HAL Shorex: How much time in Berlin and where does the HAL bus drop you off?

[OlsSalt]

Will be taking the HAL bus option to Berlin on our upcoming Baltic cruise. Does anyone know how much time the bus option leaves for Berlin itself and where the bus drops us off?

 

Hard to schedule some of the activities we want to explore when the HAL website does not offer these details.

 

Also we assumed we might have more time taking the bus option instead of the train since the train required taking the bus to the trains station instead of just directly leaving from the ship. Anyone with experience with that?

 

I am trying to pack in a walking tour and a Spee River cruise into whatever limited time we have. May not work but learning where we get dropped off will make a big difference in my game plan. (I have been there before, so I know what top sights I want to hit again.)

[kalliekae]

Not sure if this helps you any, but I can relate our experience. We took the train and then HAL picked up us in a bus and we toured Berlin. The bus took us back to the train station for our trip back to the ship. It was a long day, but we saw everything we wanted to see and the train was relaxing.

[OlsSalt]

Not sure if this helps you any, but I can relate our experience. We took the train and then HAL picked up us in a bus and we toured Berlin. The bus took us back to the train station for our trip back to the ship. It was a long day, but we saw everything we wanted to see and the train was relaxing.

 

Glad to hear you felt had enough time to enjoy Berlin on the train/bus tour option. Do you remember when you left Berlin in the afternoon. The ship leaves at 9pm and assume there is about a 3 hour travel time allotted. So do you remember leaving by 4pm or so?

 

Still hoping to learn where the HAL bus option might the shore excursion passengers off in downtown Berlin, (which I realize is subject to change for any given shore excursion).

 

Near the main train station, near Brandenburg Gate, near the Tiergarten Tourist Office.... (???) ..... I am plotting a personal walking tour and hope to create a few ready options depending on the possible locations of the bus drop off and pick up.

 

Trying to think of the obvious spots this meeting point for the HAL bus option might be so I can have a Plan A, B and C.

 

Thanks for your response. It is an incredible city with so many layers to explore. Looking forward to whatever we finally come up with.

Edited May 9, 2016 by OlsSalt

[Underthemoonlight]

According to Rick Steve's book most likely you will left off at Gendarmenmarkt. If you look at HAL's website one of the reviews of the train on your own tour states we would have access to use the Hilton Hotel facilities. A Google search shows the hostel is one block away from the square. We will be taking the train version of Berlin on your own tour in August and assuming that is where we will start our own walking tour.

[OlsSalt]

According to Rick Steve's book most likely you will left off at Gendarmenmarkt. If you look at HAL's website one of the reviews of the train on your own tour states we would have access to use the Hilton Hotel facilities. A Google search shows the hostel is one block away from the square. We will be taking the train version of Berlin on your own tour in August and assuming that is where we will start our own walking tour.

 

Thanks a lot -- that brings in a whole new planning perspective. Thanks for the tips on where else to look for this info.

 

Yes, ours is Berlin "on our own", but choosing the bus instead of the train. Seems like it would make sense to collect us all at the same spot. Countdown begins! We leave early for a few days in Copenhagen before the cruise so crunch time just started.

[OlsSalt]

Did a little more searching and found private cruise ship tours to Berlin that use a bus start their tour at the Charlottenburg Palace which is way on the other side of the city from where we want to be, though U and S banns make it easy to get around.

 

Some reviews mention having traffic problems getting the bus to its destinations, which may be why a bus would have a different drop off than the train.

 

We will need reassess our choice once we get onboard and see if we can learn more about the bus drop off point. And if the train option would work better after all.

 

WIKI has a very good link for this "on your own" shore excursion, but only by train. Not for the bus option. Sounds like there is a 6 hour period for the "on your own" part, so it will be good to have our game plan up front ....if I could figure out where that starting point will be for us. Bummer. Still looking.

 

WIKI - Berlin on your own by train - lots of good maps - 6 hour walking tour, S and U Bahn maps and tips. http://cruiseportwiki.com/Warnemunde

Edited May 9, 2016 by OlsSalt

[RuthC]

Have you asked the Shore Excursion department in Seattle?

Since so few people on this site seem to have taken the bus option, you might do better asking HAL.

[hastinc]

I took the on your own Berlin tour by train last July. The drop off point was at the Hilton Berlin Gendarmenmarkt.

There are U-bahn stations a block away.

The walking/taxi/S-Bahn tour route I did was-

Checkpoint Charlie

Museum of Terror

Old Luftwaffe headquarters

Hitlers bunker site

Jewish memorial

Brandenburg gate

Reichstag building

Russian war memorial

Kaiser William memorial church

S-Bahn to Alexander platz

Berlin dome cathedral

Bebbel platz book burning site

Back to Gendarmenmarkt for the bus pickup at 16:10, back to the train station. I was back on board at 19:45.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[kalliekae]

Glad to hear you felt had enough time to enjoy Berlin on the train/bus tour option. Do you remember when you left Berlin in the afternoon. The ship leaves at 9pm and assume there is about a 3 hour travel time allotted. So do you remember leaving by 4pm or so?

 

Thanks for your response. It is an incredible city with so many layers to explore. Looking forward to whatever we finally come up with.

 

Sorry for not responding sooner. I am just getting back to the boards. Yes, we were on the train to go back to the ship by 4. That's one reason we took the HAL excursion by bus instead of on our own. We had heard that traffic can be a problem and we didn't want to miss our train. I don't usually care for bus tours, but this one worked out well for us.

 

Good luck with your planning. There is so much to see and do in Berlin that an overnight would be nice.

[Underthemoonlight]

We are curious what you decide to do and how it works out. We opted for the train after much debate, on the assumption we can walk around and stand as opposed to the bus. Also no need for rest stops. Don't stress it, you are on vacation, cruising, going to Berlin, either bus or train is the right decision. Enjoy!

[OlsSalt]

We are curious what you decide to do and how it works out. We opted for the train after much debate, on the assumption we can walk around and stand as opposed to the bus. Also no need for rest stops. Don't stress it, you are on vacation, cruising, going to Berlin, either bus or train is the right decision. Enjoy!

 

From this distance when planning we started out thinking the bus might be faster, simply because it eliminated the time required for the two "pick-up" journeys from the ship to the train and the train to the Hilton Hotel drop-off point in Berlin, which is a bit out of the way for where we want to start out our own sight-seeing plans.

 

However, those of you with practical experience have been warning about possible traffic back-ups over which a bus route would have no control, and would be avoided at least by the train route. Very worthy and important considerations. Thanks for the feedback.

 

Plus it appears the bus option drop off point may be in Charlottenburg, on the opposite side of Berlin where we want to be - though this is still a lovely place to start any exploration of the city and the U and S Bahns make anything in Berlin relatively close. (I already spent two weeks in Berlin so I know it fairly well. Love this city.)

 

Our thinking right now is to get more specific info about pick-up and drop off points for each option, once we talk to the Shorex people on board. (In a few more days!)

 

Additionally, if we take the train option, can we leave the excursion at the OstBerlin train stationm rather than having to take the bus to the final Hilton Hotel drop-off point? This would be a plus for us too.

 

Assume this will be okay, but don't know if this early departure compromises the Shore-ex duty to be responsible for our ultimate departure guarantee - may be getting overly paranoid here.

 

We can figure out how to get back to the ship on our own in the worst case analysis. In fact quite frankly we can figure out how to get to Berlin on our own too - but DH likes the security of shorex so it is easier on me to take his worry and stress out of the equation by signing up with the ship's tours.

Edited May 11, 2016 by OlsSalt