem with that logic is that buying early couldn't have cost me more than what I paid for early purchase, which would have been less than 90 euros when I first started looking. Having waited, I lost roughly 170 euros due to the inflated cost.)

Edited to add: I took Viking rather than Tallink, but I'd expect fairly similar pricing behavior for the two ferry lines.

If you are confident at this point you will make the trip, I would buy now for the reasons acraven gave you.

I bought in early January for a trip that was to have been in August. Then 2 nephews decided to get married, so I had to cancel and rebook my whole trip - which doesn’t include the ferry at this point.

However, originally I paid an extra €5 for cancellation coverage and in my situation, it paid off. I quickly and easily received my refund. I did lose just under $10 on it - but a little over half was the cost of the cancellation €5, which was not refundable. Worthwhile in my case.

I just booked mine for July 24th & I was stunned by how inexpensive it is. If you have your dates, I'd book now. I am now trying to book train tickets from Stockholm to Copenhagen for July 29th & the prices are about $75 higher than they were last month so I'm regretting not booking. The train ride will cost 3 times more than the overnight ferry!

If you know when you're travelling, there is really no reason to wait to book tickets. But there is no reason to stress out over it either if your plan still isn't set in stone. Keep in mind that acraven wrote few weeks earlier, not few months earlier.

Also note that there are no Tallink boats between Sweden and Finland, I assume you mean Silja line.

I am now trying to book train tickets from Stockholm to Copenhagen for
July 29th & the prices are about $75 higher than they were last month
so I'm regretting not booking. The train ride will cost 3 times more
than the overnight ferry!

Train tickets from Stockholm to Copenhagen in July are not for sale yet. So what kind of strange overpriced third party scam site are you looking at?

Badger, it would be tricky to know the difference between Tallink and Silja. My reservation (and cancellation) email came from Tallink Silja and all my searches showed both names. So I would have assumed it was the same and just abbreviated my terminology to Tallink. I am sure I will rebook in the future and will watch out for that.

As I understand it both Badger and the OP are correct in that Silja is now one of the bigger subsidiary companies of the larger Tallink group.

But Silja as an independent company are no more.

This is borne out by Wikipedia (yes, I know Wiki's deservedly poor reputation) but in this case it looks right to my knowledge of the history of Silja- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silja_Line

So you can abbreviate the name either way, really, I think.

isn31c is more or less correct, Tallink now owns Silja Line and bookings and customer service for all routes are are handled by the common company Tallink Silja. Tallink decided to keep the Silja brand since it was a well known brand.

I don't know the exact corporate structure behind the ferries. But from a passenger point of view, ferries to and from Estonia are operated by Tallink and ferries between Sweden and Finland are operated by Silja Line.

I'm not pointing this out to be nitpicking, but when you arrive at the port you need to follow the signs for Silja Line, check in with Silja Line and so on. If you follow the Tallink signs you'll end up in the wrong place.

Excellent info to have! Thanks all!