Flights
Many airlines operate direct flights to Tampere and Helsinki.
Ryanair operates more or less daily flights from London Stansted to Tampere (direct flight, takes about 3 hours). They are the most convenient, and what you perhaps lose in comfort and in style, you make up for in savings. If you book early enough, you might well get return flights for less than £100. They also now operate flights from Edinburgh to Tampere, which is good news for our friends and family in Scotland and Northern England!
Easyjet flies daily or twice daily from London Gatwick to Helsinki, the capital. Easyjet also offers good value for money (you can easily get return flights for less than £150), although you have to factor in getting a coach or train to Tampere. (More details on trains and coaches below.)
British Airways (usually in association with Finnair or SAS) has several flights to Helsinki or Tampere daily, although flights to Tampere usually have a stop over in Copenhagen, which adds considerably to travelling time. These usually set you back well in excess of £200.
Blue1, a sister company of Finnair, offers budget friendly direct flights to Helsinki from Heathrow. Prices start from £70 one way. See http://www.blue1.com/en/uk for their flights and pricing.
Trains and coaches
If you fly to Tampere, your flight will arrive at Tampere Pirkkala Airport. A city transport bus service runs to the city centre regularly throughout the day, and costs a few euros. A taxi from the airport to the city centre will be about €20-30. For more transport information, check http://www.finavia.fi/airports/airport_tampere-pirkkala for more details.
Should you fly to Helsinki (the airport is called Helsinki-Vantaa), there are regular and comfortable coaches running to Tampere direct from the airport. The coach takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes and costs approx. €24. The coaches run throughout the night. For more information on coaches go to http://www.matkahuolto.fi/en/
You can also take one of the local buses to Helsinki city centre and catch a train to Tampere. The trains take about 2 hours, and cost from €24 onwards. Please note that trains stop running around 10.30pm to Tampere, so depending on when your flight arrives, you might have to take the coach instead. See http://www.vr.fi/eng/ for more details.
If you have any questions, let us know!