Diamantina

My husband and I have been to Helsinki a couple of times (he's actually been there three times, his first time being with his Finnish-American father). On this last trip, we stayed in the Katajanokka district, which is close to the major sites but also close to the Viking Ferry (just one of the ferry companies that sails to Tallinn). I would have liked a couple of nights in Tallinn, but couldn't spare the time (we were in Helsinki for a conference), so I just made a day trip, which was easy. Katajanokka was well-served by trams. It only took about 5 minutes to get from my hotel to the Viking Ferry terminal. My round trip ticket to Tallinn only cost 18 euros. I didn't catch the faster ferry because I'd read that it could be a rougher journey (not even sure that this is true). Anyhow, it wouldn't have saved much time. There's a lot of info out there about the Helsinki-Tallinn ferries, but I just found this one below by a Finn that looks pretty good. The ferry trip through the Helsinki archipelago was interesting, but then the views became boring until we began to approach Tallinn. The ferry was huge, with restaurants and shops, and other diversions to help pass the time.
https://mrssuvi.com/2016/01/21/helsi...-how-to-guide/

Central Helsinki is pretty compact and I would think you'd never be that far from a tram that would take you to a ferry terminal.

On our first trip together to Helsinki, we flew in on KLM, spent a three or four nights in Helsinki then flew on Finnair to St. Petersburg (my husband's second trip to St. Petersburg, but my first). We spent about a week in St. Petersburg, visiting churches, museums, shopping, going to the ballet, and catching public transportation. We also made some days trips out of town to Catherine Palace (Tsarskoye Selo) 30 km south of St. Petersburg, and to the historic city of Veliky Novgorod. When done, we flew back on Finnair to Helsinki, then caught an on-going flight to Berlin to continue with the rest of our trip (Prague, Zurich, then back home to San Francisco). We didn't need to once again stay in Helsinki.

kja

Oh, that makes MUCH more sense!