Amy

I'm starting to put together an itinerary for Estonia, Finland, and Iceland, and would welcome your help. I've been to Iceland (three times) already, but it's been quite a while and I'd like to go back, plus my possible travel buddy (my niece) hasn't been. I like both culture/history and nature, don't care much about shopping/nightlife. I realize it's a lot in a time period of 17 days or so, but here's what I was thinking:

Fly from JFK to Tallinn (non-stop flight; I'm in Philadelphia, and there don't seem to be any out of here or anywhere closer than JFK. Other ideas are welcome, but it's not a big deal to fly from JFK.)

Three days in Estonia, with walking and/or food tour in Tallinn, perhaps a day trip to Lehemaa national park.

Ferry to Helsinki, then overnight train to Kemijärvi in Lapland and stay in Luosto (reindeer, husky farm, amethyst mine, hiking, midnight sun on a boat...) Three nights in Luosto, bus or train back to Rovaniemi, visit Santa Claus village and the like, overnight in Rovaniemi and fly out to Helsinki. Two or three nights in Helsinki, (maybe day trip to Parvoo, ferries to islands?) then flight to Reykjavik, with remainder of time in Iceland.

There's direct flights coming from Reykjavik to Philadelphia, so that's awesome!

Any ideas/opinions/suggestions are welcome! Oh, and I do know that it'll be mosquito battalion season in Lapland. I'll have to do some combat training in New Jersey, where it's the state bird. (unofficially)

kja

I can't be of much help, as the only one of these destinations I have visited so far is Helsinki, but I enjoyed that city and thought it easily worth at least 2 days. It doesn't get a lot of praise from Fodorites; I'm not sure why I enjoyed it so much when others didn't....

Should be a great trip!

panecott

Can't offer any help but it sounds like a great trip. I've always wanted to go to Lapland. It's one of those intriguing places.

Good luck with your planning.

Amy

Thanks to both of you! This is one that my students chose for me (I gave them a list of six and was also open for their options) and I'm really looking forward to it.

Kja, I had noticed that about Helsinki, that there's not much enthusiasm for it here, but I figured I'd regret trying to fit everything there into one day. Glad you reinforced that!

Odin

From Helsinki you can take a trip to Stockholm through the archipelago. It is a wonderful trip but might eat into your itinerary a bit too much.

lynda_berlin

We are not such big fans of Helsinki either. On a trip to Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and Stockholm it was the one we found least interesting.
Stockholm has a stunning location and some nice museums. We took the overnight ferry from Riga so came in through the skerries (there are ferries also from Tallinn and Helsinki).
Riga has the most amazing art nouveau architecture; we got there by bus from Tallinn. Tallinn Old Town is so pretty, but even back in 2006 it was very crowded with tourists (especially when the cruise ships were in)

Amy

Thanks for the info! Riga and Stockholm are definitely on the list to do, but this time I think I'll stick to Finland/Estonia; I like to do the more culturally connected ones for some reason--I visited Lithuania and Poland on the same trip, for instance. I'd love to go back to St. Petersburg on this trip, also, as I'll be so close, but there's just not enough time. (Story of my life, sigh. I have to finagle a bit to even get seventeen days, as I work during the summer as well as the school year.)