lowfareair

Hello,

Doing Europe this Christmas and arriving from Prague most likely on December 29th (might be the 30th, but doubt it). Have a flight back to JFK from HEL on the 2nd. Was originally thinking doing Helsinki for 4 nights with a day trip to Tallinn, but debating whether that is the best option. My fiance wants, in his words, "a winter wonderland" which to him means snow, Christmas markets, and pretty sights. Don't care too much about it getting dark early and price likely isn't going to be too big an issue (I see it is cheaper in Estonia, but likely won't be enough to make a difference in where we go). Would like a fun place to ring in the New Year but doesn't have to be crazy (we did Berlin 2019-2020 for that and while we loved it, don't need to go that full-throttle ). Closest we've come to either country was Sweden/Denmark a decade ago, so it'll all be new to us. We enjoy good food and cocktails, architecture, museums a little, and then anything "unique" is always a plus.

Biggest issue with Tallinn is we'd have to either do an extra night in Prague to fly nonstop on the 30th or would have to connect (or take the ferry from Helsinki) if we want to arrive on the 29th. We are gay but don't need a ton of that scene.

Which city would you pick in this situation?

r2d2

4 days would be a long time for either Helsinki and Tallinn, so you will easily have time to do both. I'd say 4 nights with a day trip to Tallinn sounds good. It's also possible to take an overnight ferry to Tallinn and an evening departure back.

The Christmas markets in Helsinki close already before Christmas. Also snow is not guaranteed - the winter weather in Helsinki is pretty similar to Philadelphia. However in Finland you don't have to travel far (about 1 hour from Helsinki) to have good chances for snow, so prepare to travel out of Helsinki if you want to experience snow.

sydunipete

I'd definitely do more than a day trip to Tallin. It's really quaint and has lots to do in the old centre. There are also some fabulous restaurants and very reasonable prices if that is your thing.

Tiramisu

Tallinn is wonderful! Such a great mix of old and new, east and west. There is a great Christmas market with amazing food and crafts. Old ladies are everywhere, selling their knitted mittens and other items (10euro). The architecture museum even appealed to my teenager. We stayed at Radisson (I believe), in a suite. It was spacious. They have a nice restaurant on one of the top floors with good views if you’re too tired after walking around.
we only stayed 1 night there, which was ok, maybe a little short. I’m planning on going back in the summer.

It’s been a while since I went to Helsinki but back then it still had a distinct “Soviet” feel to it: broad avenues, large buildings, not much to see. It may have changed.
My husband did Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania in 4 days. He went to an amazing place in Lithuania, a hill with thousands of crosses. More than 100,000 crosses cover a hill in northern Lithuania. It looked spectacular. If you have time to fit that in, I recommend it.

esiders

Do both - the ferry ride between Helsinki and Tallinn is only two hours. I'm a big fan of Helsinki; I'm about to go on my third trip in the last 12 months. Helsinki is a beautiful mix of modern, Art Nouveau and neoclassical architecture. It's very walkable, has a chill vibe, coffee shops everywhere, great art museums, Oodi - the new library is amazing, beautiful churches and cathedrals, and check out the saunas!

gioannis13

Plan to be in Hel for 4 nights from 25 Dec to 29 and then by ferry to Tallin for 5 more nights till 3 Jan and flight back to Geece ! I hope war its finished !

dbuckho

I did not know I wanted to visit Helsinki this winter - goal was to get to Germany. But my AA miles told me i really wanted to visit HEL. Will be there starting week before Christmas.

Originally we had 3 nights / 2 days in HEL and then on to Germany. Since we were flying through and had never been to HEL, might as well check it out. But as I started researching what there was to, that then became 3 nights / 2 days in both HEL and TLL + 1 day that includes the ferry over (so potentially a partial 3rd day in Helsinki). We considered Tallinn as a day trip, but our dates are right over Christmas -- so we needed two days inn TLL based on opening hours for what we want to see. But even if everything was open I think it is worth an overnight.

That said, I then had a similar request from the family -- if we will be that close, what about the arctic circle? So I moved our flight from the US up two days to allow 5 nights in HEL + 3 nights in TLN -- and we are considering either a couple nights up in Rovaniemi at the beginning (i.e. 2 nights RVN/3 nights HEL/3 nights TLN), or perhaps just a day trip to RVN flying up at 8 AM and returning on the last flight back to HEL which leaves just before 10 PM. Not sure you would want two days trips, but a day trip up north might hit the winter wonderland ask (and there is also an option to take the overnight train to RVN - spend the day - and fly back or vice versa).