around the baltic 🚆

So how to get around the baltic with train and only train. Passing all the main cities. That is an intriguing question. Here is my attempt!

Day 1	06:21	Stockholm C	11:10	Umeå
Day 1	13:32	Umeå	17:38	Luleå
Day 1	20:00	Luleå	21:53	Haparanda
Day 2	09:45	Haparanda	10:15	Kemi	bus here
Day 2	10:50	Kemi	17:35	Helsinki
Day 2	19:00	Helsinki	23:27	St Peterburg
Day 3	06:25	St Peterburg	13:56	Tallin	one train a day
Day 3	08:11	Tallin	17:39	Riga	two trains a day!
Day 3	19:40	Riga	00:35	Vilnius	one train a day
Day 4	06:05	Vilnius	10:10	Bialystok
Day 4	13:30	Bialystok	20:09	Gdansk
Day 5	05:20	Gdansk	10:12	Szczecin
Day 5	12:13	Szczcecin	13:13	Angermünde
Day 5	13:33	Angermünde	15:43	Stralsund Hbf
Day 5	15:59	Stralsund Hbf	18:53	Hamburg Hbf
Day 5	23:56	Hamburg Hbf	06:55	København H	not a night train
Day 6	08:23	København H	13:36	Stockholm C

There you go - almost a week on the train except the short hop from Haparanda to Kemi where there is no train currently. So it is possible to do the trip faster. For example go directly from St Petersburg to Vilnius or Minsk would cut it quite significantly. Or going a bit more south over Warsaw and Berlin instead of Gdansk and Stralsund. There are also various ferry shortcuts. From Stockholm you can get to Helsinki, Tallin, Riga or Gdansk. From Helsinki to Tallin. There is also the Klaipeda (Lithuania) to Karlshamn (Sweden) option. From Germany there are a couple of options to southern Sweden also. Personally if I would do this I would allow for 3 weeks so there is lots of time to see things. And maybe shortcut from Gdansk to Stockholm since the Hamburg - Stockholm route is not that exciting anymore.

written by fredrik at 2021-05-17