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9 countries from Budapest to Helsinki: feedback needed.

  • 22 July 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 83 views
A

Hi,

I had come up with the idea of doing a nice trip with my brother from Budapest to Helsinki, stopping in a lot of countries we have never been to. 

However, deepening my research in this page, I have come to understand that:

  • there is pretty much no train from Warsaw to Helsinki, it would all be buses + ferry
  • some countries are really pass-friendly but others are not 

 

Our desired travel dates are from 1st to 15th Aug. 

 

Would you be able to tell me what itinerary could I do that is train-friendly and that does not involve Germany / Italy or anything West of that, since we have visited all those countries? 

 

I know the question is very open ended, but truly any tips will help. Have spent hours soaking info on this forum, but most of the questions I find are for Western Europe. 

 

Thanks!

 

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Best answer by Al_G 22 July 2023, 20:24

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A
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There is a daily connection from Poland to Vilnius, from there at least one bus would be needed to get to Latvia/Estonia and regular ferry links from Tallinn to Helsinki.

 

If you want to go a very long way around you could go by train through northern Germany-Denmark-Sweden and use the short gap by bus in the north of Sweden between Haparanda - Tornio - Kemi, then south through Finland.

If you don’t want the western Germany/Denmark part there are ferries from Gdynia in Poland to Karlskrona in Sweden or Rostock in Germany to Trellborg in Sweden.

M
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Userlevel 3
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Technically, Poland is all great. But I have found the obligation for reservations on its intercity trains, as well as the presence of non-pass local operators to be ‘pass-unfriendly’. It takes a lot of freedom out of your journey but if you schedule it all, then it may not bother you. 

To avoid the trodden paths (that is: all EC-trains), I would like to encourage you to use local trains to cross the (mountainous) border between Poland and Slovakia. Mind you that this requires scheduling as some only operate in summer, or even only on weekends.

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