Molli Steam Train On Your Own

I found that in planning a Baltics cruise with kids, the resources on the internet were not always great or a little out of date, so I thought I'd make a post that might be helpful to others in the same situation. With long expected touring days ahead of us in Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Stockholm, we decided against dragging the kids into Berlin, so we were looking for something low stress and fun to do for a Warnemunde stop. We thought about renting a car, visiting Wismar, seeing some castles, but ultimately settled on the Molli steam train. It is a small gauge train that runs from Bad Doberan up to the sea, and makes a couple of stops in the seaside town of Kuhlungsborn.

It turned out to be a great option. The Molli train is very charming. It starts its journey literally going through the streets of Bad Doberan, before it hits open wildflower fields on the way up to the coast. There are a couple of stations once you get to Kulungsborn. We chose the east station, because it looked like an easy walk to the sea. Sure enough, from the station, it took about 10 minutes of easy strolling to get up to the beach front. We ate at restaurant on a little harbor called Vielmeer, walked along the shore for a bit, and then headed down the main drag from the sea -- Sandstrasse or something. It was all pretty compact. It took maybe a couple of hours, and was perfect.

Getting there takes a couple of steps. First, you must take a train from Warnemunde to Rostock, and then connect to a train from Rostock to Bad Doberan. Once in Bad Doberan, you change to the Molli train and take the journey up to the coast.

First, getting from the Warnemunde dock to the train station is pretty easy. Follow the signs, take the stairs under the tracks, and pop back up across the tracks at the station. If you have a stroller or wheelchair that you cannot carry down and up stairs, there is access across the tracks, but it's a longer walk and you follow the signs. Probably add 10 minutes or so.

You need to buy two tickets, because the Molli ticket is separate from the regular train service. So, when you get to Warnemunde, you want to buy a return ticket to Bad Doberan. You can do this at the ticket kiosks, although we found long lines of confused cruisers not able to work the machines and not bearing chip and pin cards. It turns out, there was a manned ticket counter inside the Warnemunde station that was a bit tougher to find but it worked out great. One nice thing about going to a manned ticket booth was that the agent informed us that 2 adults and 2 children could purchase a family ticket for less than the cost of the tickets individually, so it was 23 euro for the return journey for the four of us.

Trains from Warnemunde to Rostock leave every 15 minutes. The main limitation on the trip, however, is the train between Rostock and Bad Doberan, which only leaves once per hour. We looked up the schedule a few days before our trip, and found it left every hour at :06 past the hour. So, we planned for the 11:06 train. This required getting on a train from Warnemunde that put us in Bad Doberan with enough time to make this connection. There was a 10:30 from Warnemunde, which left 12 minutes to make the change. So, we got off the ship at 9:45, with the idea of taking the 10:30 train from Warnemunde. As it turned out, we had our tickets and were ready in time to take the 10:15 from Warnemunde to Rostock. I'm glad of that, because the 12 minute connection would have been stressful. First, the train was a few minutes late. Second, Rostock is a reasonably big train station, and it takes a while to figure out which track your train leaves from. Also, to get from platform to platform requires taking a long flight of stairs down and back up. One of our group has mobility challenges, so we needed the elevators. They exist and are easy to find, but there were so many people with bicycles using the smallish elevators that it took a while. 12 minutes would have been stressful, and, as noted, since trains from Rostock to Bad Doberan leave only every hour, missing that train would be a bummer.

The Molli train also departs once an hour, but its departure from Bad Doberan is timed to coincide with the arrival of the train from Rostock. So, this transfer is very easy. When you arrive in Bad Doberan, you can see the Molli train right on the adjacent platform. You just walk up and buy your ticket and get on. It was about 40 euros for the four us to take the return trip from Bad Doberan to Kuhlungsborn.

Getting back, you just go in reverse. Get a schedule when you board the Molli and it will tell you what time it leaves coming the other direction. Returns are every hour, although later in the afternoon for a short period they increase it to every 30 minutes. Again, the arrival back at Bad Doberan is timed to coincide with the departure of the train from Bad Doberan back to Rostock. A word of caution, however, this connection for us was pretty tight -- the Molli arrived just a few minutes before the train to Rostock. The train from Bad Doberan is a smallish regional train -- almost like a metro or so, and it's just a couple of cars long. We were standing in the wrong place on the track, because we misunderstood the signs, and had to run like mad to get on the train. Since the trains are not that frequent, you don't want to miss that connection. I would recommend that when you board the Molli in Bad Doberan in the morning, ask the conductor or ticket seller exactly where to stand to catch the train back to Rostock later in the afternoon. I could try to describe it, but fear I'd do more harm than good. Basically, there are only two tracks at Bad Doberan on the main platform, one going in each direction. But, in the direction to Rostock, they actually divide up the platform to make it two platforms, one near the station and one further down (the one near the station is platform "1" and the one farther away is "3"). We misunderstood the signs and were standing on platform 3, not 1, when the train for Rostock appeared and stopped about 100 meters down the track and so we had to run because it doesn't stop for long.

Anyway, long post about a fairly simple excursion. Happy to answer any questions.

Regguy,

Thanks for the tips. We're on a baltics cruise this summer (which unfortunately doesn't stop in warnemunde). Did you by any chance have tips on your other stops with kids?

Thanks!

I think the biggest advice I would give for Baltics with kids, now that I have done it, is to take a serious look at the ship's itinerary and to understand your kids' limitations and stamina. Our cruise did five consecutive touring days -- Tallinn, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm. I definitely did not appreciate how tough this can be on the kids' stamina, especially considering that from Germany to Tallinn and Tallinn to St. Petersburg, you are setting the clock ahead an hour. Add that on top of several times zones of jet lag coming from the U.S.A., and that fact that the sun barely goes down once you start chugging north above the 55th parallel, and you really have to be aware that you're asking a lot from the kids.

The way it worked out for us, by the second St. Petersburg day, our kids were tuckered out. We gave serious thought about having them push on through, and then basically taking a day off in Helskini, but ultimately we decided that since they'd already had a full day in St. Petersburg and wanted to see Helskini, they would skip the second day and stay on the ship with mom while I did the second day of touring. Helsinki was pretty low impact and stress, so I think maybe we could have done it differently, but nobody seems to have any regrets, and the first St. Petersburg day was pretty full, so they feel like the got a good dose of Russia, even if not as much as they could have. On some level, I feel its a bit of shame to go all that way and have them only have done one day in St. Petersburg, but on the other, pushing them to do more would have been a bad idea. If there were a group that offered a one and a half day tour, that may have been better if the half day were the second day, but the tour I chose was two full days. If you have the cash, a private tour you can design yourself may very well be the way to go.

Anyway, by and large, other than not going to Berlin, we didn't change too much from what we, the adults, would have wanted to do anyway. Where there was a choice to pick a lower impact option, we generally took it, but here is how our touring went at the different ports.

Warnemunde -- Molli Train.

Tallinn -- Basically, a standard walking tour, stopping for a snack and drink along the way, and taking lots of pictures. Mom and the kids took a taxi back to the ship a little early, and I walked because I wanted to see a bit more of the new town.

St. Petersburg -- We did one of the group tours from one of the big companies. From what I saw, since we seemed to see the same groups everywhere, they are all pretty close to the same. We elected for a "comfort" version of the tour, which essentially meant about an hour less in the Hermitage and sit down lunches instead of box lunches on the go. I would say "comfort" is a misnomer. I'm sure that, relatively speaking, it's a bit more relaxing than the regular tour, but it's still very active. As noted above, the kids took the second day off with mom.

Helsinki -- We did the cruise ship's basic tour, which was a bus ride that stopped at a few major sites and allowed picture time and a bit of touring. Pretty low impact -- there is a bit of a walk from the place where the buses are allowed to park and the rock church, but nothing significant. We chose the shorter tour (3 hours), which had an option to drop you off in the main square at the end to make your own way back, instead of going back to the ship. We just strolled around the harbor, bought a salmon plate from an out door stand and ate in the harbor, did some leisurely souvenir shopping, then walked around before taking a taxi back for all aboard the ship.

Stockholm. With kids, the ho/ho boat is the way to go. We chose the green company, because it seemed to offer more frequent boats. Got off the ship immediately and went straight to the Vasa museum on the ho/ho boat. This is a don't miss. Toured that, then toured the old town, and walked around a bit. A couple of hours before sail away, the youngest went back to the ship to swim and hang out with mom (it was actually pretty hot), and I took the oldest to the amusement park on the water. We had just enough time for him to ride a few rides and play a few games, and soak up the atmosphere. As silly as it sounds, this was one of the most non-touristy spots we saw on our vacation. There do not seem to be any cruise excursions to the amusement park, and it doesn't seem to be something that cruisers really want to waste their time doing in their limited time in Stockholm. So, it seemed to be pretty much all Swedes, albeit in a very commercial and not particularly historical or educational kind of tourist experience. Still, I'm glad we did it, and it was actually kind of memorable in a weird way. You can pay by the ride, and admission is free if you have a ho/ho boat ticket from the green company, so it was perfect to just jump on a couple of rides, grab a snack, and go back to the ship.

Copenhagen -- We had only two days after the cruise, so we did all the big ticket things. Tivoli. Little mermaid. Hung out at Nyhavn. A few strolls up and down the Stroget. Boat tour (we took the ho/ho boat, which was not really necessary and more expensive -- there is a non ho/ho boat that is less expensive). We did a few things here and there for the kids, like paying ridiculous amounts to share nachos at Hard Rock Cafe and wandering through the lego store. I wasn't sure whether Christiania would be appropriate for the kids, so I went by myself for an hour. It would have been fine for them, as it turned out, but I'm not sure how interesting they would have found it.

I found that in planning a Baltics cruise with kids, the resources on the internet were not always great or a little out of date, so I thought I'd make a post that might be helpful to others in the same situation. With long expected touring days ahead of us in Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Stockholm, we decided against dragging the kids into Berlin, so we were looking for something low stress and fun to do for a Warnemunde stop. We thought about renting a car, visiting Wismar, seeing some castles, but ultimately settled on the Molli steam train. It is a small gauge train that runs from Bad Doberan up to the sea, and makes a couple of stops in the seaside town of Kuhlungsborn.

 

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Anyway, long post about a fairly simple excursion. Happy to answer any questions.

Just found your post now and planning for a future trip. We will verify times etc. on line, but thanks for all the helpful information.

I've done the molli steam train exactly as you describe on our first port of our first cruise. One thing to note if you can't find the platform at Rostock the guides at the information desks are very helpful.

It's a great trip 😀🚂

Archmom -

We did this itinerary with our 3.5 year old. The review in my signature line should have some useful information for you. My biggest advice to families of young children is to consider a private tour for just your family in St. Petersburg. There is a lot to see, and it made a huge difference to us to be able to skip tourist shops, the lesser rooms in palaces and stop whenever my son needed to eat. We were able to adjust the itinerary to his interests on the fly, and were able to see all of the major attractions in two days.

It is a wonderful cruise for young children, and all of the other ports were very easy to DIY with children and had lots of things to capture their interest. Please let me know if there are any questions I can help you with.