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

We are cruising the Baltics in July, one of the excursions is to Berlin, Germany

I would like to Know from those that have gone if it is worth the whole day of being on the bus....

A city well worth several days.

So if you're likely to have the opportunity to visit at some time in the future, I suggest you put Berlin on the back-burner.

But if this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I say grab it with both hands.

So much history, particularly 20th century. So many iconic things to see - the Reichstag, the adjacent Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie (OK it's an exact copy) and nearby museum http://www.mauermuseum.de/ , preserved sections of "the wall", museum of Soviet-controlled times, a boat ride on the Spree, etc ad-infinitum.

JB :)

Only you can decide if it is worth it- a subjective judgment depending on your point of view.

We found it very worth it.

Berlin is wonderful. It is a city that covers a large area - no real "old city" area. You will spend 6 - 7 hours on a bus and 5 hours in the city - not a lot of time. If this will be your only trip to Europe then by all means make the journey.

We spent three days there a couple years ago and are returning for a week next year.

Some options are Stralsund, a World Heritage Site, Wismar, another World Heritage Site,, Schwerin, the former capical of a duchy with a beautiful 19th century fairytale castle, the minster of Bad Doberan, cute little Warnemünde itself, the ghost wood of Nienhagen nearby, a nostalgic steam train that goes through a old town to a beautiful seaside resort and so on.

All close to the port and doable for less than 30 €uros for two, or with a guided tour with Friends of Dave, which gets rave reviews at Tripadvisor (read them, no one missed Berlin)

Only you can decide but being well informed helps. Read this as well

http://blog.ricksteves.com/blog/berlin-by-cruise-ship/

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.

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.

I can HIGHLY recommend the Fat Tire bike tour - Berlin is an easy flat ride and the bikes are great way to cover a lot of area. You stop for lunch at a beer garden. It is a great way to get the layout of the city.

I can HIGHLY recommend the Fat Tire bike tour - Berlin is an easy flat ride and the bikes are great way to cover a lot of area. You stop for lunch at a beer garden. It is a great way to get the layout of the city.

It is still too cold here in NE Ohio to think about bringing our bikes up from the basement!

We did a bike tour in Copenhagen and, after that experience, I'd take driving in NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. anytime over the crazy bike congestion there.

I like the idea of flat, but how zany is the bike traffic in Berlin?

That really depends on your interests. We enjoyed it but it is a long ride.

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.

You are like me - I will fly anywhere in Europe for the least amount of miles and make my way to where I actually want to be. It is part of the fun! If you have not been to Prague before, you will enjoy it. For EasyJet, it's a good airline if you are OK with it's rules on luggage. They are VERY strict about the one carryon rule - it's not one carryon PLUS one personal item. Be sure you prepare for that and you will be fine. Enjoy your adventure!

I can HIGHLY recommend the Fat Tire bike tour - Berlin is an easy flat ride and the bikes are great way to cover a lot of area. You stop for lunch at a beer garden. It is a great way to get the layout of the city.

Ditto CapeCodCruiser on the Fat Tire Bike tour. I did one last September. We cruised the Baltics and then I went to Berlin for 5 days after the cruise. I did the Fat Tire Bike tour the first full day in Berlin. It helped me get a sense of the city and where things were located. Berlin is relatively flat and the bike ride was easy with short stops to explain what we were seeing.

While Berlin is interesting, the ratio of bus time to sightseeing time isn't good. Too much time getting there and not enough time being there. My back and bum complained the whole next day.:eek:

Save inland cities for a land trip and use the cruise experience for ports and local places.

Before visiting Pergamon, check what isn't on display as it is undergoing extensive renovation.

Potsdam is worth a visit if you have several days in Berlin.

Not for us. We would rather arrange to spend several days in Berlin. A few hours is not good enough for us, let alone enduring seven hours of travel for a few hours of sightseeing.

No way would I spend that much time traveling for a few remaining hours of "visit" time. If it's an important place for you to go, take a trip there....and stay for a while!

How long are you actually on the ground in Berlin. Not driving from place to place in Berlin but on the ground seeing stuff. Also, I do not count drive by sightseeing as sightseeing.

If it is as little as I imagine it is, I would say totally not worth it. We visited Berlin on one land trip to Europe and we spent 4 days in Berlin and it was not enough. How much can you see in just a few hours.

DON

Last summer while on the Oceana Marina, we did Berlin thru a private tour company SPB tours and it was definitely worth the travel time to and from Berlin! We also used SPB in St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm.

We booked private tours in Berlin and St. Pete with SPB, which were about $80 per person more than their public tours. Worth every penny as we cut through many lines in St. Pete and saw everything we wanted to see in each city. The regular tours in Helsinki and Stockholm were fine.

Obviously, each cruiser who faces this choice makes a decision based upon what is important to that individual.

For me, Rostock to Berlin and return was a long day, an interesting day, a somewhat disappointing day because of the urbanization of the major cities of Europe (i.e. I think they have lost their old World flavor with exceptions being cities like Tallin, Helsinki), but I am glad that I did the tour.

We used rail transport to/from Berlin. Being an Amtrak fan, I found this experience added to my tour. I enjoyed seeing the German countryside and the small towns through which we traveled. By bus, one can see the same type of scenes, but the train offers "room to roam" and restrooms. If there is a rail option for your proposed tour, I would suggest you book that rather than the bus if you choose to visit Berlin during your cruise.

One of the best things about cruising is visiting so many places - alas, Berlin is not a place to spend a few hours in when on a cruise.

The last time we were in Berlin we spent two weeks in a very nice city centre hotel, and it wasn't long enough..... we'll be going back (again). It's a unique city, in some ways completely western and very modern, yet it still has history, an Eastern European feel in parts... much of it is urban yet it has many large, beautiful parks.

If you'll never go back to Germany then do the cruise excursion; but instead I would very strongly recommend taking a couple of weeks out and spending a week in Germany and a week in Munich or Amsterdam or Budapest.

(Actually if you can get the time off and have a good bank balance, take a two-week vacation in each of those cities....)

VP

As you can read everyone has their own opinion on whether its worth it or not. We were on a Baltic Cruise two years ago and faced with the same question. As someone else pointed out - do you think you will have the opportunity or plan to take a longer trip to visit Berlin in the near future? I did not see that in my future plans any time soon - so we booked with several others a private tour with SPB and I was ready for a long miserable bus trip - but it was anything but. We enjoyed the trip and am so glad we did it. We got a great overview of Berlin, stopped at the usual spots - Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and other notable places. We had a great lunch with a beer I still remember being the best I have ever had at restaurant that still had bullet holes, etc from the War. I am so glad we took the chance. Would I I like to go back for several days - of course. But the choice of a long bus ride for the overview vs. not seeing it maybe ever - do it! I however would not book through the ship - but I feel that way about all tours. Enjoy!

As you can read everyone has their own opinion on whether its worth it or not. We were on a Baltic Cruise two years ago and faced with the same question. As someone else pointed out - do you think you will have the opportunity or plan to take a longer trip to visit Berlin in the near future? I did not see that in my future plans any time soon - so we booked with several others a private tour with SPB and I was ready for a long miserable bus trip - but it was anything but. We enjoyed the trip and am so glad we did it. We got a great overview of Berlin, stopped at the usual spots - Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and other notable places. We had a great lunch with a beer I still remember being the best I have ever had at restaurant that still had bullet holes, etc from the War. I am so glad we took the chance. Would I I like to go back for several days - of course. But the choice of a long bus ride for the overview vs. not seeing it maybe ever - do it! I however would not book through the ship - but I feel that way about all tours. Enjoy!

Funny - that's why I thought to respond here. My recommendation would be to book this through the ship. We were on a Celebrity cruise, and decided it was worth it for us. Little did we know it was Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, accompanied by a great deal of street construction. The back-ups and delays were horrendous, and we ended up getting back to the ship almost 3 hours late! A few of the private tour groups were thrilled that we were so late because it saved their late return situations. As soon as our large Celebrity group was safely onboard, the ship set sail and the dining room served us a held-over dinner. We were lucky.

Quite a few years ago we were fortunate to do the train to go to Berlin (HAL). We loved everything we saw and chose the long day as we had no idea if we would ever get back to Berlin.

Well we did and actually spent a few days there.

Only you can decide if you want to do a long bus ride.

Funny - that's why I thought to respond here. My recommendation would be to book this through the ship. We were on a Celebrity cruise, and decided it was worth it for us. Little did we know it was Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, accompanied by a great deal of street construction. The back-ups and delays were horrendous, and we ended up getting back to the ship almost 3 hours late! A few of the private tour groups were thrilled that we were so late because it saved their late return situations. As soon as our large Celebrity group was safely onboard, the ship set sail and the dining room served us a held-over dinner. We were lucky.

I would always choose ship tours when there are long distances involved. Saves a lot of angst when there are hold ups with traffic etc.

May be I am biased after our private van pulled over on a highway in South America, driver poured water into a steaming radiator and then had trouble restarting vehicle. Still 20 kms from port and time ticking down, out in the middle of nowhere. All ended well but it made me realise the $50 I saved by not taking the ship tour could have been a lot more if we didn't get back to port on time.

As you can read everyone has their own opinion on whether its worth it or not. We were on a Baltic Cruise two years ago and faced with the same question. As someone else pointed out - do you think you will have the opportunity or plan to take a longer trip to visit Berlin in the near future? I did not see that in my future plans any time soon - so we booked with several others a private tour with SPB and I was ready for a long miserable bus trip - but it was anything but. We enjoyed the trip and am so glad we did it. We got a great overview of Berlin, stopped at the usual spots - Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and other notable places. We had a great lunch with a beer I still remember being the best I have ever had at restaurant that still had bullet holes, etc from the War. I am so glad we took the chance. Would I I like to go back for several days - of course. But the choice of a long bus ride for the overview vs. not seeing it maybe ever - do it! I however would not book through the ship - but I feel that way about all tours. Enjoy!

I've never done the trip on a cruise...but, have visited Berlin on land. It is one of our favorite cities in Europe. I would have to agree, if think you are taking your one shot..do it...and hopefully you'll want to get back for a longer visit.

Hopefully, some cruisers will keep it in mind as a possible fly in or fly or city before a cruise. Yes, it's a big modern city..but, one with a personality that will surprise you at every turn.

The travel time versus the actual time in the city would not be worth it to me, but the only thing that matters is if it is worth it to you.

you will only have a small glance at the City.

Depends if you planing on coming back to Europe some other time.

If you do, do Berlin then and enjoy something that has not that Long bus way.

If you know you won't come back to Europe, then do it.

I personally don't do excursions with more the 1,5 hrs drive (one way) It's just too exausting