From Paris to Helsinki

Well, it's a really long walk, including a pretty daunting swim. Seriously, how else COULD you get there? Have you seen a map? There is no rail possible. Should you be crazy enough to want to train through Denmark, into Sweden & up to the arctic circle, with the intention of going up&over into Finland, you can't. The rails used in Finland are a different guage than the rest of Europe. You have to get off the train in Sweden, get on a bus to Finland, then get on a Finnish train to complete the journey. All that would probably eat up about 48 hours. Or it's a 2-3 hour flight.

You have to fly. But one option is to fly into Stockholm and enjoy the city for a couple days if you can. Then take the overnight ferry to Helsinki. It's like a cruise and the trip through Stockholm's archipelago is stunning. And arrival into Helsinki the next morning is almost as good. Well worth the effort.

Thanks for the suggestions! They are helpful in planning my trip to Helsinki!!!!

Hi, As you said, the quickest way is by air, but it is quite possible to go by a combination of train/ferry. Of course, it depends upon any time constraint you might have. Aside from the flying option, I myself would take the CNL night train Paris-Berlin, which is direct. Then change at Berlin Hbf to Rostock, a couple of hours. At Rostock you can catch the ferry to Helsinki, which takes ca. 21 hour. Check the Finnlines schedule. I don't know about flights Paris-Helsinki, but you can fly from London Gatwick-Helsinki or Berlin Schönefeld to Helsinki.

You could go overland all the way - I've done it. It will take days and cost a lot, but it's quite an adventure. If you work your way by train up to Copenhagen, which is easy enough from Paris, you've got a good staging point into Scandinavia. The route I did was: up through Oslo and all the way to the end of the Norwegian rail network in Bodø. From Bodø, a short flight (or long bus) to Narvik, where there is a predominately freight line across into Sweden. I took the train to Boden, from where I got a bus to Happaranta, on the Swedish-Finnish border. From there it's a short bus ride to Oulu, to connect with an overnight train to Helsinki. I'd say it's 4 days minimum, but if you've got the time, why not?!