Turku Transportation

You can choose from several airlines serving the airport of Turku. It is simply by connected flights to get to Turku from many places in the world.
From the airport to Turku you can get by bus, which departs every 30 minutes.

Take bus number 1. It is regular and is part of the Turku's public transport. The price is the same as in any other bus in the Turku's public transport. It costs 2.50 Eur. It is preferable that you have the exact amount to grant to the driver because thay don't have always change. The route goes from the airport through the central bus station and the central market square.

I went to Turku by train (InterCity2) from Helsinki.

The route between Helsinki and Turku is served almost hourly.

The 160 km trip takes about 2 hours and a single train ticket costs about 23 Euro (2002).

Turku's train station is located a 10 minutes walk northeast of the city centre.

Turku centre is rather small and if you need to get to somewhere around the city it is just a short trip, from the railway station, bus station or harbour it is just few minutes to the city centre by taxi, so you can easily use it if needed.

There's a very good bus service between Helsinki and Turku. When landing in Helsinki, you can catch the bus right outside of the Helsinki-Vantaa airport terminal and buy your ticket right on board the bus. Please visit the company's website (below) in order to see the schedules of the buses. Formerly the search was not available in English (when I originally posted this tip, 6 years ago) but now it is!! Just click on the British flag on the upper right corner in order to get the english version of the site. Or, you can search for the departure times this way:

Choose the option "Aikataulut" on the menu and you should see a screen with the title "AIKATAULUHAKU" (timetables) on it. Then on the first field (from) you type "Helsinki-Vantaa" and on the second one (to) "Turku". Then click on "HAE AIKATAULU" (search) and you will find various departure & destination bus stops to choose from; once you pick the ones you need you'll be able to see the departure & arrival times of the buses from Helsinki to Turku.

In most cases you'll have to switch buses a few kilometers ahead of the Helsinki airport, but that's absolutely no problem and it takes you only a few minutes. The driver will let you know when you have to change buses... It's easy even if you don't speak Finnish - like me! I didn't get lost myself!

Then when you want to go back from Turku to Helsinki you just have to catch the same bus at the local bus station (information about the schedules is available at the same web site, and you can either get down at the airport or continue to the downtown area if you need to).

All the former explanation was given to me in detail by my friend Kalle, too.... Thanks for your help!!!

Fares 2008: EUR 27.50 for a single trip, EUR 49.50 round trip

There is a very modern and comfortable train that takes you from Turku to Helsinki or viceversa.... the Express Bus I took from the Helsinki Vantaa airport to Turku and back (please see previous tip) is most convenient if you need to go to the airport, rather than the downtown area. But in case you do need to go to downtown, the train might be a better option, as the price is just about the same (26 EUR one way ticket) and you will be right in the heart of Helsinki in only 2 hours instead of 3.....

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You can take one of the modern Pendolino trains which are quite fast. It takes 2 hours one way from Helsinki to Turku. Unfortunately, there is no decent map nor a tourist information in Turku station, so if you arrive by train without a map like me, you may be a bit lost.

I used a summer ticket from the Finnish railway company which allowed me to use trains for 3 days for a good price.

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If you are going from Sweden to Turku (or Åbo as is its swedish name) then you might want to consider taking a ferry. It's cheap and you'll get the chance to do some serious partying. Sometimes it's crappy and sometimes it's great. But that's every party place for you.

Some of the boats have exellent sauna facilities, where you can sit in the sauna an look out the huge glass windows at the archipelago going by as the ferry moves along.

Other that that they have the ususal stuff. A small cinema, a couple of bars a small casino. Well I use the term casino loosly but they have slots and black jack and roulette anyway.