If you’d like to visit St. Petersburg, Russia without having to go through the hassle and expense of obtaining a Visa, you have the option of taking an overnight ferry from Helsinki.  The St. Peter Line Princess Maria ferry leaves at 6:00pm from the West Harbor in Helsinki and arrives the next morning in St. Petersburg at 8:30am, and you have two nights and almost three full days in St. Petersburg before returning!

We arrived to the Helsinki West Harbor ferry on June 17th around 4:15pm and it was a rather quick boarding process.  They say no food or drink may be brought aboard, but I had a small bag of food (coffee, crackers, pasta, nuts, chocolate) in my suitcase.  When you’re booking the transport/cabins on the St. Peter Line website, you’ll have an option to book meals, and I chose “without meals”.  There are a variety of restaurants for dinner and breakfast that you can choose from once on board.  The alcoholic drinks are very reasonably priced.

The total round-trip cost for the transport/cabins/fuel/harbor fees/city bus tour (shuttle) for three people was 266 Euros (not including food) – a great deal!

This is what the B-cabin looks like.  Small, but adequate with a bathroom.  After dropping our luggage in the rooms, we went to the top deck for a drink.

These are some of the restaurants and entertainment areas on-board…

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