Finland & The Baltics on €23/Day: Buses, Hostels and Aurora

ITEM	COST (2P)	NOTES
Stay	€544.00	2 person room prices: Kaunas: 2 nights x €25 Vilnius: 3 nights x €24 Riga: 7 nights x €20.86 Tallinn: 8 nights x €17.50 Rovaniemi: 3 nights x €45.34
Travel	€276.00	Per person: Warsaw – Kaunas: €15 – LTG Link (train) Kaunas – Vilnius: €5 – LTG Link Vilnius – Riga: €5 – Ecolines (bus) Riga – Tallin: €5 – Ecolines Tallinn – Helsinki: €17 – Viking Line (ferry) Helsinki – Rovaniemi: €20 – FlixBus Rovaniemi – Helsinki: €15 – FlixBus Helsinki: €8 – trams and city ferry Helsinki – Tallin: €10 – Eckerö Line (ferry) Tallin – Warsaw: €20 – FlixBus Trakai, Sigulda, Paldiski: €18 for all return trips on local trains
Food	€332.00	€6.64/day per person. Shopped at Lidl, cooked in hostels. Lidl in Finland was surprisingly the cheapest.
Activity	€0.00	Free museums. Northern lights.
TOTAL	€1152.00	25 days at €23.04/day per person

Cheapest Transport in the Baltics & Finland

• Buses: FlixBus and Ecolines cover most routes. Check Omio to compare, but book directly on their sites – you’ll save €1-2 per ticket.
• Promo Codes: Always search for a promo code before paying. 10% off is common, occasionally more – I got 25% through Allegro Smart (loyalty program). Note: A single code applies to multiple passengers in one booking and can cover a return journey. I used a single 25% code to discount a return itinerary (Helsinki–Rovaniemi–Helsinki) for two passengers.
• Ecolines Specials: Check their site for €5 flash sales on routes between Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn.
• Trains: LTG Link (Lithuanian Railways) doesn’t show up on Omio, and is frequently the cheapest option (Warsaw–Vilnius starting at €12).
• Ferries: For Tallinn-Helsinki, look for “day trip” promo codes. I got a return trip for €10 via Eckerö Line and just used the first leg. Important: Don’t skip the first leg of the journey – you miss it and they cancel your return automatically.

Accommodation Strategy

• Baltics: We stayed a week in each country, based in the capital cities. Accommodation is cheap and high-quality. Booking.com offers “long stay” discounts.
• Finland: Prices are roughly double. We found a deal in Rovaniemi by booking a brand new listing – new hosts price low to get their first reviews.
• Helsinki in One Day: For us it was long enough. Arrived on the morning ferry, walked around all day, left on the overnight bus to Rovaniemi. Saved a night’s accommodation. Used Nannybag (one of many options) to store our bags.

• Northern Lights: Highlight of our stay. We saw the lights every night between 20th-23rd March by timing our trip near the spring equinox (also near the peak of the 11-year solar activity cycle). For tracking, I use the My Aurora Forecast & Alerts app. Its clean design and location-based percentage probabilities make it reliable for setting up effective alerts.