Student blogs

If you’re seeking a break from your studies for a weekend and a chance to explore the Baltic Sea, I’ve got just the trip for you. A cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki, where you can relax, explore, and make memories that will last a lifetime. In this blog post, I will write about my two-day journey on a cruise ship in the Baltics and the unforgettable experiences I had throughout the trip.

As the cold and darkness started to set in Stockholm, my friends and I were a bit stressed, anxious and looking for a trip to get our minds off of studies and busy life in Stockholm. Our student-friendly trip search guided us to a two-way ticket to Helsinki, Finland on a cruise ship. So, we bought our tickets immediately and began preparing for our trip.

Aboard the Cruise Ship

The cruise ships that operate between Stockholm and Helsinki are not just a means of transportation—they’re floating small towns that cater to every traveller’s dreams. As we boarded the ship, my mind was blown away. Inside the ship, I saw many different restaurants, shops, duty-free, and even a karaoke bar. As the ship started to sail, we looked at the cruise itinerary and saw that there were lots of entertainment activities every hour.

We wanted to make the trip as budget-friendly as possible, so we chose to stay in a cabin for four people and opted out of the breakfast and dinner options as they were quite expensive.

The trip to Helsinki lasted for almost 12 hours and it was a very smooth and nice trip (I don’t know why but I was afraid of the Titanic situation all the time, maybe it has something to do with watching the movie around five times)

Helsinki

We knew that compared to Stockholm, Helsinki is a much smaller city and easy to walk around. We also had around 7 hours to go back to our return trip. So, we went out of the ship as fast as we could and started discovering Helsinki. We started off by going to a cute coffee shop to have breakfast and try Finnish pastries and coffee (they are definitely as good as Swedish ones). Later, we decided to take a free guided tour, similar to the ones that are in Gamla Stan, Stockholm. However, the weather was much colder than we anticipated and the tours take place almost for two hours outside, so we decided not join to the tour in the end.

As we were walking around, we saw the Christmas market in the city centre next to the famous Helsinki Cathedral. I can definitely say the Helsinki Christmas market beat the one in Stockholm as it was much bigger and had a variety of small shops where you could find anything from jewellery to knitted scarves. They also had a different section for food shops, and since we were pretty cold at that time, we stopped by to enjoy a warm drink.

Since it was Christmas time, Helsinki was also lit up with Christmas lights everywhere, making the city even more beautiful. I also couldn’t miss entering a Moomin-themed shop (a very famous Finnish cartoon character), which was full of everything related to Moomin. As we got closer to the time to board the ship again, we took a walk around the sea and went back to our ship. The going back trip also went smoothly, and I have returned to Stockholm full of energy and great memories.

Tips for the trip

Lastly, I want to give some tips for both cruise ships and Helsinki.

• Buy the tickets in advance, they will be much cheaper.

• Finland is a tiny bit expensive compared to Stockholm, and they use Euros (so depending on the exchange rate you might spend more than you expected)

• It will be also much colder than Stockholm, so I bring your warmest clothes for this trip.

• Don’t forget to check the entertainment options on the cruise

• The food on the ship is very expensive, so bring some food with you if you want a budget-friendly trip.

I hope you got inspired to take this student and budget-friendly trip to Helsinki. There are also other cruise ships that go to other places in Finland or Estonia. After this trip, I am very motivated to make other trips like this as well. If you have any questions about life in Stockholm, you can always reach me via e-mail.

See you in the next blog!