Baltic City Excursions

Going on Baltic Cruise Sept 4, 2016 that includes Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdansk, Berlin, Copenhagen, Alborg, Stavanger, Flam and Bergen. Would like to hear reviews on excursions that you have taken in these cities or things that you have done on your own. Very excited for this trip. I appreciate your help with this.

Just came back from our Baltic cruise, which was pretty wonderful.

Of course, I am sure you are well aware that you can not do St. Petersburg on your own. You must either do a ship's excursion, or sign up with one of the many tour operators in St. Petersburg. We used Alla Tours and were very happy with them. They also do tours in several other cities in the Baltic's and offer a discount on tours in other cities if you take your 2-day St. Petersburg tour with them. Besides St. Petersburg we took tours in Helsinki, Stockholm, Warnemunde (Germany), and Copenhagen all with Alla tours.

In Tallinn and Stockholm (Day two) we did HOHO bus and boat.

Most of the major cities offer a HOHO bus, which is a great way to get around, and is cost effective.

You may want to reconsider going to Berlin. My guess is your port city is Warnemunde, which is 2:45 each way by train, over 3 hours by bus. I spoke to several fellow passengers, and they all said it was a long day. There are a number of charming, historic towns much closer to port that may give you a better experience.

If interested, check out my public FB page, Journeys & Jaunts. I just loaded over 200 photos from our trip, but I haven't yet captioned them all. I am also working on my full review, which I hope to have up by Sunday.

Thank you and I will look up your FB page. We are looking at 2 day tour with with SPB tours or Alla tours for St. Petersburg. My hubby wants to do the concentration camp in Berlin so I think we will take the long trip into Berlin. Did you do the castle tour in Copenhagen?

Yes, we did do the castle tour in Copenhagen and it was very good. As much as I loved the fairytale castle of Schwerin, I thought Fredriksborg Castle to be breathtaking (The dining hall and chapel were my favorites) and Kronborg was impressive from the outside, and has a fascinating history.

I'm looking into that tour. I love Castles. Your pictures are lovely

I'm looking into that tour. I love Castles. Your pictures are lovely

Thank you for the kind comment regarding my photos. I take hundreds, hoping that a few will come out good enough to share. Of course being "Photo Bombed" or finding a lovely building that is at least partly covered by scaffolding is frustrating.

Stockholm -

Did this one on our own, but we had an overnight so there wasn't a time crunch. Vasa museum, then lunch, then a free Old Town walking tour with Free Tours Copenhagen, then Ice Bar, then dinner at Akkurat. The following day we did 3-hour archipelago tour with Stromma.

Helsinki -

Private tour (walking & pubic transit) with Katherine from Happy Guides Copenhagen

St. Petersburg -

3 days & 2 evenings with Angie from Alla Tours. The first evening our driver took us to Teplo restaurant and the 2nd evening we wanted to see a big of the bar scene so we went out with Constantine (he is an evening chaperone with Alla - he doesn't really do "guiding" just "fun.") The 3 days were just the standard Grand Tour.

Tallinn -

2 hour private walking tour with Maria from Traveller Tours

Berlin -

6-7 hours of touring in Berlin with Heidi. It was 2.5 hours there and 3 hours back, but we feel it was worth it. It sounds like you are interested in WWII history, so if you make it to Berlin I suggest seeing Otto Weidt brush factory - it was a small museum, maybe a 30 minute visit. The most fantastic story of the entire trip I had never heard before!

Copenhagen -

We were here for three and a half days pre-cruise. We did a private 3-hour city tour with Ben from Guided Tours Copenhagen and then the free 90-minute Christianshavn tour with Free Tours Copenhagen. Learning about and seeing Christiania was a highlight for us, although I've heard mixed reviews. If you are up for a little bit of an adventure and can keep an open mind, I'd highly recommend it. If you are a little hesitant, you can go with the Free Tours Copenhagen tour so you're not on your own. (We also did most of the major sites while we were there - and also explored the bar scene!)

Let me know if you have any specific questions :)

Thank you for the info especially the names of the tour companies

Going on Baltic Cruise Sept 4, 2016 that includes Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdansk, Berlin, Copenhagen, Alborg, Stavanger, Flam and Bergen. Would like to hear reviews on excursions that you have taken in these cities or things that you have done on your own. Very excited for this trip. I appreciate your help with this.

If you read thru several pages on this forum, you will gain a wealth of knowledge about what is what in each port and what people usually see.

All the ports are very easy to do on your own, if you can walk for a while, except St Petersburg where you either need a ship's tour of book a tour thru a private company. We used SPB tours handled by Victoria and she is such a pleasure to work with. If you want tours, most of the private tour companies in St Petersburg, also do several of the other ports you will visit and will give you a better price the more you add on.

That said, you should look back a page or two on this forum, there is a great walking tour of Tallinn. No real need for a tour here if you want to see most of the attractions, just follow the walking tour.

Helsinki is another city very easy to get around once you get to Market Square. From here you can take the trolley to the Church in the Rock, or walk to Senate Square, walk to the ferry that takes you to the fortress or any of several other options.

Copenhagen, another port very easily done on your own. Be sure to take the canal boat cruise from Nyhavn. it is the can't miss thing to do. If you have time you can wander about Tivoli gardens, or go to Rosenborg Castle to wander the grounds or tour the castle.

Stockholm, the Vasa IS the can't miss attraction here. After that take time to wander the narrow cobblestone streets of Gamla Stan. We simply loved it.

Anyway, hope this helps some

Cheers

Len

Going on Baltic Cruise Sept 4, 2016 that includes Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdansk, Berlin, Copenhagen, Alborg, Stavanger, Flam and Bergen. Would like to hear reviews on excursions that you have taken in these cities or things that you have done on your own. Very excited for this trip. I appreciate your help with this.

Just back from Baltic trip on Celebrity Eclipse. On tour front:

Copenhagen: HoHo bus. We were there overnight but the same ticket covered up to 24 hours.

Stockholm: Also used HoHo however it was a very wet day and to make things worse it was their mid summer festival and city largely closed down except for very wet tourists!

Talinn: Short walk from port terminal to old town. Don't bother with shuttle unless a bit infirm. A daily FREE tour starts from outside the main tourist office. Enquire there re time. Think it was 11:00 AM. Excellent guide. Duration 1 hour 45 mins and you just tip guide at end. We gave 5 euro each. Great value.

St Petersburg: Tons of tour companies and all do more or less the same trip. Think we counted over 60 white 16 seater mini busses returning one of the days to the cruise terminal and it looks as if both the drivers and guides are self employed and simply hired by the tour companies. Thus you can get same bus and/or guide working for different companies on different days.

We used Tickets & Tours as our company after much research before we got there. Also had corresponded with them. They weren't even listed on the Tripadvisor list of tour companies!

We were delighted with them. Small group pf 10 on Day 1 & 8 on Day 2 and we saw all the sights etc. To make matters even better they were 50% cheaper than most of the other companies I looked up $199 each for the 2 days compared with $299 with the others.

From talking to others afterwards we did the same or better than everyone else at a cost of $460 incl. gratuities for the 2 of us.

Warenmunde: 10 minute walk to the town. Pretty but won't occupy you for a day as its a seaside resort and no sights of consequence.

In the afternoon we went into Rostock. Train station is near the cruise terminal and trains every 15 minutes, or so. Tickets are €2 each way so just €8 for us both to take the return trip. Ticket brings to the main station called Rostock Hbf

and you then change to either the Number 5 or 6 tram than both go to the centre about 3 or 4 stops away from the station. Your ticket includes both train & tram journey

IMPORTANT: You need to activate your ticket before you board or risk being fined. The machines that stamps your ticket are on the platform in the station and on the tram for return. So activate just as you start your trip

I can also highly recommend a private tour company called TJ Travel.Our guide Viktoria was an ex teacher,had a degree n history,and was extremely knowledgable.The email correspondence from the company was very good and also prompt.We spent two days doing the main sites.It was a fast paced tour but we felt this was good because we packed so much in.It wouldn't be a good tour for anyone with mobility problems as there is quite a bit of walking .We felt that this was a good value tour compared to the ones offered by P¥O cruises as they were definitely more expensive and aim sure not as personal.

Just came back from our Baltic cruise, which was pretty wonderful.

 

 

 

Of course, I am sure you are well aware that you can not do St. Petersburg on your own. You must either do a ship's excursion, or sign up with one of the many tour operators in St. Petersburg. We used Alla Tours and were very happy with them. They also do tours in several other cities in the Baltic's and offer a discount on tours in other cities if you take your 2-day St. Petersburg tour with them. Besides St. Petersburg we took tours in Helsinki, Stockholm, Warnemunde (Germany), and Copenhagen all with Alla tours.

 

 

 

In Tallinn and Stockholm (Day two) we did HOHO bus and boat.

 

 

 

Most of the major cities offer a HOHO bus, which is a great way to get around, and is cost effective.

 

 

 

You may want to reconsider going to Berlin. My guess is your port city is Warnemunde, which is 2:45 each way by train, over 3 hours by bus. I spoke to several fellow passengers, and they all said it was a long day. There are a number of charming, historic towns much closer to port that may give you a better experience.

 

 

 

If interested, check out my public FB page, Journeys & Jaunts. I just loaded over 200 photos from our trip, but I haven't yet captioned them all. I am also working on my full review, which I hope to have up by Sunday.

Well you CAN do St Petersburg on your own. You just need a visa. I just did it.