Turku is also known as Åbo. since both Finnish and Swedish are official languages in Finland, many things have two names. Streets, for example, can be particularly confusing - what first appears on a map to be a street that changes its name is, more often than not, one street with two names. It might help to know that Finnish street names usually end in `katu' or `tie', while Swedish street names usually end in `gatan' or `vägen'. Any alternative Swedish names for places in this document will be given in parentheses.

Turku can be reached via various transportation options. You can arrive by air, by land or by boat. The following is a brief overview regarding transportations.

Turku airport has direct services to Helsinki and Stockholm, and various other towns in Finland. Helsinki is the preferred choice of many travelling agents, but if you are coming from Western Europe or North America, Stockholm is often faster and cheaper. There is no considerable difference in travelling time, therefore consider flight times, prices, and availability before you book the tickets. International flights to Finland are operated by British Airways, Finnair, SAS, LOT, Lufthansa and KLM .

Some carriers will sometimes offer a free connecting flight to Turku from Helsinki or Stockholm. Make sure you check out all options before paying for this connecting flight. If free connection is not available, the alternatives of getting to Turku by bus or train from Helsinki is easy and inexpensive. The journey takes approximately 2 hours. Alternatively, you can catch an overnight ferry from Stockholm; this is also easy and inexpensive, but more relaxing than fast. See below for details.

When travelling to Turku within Finland or from Russia, rail could be a good option for transportation. The timetables and map for trains in Finland are both available on the web. The following routes can take you to Turku:

• Helsinki-Turku
  Turku-Helsinki
• Moscow-St Petersburg-Helsinki-Turku
  Turku-Helsinki-St Petersburg-Moscow

You can also contact Finnish Railways by phone at +358 9 707 3519 (UTC+3:00)

Bus is another good transportation optionfrom within Finland or Russia. ExpressBus runs buses to Turku from St Petersburg, Helsinki, and Helsinki Vantaa Airport. Here are a couple of useful-looking bus routes:

• Helsinki Vantaa Airport-Turku
  * May require changing bus at a fairly anonymous looking stretch of highway.
• Helsinki-Turku
• St Petersburg-Helsinki-Turku

There are also various ferries that can take you to either Turku or Helsinki from around the Baltic. Silja Line and Viking Line are the two main operators. The boats are large and very comfortable. You might want to check out the following ferry routes: Stockholm-Turku (Silja), Tallinn-Helsinki (Silja), and Travemünde-Helsinki (Silja).

The ferry operators can be contacted at:

Silja Line
Phone: +46 8 222-140 (UTC+2:00), Fax: +46 8 611-9162

Viking Line
Phone: +46 8 452-4000 (UTC+2:00), Fax: +46 8 452-4015