How to get to town on Baltic cruise

[spikecat]

Could someone who has just been on the Eurodam Baltic cruise please tell me what they think is the best way to get to town in Copenhagen,Stockholm and Helsinki. We want to see those cities on our own. Is Stockholm a tender and if so where does the tender land?

Thank you

[paganwoman]

We did this cruise last year and had a wonderful time. With that cruise none of these were tender ports. We left from Copenhagen and just took a taxi to the ship from our hotel. In Stockholm we took a tour (land and sea-I highly recommend it) but if I remember correctly the port is not that far outside of Stockholm so you can get where you want with public transport if you desire. Helsinki we did our own think and the ship provided a shuttle to downtown. We just walked around for a couple of hours and then took the shuttle back to the ship. :)

[rjrpar]

Copenhagen - walk

Helsinki - shuttle bus from cruise line for small fee

[kazu]

wasn't on the Eurodam but have been to the Baltics twice - you can do these ports on your own. My experience though for what little it is worth....

 

Helsinki is very walkable from the port but to get to one of the best sites it is a LONG walk and I would either get a cab or whatever.

 

Stockholm is do-able but there are some nice sites and they are a bit of a distance - if you are doing a private tour - they often have packages to give you some highlights of these ports and then time on your own.

 

Copenhagen - depending upon where you dock is walkable - it can be long - I found the walk much shorter in Helsinki but they are all very pretty ports.

 

For what it's worth - you will miss some things trying to diy - if I may suggest - do some type of mini tour to get some of the highlights in Stockholm and Helsinki - Copenhagen's are more central. JMO though of course and our experience. Have a great time:)

 

 

co

[Big Al B.]

Eurodam was at Copenhagen's Oceankai and is too far to walk. They did run a shuttle bus and there are cabs. I don't think the city has a good handle on public transport out there yet.

 

Stockholm: Ship's shuttle, Bus 1 or better yet 76 (stop a short walk). We were supposed to do tender from a buoy very near old town, but captain complained that he didn't think it was safe for the Eurodam (no turn around and problems if wind came up). We were reassigned to a pier. Ship that was then put at buoy dragged anchors and damaged the buoy in the wind.

 

Helsinki: We were on a tour, but I think they also ran a shuttle.

 

Tallinn is walkable as are Warnemunde and Kiel.

[Essiesmom]

Rick Steves now has a book out on Northern Europe Cruise Ports. Well worth the price/weight if you want to DIY. EM

[PatriciaF]

We just returned from the 23 May Baltic Cruise. I highly recommend the Rick Steves Northern Europe Port Book--downloaded it to my Kindle so it was easy to refer to in each port.

 

Tallinn--just walk from the port to the old city--easy to do, about 3 miles for the full walk to the top of the hill and back. Google Rick Steves Smithsonian Tallinn Walk for a great free guide.

 

St. Petersburg--unless you have arranged for a VISA in advance, you cannot leave the port unless you are on a tour--either through HAL or an independent. We did the Alla Tour Grand Two Day tour--it was very good, but exhausting.

 

Helsinki--ship offered the Stromma Green Hop On/Hop Off Bus for $29 (could have been $24) per person. We were quite a bit of a way out of town.

 

Stockholm--Ship offered a shuttle, $12 each way/each day/person from the port to the Opera House. It is close to the Royal Palace and the newer shopping area, but probably a 20 or 30 minute walk to the Vasa and ABBA museums.

 

Warnemunde--we did the tour to Berlin through Alla, so no info for you. (With the St. Petersburg tour, it was only $125 versus $300 PLUS with the ship. The ship uses a train and has snacks there and back--but for $200 per person I thought we could take the bus.)

 

Kiel--there is a blue line from the port to the train station through the town. This is a very untouristy town--everything in German. We saw almost no souvenir shops but a variety of everything else including the Euro store (every thing for one euro); a large shopping center, with a great discount market on the back side on the bottom floor; and just about everything else. While everything was in German, most everybody spoke English.

 

Copenhagen--we docked out in the new port area of Oceankaj--it is quite a distance from town. When we flew in, we purchased a 48 hour Copenhagen card to use upon our return as we were spending another night in Copenhagen before flying back to LAX. We also purchased a 24 hour transportation pass for that day to use for some sightseeing before sailing. We took the train from the airport to the central station--easy to do takes about 20 minutes. We then took a cab to the ship--200 DKK. We were going to take the bus back to town to see the Little Mermaid and a few other sights--BUT--it was a traffic nightmare. There were 3 ships in port: Eurodam; Royal Princess; and Celebrity Infinity. Bumper to bumper in cabs plus the normal port traffic. We just stayed about ship instead. Upon return, we used the bus (#78 to go to town and used others around town to sightsee). Disembarkation day we took a cab to the Copenhagen Airport Hilton, 409 DKK, and then used the Copenhagen card for transport and access to sights. We stayed in town but friends we were travelling with when to Fredricksborg castle with the card.

Edited June 8, 2014 by PatriciaF