Do you tour pre or post a Baltic cruise?

[sumguy1]

What is your experience, which is better before or after? If the cruise is round trip from UK, where would you go?

So far, am thinking of spending few days in UK then few days in Paris then back to UK to start cruise. Not sure if we could tour after cruise somewhere else.

[dbh62ark]

For me, it's both. But I think this is another one of those "everyone is different" situations. For the past 12 years, my husband and I have been cruising Europe for 10-14 days and then extending pre- and post-cruise to make a 19-24 day trip. We really like having a post-cruise stay to look forward to after a wonderful cruise, but I've noticed that many passengers like to go straight home after the cruise because they are packed and it is over and/or they have to get back to work. And depending on which city or village you use for pre- and post-cruise stays, it can be a pain to shuffle back and forth. It's easy to go from the ship to the airport after a cruise.

 

For our Baltics cruise this year, we used FF miles to fly into London and out of Brussels (roundtrip sailing to Dover). There is so much of the interior of Europe that we want to see in addition to our ship port calls, so we just find a place to fly into and then make that an extra place to see. We get really creative with our itineraries, so we flew into Zurich prior to a 2003 Baltics cruise and then went to Venice post-cruise just to mix it up a bit (it's hard for me to be on the European continent and stay away from Venice because it's my favorite and we have friends who live in the area). It's really easy to do, and the world is your oyster, so you could just pick any area in Europe that is on your travel wish list and have a ball. Paris is a great option in my book, and we love it there. If you decide to go with that option, I've been there 3 times and will be glad to help you with any questions that you have.

 

If you haven’t spent time in London, I would advise a few days there. I love it, and there is so much to do and see. Windsor is a nice day trip from London if you haven’t been there, and the changing of the guard in Windsor is even better than at Buckingham. Bath and the Cotswolds are also wonderful and easily accessible from London. If you’ve been to UK previously and already saw those areas, I’m sure that you’ll get lots of other great suggestions for the UK. You could also fly into Edinburgh or Dublin (I LOVE Ireland!!!!) if you’ve already been to London.

 

Just FYI, if you take the Eurostar Chunnel train to Paris at the end of your cruise, you can take a taxi from Dover to Ashford for 35 pounds that will save you a lot of time. There is no need to backtrack into London at the end of a cruise to catch the Eurostar train. We just did this in September to go from Dover to Ashford to Brussels, and it saved us at least 4 hours and some road wear.

 

It sound like you are planning a wonderful trip, so my best wishes to you with your trip planning.

 

Donna

[Willsot]

We spent three days pre-cruise in Copenhagen and for us personally we were very glad we did because we were exhausted by the end of our Baltic cruise.

[JodiBB]

We did a 3-night pre-cruise stay in London prior to our Baltic cruise...We're SO glad we did!!!

 

On the first night in London, my time clock was way off and it took 24 hours for me to adjust. Plus, our flight was an 9-1/2 hour straight flight from California. It would've been too difficult to try to adjust and immediately begin touring ports from the cruise. By the time the cruise occurred, we were refreshed and energized. Many of our cruisemates looked like death warmed over the first day or 2. Finally, they acclimated and still had a great cruise...

 

But it definitely depends on the individual as to how their body adjusts to time changes, long flights, etc.

[SaylorGirl]

We did 10 days prior to our Baltic cruise in September. We started in London took the chunnel to Brussels & Bruge, then we used a Eurail pass and went to Paris, Barcelona, Girona and the Costa Brava area, on to Berne, Interlacken, Zurich, over to Salzburg & Vienna, down to Florence & Venice, Budapest, Prague, Berlin and over to Copenhagen. We got in Copenhagen that afternoon left everything at the train station and went to Freidsburg castle and then spent the rest of the day in Copenhagen, we got on the ship at 8:00 p.m. We did alot of overnights on the train to cover the long distances.

 

When the cruise was over we were one of the first off the ship we had a 10:00 flight out of Copenhagen, we stopped in Amsterdam long enough to take the train in from the airport and spend about 3 hours in Amsterdam and then on home.

 

This worked great for us but it was a very hetic pace and it might be too much for some people. We are now planning a similar one for this summer doing the Med cruise.

 

I think you have to decide if you like the time up front or if you intend to relax at the end, me when its over its over and I want to get home.

[MTemple212]

Donna, Have you done any bus tours such as Globus or Trafalgar in Europe? My wife and I have done a couple of them and we were aprehensive at first but really enjoyed it very much.

[dbh62ark]

No, we've never done organized tours pre- or post-cruise and made our own arrangements using trains and planes, but thanks for the recommendation on those companies. I see their brochures from time to time, and the itineraries look good. We're open to new ideas and ways of doing things, so that's definitely something to consider.

 

Donna

[Deloresgardella]

I did a tour with Trafalgar a few years ago, it was great we saw a lot of country. Flew to London stayed three days then to Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France. Flew home from Paris. It was great although very tiring. Packing and unpacking almost every day.

Delores

[dbh62ark]

Packing and unpacking almost every day.

Delores

Yes, that's what I love so much about European cruises. Sure wish they could get those big ol' cruise ships up into the interior of Europe somehow. :)

 

Donna

[JodiBB]

Donna, Have you done any bus tours such as Globus or Trafalgar in Europe? My wife and I have done a couple of them and we were aprehensive at first but really enjoyed it very much.

 

We did Insight Tours and although it was very enjoyable and we got to see a lot, living on a bus for 2 weeks, having to pack/unpack almost daily and catching up on sleep on the bus was hectic...I prefer to cruise Europe now..at least I know the bed I'm sleeping in is mine for 2 weeks and I don't have to live out of a suitcase during that time either.

[MTemple212]

Like I have said, we have done a couple of these in the past and really enjoyed them. My wife has a neat way of packing for this trip so you only have to get into one suitcase during a nights stay in a hotel. She packs by each day so it makes it much easier than looking thru all the luggage and finding out what to wear.