Sunday, October 18, 2009

Once you land in Helsinki airport, what next?

Finland is a land of mobile phones, well said, if u are traveling to Helsinki then don't look for pay phones here. You cant find those pay phones anywhere. I heard that there are some payphones in the airport but never managed to find one. So how do u contact friends waiting for you, or how do you call some one and tell that u reached safe?

If you are planning to live in here in Finland for some time then its mandatory to have a phone connection. Pre paid connections are cheap and instant connection and you dont need to submit any proof or other papers to get a connection, kewl. What next? Where to buy them?

Pre paid SIM card can be bought from R-kioski. DNA, Saunalahti, and elisa are the main service providers and the SIM card could cost between 5 to 10 euros. Have a look at the Helsini-Vanta aiport web page. [ https://www.finavia.fi/en/helsinki-airport/ ] You must be arriving thru the arrival gate 2A or 2B. There are 3 R-Kiosks in the Helsinki International airport. You can search for the shop in the map (There is a search tab, click on services A-O, you should be able to find the R-Kiosk there). You are free to go to the departure hall and there are no security gate in between Arrival and departure terminal. So the nearest R-Kiosk could be the next one to the Gate 2A. Its on the 1st floor (Or second floor?? there is some confusion between the floor counting between indian and europe style. The floor cont starts from 1 in finland.), take the stairs and on your left hand side you can locate the R-Kiosk.
Once you are in the shop,
1. Ask for a pre paid SIM card. They should be explaining the different possibility. I am not sure which one is the best or cheap. But buy one SIM card there. It should come with some talk time as well, but you could buy a 10 Euro top up card.
2. If you are planning to travel here in public transport then buy a travel card as well. Travel card costs 9 euros. You could charge the travel card with some money say 20 Euros. You can do all this R-Kioski. Just say i need a travel card and want to load 20 Euros to the card. This could cost you 20 Euros. You can read more about the Travel cards here [ http://www.ytv.fi/ENG/transport/tickets_and_fares/frontpage.htm ]. The same travel card can be used for tram, train, metro, ferry and bus transport in Helsinki, Espoo and vanta.

ISD calls are costly with the prepaid mobile connections. So keep your ISD calls sweet and short. Will write different post about making ISD calls which are bit cheaper than this.

Now you are all set to find the nearest exit and catch a cab and go to your hotel or apartment.

Have a nice stay in Finland! :)

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