Helsinki - St Petersburg
Ferries to Russia
Helsinki - St Petersburg
Ferries to Russia
Compare live pricing across ferry operators worldwide and find the sailing that fits your trip. Booking sooner rather than later is the simplest way to secure the best fares and the widest choice.
Direct Ferries runs discounts across the calendar year. If your route qualifies for a senior discount, it's applied for you automatically as soon as you choose the correct age bracket in the passenger options when you search.
Students and recent graduates qualify for a 5% saving on their ticket. Register with our partner Student Beans to confirm your eligibility, then apply the discount code you receive at checkout.
A resident discount is also on offer for a number of Spanish and Italian crossings — select the "Residents" option where available and the price will adjust automatically. Make sure you can show proof of address, such as a residency certificate or ID card, when you check in.
Document requirements differ by route, so check what you'll need well before departure. Travelling from Helsinki to St Petersburg generally calls for a valid passport, plus any visa or national ID your nationality requires. Since rules depend on both your citizenship and your destination's regulations, our Check-in, Travel Documents & Tickets guide is a good place to check the details and avoid delays at check-in.
Getting your tickets is simple — enter your departure port, arrival port, and preferred travel date to see every fare and sailing available. From there, you can compare alternative routes and departure times to land on the best option for your trip.
Watch for early-bird pricing and flexible ticket formats, such as upgrades or flexi-fares that allow later changes or cancellations. Enter your details accurately, including passenger count and vehicle information, to keep your booking process smooth.
A confirmation email lands in your inbox the moment your booking is finalised. How your boarding pass gets issued from there depends on the specific ferry operator.
Certain operators release your boarding pass right after booking; others want you to check in once you reach the port. Where available, the Direct Ferries app lets you check in online ahead of time.
Ticket desks sit near the ferry terminal in most cases. Give yourself extra time before departure to collect your tickets and complete check-in without stress.
You'll need to present your confirmation email plus valid photo ID — a passport or identity card — at check-in. Pet owners should bring vaccination and insurance paperwork, and anyone using a resident discount should have proof of address on hand.
A handful of reasons can explain the lack of departures from Helsinki to St Petersburg on your selected date — timetable adjustments, sold-out sailings, or a seasonal gap are the usual culprits. Try a different date or browse other routes through our Route & Port finder.
Booking your Helsinki to St Petersburg ferry early usually pays off, both in terms of price and choice — earlier bookings tend to unlock better fares and more departure and cabin options.
A few weeks' notice is generally enough to catch the best deals, though fares can still move depending on the season and remaining availability.
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Located in the Uusimaa region of southern Finland, on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, is the city of Helsinki. The capital of Finland is roughly 80 km to the north of Tallinn in Estonia, 400 km to the north of Stockholm in Sweden and 300 km to the west of St Petersburg in Russia. Helsinki is widely regarded as one of the major cities in northern Europe and is the country's main hub for politics, finance, commerce and culture.
Popular visitor attractions in the city include Helsinki's largest museum, the National Museum of Finland. It contains a large collection of historical artefacts that date back to prehistoric times through to the present day. The museum's home, a neomedieval castle, is also a popular tourist attraction in its own right. The Helsinki City Museum, the Finnish National Gallery and the Design Museum are three other museums in the city that are worth visiting.
Helsinki's port, the largest in Finland and the second largest in the Nordic countries, has three harbours and 6 passenger terminals. Ferry services using the port depart to Stockholm in Sweden, Travemunde in Germany and Tallinn in Estonia.
The Russian city of St Petersburg is often referred to by its residents as simply 'Piter' and was formerly named Leningrad. The city has definitely had an interesting past with over 300 years of history, with more than 200 of it as the capital city of the entire Russian Empire. Today, St Petersburg is an amazing city to visit and more than lives up to the vision of Tsar Peter the Great which founded the city in the 1700's. Winding their way through the city is the Neva River and a number of canals, along which you can see grand palaces and a number of other important buildings that date back to the 18th century. St. Petersburg is where Russian ballet was founded and has also been the home of many acclaimed composers, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Many of the best sights in St. Petersburg are to be found around the actual city centre and its main road, the Nevsky Prospekt. If you take a stroll around Palace Square, known locally as the Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, you will see the lovely architecture of the Winter Palace, or alternatively take a cruise on one of the city's canals on a water bus, stopping of at the Mikhaylovsky Gardens en route.
Note: Ferry passengers are allowed stay in Russia for 72 hours without visa as long as they booked their excursion through officially licensed ferry companies.
