Ferry connections like these can be easily incorporated into a journey with or without Interrail! Mostly because it saves you a long diversions or, for example, because you can see beautiful landscapes from the water. Both are the case here . The crossing is particularly useful if you want to travel to or from the Baltic States. But the ferry journey itself is also very relaxing and relaxing and offers a short breather between the exhausting and long days on the trains or from exploring new cities 🙂 !
Our 16-hour crossing begins in Tallinn at the new ferry terminal "Tallinn D-Terminal". All Tallink ferries to Stockholm and Helsinki depart from here.
Foot passengers can simply check in at self-check-in . This does not apply to Interrail travellers , who must also present their valid Interrail pass at the counter . The counter opens 90 minutes before departure, but you can also check in earlier at self-check-in . We also opted for this and checked in in the morning . In any case, you will then receive a boarding card that acts as a ticket and cabin key at the same time . In contrast to many other ferries, the booked breakfast or similar is also printed on the card.
Attention: If you check in at the counter, you have to pay an extra 5€ fee per person!
So we set off into the city again, the harbour is connected by bus and in future also by tram. The stop is called "Reisisadama D-terminal".
Tip: In Tallinn, your credit card is your ticket for local transport: Simply hold your card to the first reader at the front of the bus and you've paid! You can easily book your connection on transport.tallinn.ee have a look.
However, you shouldn't lose track of time while strolling through the city, as the check-in closes 20 minutes before the ferry departs and you can no longer board. If you arrive on time, you simply go through a security gate. Simply scan the QR code on your boarding card.
Departure is at 18:00 OESZ, boarding in our case is from 16:15 to 17:40.
You should also bear in mind that it takes about eight minutes to walk from the security gates to the ship.
The route is currently and will only be operated by Tallink with the "Baltic Queen".
Immediately before boarding the ship, the boarding cards are manually checked again by Tallink's security staff and checked against the ID/passport.
You enter and leave the Baltic Queen on deck 5, but once you have boarded the ship, you should not rely on the lifts, as the waiting times mean you can walk up and down three times! As in a hotel, the first digit of the cabin number is the deck on which it is located. (e.g. cabin 8318 on deck 8).
To get a small overview of the ferry in advance:
While the ferries Tallinn-Helsinki and Helsinki-Stockholm are very popular, it is rather quiet between Tallinn and Stockholm. Due to the fact that only one shipping company (Tallink Silja Line) operates one ship (The Baltic Queen) on this route, the ferry is nevertheless quite well booked! This means that the route is only served every two days. I notice that the ferry seems to be very popular with Chinese and Americans 🙂 .
Tickets
You can easily buy tickets via the Tallink website Tallink or via our link at directferries.com Buy
AffiliateLink directferries : By buying your tickets via the link you support Raildude/Rail.cc. This is how you make blogs like this one possible! The price remains the same for you 🙂 .
Tip: Tallink often offers big discounts, so if possible you should wait for the next discount promotion!
The prices are dynamic , so vary greatly according to demand and time of booking . We paid €251.00 for 3 people in an inside cabin with premium breakfast, which is a good price! It is also important to mention that people with claustrophobia should rather book an outside cabin, these are usually only slightly more expensive.
Interrail with Tallink Silja
Tallink is one of the few shipping companies that "recognises" Interrail and one of the very few that also offers discounts on cabins.
But the Finnish-Estonian shipping company offers up to 20% discount , even on A to C class cabins . I would still advise against it: As I said, Tallink often offers large discounts, which are usually similar to the Interrail discount. Combining both is not possible! In addition, as far as I know, you can no longer use the self-check-in because you have to prove that you are authorised . So you should rather save your pass day here . But it makes sense if you want to use the pass day anyway.
Interrail discounts: Depending on availability up to 20%. Further conditions can be found here:
Tip for ferries in general: As a rule, you always pay for the whole cabin on ferries, regardless of the number of passengers. For each additional passenger, there are usually only the environmental taxes (EU-ETS) and, if applicable, meals or WLAN fees . So the more people you are travelling with, the cheaper it is per person.
Speaking of WLAN - this is available free of charge on board the Baltic Queen, but of course only via satellite, i.e. with a maximum of 2.5 Mbit/s and very high latency times (500-700ms). Streaming with up to 480p is no problem, but it is still better to download your programmes beforehand! Incidentally, there is no separate mobile phone network on board as a cost trap here.
If you wish, you can also have dinner on the ferry, meals can be added directly when booking. There is a discount for online bookings . If I had done this, however, I would not have been able to enjoy the beautiful sunset over the (almost) cloudless Baltic Sea ....
Pictured above: the "Silja Simphony" from Helsinki to Stockholm. As Helsinki is directly opposite Tallinn, the route of the two ferries is more or less the same.
As it gets quite chilly on deck after sunset, I decide to go to bed at about 22:45. It's worth getting up early the next day!
During the night the ferry docks in Marienhamn , the capital of the Finnish autonomous island of Åland . Arrival is at 04:50 , so I think the stop is made more for the tax advantages . Åland belongs to the EU and is a member of the Schengen area, but is not part of the fiscal union.
If you want to see the small archipelago between Finland and Sweden, you should take a day ferry from Turku or Naantali in Finland, there is no other direct connection from Estonia 🙁 .
The beds are very comfortable and the quality is somewhere between that of a night train and a hotel. But this is not the highest cabin class. But in my opinion perfectly adequate!
Breakfast
On such short ferries, breakfast is actually always the only meal option that I book, simply because it sometimes takes time to find something to eat ashore. But if you want you can of course wait or just take something small with you !
It is also important to consider whether you have the time at all, some shipping companies only offer breakfast one hour before arrival. Even on short ferries that arrive at 7 am or so I would not recommend it. It is perfect like here, where breakfast is served from 7.30am Swedish time on a 10am arrival. Here you always have to pay attention to the boarding time!
About the actual breakfast: There is a choice between two buffets. The "normal" (simply referred to as "breakfast" when booking) and the premium buffet (referred to as "special breakfast" when booking).
We opted for the special breakfast due to the small surcharge, which costs 24 EUR per person (from 2025 it costs 25 EUR), children only pay 12.00 EUR (also 2025). The normal buffet costs 19.50 EUR per person in 2025 and 9.50 EUR per child.
Simply a good buffet, but what makes the whole thing so "special"? For example, there was a glass of champagne at the entrance, the buffet was always freshly filled and you can order fresh omelettes à la carte (included in the price). There were also very few people there, even though the whole place was fully booked! I suspect that not all the seats were sold, but only a small part, so that you have your peace and quiet. The normal buffet was full to the brim! So I found the surcharge of 5 EUR more than justified !
After breakfast I quickly grab my jacket because the entrance through the Stockholm archipelago is very spectacular! It's so big that the ferry takes 4 hours to cross it! So you can watch the small rocks from the ice age pass by from 05:30 until you arrive 🙂 . Here are the best photos :
Archipelagos are small rocky islands that formed in Scandinavia and elsewhere after the ice age 10,000 years ago. Together the small islands form a group, the archipelago. With over 24,000 islands, the Stockholm archipelago is the second largest in the Baltic Sea! Our ferry crossing from Åland takes about four and a half hours .
On the journey through the archipelago you pass the Fredriksborg fortress. It was built in 1735 to defend Stockholm against the Russians!
Arrival in the harbour Stockholm Värtahamnen at approx. 10:30 CEST (important time change: Estonia CEST -> +1h. -> Sweden CEST).
Even if we arrive on time, it doesn't have to be that way, on ferries small delays of up to 1 hour are normal, you should definitely bear that in mind!
In addition, we have to wait a bit now anyway, because of course everyone wants to get off the ferry and there is only one gangway. You should expect up to 30 minutes extra here .
Although both countries are Schengen members, you still have to pass through customs with drug-sniffing dogs. But if you haven't bought too much cheap alcohol on board, that shouldn't be a problem 🙂 !
Many roads lead to the centre ...
The quickest way to get to the centre is by underground (T-Bana). The nearest station is "Gärdet" on underground line 13, which is about a 17-minute walk from the terminal. But we decide to take a cooler way to get to the centre: another ferry! To get to their pier we have to walk about 17 minutes through an industrial estate at the harbour. Then we come out at the traffic junction "Ropsten" . Many bus lines, the underground line 13 and the ferries from the city centre end here. In addition, the Lidingöbanan (a small tramway) starts here and connects the mainland with the island of Lidingö via a large bridge. Also highly recommended!
Regarding the tickets for the Stockholm area: Similar to Tallinn, you can simply pay your fare by card at the ticket readers when boarding. This is especially good when travelling through. For longer stays I recommend taking an SL-Card . You can get one at every underground station (unfortunately I can't remember if it's free or not): ) . They can then be "topped up" with tickets at underground stations or via the SL app. We all already have an SL-Card and top it up at the underground station. If you already have an SL-Card, you can also do this from Germany via the app. The tickets are only activated when you hold them up to a reader for the first time!
All underground stations in Stockholm are manned by staff from whom you can get SL-Cards and also buy tickets for them.
The ferry terminal is somewhat hidden next to the bridge to Lidingö. Ferry 80 (SL (Stockholm Transport Company) ferries = Pendelbåt) to Nybroplan departs from here.
The ferry arrives about 10 minutes before it returns from Nybroplan.
The ferry always runs 15′ and 45′ during the day. As one of the slower means of transport here , it takes 56 minutes to Allmänna gränd and 01:05 hours to Nybroplan . As the ferry ends here we can secure a place on the upper deck !
The ferry does not go directly to Gamla stan , so we have to change ferries at Allmänna gränd . From here we have to take ferry 82 to Slussen , which runs 13′ , 28′ , 43′ and 58′ .
Conclusion
Ferries are an exciting alternative to trains, which can be incorporated into many trips. However, it also has some disadvantages, such as high costs, high time expenditure (slow journey, check-in and boarding/deboarding time) and poor integration into Interrail. Nevertheless, this trip made me want to do more ...
So there will be more blogs about ferries in the not so distant future!
Facts
Time : 16 hours
Length : 399nm or 739km
Vessel : Baltic Queen
Shipping company : Tallink Silja
Cabin class : B class (cabin compulsory)
If you still have a question, feel free to ask it here in the comments! 🙂
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