Travel From US to Estonia/Tartu Marathon?

I have entered the Tartu Marathon in Estonia for Feb 2010. I have secured
lodging, but am very interested in anyone's experiences in this event. Most
particularly, I am interested in travel recomendations? Fly to Stockholm,
or to Finland? Ferry to Riga, or fly to Riga. Train or Bus to Tartu?
Does anyone have experience with the newly created Tartu Airlines? Planes
Trains, and Autos!. Any advise from anyone familiar with this far away
place (to me) is very welcome. I live in the Mountain Zone USA. Thank you

On Aug 27, 6:37*am, wrote:

I have entered the Tartu Marathon in Estonia for Feb 2010. *I have secured
lodging, but am very interested in anyone's experiences in this event. *Most
particularly, I am interested in travel recomendations? *Fly to Stockholm,
or to Finland? *Ferry to *Riga, or fly to Riga. *Train or Bus to Tartu?
Does anyone have experience with the newly created Tartu Airlines? *Planes
Trains, and Autos!. *Any advise from anyone familiar with this far away
place (to me) is very welcome. *I live in the Mountain Zone USA. *Thank you

It's about 2.5 hrs by ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and about the
same from Tallinn to Tartu by bus or by train. The airport to port and
the port to station connections not included. You probably wouldn't
want to do the whole thing non-stop, especially not after a trans-
Atlantic flight. (Besides, sometimes a winter storm can force the
ferry to return to Helsinki.)

(A package tour from Finland would probably cross the Gulf of Finland
on Friday night and continue to Tartu after a sleepover in Tallinn.
The next two nights would be spent in Otepää - which is IIRC about 40
km from Tartu - and the entire return trip would take place on
Monday.)

I haven't even heard of Tartu Airlines, but Estonian Air has regular
flights from Stockholm. If you can find a nice deal on a flight to
Sweden, I would recommend that route. If you're going to make a
stopover in one city in Scandinavia, it's gotta be Stockholm!

OTOH if you don't have to squeeze your trip into a long weekend, you
could extend your vacation and do the Finlandia on the following
Saturday (C) and/or Sunday (F):-)


Anders

PS although Otepää is, despite being considerably south of the often
snowless areas of Finland or Sweden, as reliable on snow as Lahti or
Mora, but in these days of rapid-seeming climate change you cannot
take anything for granted. Enjoy your trip, but leave just a tiny
space for a small disappointment in your plans

anders wrote:
I haven't even heard of Tartu Airlines, but Estonian Air has regular
flights from Stockholm. If you can find a nice deal on a flight to
Sweden, I would recommend that route. If you're going to make a
stopover in one city in Scandinavia, it's gotta be Stockholm!

Huh???

We _are_ talking about a xc skier here, right?

Oslo is the xc skiing capitol of the world. as you well know. :-)

OTOH, Both Helsinki and Stockholm have much better connections to Estonia.

Terje

--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"