Excursion Berlin. Is it worth the 7 hours of travel?

Ideally you would want to spend several days there. But if you have no plans to, or at this point not sure, I would definitely do it.

Like one other person, I usually would not do a 3-hour bus trip. But this was a unique experience.

We also used SPB, which did a great job here and in StP. We also preferred taking a bus. Didn't sit right with me having a German directing me to a train.

Also, although no one pointed this out (astoundingly), I highly recommend the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, the latter of which is underground. That's where we stopped for an informal lunch. We just took snacks from the ship, ate off the land (haha) and kept it moving.

 

Also, although no one pointed this out (astoundingly), I highly recommend the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, the latter of which is underground. That's where we stopped for an informal lunch. We just took snacks from the ship, ate off the land (haha) and kept it moving.

Right by the Brandenburg Gate.

An arty memorial, a gridiron pattern of many (?)granite blocks, called steles. OK if you like that sort of thing, did nothing for me.

But, as you say, the museum underneath isn't well-promoted & a lot of folk who visit the memorial don't even know it's there - we stumbled across the entrance by chance.

Well worth going down into the museum. :)

The Holocaust Memorial & museum is not to be confused with the Jewish Museum, which we found to be a big disappointment.

On the ho-ho route, or a short walk from Checkpoint Charlie, it's a strange building designed with strange angles. The building itself will amaze those who like such architecture, but it can hardly be called a museum - full of long bare corridors and just a very very few artefacts. Doubtless moving and evocative to some, but a complete waste of space to those of us who aren't into symbolism.

JMHO ;)

JB :)

We did SPB in 2015 while on a Baltic cruise with Oceania and it is defInitely well worth it to see Berlin. You have a very comfortable bus ride to the outskirts of Berlin, then SPB picks you up and takes you to all the major sites! We also did SPB in St Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm. Read my review from August 2015

Stevelex56

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We had a similar option last summer as to whether to take an excursion from Le Havre to Paris. I decided it wasn't worth the time and money. I looked at the things we could do in Le Havre and enjoyed our day there.

One of the cruises we're considering for this summer goes to Hamburg. It has excursions available to Berlin, but from what I've read, there are enough attractions in Hamburg to keep us busy for a day.

There’s so many great things to see in Berlin so it depends where you live and how likely you will have the chance to do it again. We can fly there from home in less time than the trip takes from warnemude, so to us it wasn’t worth it.

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In 2010 four of us in our group rented a car and visited Schwerin and Rostock. The other four did a Celebrity tour to Berlin, which they felt was worthwhile and included a very good German lunch.

 

 

 

We decided that the long bus ride and short time in Berlin, to say nothing of the hefty price, was not worth it for us. We anticipated that someday we would be able to spend several days there.

 

 

 

Fast forward to this summer! Rather than fly to Amsterdam via LHR and pay the charge that AA wanted for this routing using FF miles, we thought outside the box. So we are flying AirBerlin instead and spending 3 nights in Berlin, taking the train to Prague staying 2 nights, and flying easyJet from there to Amsterdam for 2 nights pre-cruise. Hotels and transportation came to about what those LHR fees would have cost us! (We are flying home on Finnair, again avoiding the add-on via LHR.)

 

 

 

Instead of just a drive-by on a bus as we'd have done on a shorex, we will spend time inside the Reichstag, walk the Unter der Linden, take a Spree River cruise, visit the Pergamon Museum and several others, enjoy a variety of restaurants, and who knows what else?

 

 

 

I strongly suggest waiting to visit Berlin until you can spend more than just a few hours there.

If your boat ride goes to Potsdam, it’s well worth it for the history.

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We would never consider it. Better to make alternate plans and plan to spend several days pre or post cruise, or on a subsequent trip. Why waste all that time in travel.

We did it and while jam packed, would do it again. Early mornings, late nights + multiple time changes = Baltic cruises.

What would you do, if you don't go to Berlin? Do other shore excursions appeal to you?

I just looked at a few Holland America Berlin tour descriptions from Warnemunde and would not take one. The tours are just drive past sight-seeing of Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and Berlin Wall remnants and boat riding past the Reichstag, government buildings, cathedral, and Museum Island. A German lunch is included along with 45 minutes to shop on Kurfürstendamm.

Another tour offers the above plus the opportunity to step inside the Allied Museum. It is actually phrased that way, "step inside the Allied Museum".

On the plus side, a three hour coach or train ride might be a relaxing break on a port heavy Baltic cruise. I'll bet a lot of folks get a nice nap on the return trip.

Do a private tour to Berlin from Warnemunde.

It is simply that we would not be happy with a few hours in Berlin. We would want at least two-three days.

first Baltics cruise 2019 did tour to Berlin with SPB

Even though we live in UK there weren't direct flights from our area to Berlin so had never been

we enjoyed the day and felt we saw the highlights

this year we are embarking from Warnemunde and a low cost airline flies directly to Berlin from our local airport so we are flying out 3 days earlier to explore Berlin in more detail and then getting train to Warnemunde

if we hadn't done that initial port visit we may not have appreciated how much Berlin deserves a longer visit